![]() |
Shakespeare |
![]() |
Well, we debated, but not nearly as long as we’d already done to
no avail. Seeing no real alternative, with tremblings, we cast our lot and our budget with Lance and invited him to reveal this non-negotiable plan of his. Before long, we convened the first (and
likely only-ever) joint conclave of the East Campus/Senior House governing Committees. Where Lance laid it on us:
The randomness of Lance’s casting remains in historical doubt, but nobody then or now seems to want to point any fingers. The central rôle of Puck went to Mary, the daughter of Dean of Students John T. Rule. I’m morally certain she had prior stage experience, but she delivered a performance that I remember as treading the line between fetching and dazzling—what I could see of it, from my usual position in the “wings.” And her central position in the cast guaranteed that the prominent Rule family would attend in force. In the same pulsating vein, three of the four named Fairies were President Jay and Kay Stratton’s daughters, Cathy, Cary, and Laurie. If it hadn’t already been a foregone conclusion that the Strattons would come to this activity in their back yard, this casting decision surely applied the stamp of certainty. Me, I drew a genuine bit part, that of Egeus, father to Hermia. Normally listed second only to Duke Theseus in lists of dramatis personae (because he enters early), but granted by the Bard only two short and rather querulous scenes. My costume featured a marvelous, heavy, ankle-length wool cape, which I was just ham enough to swirl about in my sparse moments on stage. |
Back a Page (Culture) |
Such a Life Contents |
Page Indexes: |
Chapter 2 (1946-58) |
Chapter 3 (1958-72) |
MIT (1958-61) |
Mission (1961-64) |
Next Page (Shakespeare) |
Welcome | Stories | Sections | Such a Life | People | Places | Site Search | Do You Know? |
Updated Aug 2014 | [109.htm] | Page 31-035 |