State

Volume XII Number 42 March 17 1945 THE STATE A Weekly Survey of North Carolina Entered ns second-clais matter. June 1. 1933, at the PostolTlce at Raleigh. North Carolina, under the Act of March 3. 1879. The Forest Theatre In this beautiful setting, the Pla.vinnkers at Chapel Hill continue their fine work which was started by Professor Koch a quarter of a century ago. TO KEEP a banner of beauty flying in sombre days was the crowning achievement of Fred¬ erick Koch, beloved actor- teacher, whose earthly career closed with dramatic suddenness last summer, only some weeks after he had di¬ rected and produced a superb pro¬ duction of The Winter's Tale in the Forest Theatre of the Uni¬ versity of North Carolina. In the quarter century that he spent at Chapel Hill Professor Koch made a noble contribution to folk drama in the American theatre. Some of the nation’s lead¬ ing figures in playwrighting passed through his able and kindly hands. Thomas Wolfe was a pupil of “Proff" when they were both new¬ comers to the University at Chapel Hill. Indeed. Tom was the only male member of the first play¬ writing course, and Proff remem¬ bered him lovingly as “a gangling six-foot-six boy with burning eyes and a quizzical smile." Wolfe, as an Actor At the close of the first class meeting Wolfe came to Proff with an explanation. “I don’t want you to think this ladies’ aid society represents Carolina,” he said. “We have a lot of he-men seriously interested in writing here, but they are all disguised in Army uniforms now. I tried to get into one myself, but they didn’t have one long enough for me.” The Carolina Playmakers pro¬ duced Tom Wolfe’s first play in 1919. This was The Return of Buck Gavin, the tragedy of a mountain outlaw. As there was no one tall enough to play "Buck Gavin” Proff told Tom he would have to take «»/ GAEL RENFREW the part himself. Tom was com¬ pletely taken aback. “But I’ve never acted. Proff, I can't act!” Proff, however, did not share these inhibitions. “Why, you’re a born actor,” he declared, “and you wrote that part for yourself. You are Buck Gavin.” Tom gave the performance and it was superb. The memory of him as the hunted outlaw of the Great Smokies lived with Frederick Koch for 25 years. Tom’s acting, depicting the fury of his Highland ancestors, was almost uncanny. When he came to write a fore¬ word to The Return of Buck Gav>in Tom Wolfe told beginners: "It is the fallacy of the young writer to picture the dramatic as the unusual and remote. . . . The dramatic is not unusual. It is happening daily in our lives.” Paul Green’s Work The next shining star on the Playmakers’ horizon was Paul Green, whose play In Abraham's THE COVER PICTURE When Jackie Johnson goes fishing, he means business. You can tell that from the expression on his face and the general air of determination about him. He is the four- year-old son of Mrs. Garland H. Johnson, of Fayetteville and — believe it or not — he actually catches fish. Bosom was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1927. Since then Green has pioneered in national sym¬ phonic drama. The Lost Colony and The Highland Call, as professor Koch pointed out, are new ventures in the field of communal playwrit¬ ing, uniting all the arts — spectacle, music and dancing — in a tapestry of poetry. In these magnificent pageants the harmony of the whole is shared equally between acting, singing and dancing. Other former pupils whom Pro¬ fessor Koch saw rise to fame are Maxwell Anderson. Sidney Black- mer, Hatcher Hughes, and George V. Denny of the radio. Kay Kayser, who is an A.B. of the University of North Carolina, was with the Playmakers when they used to tour the country as a repertory company in their big show bus. They haven't been able to carry on this phase of their activities since 1941, but hope to resume after the war. Another outstanding former pu¬ pil is Jonathan Daniels, and on the distaff side are Betty Smith and Bernice Kelly Harris. West from the Panhandle, a tragedy of the dust bowl representing the joint effort of Betty Smith and Clement White, had its premiere at North Carolina in 1938, and is considered a forerunner of The Grapes of Wrath. The work of the Carolina Play¬ makers is international, reaching north and south of the border. Canada is represented by Gwen¬ dolyn Pharis and Josephine Niggli has done splendid work in Mexican folk drama. A graduate student in the Dramatic Art Department (Continued on page 17) l