Page Six

) Play

(Continued from Page 1)

in helpless bafflement) that
tends to emphasize the redun-
dantcy of the piece. His voice
has me same tendency. His
youth is an unfortunate handi-
cap to the role, demanding more
maturity than he is capable of
supplying. his mother is well.
played by Brenda Thomas and
Howard Harned, as his father,
shows the makings of a fine
I: h a r a C t e r actor. Richard
Schmiechen has trouble using
his body gracefully on stage,
but plays an intellectual pariah
with a good intensity. Dale
Dreyfus is one of the few mem-
bers of the cast who possesses
the necessary maturlty and he
does well in the role of another
friend of the would-be Every-
man. Libby Pannwitt does nice-
ly with the part of the alienated
first wife.

By far the treat and the star
of the evening is Debora Abbott
who plays Quentin‘s second
wife. Clearly based on Miller’s
own wife, Marilyn Monroe, Miss
Abbott brilliantly manages to
evoke the character of a
troubled, tortured sex goddessst
insecure. afraid of everything

SCARLET AND BLACK

MAKE-UP ASSISTANT Libby Craig appliei white shoe
polish to color Howard Harned's hair, at part of the
process of aging him tor the ml. of the bayou—old

Ind everyone and desperately
craving an affection With which
no man will ever be able to
adequately supply her (much
less our fumbling internal
hero). When she is on stage the
chow comes alive and things be-
gin to happen. Sometimes it
ls peculiarly troubling to to see
how successful she (and Miller)
is in developing and delineating
this unhappy Creature. Like
"Sons and Lovers” by D. H'
Lawrence, "After the Fall” is
clearly a self exorcism for Mil-
ler, and in plays this kind of
cleansing is much more damag-
ing and obvious. It becomes dis-
turbing, not because it has its
own theatrical punch, but be-
cause we are all too familiar
with Certain details of Mr. Mil-
ler's life When Eugene O’Neill
wrote about his family, he stip-

fafher in After the Full.

ulated that the play not be pra<
duced until ten years after his
death Be that as it may, Deb-
orah Abbott is a superior talent
and is on her way to being I
fine actress.

The production as a whole
suffered from some opening
night sloppiness (light cues
missed and taken too early),
and some occasional slip-shod
staging by director Meyer.
There is also a pacing difficulty.
While some of this may be due
to the inexperience of the ac-
tors, Meyer's conception of the
highs and lows and the rates
at which scenes should go was
again awfully repetitive. Of
course he is working uphill
against it script that is built on
the leit motif of repetition, but

Photo By Susan Kaesen

that won't stop an audience
from scratching behind the ears
after an hour and twenty min-
utes of first act (there are two).

When all is said and done
“After the Fall" ought to be
seen There is some very good
acting and even if you catch
only one tenth of Quentin's ram-
blings,’you will have food for
thought. Moved you will not be,
but you Will be fascinated off
and again by what transpires
on the stage. It may be a fail-
ure, but it is not a total failure
nor is it an uninteresting one.
The Grinnell cast has bitten off
a mighty big chunk of theatre.
Whether it is good theatre is
another story, but I am tempted
to say they have given the play
quite the production it deserves.

Convention Politics

By Dan Bucks

The longest and closest convention in SGA
history ended at 1:45 a.m,, Monday, with the

withdrawal speech of Ray Horn. The two vote
leaders, and only remaining candidates from an
original field of four, Craig Allin and Rio Made
Dowel], were thus nominated for the election on
iTuesday.

The one decisive factor that gave Allin and
MacDowell more votes than Horn was superior
ﬂoor organization All three of the candidates
came into the convention with wide, and appar-
ently nearly equal, popular
support, The technical po<
Iltical skill of the Allin and
MacDowell supporters ene
nbled them to pick up a few
extra independent votes in
the convention.

Early in the balloting, the Allin organization
launched a vote drive that caught the other
groups somewhat by surprise. Instead of playing
I cautious game and hiding votes as did the
lther groups, the Allin workers revealed their
candidate’s vote strength on the third ballot by
lhooting Allin's total up to 69 votes from the 24
that he received on the previous ballot. By the
fifth ballot, a snowball effect had lifted Allin’s
ﬁnal to E7.

The MacDowell supporters were able to re-
Ipond to the Allin initiative muchtmore rapidly

 

News
Analysis

 

 

 

than were the Horn workers. They broke the We
vole level on the sixth ballot, and on the seventh
ballot MacDowell's vote total actually exceeded
Allin’s. Also, on the seventh ballot, the Horn sup-
porters finally rallied and managed to boost
Ray's total above 91).

Because the Allin and MacDowell organizaa
tions were able to make their vote drives earlier
than the Horn organization, they could consoli-
uate their support earlier and at a slightly higher
level. Both Allin and MacDowell had, in the later
ballots, effective support that could keep their
vote totals in the high 90‘s and above. The Horn
supporters, however, had their effective support
limited to the low 90’s.

A clear distribution of candidate support also
emerged in the later ballots. Allin's support was
based on South Campus votes, while Machwell
and from both relied on North Campus for their
primary support. an the last four announced bola
lots, Allin drew an average of 54% of his votes
from South Campus and 46% from North Campus.
Horn, on the same ballots, received just 43% of
his support from South Campus while 57% of his
votes were from the men’s halls.

MacDowell's support was even more overhal-
anced toward North Campus, with 59% of his
votes coming from there. Allin’s strength on
South Campus was later reflected in the fact
that he carried the women’s halls by a slim mar-
gin in Tuesday's election, but lost to MacDowell
by a decisive margin on North Campus.

Friday, February ﬂ. I957

lllllllllllllllllllilllllnllllllltllllllillllltlllll A Sfudenf Opinion lillillllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllillill

A Motion to Abolish
The SGA Convention

By Mary Malcolm

Ed Note: A motion to elimi-
nate the SGA convention will
be presented to the Senate
next Wednesday night.

The benefits of the SGA cone
vention are clear. The most
valuable one is that it involves
a large number of students in
student government, and thus
increases the probability of an
SGA which is in touch with the
students. The convention in-
volves students who serve as
delegates in the process of
nominating the SGA president.
As an all-campus activity (and
all-campus activities are rather
rare) it involves another sub-
stantial number of students as
observers.

There is also some benefit in
the way in which a convention
involves students. Organized
groups of supporters, in order
to win delegations. must not
only support a candidate but
know why, and be prepared to
articulate their reasons. Prior
to the conventions, “machines"
are forced to deal with the in-
formation of the campaign, and
this is a very good thing.

When the convention is under-
way, the “machines” having
wound up with actual facts and
issues, however equivocal, dur-
ing the campaign go into a final
run which is not very informa-
tional, The convention itself is
the ideal arena for pressure
politics, imposed not only by
the “machines" on wavering
delegates, but also by vehe
merit hall delegations on dis-
senting voters. Although a cer-
tain minimum of individual in-
tegrity would, in theory. render
such pressure ineffective, the
pressure makes the lo-hour con-
Ventiun into a marathon endur-
ance test. A dirty kind of poll-
tics. based on negative argu-
ments and group pressure, goes
on in the convention which would
simply not be as useful in a
general primary election, where
each Vote is cheaper and given
only once and in secret.

Unique to the convention is a

low level of obscenity occasion-
ally disguised as humor, and
muck-raking rivalry between
halls and campuses. Unique to
the convention is one of the
largest useless expenditures of
human time and energy I have
encountered on this Campus.
Over 3600 man hours went into
the 1967 Convention at Darby,
and the actual purpose served,
that of narrowing the field to
two candidates, could have been
accomplished neatly and clean~
ly (and, comparatively, instan-
taneously) by means of a prl.
mary election.

The elimination of jag candi-
dates, nominating speeches, and
the instructed ballot has been
suggested as a compromise. it
is a valuable compromise inas.
much as it could preserve the
convention’s useful function of
stimulating B wellrorganized,
enthusiastic, informative cam.
paignr However, such a pruning
of the convention leaves its ug-
liest blemish untouched: the
fact that it offers a situation
where high pressure politicl
are peculiarly useful. While
pruning the convention would
lessen the waste of time and
energy, and lower the obscenr
lty level, (with, incidentally, n
corresponding dip in the excito<
ment and participation gener.
ated). it would not strike at the
heart of the problem, “political
animalism."

“Political animalism" is not
something ive can entirely elim-
inate, anymore than we can
raise participation to a full 100
per cent. But in planning Cam-
paign and election procedures,
we must seriously bear in mind
that some activities are mot!
conducive to animalism than
others. i am not going to deny
that the convention achieves A
high water mark in participa-
tion. It is noteworthy that only
76 per cent of the campus voted
in this year’s final elections. 1
will deny that this participation
is either especially instructive
to the individual or strengthen-
ing to the student government
association.

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllltlllllllllilllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllIIIllllllltlllIIItlllIIlillllIIIillllltlllllllillllltm

MacDowell Elecfed

By Pat Smith

Ric MacDowell, SGA Presi-
dent-Elect, said Wednesday in
a statement for the 5&8, “The
success of next year's student
gnvemment will depend not
merely upon the enthusiasm of
the student leaders, but upon
the enthusiasm of the students

' as well.

“The year 1967-1968 will be
very important in setting new
precedents for - - -
the role of
student gov-
ernment, and
much t i m e
will be spent
working in
the context of
a new struc-
ture for the

Wllesc com— Munowell

munity in the proposed abolie
tion of Women’s hours, the new
court system. and the South
Campus resident program. Also,
the newly elected leaders will
need the support and the ideal
of the student body."

Craig Allin, who ran a close
race for the sea Presidency
against MacDowell, expressed
his congratulations to MacDow—
ell. and his desire to thank
all who helped him in his Cam-
paign. He added that perhapn
he would apply for a position on
the new community court

Ray l-lom was out of town,
and hence unavailable for some
ment at press time, and Trip
Kennedy said he would do what
he could to help MacDowell,
but could foresee no political
plans for himself. ‘ ’

 

