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Show closing agreement, which had recently gone into effect among Ogden hotel managers.The next night was the crowning point of the trip. Logan has come to be the Land of Promise for the Dramatic Club's yearly wanderings. The house was a capacity one and the play was received with even more enthusiasm than at home. After the curtain went down the stage manager resigned in favor of a caterer under the direction of the Agricultural College Dramatic Club and the two organizations sat down to a jolly good banquet. Oh, indeed, Logan people know how to entertain! On the train next day, Jennie decided that there can be but one plausible answer to "Why is a mouse that spins?" Because the higher the fewer.Bright and early next Monday morning the players and directors were back in their classes, conscious that it was all over, but feeling just a trifle sorry that the load had been lifted from their shoulders. The costumes were boxed and sent back to New York and by Tuesday nothing remained of "Trelawny of the Wells" but the memory.Now that we look back at the play itself over a space of three months, we think of it as quiet and sweet and full of subtle humor. It is of the type which appeals to the careful student, rather than to the ear of the groundling, which, for a college production, of course, is good. Its greatest lack was a strong, sustaining thread of action, but on the whole, we agree with those in charge upon the type of play which they chose. Of course, we have heard, as we hear after every performance, "The play was not especially suited to amateurs." Perhaps not. Nothing but football is especially suited to amateurs. College debaters do not handle their subjects as Congressmen do, yet few people would agree that therefore the subjects for college debate should be either trivial or unworthy. There is one point, however, wherein our college production surpasses many professional ones and that is in the freshness of its players. Good professional companies often impress one as being sordid and stale. But the breeze of youth and wholesomeness always floats over the footlights when our Dramatic Club appears. And this very quality goes far to compensate for the years of toil and experience in which the players are deficient.Without an exception the members of the cast did well. To criticize them individually would be a repetition. Each one lived up fairly closely to the possibilities of his part and Kean himself, was bounded by those limits. Without making a "star' of any one, may we call attention to two characters, because they represent types which are always difficult for young people to play well? They are the Sir William of Ben Howells and the Mrs. Telfer of Mrs. Henderson. There is also an additional point on which we wish to congratulate every player. This fourteenth cast has the distinction of knowing its lines better than any of the other thirteen.Behind and underlying all this success we recognize the ability and the energy of the woman who founded the Dramatic Club when the prospect was anything but bright, and who, in the early years of the Club, carried the financial burdens at a time when they would have stifled the organization. This year Miss Babcock was ably assisted in the work of directing by Mr. Harold Goff of the Department of Elocution. Mr. Goff was himself a member of the Club at one time, and the older students still remember his Tom Wrench in a former production of this same play. It would be impossible to over estimate the part which these two contributed toward the success of the production.We note with pleasure that each year the box-office receipts are larger and therefore each year's production can be more elaborate and the costumes more complete than the year preceding. And in conclusion we join Mr. Telfer in "A Health to Trelawny, Trelawny of the Wells!"(133)The Manager, at Ogden, After the Show |