On House Plays

Some members of the scholastic establishment ventured before this excursion to express the opinion that the excursion would not, per se, be of notable interest. It is with the greatest delight that I wish to endeavour to correct this viewpoint and state that every participant found the excursion per se of considerable interest. We wish to express our sincere gratitude to Lincoln's Inn for arranging this fascinating excursion and to Mr. Coulthard for giving us so much of his valuable time to escort us. R.W.J.D.

Sir,

It is with considerable astonishment and horror that I learn of the intention of several Houses to use girls in their next House Plays. I regard this as a total abdication of their responsibilities to acting both in the House and in the School. There can be no question of the desirability of girls acting in School Plays so that a greater selection of plays with adequately demanding parts can be drawn on. A School Play is a showcase for the leading actors of the School and as such must be worthy of them. A House Play is, however, very different. It is an activity designed to employ the talents, latent or otherwise, of as many members of the House as possible. It is, essentially, a production by a House for the School. Moreover, if the producer does his job properly he is easing the burden on the producer of the School Play by providing opportunities for new talents to show themselves and be properly developed. A boy can come into the School Play after three years with the basic groundwork of acting technique already covered. If you introduce girls to House Plays you are automatically excluding junior members of the House from participation in the play and cutting off the supply of trained actors for the School Play. The quality of both must inevitably suffer. R. W. J. Dingwall (Producer, Queen's Players)