Watch the Stitches in Your Britches !

"These comments on Extrav. are intended to be helpful, and I trust they will be accented as such":

Wardrobe: It is to be hoped that individual members of ballet and chorus will take more pride in their appearance than did last year's cast in many cases the costumes were sadly in need of ironing or washing, or both. Some would have been greatly improved by being brushed. Some skirt hems were sagging badly—sticking plaster or a safety pin will help greatly if time is short. The appearance of the male ballet was detracted from by the wearing of a curious assortment of sox. Surely students are no less able today to wield an iron or clothes brush than of yore.

Make-Up: Chorus and female ballet make-up was poor. The impression was that there had been no over-all check-up by make-up staff before the cast left the dressing rooms.

As everyone knows Extrav. stands or falls on the time, energy, work, and enthusiasm of every member of the company. It was therefore a little startling to find invidious distinctions being made by the handing out of bouquets, verbal and floral. I trust this peculiar manifestation will not recur. A bunch of vegetables to the female impersonators, during curtini calls, could be permitted.

Last year's show, despite the ful some nonsense printed in what then purported to be "Salient," was not an Extrav. and at times descended to the level of a village concert. The only part with the authentic ring (the Councillors) had been lifted straight out of an old Extrav.

This year's script has great possibilities, though I would suggest that certain well-known names be not used straight, and if the quite astounding amount of latent talent last year is still available and fully utilised who knows? A female impersonator, appearing last year, would make a first class Venus and if some of the Colombo Plan boys could be enticed into one of the male ballets you might even have to extend the season. Best wishes for Extrav. '57.

—J

Back Stage Boys

For some years I took part in the back stage work of Drama Club productions and I should like to comment on James Bertram's remarks about back-stage staffing in his review of the Cherry Orchard".

Time spent by a university student on as large a project as a play costs him more than it does members of other amateur groups; for them drama fills a day which otherwise stops at 5 o'clock. But to an actor in a good play even considerable sacrifices are well repaid. The rewards for back-stage work are not so certain.

If you have a small budget, tittle equipment and perhaps a demanding and unsympathetic producer, a tremendous labour is required to get even very ordinary results. The back-stage worker is then deprived of the opportunity to create. The actor always has this even in a poorly mounted play.

The Drama Club has never had sufficient capital equipment and it has not been able to protect what little it did have. This was partly due to [unclear: r] accommodation which will be [unclear: sooomedied] but the efforts of several dedicated men to get some order and continuity into the properties department have met with apathy from most of the club. One seems to find amongst varsity actors less appreciation of the value of good properties and lighting than in any other group in the city. Our ideal stage-worker must, one supposes, proceed alone and so requires an unusual combination of interests and abilities.

He must understand and love the art of the theatre and also have considerable technical knowledge and ability. If he lacks any of these there must be some encouragement to develop them. Too often those who gave their best to the Drama Club behind the scenes drift off after one or two productions. It seems worth noticing that Extrav. back-stage work has a much healthier tradition.

I do not think the problem can be solved as simply as James Bertram suggests. If the actors realised how much a play can depend on its mounting, if the club generally had a less abstract, more workmanlike, attitude to play production and saw the value of good technicians they would have a better team. If the Drama Club had more capital and better accommodation, back-stage work would be less laborious and frustrating. Workers will only join the club and stay if they find they have a real part in making the play.

Peter Andrews.

Locked Out of the Library

It is a matter of some concern that during the 'varsity year the college libraries close on Saturdays at 12.30 p.m.

It appears that most of the rules and regulations which govern the use of college facilities are based on the fiction that the university is for the "full-time" student only. Ideally perhaps it is, but in fact, at least so far as V.U.C. is concerned, most of the students are "part-timers". I have no wish to become involved in a Full-Timers v. Part-Timers controversy, but I do suggest that the requirements of the part time student are entitled to as much consideration as those of the full-time student, if for no other reason than the fact that both have to comply with the same standard of scholarship and the same Scale of Fees.

Whether or not the part-time student is part-time by choice or necessity is immaterial, his opportunity to utilize college facilities is sufficiently limited—most of his lectures and tutorials are in the late afternoon or early evening thus frequently excluding him from using the libraries at night—without being further penalised by what appears to be an arbitrary rule, namely that the college must close on a Saturday at 12.30 p.m. (sharp).

The main reason why more use is not made of the college on Saturday mornings probably lies in the fact that for most a trip to V.U.C. involves a considerable amount of travelling time which, coupled with 12.30 p.m. closing, makes such a trip on a Saturday morning unprofitable.

On the other hand, if the college were open until 5 p.m. or p.m. (or even later) on a Saturday the parttime students' difficulties mentioned above would for the most part be eliminated. I have no doubt that the opportunity to use the college libraries all day on a Saturday would also be welcomed by a large number of full-time students as well.

J. T. Devine.