Variety (January 1959)

289 UEGITIMATE Fifty-third /^R/£^T Anniversary January 7, 1959 Latin-Yank Cultures Clash and Fuse In Puerto Rico ’s Maturing Legit Track Record I Musical Tents '"«* By ROBERT REINHART San Juan. Playwrights, actors, directors and scene designers are all cooperating in developing a maturing theatre in Puerto Rico. Themes being handled by local dramatists include race relations, conscience, social problems, the conflict of tradition with moderniza¬ tion, narcotics, slavery, politics and pro and antiAmericanism. Though Puerto Rican playwrights are fluently bi-lingual to date their plays have only been produced in Spanish. Accomplishment of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture in subsidizing and producing four new con¬ temporary plays during 1958 on a nominal budget of (reportedly) $15-20,000 is considerable. The theatre movement is however assisted by the will¬ ingness of the participants to make personal sacri¬ fices of time and money when necessary. The dream here is that one of the Stateside Foun¬ dations such as Ford or Rockefeller may “get the message/’ Much needed are funds for translation. Possibly bettered inter-American understanding might follow via Stateside publication or production of Puerto Rican dramatists. Knowledgable oldtimers have suggested that the island’s present theatre movement resembles the Abbey Players of another generation in Ireland and the Provincetown Players when Greenwich Village was not for plutocrats. The Spanish, Afri¬ can and Yankee comingling in the Puerto Rican Commonwealth, part in, part out of the American union is producing tensions and situations of dra¬ matic voltage. Some of this has indeed been caught by the island’s own dramatists, though none has yet achieved fame. The split-allegiance, Latin versus Anglo-Saxon, need not be labored. Nor the of.en savage bad feelings of the migration to Man¬ hattan. Broadway and Hollywood heretofor have confined their spotlighting to other Carribbean Islands, per the recent “Jamaica” musical. So, too, with Aims like 20th-Fox’s “Island in the Sun” which flir.ed with the mixed-race romance thing. j _ Old Spanish Infliience _ [ Though detached from the Spanish monarchy in 1899 Puerto Rico long depended for its legitimate theatre fare on travelling companies from the home¬ land. During 1939 to 1941 there was a pioneering attempt via a loccal organization, Areyto, to break the cultural hold of Spain stage-wise. This was largely founded by Emilio S. Belaval. with theatri¬ cal roots through his family. He’s now an Associate Supreme Court Judge here. Between 1940 and 1953, Francisco Arrivi, now head of programming for the government’s radio station succeeded in presenting, a number of plays under the sponsorship of a group he organized with the name of “Tinglado Puertoriqueno.” Manuel Mendez Ballester, who handles public re¬ lations for the Commonwealth’s Labor Department, founded the Sociedad General de Actores in 1942 which presented two of his plays. Rene Marques, editorial chief of the book division of the Government’s Community Education Project, was the first director of the Experimental Theatre of the Ateneo Puertoriqueno when it was founded in 1951 and climaxed the series of plays with his own drama entitled “La Carreta” in 1953. (This play was performed in Spanish in New York City and in Spain at the Madrid State Repertory Theatre. HELEN HAYES He is believed to be the first Puerto Rican play¬ wright to be produced in a foreign country). Puerto Rican political atmosphere carries strains not present in most sections of the U.S. union. Here there lingers, though in modified virulence, a definite anti-Americanism, stronger than anti Northism in the former Confederate States. This feeling seeps into the plays. Naturally many of these w:ould not export, even to Manhattan. It is to be recalled that playwright Marques, mentioned above, was “toned” as a young man by seeing U.S. soldiers fire on his fellow-Puerto Ricans to break up a pro¬ test demonstration. This experience echoed in his play “Palm Sunday.” Of the four stage directors for the festival, three were women, Piri Fernandez, Nilda Gonzales and Victoria Espinosa. Puerto Rico, though Latin, shows the mainland tendency to feel the aggressive in¬ stincts of the "distaffers. Fourth director, Leopoldo Santiago Lavendero is head of program dept, for the government television. (Scenery was designed here by Bob Cothran, Carlos Marichal, Rafael Rios Rey and Luis A. Maisonet. j _ Legit Playhouses _ [ Festival plays were all staged at San Juan’s re¬ modelled and airconditioned Tapia Theatre, an attractive house accommodating about 800 and per¬ haps one of the oldest in the Western Hemisphere. It dates back to the early 1800s. (This theatre will mount Broadway plays in 1959 with an eight weeks’ season. In a few years when jet planes are in regular service, it will only be two hours from Times Square. Governor Luis Munoz Marin, a poet and former resident of Green¬ wich Village, dreams of San Juan as a Broadway tryout spot along with Boston, New Haven, Philadel: phia and Wilmington.) ; In addition to the Tapia there are three legiti1 mate theatres in Puerto Rico. The air-conditioned j University of Puerlo Rico theatre seats 2,000. It | was renovated in 1956 in preparation for the Casals Festival. Ateneo Puertoriqueno seats 130 and is ’ used for experimental drama, literature, etc. Ponce’s ; La Perla (on the southern coast of the island) was ! renovated four years ago and seats 1,000. | In reply to the questions “Can the Puerto Rican ! theatre contribute to better inter-American under! standing and how*?” and “What artistic contribu j tions can it make to w'orld theatre?” the playwrights i made the following statements. j( Judge Belaval said: j “Puerto Rico is a kind of half-way place where j nearly everyone is bi-lingual and offers a possible ■ clearing house and center for drama exchange. Fur j thermore there is now a genuine theatre here which I has been developing for 20 years and has just been ‘ acknowledged by the Commonwealth government Four playwrights (one of them myself) were spon¬ sored for the productions of original plays covering all aspects of Puerto Rican life in the last century and using both local and Stateside settings. “All are craftsmen who have worked for almost a generation in the theatre for the theatre’s sake. It is a national theatre to which the Continental United States as well as ourselves can point with pride.” Francisco Arrivi had this to say about the Puerto Rican theatre: “The recent Puerto Rican Drama Festival was both an expression of maturing art and increased democratic thinking. As an expression of art it showed clearly the possibility of Puerto Rico, as of any other country in the Americas, to develop a theatre consciousness focussed on its own peculiar way of thinking. As an example of democratic thinking it esablished clearly that in¬ telligence and liberalism in a political system bring forth the best spirit of the human being.” Manuel M. Ballester suggests ^ that “a unique contribution to bet “j ter inter-American understanding” might result if Puerto Rico could become the center of a subsidized, bi-lingual, legitimate theatre. Out¬ standing plays by Puerto Rican, American and Spanish American dramatists could be toured to im¬ portant centers throughout the Western Hemisphere. Ballester be¬ lieves that talent for such a stock company is available in San Juan now. Rene Marques observes that Americans receive most of their information on Puerto Rico from statistics which can cover anti¬ social behavior, relief recipients, etc. “But statistics can never tell us how the people are . * * the why of so many conflicts, the agony of their struggle in an environment which in spite of a common citizen¬ ship is in many ways so alien to their own . . . Art , , , can show us what people really are . . . We have here a young but promising Puerto Rican national theatre , ♦ , which has depicted problems and conflicts essentially universal in their values and appeal.’* College Gets Canadian House » Windsor, Ont. Royal Theatre, local legit house shuttered since 1954, is being leased by Assumption Univ. for use as a drama laboratory. (N.Y. City Center) Late in 1958, in marking its 15th year of existence, over all, though some component elements were considerably younger, the N.Y. City Center put together the following data illustrative of the many-facted activities at the one-time Mec¬ ca (Shriners) Temple on West 55 Street, Manhattan: Ballet 890 performances at house 55 new ballets Opera 1.115 performances 78 different operas 24 premieres 12 Native American operas Drama 806 performances Representation at Brussels Expo Operetta 480 performances 15 Broadway revivals Art Gallery 2.728 paintings hung 312 works sold (no commis¬ sion) It’s Sir Alec Guinness Now; More Tkn 2,000 In Queen’s Honor List London. Alec Guinness has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. The Acad¬ emy-Award-winning actor who was made a Knight Bachelor, was ; among more than 2,000 persons ; named to the Queen’s New Year’s ; Honor List. j Others honored were novelist land critic Rebecca West, who was !made a Dame Commander of the British Empire, and Michael Somes, ; principal dancer of t the Royal i Ballet. j Lord Alexander, British wartime j leader, was warded The Order of j Merit, which is limited to 24 memjbers of eminence in various fields. .(Lord Alexander filled the vacancy | created by the death of longhair j composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, j Mrs. Joyce Agnes Wright, direcj tor of the press section at the Brit¬ ish Information Services office in | New York, was awarded member!ship in the Order of the British ‘ Empire. GEO. JEAN NATHAN LEFT AN ESTATE OF $427,336 An estate worth $427,336 was left by critic-author George Jean Na¬ than, who died last April 8, accord¬ ing to an accounting filed with the N. Y. Surrogate’s Court. He be¬ queathed to his widow, actress Julie Haydon Nathan, his personal effects in their Hotel Royalton iN. Y.) apartment, and a lifetime income from the residuary estate. Mrs. Nathan’s trust, upon which she can draw through the estate’s executor at any time she wants, is valued at $119,053. As of last Octo¬ ber, she had received $45,196. Ex¬ ecutor is Hanover Bank. Now $18-Mil Be By JESSE GROSS A maximum gross potential of approximately $10,000,000 looms possible for musical tent theatres next summer. It’s indicative of the widespread growth of tunetents since the summer of 1949 when St. John Terrell climbed a hill in Lambertville, N.J. It’s anticipated that some 30 pro¬ fessional tunetents may be in oper¬ ation next summer as compared to 24 bonded by Actors Equity last year. Additions to the growing canvastop roster are expected in such locales as northern New Jersey, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Springfield, Mass., and the Washington area. The canvastop exoansion has also involved a few folds, notably in St. Petersburg, Fla.; Miami Beach; Danbury, Co"”.: AUentown, Pa.; Toronto and Milwaukee. Each tent reouires caoitalization of approximately ?! 50,000. On that basis, a 30-theatre circuit next summer would reDresent a com¬ bined investment of about $4,500.000. That, plus the coin involved I in the tents that have already I folded, brings the total 10-year ! canvastop outlay past the $5,000,( 000 mark. ! With the average tent seating ! around 1,700, the maximum audij ence on a normal seven-performI ance week runs about 12.000. At a j medium ticket price of $2.25 per • seat, the average potential capac¬ ity gross per tent is $27,000 weekly. On the usual tent season of 12 weeks, the total maximum take per spot would be $324,000. That mul¬ tiplied by 30 theatres allows for a combined total gross of $9,720,000. Most tents, however, gross from $12,000 to $20,000 weekly and it’s estimated that no more than four exceeded 909c of capacity last sea¬ son. j Vehicles Scarce [ •The longer a tent theatre con¬ tinues in operation, the more diffi¬ cult it becomes to line up a musi¬ cal program. There aren’t enough new tuners hitting Broadway each season to provide fresh product for the average 12--week canvastop sea¬ son. When Terrell first got under¬ way in Lambertville, his season was comprised essentially of oper¬ ettas, with the public domain “Merry Widow,” the getaway bill. As the tents caught on, the rights to recent Broadway musicals be¬ came available. But, the limited number of new entries have had to be augmented by repeats of prior musical and operetta pro¬ ductions and, in recent seasons, straight plays, operas and other presentations. Some spots have also instituted special one-night jazz shows. Although the average tent sea¬ son is 12 weeks, some run only nine frames and others go as high as 20. RALPH BELLAMY “SUNRISE AT CAMPOBELLO”