Evening star., 1952-05-04
By Bob Dietz

by boD Oietz
Dear Jay: After our long tour
of all the cities and hamlets in
this big country, we thought we
had met up with about every
kind of audience and theater
situation in the world. But we
hadn't been to the Far East yet.
Incompatible experiences await
ed us there.
Upon our arrival at the SAC
Theater in Seoul, two interest,"
ing billboards greeted us. One
announced our arrival: players,
Inc. Bringing to Korea for the
First Time 2 Great Plays
Twelfth Night and School for
Wives" And the other in huge
letters warned: "Clear Weapons
Before Entering Theater." Don't
think it didn't take guts to play
Shakespeare to that audience
1900 strong and all armed!
Torch in q BIockout
That theater had been an old
legit house before the war. But
our opening performance was
the first legitimate play to be
seen by U. N. forces in the Seoul
area. What an opening night it
turned out to be! Our armed
audience" no one goes about
unarmed in that city after
dark, included United States
Army and Air Force personnel
OF all ranks. plus those of Brit
ain. Belgium, Australia, New
Zealand and Turkey. To have
the curtain going up on clas-
sical French comedy in this city
OF destruction was a touch of
civilization that these men from
all nations told us they had
Sorely missed.
Actually. we had no curtain
to raise, for in the last flight
from Seoul, some enterprising
Snowman had packed it off to
Pusan. But with Jim Warnings
setting - slightly road-weary-
and the help of a group of ener-
getic Korean stagehands, we had
restored real theatrical look to
the old house
We played two nights in the
SAC Theater, then held over for
a third to accommodate the men
from the lines who begged us to
bring our shows to them. Our
productions were too large to
take up to the lines so, instead,
the men were brought by the
truckloads the 40 miles down to
Seoul to see us. Previously there
had been doubts that the CT
could be interested in Shake
speare and Moliere. All doubts
disappeared that night. Never
have we experienced a more ex-
citing audience.
The basic and earthly humor
OF these centuries-old comedies
has surely never been more
keenly caught than by these
fighting men. Their laughter was
literally explosive and their
ovation at the final curtain
sounded like cheers at Rose
Bowl game! They left us limp.
One young infantryman who
had come down off the line
twice to catch each show ex-
claimed: This is the best thing
that has happened to me since
I came to Korea!"
Reaction Typicol
This was the reaction to
Shakespeare and Moliere! And
such reactions were typical all
over Korea. We played any
place we could call a stage. We
also found among the occupa-
tional personnel in Japan the
same desire for 'live theater."
Every one assured us there
IS need for this and it has
been much neglected among our
overseas armed forces. They
have plenty of movie and radio
entertainment and many good
vaudeville units constantly tour
ing. But none of these seem to
have answered the need that an
evening in the theater" can
give them. AS one Jewish
chaplain from New York City
told me: For one wonderful
evening ] thought I was home
again!"
It has been a great privilege
for us to be the pioneers in this
new project. And from the
results it is understood that
the Department Of Defense will
be sending more evenings in
, the theater" to the boys over
seas.