Evening star., 1954-07-20

fLdlI1, aS' uSQdl, WAS t1lC
feeling of Strangeness and left
every one, patrons and perform
ers, damp and understanding
and cozily inclined.
1t began to fall at $50 few
minutes before the opening of
the curtains on the first Of Bal
let Theater's dance numbers. It
was not a tentative kind of rain,
but a whopper. The audience
scurried for the shelter at the
rear of the bowl, the performers
for their dressing rooms, and
the management for the tele-
phone to talk to the Weather
Bureau.
That" said the Bureau with
finality, sis a scattered shower.
1t won't last"
y *,*
The management, if only to
comfort its 3,450 patrons about
getting to their cars on the
parking lot, walked out on the
stage in the rain to pass along
this intelligence. 1t added that
the Ballet Theater company was
poised and ready to perform the
program if the audience cared
to stay.
The audience made it clear
that if the shower went away,
it certainly wouldn't go away
an expression of the proud de-
fiance that has grown up here
through 154 years of exposure
to sudden, violent summer rams.
So, with the abatement Of the
deluge. stage hands and men,
bers of the troupe set about
swabbing the stage with huge
swatches of fortunately avail
able canvas. At the same time,
ushers, staff members and Gus
toners set about with all avail
able materials making 3,450 Of
the 1000 seats sittable.
At 9:10, the curtain parted on
q stage over which the mop
up canvas has been stretched
and tackled. The show went on.
the warmest, happiest of the
entire series to date. all be-
cause the patrons and perform
ers had been dissolved into an
exalted kind of brotherhood by
q capricious cloudburSt.
Ballet Theater's people think
Washington's people are won
derful, as of course we are after
being drenched since childhood.
--DONLEVY NEXT: In this
days of vicarious employment
in show business, even actors
have no notion of what their
next medium will be. All they
hope is that there will be a
medium with an opening.
Olney's next production. to
follow the fourth hit week of
Venus Observed" testified
neatly to this. This will be Cliff
ford Odets' drama Of theater
life, 1.-THE Country Girl" 1t will
star Brian Donlevy. q brand new
summer theater face, and Dom
levy's first professional stopover
in Maryland since he was
midshipman at Annapolis. That
was some years ago.
He will play the role Of Frank
Elgin, a star actor who dis
solved his confidence in a long
steady battle with whisky, which
was created on Broadway and is
played in the film version
by, surprisingly enough, Bing
Crosby.
Washington's Frances Stern
hagen, discovered three seasons
ago at the brilliant center
of a Catholic U. production of
1.-THE Skin of Our Teeth" will
play the wife role~-Uta Hagen's
on Broadway, Grace Kelly's in
the movie.
Whatever her classmates at
Vassar did, or did not, about
choosing Miss Sternhagen'as the
girl most likely to succeed. she's
the choice of most critics who
have seen her at Arena Stage
and Olney.
4
BULLETIN BOARD: Attention
James A. Michener and Joshua
Logan: Real life is kinder than
you were able to be in the ro-
nance Of the Tonkinese girl,
Liat, and 1t. Joseph Cable.
U. S. M. c., in South Pacific. :"
:. Chin Yu and David Williams
who played the roles in the Lon
don production of the musical
were married in London yester-
day. Our spies in Para
mounts bookkeeping department
report that George Stevens