34

THE UNIVERSITY THEATRE

at the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

June 18, 1961

LINCOLN HALL THEATRE
URBANA, ILLINOIS

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127th Street
New York 35, N. Y.

Dear Langston:

First, thanks so much for all the materials you have sent. The transcription of the interview at Karamu is especially helpful. I am in the process of reading everything you have ever written before I do the introduction. I still think one of the funniest things I have ever read is the story you tell in *THE BIG SEA* about the New York matron who mistook a bawdy blues number for a spiritual. I haven't been able to get the little children's play to the dance people since no one is here between semesters. Summer session begins tomorrow.

I wrote Perry and offered to go to Bloomington to talk, but he doesn't want to see me until I get a manuscript to him. So, I get to work. I suspect my wanting to read everything you have done may be a way of procrastinating. I have played such tricks on myself before. But I shall no longer have that excuse by the middle of this week.

Some time in the future, I should like to ask a favor. A student of mine wrote a play based on his experiences as a child. I think the material has great potentiality, but the writing is very crude. The boy interests me. He is a football player, a huge Negro boy who is one of the gentlest people I have ever known. He ran away from a rather sordid home at the age of twelve or thirteen and never went back. He hates football, but will be playing professional ball in San Diego next year because he can't do anything else that will pay half as well. His name, incidentally, is Cliff Roberts. My feeling is that he may never finish this unless he finds a collaborator--or at least a mentor. My instinct tells me to turn to you to see if you think the material has the potential I think it might. Well, I will tell you more if you think you have time to read the script and if Cliff sends me a copy of the first draft.

Well, I will stop, now. Writing letters is another way of not getting down to work. I catch up on all my correspondence when I am supposed to write something--and once I start writing, I don't answer important letters.

THE UNIVERSITY THEATRE

at the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

July 5, 1961

Dear Langston:

I was very sorry to see that Eärtha Kitt had decided not to
do TAMBOURINES TO GLORY. Does this kill the possibility of the Guild's
production next season? I hope not. It seems such a damned shame that
Broadway production depends so much on whether or not a particular star
wants to do that specific show this year. If she is really "out," I hope
you or the Guild finds another name who is enthusiastic.

I had another letter, written but not sent, when I ran across
the TAMBOURINES item in the Sunday Times (which we get a couple days late).
There are a few questions that only you can answer. Do you have copyright
dates for LITTLE HAM and TAMBOURINES? My copies do not have them and they
will be necessary before the MS goes to Perry. Also, does von Auw handle
all these plays for production rights (except SIMPLY HEAVENLY)? I will
assume that he should be listed at the end of the standard blurb about
copyright and inquiries for production except for SIMPLY HEAVENLY which
will list Dramatists Play Service.

To make the format of MULATTO parallel with your other plays,
I will move the long descriptions of character to the point where each
important character enters for the first time. This also makes it easier
for the reader to retain, I think. Is this all right with you?

A couple questions about LITTLE HAM: you list the time as
"late 1920's." Most references within the play agree with this—Charleston,
etc. But was Haille Selassie well-known before the middle thirties? I am
wondering about Sugar Lou's line on 1-8. I don't know the answer to this,
but am merely asking you to O.K. it before it gets into print. Another line
bothers me even more, though—Mattie Bea's on 2-19, "And everybody in Harlem
on relief, too, with depression on." Would she say "depression" before 1931?
I hope I don't seem "picky;" I just want to check these things out before
the book is in print. Would you let me know if I should leave one or both
of these references in, or, if not, what changes you want?

I should confess that I started expanding a short play of mine
and had to get it out of my system before I really began serious, full-time
work for you. It was finished a couple weeks ago—as a matter of fact, your
story about the term "ni Sovietski" contributed one line to the new version.
Anyhow, I am doing nothing but directing at night and working for you during
the days, now. I will send you a copy of the introductory material before I
let Perry see it. Will you be in New York most of the summer? If not, would
you let me know in case I have some minor questions that might hold things
up?

37

July 8, 1961

Dear Web:

LITTLE HAM, COPYRIGHT DATE December 9,
1935; Class D2, No. 38663.

TAMBOURINES TO GLORY, play copyrighted
1956, No. Du 43139.

Harold Ober Associates handle production
rights for all my plays. Please write Ivan
von Auw, Jr., there and ask how the permissions
notice should be worded, as they have a form
for this.

MULATTO---it is O.K. to shift the charac-
ter descriptions as you suggest for uniformity.

LITTLE HAM is described as "A period piece
of the Roaring Twenties, and should be so cos-
tumed," which might be inserted in opening
directions.....HAILLE SELASSIE was at the League
of Nations after World War I, and much talked
about in the Harlem of the '20s, so Page 1-8 is
O.K....Page 2-19: keep "relief" but cut
"depression". Let line read: "And half the
folks in Harlem on relief, too." For Welfare
has long been with us.

The Guild is apporching Pearl Bailey again
about TAMBOURINES and still hope to bring it
to the boards next season.

Whenever I can be of further help, let
me know. I'll be home (or nearby) all summer.
Am looking forward to reading your introduction

Cordial regards, as ever,

Sincerely,

39

THE UNIVERSITY THEATRE

at the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

UNIVERSITY THEATRE
URBANA, ILLINOIS

c/o John Olsen

Pasque Island

Woods Hole, Massachusetts

July 28, 1961

Dear Langston:

The program you sent of the NYU production of THE BARRIER was forwarded to me here on Naushon Island. I thought I had sent you this address, but I guess in the rush of getting away as soon as possible after CLERAMBARD I forgot. Anyhow, the above address is valid until August 15. At that time, the people who own this isolated house will arrive and I shall pack wife and two youngest children and come to New York for a couple weeks. Our oldest girl will arrive here with her boy friend and his parents--the owners-- and will stay on here. I have a couple friends trying to find an apartment to sublet in NY for a couple weeks so we won't have the discomfort and expense of a hotel (mainly the meal problem with children).

At the moment, I am trying to cut my introduction in half. My big fault is verbosity. It hurts, but I can cut. The advance from the Ober agency arrived in yesterday's mail as a reminder that I had better damn well get on the ball. Yesterday was a bad day. I worked at my desk until five, then took the children to a lake about a mile away. We swam a little and I got clean (no running water, electricity, or telephone in the house). But when we got back about seven, John Olsen, the lobster fisherman who brings our mail had two letters from Ober, one saying that my script was not commercial, the other with the check that only reminded me how far behind I was. Worse, our boy Tad had untied the skiff with friends outboard on it during low tide and, as the tide came in, it drifted out to sea. Olsen rescued it before some boys with salvage in their eyes got it, but it is depressing to be made to feel like such a fool. Anyhow, I worked by lamplight until after eleven and got quite a lot of busywork done.

Some questions: At the top of 1-2-9 of Tambourines, you have "Aw, lady, huhs!" Is huhs correct, or should it be hush? In going over Little Ham again, I noticed one anachronism and another possible one. On 1-41, 2/3 down, I changed "I'll blow you from here back into prohibition days--" to "I'll blow you from here back to before prohibition--" The possible is the "Charleston contest and Big Apple Ball." My instincts tell me to cut reference to "Big Apple" even if it does not refer to the dance of the thirties. A general reader might mistake it for an anachronism even if it is not.

I should have a draft of the introduction in the mail to you in five or six days. I expect you to have some objections-- that is why I want you to see it before I send it to Perry.

(over)

40

July 31, 1961

Dear Web:

Nice to know where you are at. THE BARRIER came off quite well, and got good reviews. Meyerowitz attended in a wheel chair, broken leg. This has been a bad spring for folks I know---Muel Rahn very ill under oxengen; another old freidd slipped on a plastic bag in a super market and broke her ankle; another fell off a boat in India and hasn't been seen since, leaving a wife and two kids who were to have joined him 3 days after the news came; and I've bought enough condolence cards to stock a shop since Easter.

Anyhow, sure, make any little corrections or changes you feel needful in the plays. All of them have gone through so many revisions and production changes that it is a wonder they are as consistent as they are. 1-2-29 TAMBOURINES is just a typing error. Should be bush...BIG APPLE was a dance. Can be cut. LITTLE HAM should be, I think, a period piece of the late '20s and so indicated. MULATTO might be left timeless, since they still behave like that in the backwoods of Georgia. In the big towns, of course, individual sit-ins like Bert's, have grown to mass-sit-ins. Otherwise, no difference.

I'll look forward to receiving the draft of the Intro. And I'll be glad to see you when you come to town. I've a hide-a-way place for working for six weeks---HAVE to meet a most urgent overdue deadline—but you can leave you phone number with my answering service, and I'll contact you. Don't think I'd better attempt the Convention. Too much to do! Thanks anyhow I hope to see you......Sincerely,

THE UNIVERSITY THEATRE

at the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

August 12, 1961

Dear Langston:

This is not polished and there are things I don't like, but I thought you should see it before I go further. There are probably some errors in fact. These, you can spot quickly and set me right.

More troublesome, or at least more worrisome to me, is the general tone. If it does not seem right, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Also, if I have attributed to you ideas and attitudes you do not hold, set me right. In a way, it is good to do a draft of a thing like this before I have met you. But there are obvious disadvantages, too.

I should probably have finished a fifty page paper about as quickly. As it is, though, it seems as if I have labored much and given birth to a mouse. Well, it is a starting point. See what you think.

I will be in New York on, or shortly after, the 15th. We will be staying at the *Hotel Paris*, 97th and West End Ave. I shall call your answering service on the 16th or 17th (there is some problem as to what day we can get off this island).

Your retreat sounds like a good solution to a problem I suspected you had. Good luck on your writing. I shan't bother you any more than necessary. I rather envy you being able to get away. This island was supposed to be perfect for me, but, although the family is isolated, all right, it is not as easy here to isolate me from the family. Also, primitive living takes more time and effort. But it is good to be without telephone, television, newspapers, radio--the works--for a while. Nothing but us, the ocean, a few boats, and old John Olsen across the hole on the next island.

Looking forward to seeing you. Hope your reaction to these few paragraphs is not too negative.

THE UNIVERSITY THEATRE

at the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

October 18, 1961

Dear Langston:

I have been so covered up until this past Sunday that I did nothing on the book. When I got back, I discovered that my registration duties extended through six days of registration instead of two (as it used to be). Then, I had tryouts for Summer and Smoke the last three nights of registration and started rehearsals the first day of class. I opened after three weeks and two days of three hour evening rehearsals. I think you will understand why I got nothing else done. (Except some teaching.)

Anyhow, I have worked since Sunday and got the thing squared away, now, I think. It is boxed and will be on the way to Perry in the morning. Tentatively, I have used the title Six Plays for the Negro Theatre by Langston Hughes. Reaction? Any better ideas? If so, communicate them or it to me and will change.

I might add that Summer and Smoke was very successful even though I went through hell with an inexperienced Alma Winemiller (the female lead, in case you Don't know the show). She was intelligent and sensitive, however, and showed everyone else up in performance. Another rather pleasant thing has happened. The head of the theatre area suggested that I show my script, THE MAN WITH THE OBOE, to some of the other directors to see if any of them would be interested in directing it for the 1962-63 Festival of Contemporary Arts. The first one I gave it was so enthusiastic that a campaign has started to substitute it for Time Remembered which was to be the final play of the regular season this year. It may be done in spite of the reluctant business manager who worries about objections from the 2300 season ticket holders. It is good to have something liked so enthusiastically even if it doesn't get done.

So long and best wishes.

ano. by
card!
O.K.
10-20-61

C O P Y

November 10, 1961

Mr. Webster Smalley,
University Theatre,
University of Illinois,
Urbana, Illinois.

Dear Webster:

I quite understand Bernard Perry's desire to have
an original ribbon copy of the plays for the printer's
use--also editorial--as they have to style the book,
and it is difficult to make notations or marks on a soft
carbon copy with its thin paper.

Were all the manuscript copies I sent you carbons?
I don't remember. If you or Bernard Perry will let me
know which are on hard paper and which not, I will try
to supply original copies in most cases, if not all, as
I think I have in my basement files some originals.

But the other problem is, did you make changes or
notations on the copies you sent to the Press? If so,
these would need to be transfered to any new copies I
might send. So, should I send the new copies to you,
or directly to the Indiana University Press?

As soon as you answer my queries I'll see what can
be done. Perhaps the Ober office has some originals there,
as they keep a copy or so of my plays on file.

Regarding the title, I agree SIX PLAYS by Langston
Hughes is better than the former title. Or if you-all
think up a better one, it's O.K. by me.

I'm delighted you've turned the manuscript in. I
have sent in my AFRICAN POETRY, too, all except the re-
vised introduction. Last week I was invited to luncheon
at the White House (no less) for the African poet, Senghor,
who is also President of Senegal. Both he and Kennedy
made charming little off the cuff speeches---and the Presi-
dent of Senegal credited me with inspiring him in his own
writing. So Kennedy looked around the table to see just
which poet I might be. It was Friday so we had trout---
each guest a GREAT BIG one. And champagne for the toasts.

Avec mes compliments les plus sincères,

Langston Hughes

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
DEPARTMENT OF SPEECH
AND THEATRE

Urbana, Illinois

November 13, 1961

Dear Langston:

I am fairly certain that none of the scripts were
original copies on hard paper. If any such are available,
it would be best that you send them to me. I shall get
the other material back from Perry and transfer the corrections,
etc., to those copies and get them back to him. For this
purpose, I shall ask Perry to send the MS back so there will
be a little delay as possible.

I have been trying to get back to a second draft of a
play of my own, but haven't been able to solve a crucial
problem that involves both plot and style (probably an ex-
cuse to keep from writing). On the other hand, I gave the
play I finished at the beginning of the summer to a second
director, here, to look at, and the result was surprisingly
gratifying--almost substituted my play for Anouilh's TIME
REMEMBERED in May, but since the tickets are printed and
almost sold out, it didn't seem quite fair to the audience
to give them a Smalley for an Anouilh. But unless something
happens that destroys its timeliness, it will almost certainly
be done next year--probably for the Festival of Contemporary
Arts.

Your experience at the White House sounded wonderful.
I wonder if HUAC will cite you for that--after all, this
fellow Kennedy is pretty far left of Mr. Welsh.

Will be in New York to appear on a panel with Annie
Laurie Williams, Allen Fletcher, and Joseph Caldwell ("The
New Script") on December 28. I shall give you a call to
say hello if I can find your phone number.

Webster Smalley

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

URBANA, ILLINOIS

Mr. Lanston Hughes

20 East 127th Street

New York 35, N. Y.

51

THE UNIVERSITY THEATRE

at the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

November 27, 1961

Dear Langston:

Perry has sent the manuscript back and I now have it. Your letter reached me this morning, and I checked the scripts. The copy of TAMBOURINES I have is not the mimeo Theatre Guild script, but a good carbon designated as "after Westport." If there is a mimeo script available, I suppose you had better send me a copy. If necessary, I can make corrections to bring it up to date if this one is the most recent version.

SOUL GONE HOME is no problem since it is short. You apologized for this copy when you sent it. It is the only light carbon of the lot. As for the others, the carbons are not bad. Perhaps Perry can work with carbons of the scripts you do not have on hard paper. I shall write him as soon as we get the hard paper copies that are available. I explained to him--in much the same way you explained in your note--that original copies of plays are often lost. If we do have to have copies typed, I shall be glad to split the cost on the same 75-25% that we agreed for a royalty split.

I am certainly sorry that this technical problem has come up to plague us both. Oh, well, we will get the damned details straightened out. I hope with a minimum of trouble.

January 30, 1962

Dear Web:

I had a most interesting African trip, got into the interior a bit this time, and had a few days in Paris on the way home--lovely as usual in the rain, rain, rain....I found my Christmas BLACK NATIVITY still running. It closed Saturday night to three standing ovations during the performance and all sorts of curtains, speeches, and shouting at the end--as it had become an audience participation show during its runs, and one patron had seen it 15 times. She danced up the aisles at the closing! Eli Kazan and Kennotti were there. Now the Theatre Guild wants to do TAMBOURINES "like BLACK NATIVITY" with, they say, "the same simplicity." So they've just extended the option.

Thanks for returning the GOLD PIECE, the taped interview transcript, and the INFO magazine. I am enclosing my check for the typing of RULATTO, LITTLE HAM, AND SOUL GONE HOME. If Mrs. Godsey did carbons, please send me a set, as well as returning the old scripts. And thanks for all your attention to these details. (Everything in this life takes so much doing to get it done!)

It's 000-00-0000-hd in New York!

P.S. I see no reason why you should pay anything on the typing. It's up to the author to furnish his own manuscript copies in good shape.

57

April 16, 1962

Dear Web:

I'd be delighted to see Oscar Lewis and advise him to the best of my ability. Ask him to phone me: LE. 4-2952 after 3 P. M. when he is in New York. I may be away most of June and July, as I am invited back to Africa, and hope to stop in Italy on the return trip to catch BLACK NATIVITY at Spoleto, and maybe Paris and London, as I told you.

That lady probably didn't make any carbons when she copied our plays, huh?

Best ever,

Sincerely,

Langston Hughes

PLEASE TO LET YOU KNOW PLEASE

COMPLETE MANUSCRIPT OF AFRICAN POEES

WITH BIOGRAPHIES AND PERMISSION ADDRESSES

MAILED YOU TODAY PLEASE Mailed

LANGSTON

WIRE TO BERNARD PERRY---June 5, 1962

Smalley

THE UNIVERSITY THEATRE

at the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

LINCOLN HALL THEATRE · URBANA, ILLINOIS

Mr. Langston Hughes

20 East 127th Street

New York 35, N. Y.

THE UNIVERSITY THEATRE

at the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

Summer address:
915 North Washington
Tacoma 6, Washington
July 22, 1962
LINCOLN HALL THEATRE
URBANA, ILLINOIS

Dear Langston:

I know I have been inexcusably negligent in answering some of your questions. I hope you will forgive me anyhow.

I thought I should hold the scripts until after I read proof (in case Mrs. Godsey had made some errors I did not catch). Also, since you did not specifically ask for carbons and she offered a special rate if she did not have to bother with any extra copies, I asked just for an original with no carbons. The Press, of course, has all the hard paper first copies.

Miss Rodman, of the Press, wrote me that you are going to rewrite TAMBOURINES again. I surely do hope it gets on the boards this time and is a resounding smash.

I don't know if you will be back from Africa when this arrives or not. In any case, I hope you had a wonderful trip and that you liked and they liked BLACK NATIVITY in Italy.

As you will note above--I am in Tacoma. I shall be here until about the 20th of next month. I had to go to Eugene, Oregon at the end of August, anyhow, and a chap who had to go to the U of I summer session wanted to trade houses for the summer. I took him up on it, so we are in a cool climate for most the summer. The country is so beautiful and I am seeing so many old friends (I grew up near here and attended the U of Washington) that it is difficult to work. However, I shall have a second draft of a play finished before I go on a week's cruise into Canada with my uncle. It is so wonderful to be near water again.

Best of luck. Hope you and Oscar Lewis got together. He is quite a guy--a bit egocentric, perhaps, but his books are pretty damned good.

THE UNIVERSITY THEATRE

at the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

November 26, 1962

Dear Langston:

Just a short note to tell you that I have the galleys of the book and am working over them as fast as possible. I had begun to wonder if it would ever get into production. A curious footnote--A&B Booksellers already has it listed (as SIX PLAYS BY LANGSTON HUGHES).

I can't give this project all my time just now since I am in the middle of a production of A THURBER CARNIVAL. Opened just before Thanksgiving to rave reviews, but now have to get it back into shape to open again on Wednesday. I will get this finished before reworking my third act which will need to be in shape for December tryouts. The musical score is completed for it, but the world situation keeps changing and this makes it difficult since the third act contains an international trial (comic, but still a problem).

Some friends saw BLACK NATIVITY in London and were enchained by it. Though I have not talked to Oscar Lewis since summer, his wife told me he was delighted with his talk with you.

I hope you are well and that your trip was a great success and pleasure to you. Here's to the success of the book!

Webster Smalley

P.S. I think the new opening is good for TAMBOURINES. My only question is related to the same problem I am facing in THE MAN WITH THE OBOE--Will it still be topical when the book comes out? You might think about making changes for the printed version if it seems too much of the moment to you. I don't have galleys for the last two plays yet.

THE UNIVERSITY THEATRE

at the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

March 14, 1963

Dear Langston:

It was a real thrill to get your wire opening night. I posted it on the cast bulletin board and they were both impressed and thrilled. Thank you so much. It was most thoughtful of you, and was quite a wonderful surprise for me.

The week of opening, or rather the week before opening, was full of a number of things. First, I discovered I had to put 20 minutes out of the show (we couldn't have a tun-through until 10 days before opening). That hurt because it had to be interlineal cutting. Then, John Heffernan arrived and I saw he would work out beautifully--and he did. On the same day, I got a letter from U.C.L.A. asking to do the play there this summer; then, on Saturday before opening, a letter came from the Governor's office asking me to advise him on the formation of an arts council for the state. I was pretty weak by opening nihgt--of course, I was rewriting all the time.

Next to the audience's reception of the play, your wire was the nicest thing that happened to me that day. The really good thing, of course, was to see that the play worked in the theatre with an audience. There were some rough spots, of course, and I kept changing until Friday night, but it did work that first night, and that is what mattered.

It is a small pond, here, and this show would be too expensive for the professional theatre (it doesn't need a cast of fifty, but it would need 25 to 30). Yet, I feel rather proud that it went so well. Also, the problem of rewriting during production did not bother me as I thought it might. And once production starts, the opening is as inevitable in Urbana as in New York--though we don't have out of town tryouts or previews.

I am going to do a rewrite for the California production. I should like to have you read a copy of that version. When I send it, I will try to also send a tape of the music which I think you might enjoy. The composer, Jerry Hiller, did a first rate job.

Hope you are well and are doing work you want to do.

All my best,

April 12, 1963

Dear Web:

My copies of FIVE PLAYS just
came. I think it looks most attractive.
Grateful indeed am I to you for the idea,
and for all the work which you put into
it. Thanks a lot! And next time you
come to New York, please stop by and sign
my own-to-keep copy for me.

I was delighted to get a program
of OBOE and hear the news as to how it
came off. Am wondering if you are going
to the Coast for the California production.

Perhaps I'll go to Europe this
summer. BLACK NATIVITY is currently in
Italy, and MULATTO opened in Madrid last
week. (Nobody sent me clippings yet).
NATIVITY starts a cross-country tour in
October in Boston, and will open at the
Civic Theatre in Chicago on December 2, so
they tell me. The TV film got the Catho-
lic (!) Award at the International Tele-
vision Festival at Monaco this Spring---
filmed in London so classed as a British entry.
TAMBOURINES TO GLORY is still scheduled---
now for the fall. Was just about all set to
go this Spring when Lawrence Langner died.
(Something always happening in the theatre!)
But maybe in due time...with...all...de-
liberate....speed.........

Again thanks! And cordial
regards ever,

THE UNIVERSITY THEATRE

at the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

April 15, 1963

Dear Langston:

It was wonderful to get your letter and to get copies of Five Plays from the Press. It was so long ago that I wrote that introduction that it hardly seems mine. I hope it is successful.

Yes, I am planning to go to Los Angeles for the production of OBOE. I am directing a show, here, but will get on a plane and see the last two performances. They are paying me standard royalties plus my plane fare, so I can afford to go. Several other colleges have asked for copies to consider, so it might get other productions.

Your life sounds busy and most interesting. I shall make it a point to get to Chicago for BLACK NATIVITY in December. The Spanish production of MULATTO sounds fascinating. Have you ever seen any of your plays done in another language? It would frighten me, I think.

I hope the deliberate speed of TAMBOURINES is not too...deliberate.

It has been wonderful to be able to work with your plays and to get to know you. I certainly want you to sign my copy. How about trading signed copies by mail? Naturally, I would be happy to sign your copy and proud to have my signature in your library.

THE UNIVERSITY THEATRE

at the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

June 6, 1963

Dear Langston:

I hadn't sent your copy for a rather silly reason. I lost my ink pen, didn't want to sign with ball point, and hadn't yet bought a new pen. Am sending it today. I got the copy you signed for me and am most pleased and grateful.

I am giving your letter to the head of our department, Professor Karl Wallace. We shall be happy to hear from Mr. Lesholi, and I am sure Mr. Wallace will do everything possible to bring Mr. Lesholi here. The big problem will be whether or not he will be eligible for a graduate fellowship. At present, all fellowships are awarded on the basis of academic record, and our people compete against chemists, engineers, architects, etc. I am on a committee charged with setting up recommendations for fellowships in the creative and performing arts, but that will not be ready for at least a year. Also, most universities have a policy of April deadlines which may cause Mr. Lesholi some problems. **UNIVERSITY** if he is planning on next year. However, I shall talk to Mr. Wallace as soon as I get a letter giving me more details of Mr. Lesholi's plans.

Bob Heathmon, by the way, is no longer at Wisconsin. If I am not mistaken, he is now living in New York City. You might check the telephone book to see. He is a former Stanford classmate of mine.

It occurs to me that if Mr. Lesholi is primarily interested in theatre production, he might do well to write U.C.L.A. My best contact there is Dr. George M. Savage, Department of Theatre Arts, Univ. of California, Los Angeles 24. The emphasis there is more toward production and less toward theatre history, etc.

I told you that U.C.L.A. is doing my play this summer, didn't I? I shall only get to see the last two performances since I am opening a show here the same week. I sure wish I could do one of your shows, but we just don't have the people for the cast.

WESTERN UNION

TELEGRAM

W. P. MARSHALL, PRESIDENT

SF-1201 (4-60)

SYMBOLS

DL = Day Letter

NL = Night Letter

LT = International Letter Telegram

The filing time shown in the date line on domestic telegrams is LOCAL TIME at point of origin. Time is local in LOCAL TIME. PM is午7点33分 of day.

SIA444 (26)SYF505

SA473 S CXA221 PD CHAMPAIGN ILL 1 750P CST

LANGSTON HUGHES AND TAMBOURINE CO

LITTLE THEATRE 240 WEST 44TH ST NYK

DEAR LANGSTON, IT TOOK A LONG TIME TO BUILD TAMBOURINE TEMPLE ON BROADWAY. MAY IT BECOME AN INSTITUTION BREAK A LEG.

WEB SMALLEY

(53).

70

May 30, 1964

Dear Web; [Smalley ?]

Sometime ago I returned to you the script of your play, and meant to write you at the same time. But I have a way of addressing envelopes, putting them on my desk, and then not getting around to writing with any promptitude what I intend to go inside. Anyhow, I liked MAN WITH THE OBOE and found it having a lot of intriguing moments. I'd like to see it in production. It might be a bit long, but by now you've probably cut it down after seeing it on stage.

I hope you haven't been as rush-RUSH-rush-EUSY this winter as I've been---2/3 of my time taken up with shows, first TAMBOURINES then JERICO JIM CROW (see photo in current LIFEQ plus worrying with and suing BLACK NATIVITY that closed in Chicago owing me a LOT of back royalties. JERICO may go to the Berlin Festival in September, to which I am invited for the poets sessions.

You probably get Loyola University's DRAMA CRITIQUE. Currently it has a Negro in the Theatre issue, with a piece on my plays (drawn from our book) in it, and an act of MULE BONE.

Robert Leshoai is more than delighted to be coming to your campus in the fall. He was here with SPONONO, but has gone back to East Africa for the summer. Nice serious settled guy. I think you will like him. Thanks for all you did! Lucille Lortel and I got the SPONONO company (a likable lot) a bit of extra time in the USA via a spot at the Fair. And I'm trying to get a scholarship at Karamu House for their leading man.

Best ever to you,