1963 Theatre Archive

• March 1-2, 8-9, 1963
• By Christopher Fry (play)
• By Alec Wilder (opera)
• Directed by Donald B. Muir (play)
• Directed by Jeanne Hall (opera)
• (Room W-2 Hayward High)

• May 17-18, 24-25, 1963
• By Jean Anouilh
• Directed by Donald B. Muir
• (Room W-2 Hayward High)

Anouilh’s point of view is a strongly romantic on-true love (which cannot be intellectually defined) cannot exist in this world of expediency and sordid compromise. The minute one commits oneself to civilization, love erodes away bit by bit day by day, until, as one of the characters expresses it, “You wake up one morning and there’s nothing there.” The only alternative, for Anouilh, is death. This, with a kind of Wagnerian exaltation, is what is fated for Frederic and Jeannette.

• June 1, 1963
• By Charlotte Chorpenning
• Directed by Jeanne Hall
• (Kimball School, Hayward Elementary School)

Children’s Theatre. The Children’s plays are produced in conjunction with the Children’s Theatre class at Alameda State College. The students observe rehearsals and assist with the production as a part of their experience in children’s dramatics. The Cast is composed of children from Hayward, Castro Valley, San Lorenzo, San Leandro, Oakland, and Union City. Try-outs from the plays are open to all children between the ages of 10-15 years of age. The college sponsors two plays each year—usually about the first of December and the first of June.

• November 15-16, 22-23, 29, 1963
• By Carl Sternheim
• Translated by Maurice Edwards & Valerie Reich
• Directed by Donald B. Muir
• (Highlands Playhouse)

This is the first American Performance of The Strongbox, a German play written in 1912. This is a play with a purpose. At first glance a rather risqué comedy, the play has meaning above and beyond the mechanics of its plot. It is a bitter indictment of the overwhelming power of money from a period when capitalism was at its most rapacious. This is the first production produced at the Highlands Playhouse.

• November 23 1963
• By Carol Brink
• Directed by Jeanne Hall
• (East Ave. Elementary School)
• Children’s Theatre

• 1963/64
• By Thurber