As the second semester of classes was drawing to a close, Princeton's Intime Theatre once
again collaborated with the Theatre Arts Department of the Finch School of New York City to present its
year-end extravaganza for the annual Spring house-party weekend.
Described as "one of the most ambitious undertakings in undergraduate
dramatics at Princeton University," their experimental staging of
Shakespeare's "The Tempest" took place at McCarter Theater over the
weekend of April 30th and May 1st.
The elaborate production included music by
Purcell, specially written for "The Tempest" during the seventeenth
century but it hadn't been performed as intended with the play in
over 50 years. The music was orchestrated by Carter Harman (class of
'40) and conducted by Peter De W. Hauser (class of '37) and featured two
instruments of Purcell's era - the harpsichord and the recorder.
In addition to the actors and musicians, ballets for three featured
dancers and a chorus were choreographed by Nancy McKnight of the Finch
School and John H. Hines (class of '37). The entire production was
coordinated by director Lemuel D. Ayres (class of '36) and Richard A.
Baer (class of '38), the current Intime Secretary, who also took on the
part of Prospero.
Twelve undergraduate students and
ten Finch students had parts in the play that was headed by Susan Steele
as Miranda, Mr. Baer as Prospero, Gordon Merrick as Ferdinand and
Frances Esmond as Ariel. Other major parts included John B. Haviland
(class of '38) as Caliban, Robert H. Savage (class of '37) as Gonzalo,
Richard B. Cowdery (class of '38) as Trinculo and Melchor G. Ferrer
(class of '39) as Antonio.
"The Tempest" was Melchor
Ferrer's final performance with the Princeton Intime Theatre. Two weeks
later he won an election to become next year's Theatre Intime secretary,
so it seems probable that
he briefly weighed the possibility of a third year. However, shortly after
classes began in the Fall of 1937, Melchor eloped with Frances Pilchard.
They wed in Lake Tahoe and from there went on to Mexico, where Mel
had hopes of writing a great novel.
