Letters from Alvina Krause: Fall 1979

Context
The roots go deep; the passions persist.

Letter
I am most curious. The theatre department, the School, received notices of the Theodore Fuch's [Design Teacher 1932-1970 (Chair of Theatre 1940-1951) -- DD] Collection on Theatre Technology going to Brigham Young University. Incredible! NU let that collection go to another university? It is absolutely invaluable! A master craftsman, artist, teacher has assembled the material of a lifetime and the School he served for a life time ignores the colossal, vital work of that life time! What are your bases for the claim: "a great school"? Dean Wood dares to write me he "loves" the School -- Love isn't words; it is acts, deeds, manifestations. It is incredible that the tale of destruction continues to unfold. Does everyone believe a new building will make a new school? I read with deep interest the plans for the dedication of the new building. Interesting the names of people involved: Martha Hyer, who left NU in her sophomore year, Charlton Heston, who never came back after his Sophomore year, etc. etc. Ralph Dennis gave his life to that School, and not one Dennis student is considered in the New. McBurney grew fat, married his son's wife, destroyed that School and his era is honored! Yet Dean Wood "loves" that School! What does he love? ---- And I take it out on you!
Another matter. When are you going to return to the requirement of Theatrical Backgrounds as prerequisite for all acting students. How dare you give theatre degrees to graduates who know nothing about the literature of the theatre? What, in God's name are they studying? Speech graduates do not know what a play is! Daily that fact confronts me. BTE must select plays for next season. Where do they begin? They grab at straws, They fumble in the dark. They have no criteria. What makes a good play? All they have is what you gave them in specialized fields. J decides we must do our own dramatization of Christmas Carol. It is driving me mad! Not one person in the company ---- and they are highly intelligent! ---- knows anything about the construction of a drama. They turn in dialogue from the book. "Dialogue isn't drama!" I cry. They stare. And now J is going through the torments of hell because as a graduate of theatre school she does not know what makes a play. And she is a bright girl! Why do you offer courses in dramatic literature if they have no importance to your own students. Does anyone "love" the School enough to tell the truth?
You are wise to plan a new course, your course. Get it in the schedule next year. Go your own way positively; students will follow. Hope that Sam or a new teacher will support you. I don't know what you can build on rotten foundations -- better build new ones. But don't acquiesce! You have tenure!
Integrity: is it a lost word?

Letters from Alvina Krause: March 1979

Context
The Dean continues to woo.

Letter
David,
Do tell me whatever you can find out about the Alumni celebration in May. Why is the Dean suddenly eager that I appear on that occasion? I think I told you that he had invited me by mail. Then this week he telephoned. Would I come? Consider it seriously? I stuttered (hate telephones!) and he urged further and I answered, "Where Speech School is concerned I am an alien." That stopped him for a moment. then, yes, he knew, he understood. If only we could meet and talk, etc. etc. for half an hour. I said, "Alumni Days can be lonely experiences. I do not choose loneliness."
"You won't be! We have plans. There will be people there -- David." So what goes? Who will be there? I know no one. McBurney successfully cut all Alumni ties. So why should I come to the Centennial Alumni Day. When Muriel and Vera consulted him before Christmas about something in my honor, he was very cool and they decided to give nothing. What happened after that? I would do anything if I could believe there was serious intention to restore the School to the honor of the Dennis-Cumnock days. But I refuse to be a pawn in a fund raising campaign to promote the work of Coakley, Schneideman, [another colleague's name -- DD] and their ilk. It was not easy to stand for quality in those McBurney days, but I did it. I do not care to compromise now. If you can give me any clues as to what goes on, please do.
Am I a nuisance?
A. K.

Letters from Alvina Krause: March 1979

Context
The School gears up for a televised gala in October 1980 to celebrate the opening of the new Theater/Interpretation Center. The Dean wants Krause to agree to participate.

Letter
David,
[Discussion of an applicant for an acting teaching position in the Theatre Department -- DD]
Many things puzzle me. Why is Dean Wood suddenly courting me? A huge floral arrangement comes to me on the occasion of the film festival. [One of the Bloomsburg students had made a short film about Krause and her Bloomsburg teaching -- DD] And before that an urgent invitation to the Centennial Alumni meeting May 11. "Be my guest". Why? I have virtually been banned for years. Why this urgency now. Dean McBurney told me: "Understand, Miss Krause, alumni have no control in my administration, no influence whatsoever". And he cut all alumni ties. All contacts with Dennis-Cumnock alums were cut off. And he made a point of establishing none with graduates of his own regime, particularly theatre grads. So where would I be on alumni day? Alone? alumni days can be fearfully lonely. But what I do not understand is this sudden intimate pressure. What goes?
The film festival was a big success. I can't bear the film myself, but people seem moved by it. And so I endure it. Tony Roberts was at his best: his genuine, outgoing, sharing self. BTE did a smart job inviting him here. How much money will come in remains to be seen.
Sea Gull progresses. [Krause was directing -- DD] There are hurdles but it is promising. C is becoming a real actress -- if I can get her to make it big enough. Why do NU theatre majors fail to realize that theatre is bigger than life? But the group spirit is remarkable. Pray for us.
A.K.

Letters from Alvina Krause: January/ February 1979

Context
A new year with new concerns and old passions.

Letter
The fog, heavy and all-concealing, is creeping up from the hollow this January day. What a winter! Snow and cold and now a fog!
[...A discussion of the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble and the possibility of my directing for the upcoming summer... -- DD]
Someone told me that Coakley is resigning -- Is it true? Is it possible? I restrain my Glory Hallelujiah until I hear positive truth. And what is [another colleague -- DD]'s present stand? If anyone is leaving you and Sam [Ball -- DD] must have a strong voice in new appointments. Both of you are too reluctant to fight. If you can't name a strong, giant of a replacement, can't you wangle a Galati directed production? That's how I made a transition from Interpretation to theatre. In that new theatre can you start clean? Is there no one else but me who wants the name Dennis over the portals?
Have I disturbed you?

A.K.

If the name McBurney is to be featured in the new theatre building, I will never go near it. The name alone fills me with revulsion. Does Sam remember this?

****

Context
Krause's birthday was January 29.

Letter
The flowers are beautiful! Did you tell them to tuck yellow rose buds? among pink carnations, white mums and purple heather. Exquisite! I thank you for thinking of me so beautifully! My heart leaps up.
It was a wonderful birthday party! So good to be with a company laughing together, celebrating together. I dread birthdays and birthday parties -- reminders of the race that can't be won. But this was a happy event this year.
You know we all want you to direct here this summer. I have told the administrative committee to write you conditions. I have nothing to do with financial arrangements. Artistic Direction is all I can manage. You will hear from them very soon. There is a problem. If "Misalliance" is the first show it must go into rehearsal in May. In fact I would start character work immediately after the Bucknell performance of "Sea Gull" [Krause had directed -- DD]. Can that be managed? "Misalliance" is a good opener for the season. Any other suggestions.
[...Discussion of BTE finances... -- DD]
...I repeat we are all most eager to have you direct a production. Does Equity cover you as a director or only as an actor?

Letter from Alvina Krause: November 1978

Context
With Annie May Swift closed, the school rented the seventh and eighth floors of a downtown Evanston bank building to house the Dean's offices and the Theatre Department. The acting classroom was one of those rooms with low ceilings, fluorescent lights, tile floors.

Letter
David, I know it must be hard -- this adjustment. (My own heart aches thinking of that Annie May Swift auditorium and what we created therein. Lear! A magnificent Lear!) But take a deep breath, David, and respond to that challenge! With what you have to give you can convert any space into a stage. Play in the round and create a world in a little space. Make it an opportunity to test imagination! I have just written a biting criticism to your students here in Bloom on their inability to create, on their total lack of imagination, on their inability to get out of their commonplace egoes [sic]. Not one can see and respond to General Gabler's picture on a wall! And so they fail utterly as actors. Get busy, David. It's a challenge. Convert your present class rooms into Ibsen's world. Chekhov's. Shakespeare's! maybe out of nothing you can really be a great teacher and touch the creative minds of actors which now luxuriate in unmotivated emotion and lines without imagery behind them. Why tell me why can no Hedda put images behind, around, and overflowing: "I am bored -- bored to death" Why does not one of them want to smash that lamp shade with red roses painted on it. Why can not one of them want to stamp on my French Oriental turned into a flowered green carpet? NO creative minds! Get busy in your desolate classrooms. I challenge you! And I believe in you! Grieve with me over Annie May Swift, but join hands with Cumnock and Dennis --
By the way maybe you can jolt your Dean a bit. Muriel Bach [former student -- DD] called me the other night. She and Vera Ward (former student -- DD] had approached the Dean on a project of theirs concerning the new Theatre building and me. He welcomed them, said he favored their project, said he had considered it himself but someone had always come forth with derogatory comments -- Can you make him see the nature of the source of those comments -- C C Cunningham's letter of resignation tells the full story I can swear it is the truth. It is in the archives, if it isn't in his own office files it is in President Miller's file. Can truth never prevail? Must the Mitchells, Schneidemans, Coakleys forever prevail? Muriel and Vera think otherwise. I doubt that they can make their point.

Letters from Alvina Krause: October 1978

Context
Annie May Swift Hall burned. A fire had started on the stage of the very theater where Krause had taught her acting classes. The fire had spread to within the walls of the building. To determine the extent of the damage, Annie May Swift Hall was closed indefinitely.

Letter
David,
Thank you for calling us about the fire. I couldn't have borne to hear it from someone who didn't care. Let me know what happens now. The people who would deeply care are either dead or like me far away. McBurney, you know, deliberately, purposefully, ended all alumni relations with generations preceding him. "Alumni do not run my School" says he to me.
"In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was God". Do you know that was the beginning of the School? That was how it started. That was its function, its purpose. Should that not be the beginning of the History. To read the Word of God, to speak the word of God, to communicate the Word of God with beauty, with meaning, with dignity, with truth, with conviction. Isn't that wonderfully unique in this crass, unbelieving world? A young theological student sat listening with growing indignation at the way his fellow students, his instructors, his Wesleyan ministers read the glowing words of the Bible. He sensed that "out of the depths" came the Psalms. He cried out when "Lift up my eyes unto the hills" was read in dull, dead, meaningless tones. He experienced the vitality of the scriptures, he recognized the beauty of the King James version. The Scotch poet soul in him rose in rebellion. He was a man of action. He started classes for his fellow students in reading the Bible, in public speaking for ministers all based on his deep feeling that the Word of God, the life of Christ, the work of the Apostles was too deep, too important to humanity, that it must be communicated in a form fitting the importance of the subject and the beauty of the language.
I wish you could have heard him read a Psalm! It glowed with understanding of the depths of our needs. And the book of Job. To me it had been a lengthy overwrought tale of misery until I heard him read a passage with the simplicity of great art and the comprehension of a great mind revealing, through the beauty of the spoken word, the depths of faith. You have written to me of my "greatness". I have just given you the source. He illuminated the Bible, Shakespeare, Bobby Burns. I saw what Speech could be; it shook me, stimulated my mind, my imagination, my will. He saw the need for Speech education -- it was called Elocution in those days, but don't let that mislead you. There was nothing of elocution in his own work and any tendency in that direction was knocked out of us pronto. With his own funds he bought from NU the land on which Annie May stands (It has its own campus!) He set about raising money for his school, he assembled a staff of people who shared his sense of truth and discipline. And among those students was Ralph Dennis whom he recognized as a worthy successor. And Dennis carried on. It was glorious. Those people believed. They believed in their work, they believed in the School, and they believed in their students. And they had true comprehension of the power of the spoken word to reveal humanity through great writing. They shared that belief with their students. The Cumnock spirit carried on right up to the Sarett Conspiracy which ushered in McBurney and death. How dare that woman write those drab paragraphs. The School of Speech was a light in the wilderness. Truly it was Dennis was the personification of a leader in Speech. In his tacky old suits he strode about the Speech education world like a giant. Sure! He was hated. He tore down empty attitudinizing. He jerked us up by the nape of the neck on any evidence of satisfaction with mediocrity. Mediocrity! It could not exist in his world. We had to reach, reach. He started the theatre department. Before it was fully established he had opened up Speech Correction, speech therapy; before that was old, radio was on its way, TV. And he travelled Europe, China, India, Russia (when the Revolution broke) Always learning, discovering, searching, living.
He brought that world and the people of that world right into Annie May Swift. And now they turn over the writing of that history to a woman as devoid of mind and imagination as a rhinoceros -- the dumbest of beasts! ----- So she makes a cut-and-dried dissertation out of life itself. Do something! Take her to dinner, get her drunk, wangle her material from her, re-write it. Strangle her!

Letters from Alvina Krause: October 1978

Context
More and more Krause was connecting her experience with the Bloomsburg students to her suggestions for my teaching.
And the School of Speech centenary celebration continued to rankle.

Letter
David, don't don't don't let your students in beginning acting perform. They have no instrument with which to perform. A violinist wants a perfect Stradivarius so an actor must want a perfect instrument before he can perform. That instrument is himself: his body (train every muscle) his voice (it must express every character from Hamlet to Lear, every emotion, reach everyone in an audience without effort) senses -- which create the Renaissance world, the Arthur Miller world, unknown worlds etc -- the imagination ------- but I don't need to tell you this. Do it! The trouble with the actors I have here is that they cannot create worlds, they cannot respond to that world or to each other. You saw it this summer. They are only now beginning to perceive (to use their senses to respond to stimuli, to understand through perception what a human being is and how he relates to his world) to play together and that means to actually respond through the senses to each other.
Do not let Juliet speak one word or "emote" one emotion until she actually has seen an Italian sun in an Italian sky and felt its heat on her face, her neck. And for God's sake: she must sense stars in an Italy sky -- stars stars -- that play is full of stars. You train those senses to respond truthfully or I disown you. I have told this group "Work on Act II Hedda Gabler but know that you are not Hedda, you are not Brack, you must create them. Hedda must handle an army pistol as a man does, must shoot in the air because she dares not fire straight; she hears, senses, people gossiping etc. --
Your actors have nothing with which to act until they have trained those senses to respond. Talent in acting is the ability to perceive more deeply than other people do -- They must create an actor's Stradivarius.
If Lynn [Rein. See the December 13 post -- DD] is capable of doing the history of School of Speech why is her article in Dialogue so utterly devoid of appreciation of what that school was. Why is it so devoid of appreciation, of color? It reads like an article written in response to an unimaginative assignment of a professor in an English class "Write a 1000 word essay on -- --". But that wasn't what surprised me most in the last "Dialogue". Lee Mitchell who was McBurney's right hand man in the destruction of the theatre department writes on "foundations of excellence" ---- for the Centennial section. So the "Centennial" is to celebrate McBurney's reign! I get my invitation to the ground breaking the day before the event! But McBurney gets there on time! I have a diploma from the old School and two degrees from the present school. And I knew Dr. Cumnock! ---- Sorry!
It's a beautiful day! Pennsylvania in October. We drove for two or three hours this morning. Intoxication! "Lord, thou has made the world too beautiful this year"
Yes, the class is alive this year. I begin to enjoy teaching again. I still fear "Sea Gull" [A spring production was planned by the new Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble -- DD] but not quite so much as before. Tell JC [a former Bloomsburg student -- DD] of these developments. He might be impressed --
Have fun
A.K.