Today's Forecast: Warmer, Humid VOL. 1. No. 4 400 Attend Conference On Reading The "what-if" school of writ ing was introduced yesterday afternoon when author Louis Slobodkin addressed members of the 21st Annual Reading Conference which began Mon day at the University. More than 400 teachers, read ing consultants, school adminis trators and book publishers are enrolled for the week long con ference. The sessions are held to keep teachers and other pro fessional people infoijmed on the newest and most effective tech niques in the teaching of read ing. Roma Gans, professor emeri tus at Teachers College, Colum bia University, spoke at the opening session. Reading for living should be an individual ized program, she said, and the reader should proceed at his own speed. The Monday afternoon speaker, Eason Monroe, who is chairman of the American Civil Liberties Union, Los Angeles, Calif., ex plained how and why the Bill of Rights should be included in classroom procedure. ,Today's speaker will be Laura Zirbes, professor emerita at Ohio State University. She will speak at; both the afternoon and eve ning sessions and take part in the discussion groups. Tasha Tudor, famed chil dren's author, spoke last night in Mill Hall High School, fol lowing a dinner at the Dutch Inn. Mill Hall. Discussion leaders include Mar garet Lay, teacher at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio; Molly Wild, teacher at Platts burg, N.Y. State Teachers Col lege; Gloria Mattera, instructor at Genesco, N.Y. State Teachers ) College; Tony Amato, visiting professor at Temple University; l Mrs. Lelia Farrell, a member of the State College public school system; M. Jerome Weiss, assist ant professor of education at the University; and Dr. George E. Murphy, professor of education at the University and director of the conference. A combined book exhibit and a Cadmus book exhibit, as well as elementary and secondary school materials have been on display all , week. Review O'Neill Play Has Successful Opening . By WILLIAM ,LLEN Collegian Dram . Critic Led by the dynamic per formance of Lydia Br u c e as Abbie Putnam, Eugene O'Neill's "Desire Under the Elms" opened the Mateer Play house season on a successful note Monday night. Miss Bruce ,the young wife of Ephraim Cabot, played by Leon B. Stevens, recorded a powerful and moving enactment of O'Neill's Abbie. She was strong In her part and portrayed the love scenes with deep emotion as well as affection, "Desire Under the Elms" is an American classic, telling of an old and hardened New England farm er who takes a- young wife and brings conflict to his three sons. The youngest son develops a deep affection for his 'young step mother, who wants to bear a son so her husband will leave her the farm property. The play, which will continue the rest of the week at the play- ......_„,„, ... #antint q. , , •\:, - -. , i Toll .., .. ...„, STATE COLLEGE, PA.. THURSDAY MORNING. JUNE 25. 1959 MISS LOIS PIERCY is crowned Miss Pennsylvania by last year's queen, Miss Rosalie Samley. Both girls are Penn State students. '3 Men on a Horse' Will Open Monday Erwin Trowbridge has a problem. He can pick the win ning horse before any race. What makes this wonderful intuitive gift a problem is explained in Mateer Playhouse's comedy production, "Three Men on a Horse," by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott, which begins Monday at Standing Stone. The play, which opens for a week's run Monday, is directed by Max Fischer and casts Esther Benson and Leon B. Stevens in leading roles. It concerns Erwin Towbridge, played by Kenneth Evans, who is a greeting card writer with a flair for picking winning horses. Erwin soon runs afoul of some Damon Runyan type "hoods"—chiefly Patsy, played by Leon Stevens: and his moll, Mable, played by Esther Ben son. The hoods discover Erwin's amazing talent, which leads to house at Standing Stone, is slow moving in the beginning and it takes th e audience awhile to get used to the "corn ballish" talk of the three sons and their antics in and about the farm house. But once Ste vens and Miss - Bruce make their appearance, the play's tempo picks up considerably. The youngest son—Eben, play ed by Don Petersen, is torn be tween his mother's untimely death and love for the farm on one hand; and his love and af fection for his step-mother. Peter sen seemed unnatural in the first few scenes but finished strong, especially in his dramatic love scenes in the - last act. A son is born to Abbie and everyone knows it is Eben's child except his father. This produces tension unmatched in the best "western" thriller and leads to Abbie's killing of .the baby and a confession to Ephraim of the hoax. Stevens. as the father, por trays an old, bearded farmer who pldns to live to 100 years of age and who marries Abbie only to have her -bear him a FOR A BETTER PENN STATE 1 4 1 el : *,,,, ~ _ many zany situations as the plot progresses. Included in the supporting cast are: Don Petersen, who plays Erwin's brother-in-law; Ronald Bishop, acting the part of a harried greeting card company president in the Mother's Day Rush; and Nancy Alinkoff, a, University student, who plays the part of a newspaper reporter. Mason, set designer for the playhouse, has created a novel' staging arrangement for the play. The stage is constructed with a revolving platform at each end of the set on which are two panel backdrops. Changing scenes will be only a matter of revolving these platforms to present the op posite panel face. Mason describes his overall de sign as a "cartoon type" setting in which outlines of windows, doors and furniture are drawn in bright colors on the revolving panels. son and keep the farm within the family. Stevens fits the part very well and was a true pro fessional on the stage. Probably the weakest charac ters in the play are Ephraim's two oldest sons Simeon and Peter. Simeon, played by Ron ald Bishop, seemed to overplay his lines and forces his part upon the audience, Peter, played by Mike G. Matoin, was a loud drunkard who was forever yell ing "California" and "gold." The directing of Max Fischer was most evident when the two 'sons bid farewell to the farm yard and house and.dance a jig before hitting the trail which would take them to California and gold. Another scene which showed-off 'the talents of Fischer was the raging crying part enacted by Miss Bruce after she kills her baby to save her romance with Eben. The set was ideal for the play —but the naturally rustic effect of the playhouse greatly aided the on-stage scenery. Although the area is very small, the actors moved about well and only once did anyone bump into or jar a piece of scenery. rgiatt Lois Piercy Awaits Finals Lois Piercy, 1959 Miss Pennsylvania, eagerly awaits the Miss America pageant to be held in September at Atlantic City. Miss Piercy was crowned Miss Pennsylvania last Satur day night at West Chester—winner over 23 other statewide beauties. The 21-year old, dark-haired University graduate from Springfield, who doesn't like to wait in lines—waited in line twice last Saturday night, in an eve ning gown and swim suit—and came away as the Common wealth's representative to the Miss America Pageant. Lois was crowned by Rosalie Samley, the retiring Miss Penn sylvania. Miss Samley, a junior in sociology from Bethlehem, is a sorority sister of Lois at the University. Another of the five finalists chosen in the Miss Pennsylvania pageant was Margaret McPher son, junior in home economics from New Park. She represented Greater York in the state finals. The third University coed to participate in the pageant was Miss Judith Ann Criste, who re ceived her associate engineering, degree at the Altoona Campus earlier in the month. She pre sented a piano and song routine from "Kiss Me Kate" for her talent entry. She represented Miss Central Pennsylvania. Miss Piercy was a standout in the pageant from the very start. She walked off with talent honors the opening night of the pageant on Thursday, and copped the bathing suit title during Friday night's com petition. Although not a winner in either the talent or swimsuit compe tition in the preliminaries, Miss McPherson ranked high enough in all to be chosen as a semi finalist and one of the top five in the pageant. Miss Piercy's talent rendition featured a flute solo and a dis play of an oil painting she did that was recently acquired by the University. Although Miss Piercy seemed short of breath in her solo rendition, she still grabbed top honors in talent. Miss McPherson gave a dra matic reading as her part of the talent competition. It was based on a portion of "The Diary of Anne Frank." Begin ning with the quotation, "I be lieve in the goodness of man" from Miss Frank's diary, Mar garet went on reciting the por tion describing "fear" from the work. Ten semi-finalists in the pag eant were announced at the be ginning of Saturday's portion of the pageant. Miss Piercy's name was the fourth name released. It, was almost a certainty that she' would be among the ones in the finals because of her showing in the earlier parts of the pageant. Miss McPherson seemed almost shocked when her name was read as a semi-finalist. Both showed little emotion when they were named in the group of five finalists toward the end of the 411ageant ' The other three finalists in (Continued on page nine) International Speakers To Attend Symposium Speakers from all parts of the world will participate in an Inter national Symposium on Stress Wave Propagation in Materials to be held June 30 to July 3 at the University. The program includes discus sions of broad areas of theoretical and experimental research in the general field of stress wave propa gation. By 808 THOMPSON Special to the Collegian Photo-Feature (See Pages 6 and 7) Registration To Be Held At Rec Hall Registration for the 6-week-long mid-session will be held from 8 a.m. to noon and 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday in Recreation Hall. Mid-session classes will begin at 8 a.m. Tuesday. The session will last until August 7. Students must register accord ing to an alphabetical time list which is printed in the Summer Sessions catalog. A student must register for himself. Fees will be assessed at regis tration, and they must be paid at the Bursar's Office in Willard Hall the same day. Students who register late must pay a $2 fee. The fee assesor may decide if the student's excuse for registering late is valid for waiv ing the fee. All those who are pre-registersd for courses must complete their registration on Monday, but they are assured of getting the courses they have pre-registered. DOC Sponsors Tutor Program The Division of Counseling is sponsoring a tutoring service dur ing the summer sessions for stu dents who wish to employ a tutor and for those wishing to work part-time as tutors. The Division of Counseling will serve as a clearing house for the program. Tutors may register in person at 110 Old Main or call Extension 2584 before noon Mon day. Persons interested should spe cify by number the courses in which they are qualified to offer help and the sessions they will be available. Undergraduate tu tors should have obtained a grade of "B" or higher in courses they list. All arrangements concerning rates, times, and places are han dled by the individual tutors and the students who request their services. The Division of Coun seling will not supervise the ser vice beyond compiling the list and making it available when students request help in finding supplementary instruction. Riley, Beam, Taylor To Attend Meeting Three staff members will par ticipate in the 44th general con ference of the American Alumni Council from Sunday to July 2 at Mackinac Island, Mich. Those attending will be Ber nard P. Taylor, director of the Penn State Foundation; Robert E. Beam, associate foundation director and director of the Alum ni Fund; and Ridge Riley, execu tive secretary-treasurer of the Alumni Association. Safe Conduct Pass See Page-4 FIVE CENTS
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers