Schnitzers To Depart After Reception Hosted By Fleming

Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Schnitzer, who made the University's Professional Theatre Program all it is, will leave town almost immediately after tonight's champagne reception University President Eobben Fleming is giving for them in the Michigan Union. , They plan to leave for their home in Westbury, Conn., no later than tomorrow. One hundred and thirty crates of books go with them, but the Michigan Historical Society is getting a lot of the papers about the PTP. Candidates for PhDs are seeking to do papers on the innovative organization. Schnitzer, who gave up the PTP after 12 years to be executive director of the nationwide University Resident Theatre Association - a venture in which he is pioneer as much as he was with the PTP - will have headquarters in the New York area before eventually moving to Washington. Mrs. Schnitzer, who is Marcella Cisney, the PTP's artistic director, will devote her time to the Board of Governors of the American Playwrights Theatre, which includes Jerome Lawrence, Bob awrence of "Inherit the Wind" and "Mame" f a m e, Robert Anderson who is responsible for "Tea and Sympathy" and "I Can't Hear You When the Water is Running" and John Guare, who wrote "The House of Blue Leaves." Having turned down four major offers, including that of artistic director of the Washington Theatre Club and the Oslo Florida State Theatre at Sarasota, she will be guest rector at various theatres and do projections which interest her, mainly new plays. Their 12 years here included more than the 125 plays, including the 23 sent to New York City for Broadway and off-Broadway. More than what the general public was delighted and entertained by, PTP brought university-backed professional theatre to Ann Arbor, making a model which the rest of the country has been glad to copy. Between the many farewell parties this past week, I caught the articúlate, witty, urbane, charming, accomplished couple for a couple of words alone. They are looking forward to the new venture with as much zest as they did a dozen years ago when they got PTP under way. For about three years, the U-M and former President Harían Hatcher had been trying to get them to come here. At the time, they were taking the international exchange program of the State Department on a tour through Europe. Thornton Wilder was appalled they were considering moving to the Midwest. He couldn't believe they would leave either New York or the international program which was taking them to all t h e great capitals of the world and all the great artists. Helen Hay es, however, disagreed they were "making a disastrous c a r e e r mistake. "I'm not so sure," she said. I "That might be a very farsighted thing because somebody has to make the move lacross the Hudson and out of New York - somebody who's lestablished in the profession." After a few years, Wilder wrote, "I apologize. I was absolutely wrong. You began a new movement in American theatre." "That was the challenge," Schnitzer recalls. "People in Europe that saw our theatre assumed that was what was going on all over America. We had to say, no, this is a pickup company - we put them together. We saw Ann Arbor as being one corner of the country where we could begin to make what we had been doing overseas seem honest. It didn't happen, bang, like that, but it's happening." "It's happening at a time of slow demoralization of Broadway," Miss Cisney interjected, "just a slow but constant steady running down hill and now even though they've tried to build a couple of new theatres and lift it with that, one of the owners is thinking of putting it on the market and selling it. Already, the Uris Theatre, which was just opened in October, is in danger because the district has become so tragically run down. It symbolizes the professional theatre in America - when it gets run down, it's time to move out of there and spread out over the nation." For the first half year in Arm Arbor, the Schnitzers held a series of coffee hours, getting together up to 50 people in a home to explain in a general way what they had in mind, find out what the community wanted and ask for community support. Miss Cisney said that if they were successful, in five years, 25 universities in the country would be sponsoring some kind of professional theatre. In 10 years time, 125 were engaged in such a program. No other university had engaged a group with such close ties and such long term commitment. The Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis has loóse ties with the university there and the theatre nearly went under a couple of years ago. "When a university accepts a policy of supporting professional theatre, then this is a policy of long deliberation," Schnitzer said. "It's not a whim and they're not going to throw it away. Where the money comes from depends on the whim of the local people, the particular interest next year of the different foundations, which may shift from regional theatre to inner city quite legitimately, but leave you high and dry. Your fortunes may go up and down with a university and other assistance may be needed from the outside, but there is solid foundation on which you' can build. "One of the things we did achieve, because Marcella has the professional know-how and is a great casting director, was to see a company like APA, which was just beginning and needed the support we could give it. And, of course, she picked up the American Conservatory Theatre after they had spent all the money after one year in Pittsburgh. In fact, Marcella introduced them finally to San Francisco, where they now are flourishing. PTP has brought seven companies It gave the Juilliard Company, which now calis itself the City Center Acting Company, the idea of t o u r i n g the country and brought in the Phoenix and the Stratford, Ontario, company as well. "The future as we see it will not be one university supporting one company, because the costs are spiraling," Miss Cisney said. "It's at the point where it's just not economically feasible unless there is enormous money poured into it. The future that Bob now is working on with UTRA will involve having statewide companies supported by all the major universities or t h e whole h i g h e r educational system of the state. If a Michigan company were formed, for instance, it would be here for 2% to three months then it would go to Michigan State University, then to Detroit to serve Wayne University. Then it would tour the smaller universities of the state." It would also give master classes, symposia, workshops for shorter periods. It would have the caliber of the APA or the Guthrie Theatre, with the top big names as well as young people trained on the campuses. A group which began with a project at the Globe Theatre at Harvard University appears to be leading to a regional New England Theatre. The Schnitzers estímate that if 10 or 15 theatres are set up across the country, the country will have a national theatre that can send groups almost anywhere. Similar to the outlet which PTP provided for young fellows who take part in the fellowship program, a countrywide organization would provide m u c h employment to young talent which now finds it hard to get jobs. Schnitzer says the Ann Arbor audiences are one of the big satisfactions he found in Ann Arbor. "They have been so responsive, that companies coming through have said they would like to package the audiences and take them with them." Another satisfaction is the support PTP received from the University administration, from University Presidents Hatcher and Fleming and Vice Presidents Alian Smith, Roger H y n e s and Wilbur Pierpont. "Somebody once said we live in a series of overlapping crises to which I've added 'which we try to handle in a routine manner,' " Schnitzer said. "One of the big thrills was when we saw the first performances in the Power Center," Miss Sisney said. "The Power family love theatre and were supporters long before we came here and it was a thrill to see the first performances in the center, to have them announce in the early days they were giving it because of the success of PTP." Another big thrill comes to her mind asvshe thinks over the past 12 years. "When APA first came here with Will Geer playing Sir Peter in 'School for Scandal,' with Rosemary H a r r i s as Lady Teazle and Ellis Raab as Joseph Surface, it was a definitive performance. Everybody including ourselves realized that finally we were going to accomplish the kind of thing Ann Arbor and the University wanted and it was going to have sheen, luster and brilliance." AIso Helen Hayes and Jimmy Stewart in "Harvey" was another outstanding memorable event as was "An Evening's Frost," which Miss Cisney directed and poet Donald Hall wrote, and which 1 went to New York. _] o o