Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 83

Lii i Papp is putting the Beaumont on a traditional track By Allan Wallach Newsday Drama Critic Joseph Papp, the dynamic producer who led his New York Shakespeare Festival forces into Lincoln Center two years ago, vowing to turn the Vivian Beaumont Theater into a showcase for American playwrights, has altered his plans drastically. Starting next season at the theater, he will emphasize great works of dramatic literature starring actors of major stature. Papp said that his policy of presenting mostly new plays by Americans at the Beaumont had encountered widespread audience Essentially, he said, the audience that comes to this theater, I would say the greatest number, wants to see the older plays classics and stars. And to impose upon them the new works which they are antagonistic to is foolhardy. During the two seasons that the festival has operated the theater, subscriptions have dropped from 27,000 to 22,000.

Plans for next season call for four classics. Only one is definite so far: -Shaws Saint Joan, starring Liv Ullmann, who is currently starred at the Beaumont in the biggest success that the Shakespeare Festival has had at its uptown operation, Ibsens A Doll's House. Papp intends to sign other international actors for at least two of the plays the names of Max Von Sydow and Vanessa Redgrave are among those mentioned and American actors of comparable stature. Among the Americans being considered are Dustin Hoffman, At Pacino and Stacy Reach. At the same time, Papp said, he has no intention of neglecting his commitment to new works.

Ill be producing -more new American plays than I did last year, he declared. They will be presented both at the downtown Public Theater, continuing the present policy there, and at the Mitzi E. Newhouse (formerly the Forum), the smaller theater in the Beaumont building. During the past two seasons, the Newhouse has been utilized tor Shakespearean plays. Ill be opening a new house for new plays, Tapp said.

Playwrights whose works will be offered there and at the Public next season include Thomas Babe, Michael Weller, Anthony Scully, Myma Lamb, Dennis Reardon, John Ford Noonan and Len Jenkin. (Scully, a newcomer to the Papp stable of writers, also is being represented this season at the Beaumont; Xfcwslay Photo bv J-m Peppier Joseph Papp: The audience wants to see the older plays' fer the new plays at the smaller theaters, and to accomplish that he will set up cadres of young people to. solicit subscribers for those plays. The teams will work movie lines, parks and outdoor concerts. Papp also plan3 to avoid having reviews during the opening week of a new play so playwrights dont have their heads chopped off the first night.

As for the attempt of the past two seasons, Papp asserted, I dont regret it for one moment; I think we did bring attention to this thing new plays. The playwrights need a major platform, and if Lincoln Center is not it, it may be that some other platform will evolve after a while. But right now I feel this is the way to go at this particular juncture, subject to all kinds of variations as time goes by. Im trying to find a viable solution which doesnt lose the existing theater audience and at the same time builds up the new audience. II mentation.

Also Im placing a great emphasis on raising the quality and standards of work. We can do that more with classics than we can with new plays, because new plays by their very nature are imperfect. To accomplish that, Papp plans to establish a permanent company of actors to perform in all the classic plays along with the invited stars. He also intends to have the thrust stage at the Beaumont made into a traditional proscenium stage. That would cost an estimated $3,000,000 to $4,000,000, and work would not begin until the season after next.

The renovation might entail playing a season elsewhere, possibly in a Broadway house. Papp expressed the hope that, eventually, he would be able to have a "balanced theater at the Beaumont, presenting both new and old works. For the present, he believes, he must actively seek an audience his Little Black Sheep will begin previews April 25.) It is the revised thinking for the Beaumont, however, that represents the major departure. Papp had taken over from the classics-oriented Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center in 1973 with the announced intention of making revivals subordinate to meaningful new work by contemporary American playwrights. Among the plays presented there have been David Rates Boom Boom Room, Miguel Pineros Short Eyes and Bill Gunns Black Picture Show.

I could have gone on this way for a while, Papp said, but it doesnt make much sense to me to try to change this institution into something else. Its still an institution and it still has to be on a par, in a certain sense, with the things people expect at the Philharmonic and the Met; theres a kind of excellence that is expected. They dont like experi national contest in Indianapolis. The Barbershop Birthday, as the event is being called, will have radios John Gambling as host. Tickets for the 8 PM performance are S3.95 each.

Hepburn return Audrey Hepburn is returning to films after sn absence of seven years. Columbia Pictures and Rastar Pictures have announced that the actress will star with Sean Connery in a new version of the Robin Hood legend. The film is scheduled for shooting in England in June, with Richard Lester (A Hard Days Night, The Three Musketeers) as director. Miss Hepburns last film was Wait Until Dark in 1967. The actress won the Academy Award as best actress in Roman Holiday in 1953.

She has been living quietly in Europe as the wife of Dr. Andrea Dotti, Rome psychiatrist. highlight American Ballot Theaters six-week summer season in the State Theater at Lincoln CenLpr. Raymonds will open the season July 1, with Nureyev partnered with Cynthia Gregory. Ncu-meiers untitled work will premiere July 8, with Eric Bruhn returning to the company as the featured dancer.

Tudors new work, also untided, will debut July 17, while his Shadowplay will open July 23. 4-part harmony A special show that will revolve around the strictly American phenomenon of barbershop singing, has been scheduled for Carnegie Hall April 14. More than 20 different groups, including the Dapper Dans, the Sun-tones and the Sweet Adelines, will participate in the musical event, which also will feature five champion groups from a recent iiy short The Stones roll The Rolling Stones have adopted a half-measure in finding a new guitarist. They picked Wayne Perkins, a fairly obscure Muscle Shoals, session guitarist, to finish their latest album with them, but chances are that he wont be with them when their tour starts. (Latest word on the tour is that it has been moved from May to June, but it is still definitely on.) Ballet premieres World premieres of ballets by Antony Tudor and John Neumeier, along with a new Rudolf Nureyev staging of the full-length Raymonds and a new production of Tudors Shadowplay, will.