School for Stars

To thousands of movie and stage stars the world over, 62 Gower Street, London is an address of magic and sentiment.

There, in a great red brick building guarded by masks of Comedy and Tragedy, dwells the most famous of all dramatic schools. Last week, as the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts celebrated its soth anniversary, the names of its alumni glowed on marquees all over the world, while at the academy itself scores of students worked hopefully toward getting their names in lights.

In the 50 years since Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree founded it, the academy has won the affection of almost every great name of the British stage. It was only natural that such notables as Sir Laurence Olivier, Robert Morley, Dame Sybil Thorndike and Alec Guinness should have been on hand to read or play their favorite scenes in a special four-hour matinee performed before the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, and that last week Anthony Quayle, Margaret Lockwood and Trevor Howard should be starring in a series of TV performances in the academy's honor. But in spite of all the hullabaloo, the academy itself was still playing its own normal role--as just about the world's toughest training ground for aspiring actors.

A Mauve Voice. Sir Herbert set the tone of the place right from the start.

Convinced that the stage was suffering from a dearth of new talent, he selected a class of 50 promising young men and women for training in the dome of His Majesty's Theatre in London's West End.

A stickler for style ("Use a mauve voice," he would command an actor. "Now use a paler one"), Tree tolerated neither temperament nor sloppiness. Gradually, his school and its discipline began to attract attention. Sir Arthur Pinero joined its board; so did Sir James Barrie. Parliament voted it a small annual grant; and even Board Member George Bernard Shaw plunked down -L-5,000 toward the new Gower Street building.

Over the years, students from the U.S., from every corner of the Commonwealth, and from such places as Lebanon and Iceland have knocked at the academy's doors. By the time Alumni Roland Young and Reginald Owen were well on their way to stardom, Student Charles Laughton was winning the academy's gold medal, and later, Robert Morley began learning to overcome the hazards of being "so funny shaped." Eventually the academy reached the ripe old age when children of old grads began following in the footsteps of their parents. Among them: the daughter of Vivien Leigh and the son of Sir Cedric Hardwicke.

Happy Bedlam. In spite of such success, the academy has never been entirely free of financial worries. But today, as its 75-year-old director. Sir Kenneth Barnes, goes about his daily work amid a bedlam of students dashing off for fencing lessons, striking poses and mumbling lines, he never bothers much about his -L-10,000 deficit. "The money?" he asks wearily in his cluttered office. "Oh, it will come from somewhere."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.