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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1963)
MEPFOHP MAIL THIBUNE, MEDFOHD. OBEGOH THURSDAY. FEBHUAHY 81. 1913 J) jj ovie scar Winmier to Direct Sveden's Etoycol Tlheoter BY LARS PORME i 'MaiiFnllu k .ail T n3n..onJ 3l kn Jint.j ik. .itj i.-.. i r r : , i . ; . . . BY LARS PORNE United Press International Stockholm-lWB-W hen he was asked a few weeks ago to become director of Sweden's royal dramatic theater, oscar winning movie and stage director Ingmar Bergman was so emotionally overcome he took to his bed with a fever. Recovered now, the man hailed as one of the world theater's finest talents-some have called him "genius"-can smile and talkabout it. The first news he was being considered for the post came in a telephone call from Sweden's Minister of educa tion, Ragnar Edenman. "I didn't know what tosay and asked for some days to think it over," the 44-ycar-old Bergman recalled. "A couple of hours later I got feverish and had to go to bed. I think it was a natural reac tion. Anyway, siv days later I called Edenman and told him I accepted the job." The appointment takes effect July 1 and speculation has centered around (1) whether this means Bergman will quit movie directing (it does not) and (2) whether he has any revolutionary plans for "the Dramatic." on the second point, Bergman claims no but admits there may be tome changes. Naturally," he said, "I can not keep the same pace as I have. I will have to slow down from one film a year to two films in three years." He still has two completed but unreleased films, "The Communicants" and "The Silence," and plans to soon start stooting a third, tenta tively titled "The Moral Preaching." Latest is Best His latest release, "Through A Glass Darkly," was regard ed as the finest of films. It won an oscar as the best fore ign language film of 1962. His "The Virgin Spring" was a 1961 academy award winner. Until his appointment to! "the dramatic," which is the ; way Sweds refer to their na-j tional theater, Bergman had planned to take a long vaca tion "A Sabbatical Year" with his Finnish-born wife, concert pianist Kabi Laretai. They had hoped to spend the year in leisurely travel. "That idea was lost anyway when we had a baby," he shrugged. "Who could travel around the world with an in fant?" Swedes Surprised First reaction among Swedes to Bergman's appoint ment was surprise. Although in 1944 he had headed the city theater of Halsingborg and also has directed the city theatre of Goteborg and Mai mo, his name had not enter ed prominently into specula tion. Yet there was no disa greement with the appoint ment and the press applauded it. As for Bergman himself, once over the initial shock he was delighted. He also quick ly pledged "no revolution in 'the dramatic' " "Those who think I will start a revolution in the old theater are mistaken," he said. "I will try to continue the excellent work of my pre decessor, Karl-Ragnar Cierow, given a chair in the Nobel prize-winning Swedish Acad emy of Letters. Waits to Judge "This job is like putting on a coat. It will get its shape from the inside from the pow er of the wearer. So I won't make any program declara tion. Wait some years and then make a judgment. By then the result of my work will be my program declara tion." The present contract runs for three years and it is gen erally accepted that all being normal it is certain to be renewed at the end of the term. Bergman thinks he will "produce and direct one or two plays a year." He may introduce musicals into the repertoire but doesn't consid er this in any sense revolu tionary. The movie he's now plan ning, "The Moral Teaching," is a comedy. It is due to go into production in May with a cast handpicked by Berg man from his earlier films. The entire cast has not yet been named but Bergman said it will include Jar) Kulle, Gunnar Bjornstrand and Bib- bi Anderson in leading roles. All are familiar from previ ous Bergman films. Will Train Young As head of the Royal Dra matic theater, one of Berg man's main challenges will be the training and development of young talents. He looks forward to this. Apart from its performances, the theater has the most distinguished theatrical training school in the country and one of the finest in Europe. "The school," said Berg man, "is of outstanding Im portance to the Swedish the ater and it will be expanded ana improved." In addition to "the moral teaching" and a tentatively planned Ingrid Bergman (no relations) movie, Bergman has only one other firm commit ment on his date book. This is production of August Strin bcrg's "A Dream Play" for Swedish television in March. Much of Bergman's movie work has had a religious motif and he comes by this natural ly, being the son of a Stock holm vicar. He was a student at Stockholm university when, not yet 21, he produced his own play, "The Death of Kaspar," at the students' the ater. From then on the the ater was his life. Direcii Opera In 1941-42, having left the university in 1940. Bergman became an assistant director at the Royal Opera, but even then he was drawn to movie work. In 1943 he completed his first film "Hets," which attracted attention and later has produced in London and Oslo. By 1944 he was one of Sweden's most promising young directors. In that year he came to his post of director at the Halsingborg City the ater, moving in 1946 to direct the Goteborg theater. He act ed as a guest director at a variety of the country's the aters and in 1961 was taken on as a director at "The Dra matic" which he now is to head. All the while Bergman continued the film work which brought him to ward winning world attention. And he will keep on doing so. "I'll never leave films com pletely," he said. "Not until I die." I three-orbit ride last May. Carpenter had overshot the target due in part to a reverse rocket error. None died, but the implica tion is clear accidents do happen, even when every possible precaution seeming ly has been taken. For all its glamor, space flight is a dangerous busi ness. America has a lot of astronauts to send up, and scientists realize that some may die. They want to put one of them off as long as possible. The first one. Coming Next FEBRUARY 24TH Weekend Issue ACCEPTS NEW POSITION Movie and stage director, Ing mar Bergman, called a genius as a film maker, has accepted the job of director of Sweden's Royal Dramatic Theater. People wonder whether Bergman will quit movie work and whether he has any revolutionary plans for the stage. (UP1) Man and Space Orbital Flights Sooner or Later Will Claim Life By ALVIN B. WEBB JR. Cape Canaveral (UPD One of the cold, hard facts of space exploration is that, soon er or later, an astronaut will be killed. No one likes to talk about this possibility, least of all around here where the men who build spaceships live and work so closely with the in trepid ones who fly them. But it's a nagging thought in the minds of a lot of peo ple. One expert put it blunt ly: "The law of averages is bound to catch up with us." How could it happen? A thousand ways a faulty two-bit valve that causes an explosion at blast-off, a re verse rocket failure that leaves a man stranded in space to die of suffocation, a parachute mishap that sends him to a flaming death in earth's atmosphere. - It hasn't happened yet, but neither has the scientist's "law of averages" been push ed. America's manned flights Into space have been few two sub-orbital leaps and three for orbital voyages and each of these has been steeped in an almost fanatic regard for safety. The U. S. Mercury program was built on the premise that, for every critical system plac ed in the hands of a space going astronaut, there are at least two others around to do the same job, either auto matically or on command from a ground tracking sta tion. The payoff, of course, has been a 100 per cent clean safety record in Project Mer cury. Even so, there have bepn some tight moments. When astronaut Virgil (Gus) Grissom had his big day In July, 1961, he made a successful leap i to space only to come within a hair nf drowning minutes later. What happened was that a small device to blow open the ti8tch accidentally was trig gered and lei the ocean water in. Some scientists thought John Glenn had bought the cake when a signal from his orbiting space capsule indi cated the vital heat-shield had detached. 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