the Speech Clinic in the Institute for Human Adjustment; William Perdue Halstead (Indiana '27, Ph.D. Michigan '35); Kenneth Gordon Hance (Olivet '24, Ph.D. Michigan '37); David Owen (Leland Stanford '23); and Ollie Lucy Backus ('29, Ph.D. Wisconsin '33).
During the years from 1892 to the present, the department has extensively broadened its curricular and extracurricular work from its original offerings in public speaking and interpretation. In particular, instruction has been added and developed in play production, speech science, and radio.
From 1892 to 1915, the courses in Shakespearean reading and interpretative reading constituted the only work in both interpretation and dramatics. Occasionally plays would be presented informally in connection with these courses, but it was not until 1915 that a course entitled Play Production was organized. In 1916 the first public play under the auspices of the department was presented, thus beginning a long and successful program in play production which has continued to the present time. This performance of Charles Rann Kennedy's The Servant in the House was presented in University Hall before a set of curtains and without special lighting effects or stage equipment.
The growth of interest in play production, however, was rapid. Courses were extended from a single course in 1915 to six courses in 1922, and to eight in 1926, with more than one hundred fifty students enrolled each semester. In 1927 the scenic aspects of production were expanded, and with the removal of the work in play production to the Mimes Theater in 1928 there was undertaken a more elaborate and finished mounting of plays with better staging and lighting facilities. Through successive directorships of play production, the program has been expanded, with improved facilities and an increasing number of students, until at present seven or eight plays are presented during each academic year and an equal number during the summer session. The former Mimes Theater, now called the Laboratory Theater, is used for some classes and the workshops; and the public performances are presented in the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater. So great has been the public's response to the offerings of the play production classes that from four to seven performances of each play are necessary.
Work in speech science was first offered by the department in 1926, with courses in phonetics and biolinguistics.* 1.1 Expanding from limited beginnings to more than twelve courses requiring the services of four members of the staff, this field developed rapidly to the point where, in 1937, a fully equipped and fully staffed speech clinic was opened. This clinic, which is operated in conjunction with the Institute for Human Adjustment, now includes a staff of fifteen persons and handles more than four hundred cases annually (see Part VI: Institute for Human Adjustment) .
Through the co-operation of the Institute for Human Adjustment, the Medical School, and the School of Dentistry, the department has been able to provide distinctive opportunities to students in speech science. Not only the traditional courses in phonetics, voice science, and
