From that time on interest in college dramatics steadily increased. Professor de Pont, whose interest in student life never flagged, took a leading part in the presentation of several plays, and one opera, Gilbert and Sullivan's _Iolanthe_ (1883), by companies of students and faculty members. Largely through his efforts a University Dramatic Club was organized in 1885 and gave such plays as _A Scrap of Paper_ (1885) and _The Memoirs of the Devil_ (1888), which "caused the student body to sit up and take notice." Plays of this lighter character were all that were attempted until 1890, when another Latin play, Plautus' _Menaechmi_, was given so successfully under the direction of Professor J.H. Drake, '85, that it was later presented in Chicago. This was the last effort in classical drama until twenty-six years later, when the _Menaechmi_ was repeated with great success in Hill Auditorium on March 30, 1916. This was followed in 1917 by Euripides' _Iphigenia Among the Taurians_, given by the students in Greek, for which special music in the ancient Greek modes was written by Dr. A.A. Stanley. The old Dramatic Club was eventually disbanded in the early '90's, only to be succeeded by another student organization, the still existing Comedy Club, which has had a varying career. Soon after its organization it became an exceedingly close corporation among certain fraternities and confined its offerings to light comedies and farces of the type that offered no great difficulties, such as _The Private Secretary_, _All the Comforts of Home_, and _My Friend from India_. A reorganization of the Club in 1908 made membership dependent upon real ability, and since that time Farquahar's _Recruiting Officer_, (1908); Barrie's _Admirable Crichton_, (1909); Gogol's _Inspector_, (1910); Percy McKaye's _Scarecrow_, (1914), and Barrie's _Alice Sit by the Fire_, (1919), are fairly representative of the plays given. The reorganization of the Comedy Club came largely because of the successful efforts of the Deutscher Verein and the Cercle Francais, to give a series of the best plays in German and French literature. The list of these productions has been a long and creditable one, those in German including, after their first performance, _Der Hochzeitsreise_ by Benedix, in 1904; _Die Journalisten_, (1906 and 1912); _Minna von Barnhelm_, (1908); _Egmont_, (1909); and _Der Dummkopf_, (1911). Since the French Circle made its debut in 1907, with _Les Deux Timides_ by Labiche, and Moliere's _Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme_, several other comedies by Moliere have been most successfully given; as well as Beaumarchais' _Barbier de Seville_, (1909); Rostand's _Les Romanesques_, (1911); and Pailleron's modern comedy _Le Monde ou l'On s'Ennuie_, (1912).