April 29, 1984

''Terra Nova'' had its world premiere eight years ago in a basement in New Haven. The author, a Yale Drama School student named Ted Tally, cast six of his classmates and built the play's Antarctic setting out of scrap wood and yards of white muslin from Connecticut's tobacco fields. That done, ''Terra Nova'' played for three nights to a total of 200 spectators. Somehow - Mr. Tally still does not know exactly how or why - the audience included several New York producers and a compliment of talent agents. Not long after the curtain fell on his tale of Robert Falcon Scott's ill- fated expedition to the South Pole in 1911, the 24-year-old, who had been spending most of his time checking the help wanted board at Yale's placement office, had an agent, a fellowship and a job teaching playwriting to his former fellows. And ''Terra Nova'' had commenced a voyage that would be longer in time and space, and far more successful, than Scott's.

NEW HAVEN THERE was a time when elm trees were so plentiful here, they formed magnificent arches over the streets. The City of the Elms, as New Haven was nicknamed before the Civil War, was known worldwide for its trees. But canker worms, New England sparrows, elm-leaf beetles and Dutch elm disease attacked the trees over the past 100 years, reducing their population by thousands in the city. An ice storm last winter claimed 26 elms that were on the New Haven green. All had to be cut down.

Doctors who lose their medical license in one state often move to another and continue to receive Federal payments for treating elderly and poor people under Medicare and Medicaid, according to Federal investigators. A new study by the General Accounting Office, the investigative agency of Congress, said the Federal Government had halted Medicare and Medicaid payments to ''relatively few'' physicians whose licenses were revoked or suspended by the states ''If a state licensing board suspends or revokes a practitioner's license, it does not affect the practitioner's licenses in other states,'' the report said. ''Each state must take a separate action to prevent the practitioner from practicing in that state.'' It said ''states are slow to act'' and doctors barred in one state for unethical behavior or incompetence moved to another, where they could still treat patients enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid.

ONE of the first bank loans that Frank V. Cahouet ever made turned out to be a mistake. As a junior loan officer at Security Pacific Bank, just out of business school, he authorized a $5 million loan to an electronics company and within months the company fell behind on payments. Mr. Cahouet was chagrined and frustrated. Determined to get the installments back on track, he immersed himself in a study of the company's daily operations, so much so that a top manager complained. ''Either I run the company or you do, but we both can't,'' he told Mr. Cahouet, who was 26 then. The young bankor was forced to pull back, although he recalls that he did eventually collect most fo the loan. The story of his persistence, in fact, became part of the Cahouet lore and his friends tell it today as a fitting illustration of how Mr. Cahouet is attacking his new job as chairman and chief executive of Crocker National Bank. The intensity and tenacity remain, they say, and Mr. Cahouet, now 51, is bringing those qualities to bear on huge loan problems at Crocker, the nation's 12th largest bank.

The City Council reversed itself today and agreed to state supervision of city finances so that its schools could remain open. The agreement ended a deadlock between city and state officials that had threatened to shut down the city's 20,000-student school system. Under the agreement, the city would receive $9.5 million from the state to keep the schools open. The money, which is technically to be treated as a loan, would not have to be repaid immediately, according to state officials. The financially strapped city would also receive additional financing from the state, although no specific figures were given.