PREFACE 'HIS book aims to give a complete survey of one of newest, freest, most potent and democratic forces :he art of the American stage the Little Theatre, lescribes the rise and influence of the Little Theatre urope and its subsequent rise in the United States. ^ description of every Little Theatre in the United tes that the author could find is given, including the ievements, special significance, policy, repertory, and lie contribution of each one. Since the Little Theatre /ement is a growing thing, changes in its history are stantly taking place. It is in a state of transition can only be written of in terms of transition, n estimating the contributions of the various Little :atres the author has striven to be as fair as possible ; naturally, the Little Theatres ,that have made the it history and possess the most salient characteristics e been given the most space. If a disproportionate >unt of description seems to have been given to some he less important theatres, the critical reader is asked emember that the amount of space apportioned was n controlled by the amount of material received, in ver to a questionnaire which was sent to such theatres le author did not personally visit. This questionnaire t with the problems of policy, housing, finance, deco- Dn, ensemble, and management. Sometimes inspir- iii 37155^ iv PREFACE ingly complete and detailed answers were received : again, the replies, in spite of additional correspondence, proved extremely meager. The full repertory of each Little Theatre has been given wherever that repertory was made up of new, sig- nificant plays, or plays readily available for use in other Little Theatres. To a certain extent, repetition had to be avoided, so in some cases the general trend of a thea- tre's repertory has been indicated rather than giving the whole repertory. And there are, of course, instances where Little Theatres are so new that their repertory is very brief indeed ! There is a Chapter on the Little Theatre's Cost of Maintenance given in thp hope that cities not possessed of Little Theatres will want to establish one. And there is appended a Chapter on the Repertory System in general. The author wishes to express her thanks to the many directors of Little Theatres throughout the country with- out whose full and hearty co-operation this book would not have been possible. Thanks are also due to the fol- lowing magazines for their kind permission to reprint material which has already appeared in their pages : The Independent, The Art World, The Bellman, The Mid- West Quarterly. CONTENTS CHAPTER I FAGB 'THE RlSE OF THE LlTTLE THEATRE ... 1 The Rise of the Little Theatre in Europe. The Free Theatre of Andre Antoine. Lugn Poe. StanislavskTs Moscow Art Theatre. Wyspianski's National Polish Theatre. Madame Kommisarzhevsky. The Convex Mirror Theatre, "ilise of the Little Theatre in Great Britain. Movements Influenced by Little Theatres: The Independent Theatre. The Stage Society. The Irish Players. The Manchester Players. Welsh National Theatre. Literary Theatre of Liverpool. Proposed Literary Theatres of Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol. The Glasgow Theatre. Wessex and M'Evoy's Players. Afternoon Theatre. Gertrude Kingston's Little Theatre. Max Reinhardt and the Kammerspiel- haus. The Munich Art Theatre. Strindberg and the Intimate Theatre. V Other Little European Theatres. Jacques Copeau. The Theatre du Vieux Colombier. The Rise of the Little Theatre in the United States. Its Growth. Achievements. Diiferentiation. Promise. CHAPTER II THE LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY . 25 Winthrop Ames' Little Theatre. The Bramhall Play- house. The Washington Square Players. Stuart Walker's Portmanteau Theatre. The Provincetown Players. The Neighborhood Playhouse. * -" CHAPTER III THE LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY (Con.) 61 The East-West-Players. Brooklyn Repertory The- atre. The Negro Players. The Morningside Players. The Greenwich Village Theatre. New York's Amateur Comedy Club. V vi CONTENTS CHAPTER IV PAGE OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE EAST . . 79 The Richmond Hill Players. The Workshop Theatre of Yonkers. The Drama League Players of Buffalo. The Little Theatre of Rochester. The Prince Street Players of Rochester. The Community Players of Mont- clair, N. J. The Neighborhood Players of Newark, N. J. The Bridgeport Players. The McCallum Theatre of Northampton. The Little Theatre of Philadelphia. "Plays and Players" of Philadelphia. CHAPTER V THE LITTLE THEATRES OF CHICAGO . . . 103 Maurice Browne's Little Theatre. The Workshop Theatre. The Hull House Theatre. CHAPTER VI OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST . . 121 The Lake Forest Players of Lake Forest, 111. The Prairie Playhouse of Galesburg, 111. The Little Play- house of St. Louis. The Little Theatre of Duluth. The Wisconsin Players of Milwaukee. . CHAPTER VII OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST (Con.) . 147 The Arts and Crafts Theatre of Detroit. The Play- house of Cleveland. The Little Theatre of Los Angeles. The Little Theatre of Indianapolis. The Harlequin Players of Kansas City, Kan. The Little Theatre of Erie, Penn. The Little Theatre of Brookfield, Penn. Movements toward Little Theatres in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Portland, Ore. CHAPTER VIII THE LITTLE THEATRES OF THE SOUTH . .169 The Vagabond Theatre of Baltimore. The Drama League Players of Washington, D. C. The Little The- atre of New Orleans. The Little Theatre of Louis- ville, Ky. CONTENTS vii CHAPTER IX PAGE LABORATORY THEATRES ....... 181 Harvard's 47 Workshop Theatre. The Dartmouth Laboratory Theatre. The Laboratory Theatre of Car- negie Institute at Pittsburgh. Grace Griswold's The- atre Workshop. CHAPTER X LITTLE COUNTRY THEATRES ..... 209 The Little Country Theatre of Fargo, N. D. Other Little Country Theatres. The Little Plainfield (N. H.) Theatre. The Quillcote Barn Theatre, Hollis, Me. CHAPTER XI COST OF MAINTAINING A LITTLE THEATRE . . 217 Individual Problems Confronting Little Theatres. Seating Capacity and the Theatre Tax. Putting a Little Theatre on a Club Basis. Gleanings from the Expense Accounts of Little Theatres. Reducing the Theatre Budget. Knowledge Required for Keeping down Ex- penses. CHAPTER XII A WORD ON REPERTORY THEATRES IN GENERAL 223 Need for Repertory Theatres. The Star System. Stock Companies. The New Theatre. Granville Barker on Broadway. Grace George's Repertory Season. The Little Theatre and Repertory. APPENDICES 1. The Little Theatre in Mediaeval Times . :. 241 2. Little Theatres that Have Failed . . . 243 3. The Municipal Theatre of Northampton (Mass.) 245 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Washington Square Players, New York. Sene from Andreyeff's The Life of Man ..... Frontispiece FACING PAGE The Washington Square Players in Evrienof's The Merry Death, and in Bushido * . .32 Scene from Lord Dunsany's Golden Doom as produced at Stuart Walker's Portmanteau Theatre, and the Port- manteau Theatre unpacked and set for a performance . 44 The Neighborhood Playhouse, Grand Street, New York . 56 The Greenwich Village Theatre, New York City . . . 73 The Community Players of Richmond Hill, Long Island, in Quintero's A Sunny Morning 82 Christmas Silhouette at Maurice Browne's Little Theatre, Chicago, and Part of the Interior of the Hull House Theatre, Chicago 106 The White House Saloon, Galesburg, 111., before and after being remodeled into the Prairie Playhouse . . . 126 Inside the Arts and Crafts Theatre, Detroit, Michigan . . 148 Scene from Lord Dunsany's Glittering Gate at the Arts and Crafts Theatre, Michigan, and scene from Ryland at the Vagabond Theatre, Baltimore, Md 174 Professor Baker's Workshop Theatre at Harvard. A Re- hearsal of Sigurjonsson's Eyvind of the Hills . . . 190 Theatre of Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Penn. Studio for Scene Painting and Costume Room 200 Scene from Theodore Dreiser's Laughing Gas as produced at the Little Theatre of Indianapolis, Ind. ; and Scene from The Prairie Wolf by John B. Lang as produced at the Little Country Theatre, Fargo, N. D 212 Woodland Setting designed by Maxfield Parrish for the Little Country Theatre of Plainfield, New Hampshire . 214 Auditorium of Carnegie Institute Laboratory Theatre, Pitts- burgh, Penn 218 The New Theatre, New York 230 The Municipal Theatre of Northampton, Mass., and the Lit- tle Theatre of Plainfield, New Hampshire, a "Country Theatre" Remodeled from a Town Hall .... 246 CHAPTER I THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE i f THE newest and most vital note in the art of the J United States today is struck by that arch-foe of com- ' mercialism the Little Theatre. The very name Little Theatre is salted with significance. It at once calls to mind an intimate stage and auditorium where players and audience can be brought into close accord : a theatre where unusual non-commercial plays are given ; a theatre where the repertory and subscription system prevails; where scenic experimentation is rife ; where " How Much Can We Make ? " is not the dominating factor. Little Theatres are established from love of drama, not ~*~ from love of gain. Their workers are all drawn together by the same impulse they are artists, or potential artists in the craft of acting, of playwrighting, of stage decora- tion or stage management. These are the definite traits of Little Theatres the world over. Little Theatres may differ as to size their seating capacity may be seventy or three hundred. But they do not differ in their main characteristics. One and all they are exponents of the repertory system; and last, and most important, they are always centers of experi- 2 THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE . mentation. For experimentation is the Little Theatre s raison d'etre. The Little Theatre movement is often spoken of as a new movement; and it is new as far as America is concerned; for its rise in this country began in 1911- 1912. The initial idea of the Little Theatre came to us from Europe. Its inception goes back ^1887 when the first small experimental theatre was established in Paris by Andre Antoine \i 37 Elysee des Beaux ArtsJ/ Jules Lemaitre's description of that blustery October evening has since become famous: "We (the critics) had the air of good Magi in mackintoshes seeking out some lowly but glorious manger. Can it be that in this manger the decrepit and doting drama is destined to* be born again! " Lemaitre's words were prophetic. Had he been, in his feuilleton, even more prophetic, he might have pointed out thajxAndre Antoine by establishing the first genuine Little Theatre the world had ever seen was to influence the art of the stage more profoundly than any man of his generation./- The term " lowly but glorious " might have been used yto describe Antoine himself: a man of the people, begin- ning his career as a clerk; a man imbued with a pas- sionate yet clearsighted love of the stage; a man filled with an enthusiasm for the art of the theatre so great that he was able to enkindle all those with whom he came in contact, whether clerks and artisans who wanted to act, or men of great gifts who wanted to write (or were writing), plays men such as Eugene Brieux, 1 See Appendix I. THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE 3 Camilla Fabre, Pierre Wolf, and George Ancey. All this Lemaitre might have seen, had he possessed the crystal of futurity. And more. He might have glimpsed that this young man, beginning as a humble clerk, was to wear in later years the coveted Legion of Honor for his services to the French theatre. Be that as it may, when Lemaitre and Faguet, with some of their brother critics " stumbled down the dark passage of No. 37 " they felt that it was an " occasion." And they were not wrong. /Antoine's " Free Theatre " was destined to be as great as it was little! It estab- lished once and for all the idea of intimacy between players and ~au3Tence ; it thrust under foot the idea o? aim oflKeT theatrical manager] for Antoine regarded the theatre as Max Reinhardt does today, as a " house, jiL. vision." Antoine sought sim- plicity of effect rather than ornateness. His theatre was a dramatic laboratory in the true sense of the word, j Artistic experimentation was the soul of Antoine's theatre. From the first it eschewed commercialism. It was never run for profit. Its audience was a subscrip- tion audience, exactly as are the Little Theatre audiences of today. ^The plays Antoine produced were " criticisms of life " as against the well-made play of the Scribe or Sardou school. They were as new and strange to the audiences of those days as are the plays of Andreyeff to the audiences of the present. They were naturalistic plays, given in a naturalistic manner. That in itself marked a new epoch in stage development. The whole naturalistic art of the theatre as we know it today dates 4 THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE back to the experimentation of Andre Antoine. He pro- v duced the then revolutionary plays of Ibsen, Strindberg, f Tolstoy, and Brieux. He had an unbounded appetite for the absolutely new, the vital^he libertarian. He shut the door in the face of tradition and gave false romanticism its deathblow. (By his daring, his rest- less searching, his fearless producing, he made possible the Little Theatre as we know it today. \ A critic has recently said: "The Little Theatre is > the one thing that has happened in the history of the stage in the last thirty-five years." Indeedythe whole " new art " of the modern stage, lighting, color, styliza- tion, synchronization, has been made possible through the Little Theatre. Without the impetus of the Little Theatre there probably would have been no Gordon Craig, >no Stanislavski, no Reinhardt. Andreyeff, Strindberg, Synge, Yeats, Lady Gregory, the Irish Dramatists, the " Manchester school," all these and their quickening influence might not have taken the place they hold today were it not that the Little Theatre made straight the way for them. That is to say, without the Little Theatre, the /"finest one-act plays of Europe might never have been written, since for years there was no place for " the short story of the drama " save in the large theatres where it was relegated to the part of a mere curtain raiser/or in the vaudeville theatres where it was forced to nave either farcical or melodramatic qualities if it was to hold its own. The Little Theatre gave the literary one-act play, the play of characterization and style and nuance a chance to live.^N THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE 5 It has been claimed that the Little Theatre does not foster great acting. But this, even in the time of Antoine, it never pretended to do. In its small compass there is no space for the vast, the heroic, the impassioned, the " mountain of flame blown skyward " that great acting is, and always has been. But when was great acting ever fostered or taught? The gods appear, or they do not appear. Bernhardt, Duse, Coquelin, Irving, and Mans- field, were not created by any special theatre or set of theatres. A fine ensemble jhat .shall worthily and truth- fully express the idea which the author wishes to have expres&ed tfiis. is Jhe_.acting-ideal oLAcjJEfe-S^S^ And when the great actors of the future appear they will 9 find that through the influence of the Little Theatre there is a more appreciative audience waiting to receive them, and an inscenation worthy of their gifts. Mean- ; while th^/Little Theatre upholds the ideal of devotion to art which the stage is in danger of losing, and pits its strength against the great gilded juggernaut of What the Public Wan^r The large theatre is many centuries old; the Little Theatre is very new and young. Who can tell what may or may not be accomplished by it? The next theatre to Antoine's Free Theatre in point of time was Lugne Poe> Theatre de L'CEuvre, which as its title suggests was ^theatre of Work the first work- shop theatre, an antecedent of the growing list of work- shop theatres that are in our midst today. " Naturalness and reality " were the watchwords of this theatre. yThe Little Theatre movement then spread to Russia where Constantine Stanislavski founded the Moscow Art 6 THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE Theatre in 1890. Its company was recruited from ama- teurs who had a reverence for and a willingness to serve the theatre. Unparalleled hard work was demanded of them. As they progressed, small salaries were paid them. When the finances of the theatre reached a more solid basis, the salaries were increased. - But the work was not diminished. " All or nothing " is the motto of the Mos- p cow Art Theatre. So strong was the public response to their sincerity that from a poverty-stricken beginning they progressed financially until two decades later they were making upwards of $50,000 a year?} The change from poverty to affluence did not^n the least affect their working policy. It simpw'made it possible for Stanis- lavski to give more and^more beautiful productions. The' most noted of his productions were Tchekoff's Sea Gull; Gorky's Lower Depttis; Maeterlinck's Blue 7 Bird, and Shakespeare's Hamlet with screens devised by Gordon Craig plain cream colored screens flooded withy lights of varying color and intensity. In 1896 this com- pany toured Europe"!) All growth inclucfes change. Thus it will be seen that the Little Theatre idea as it expanded gained greater catholicity. On the one hand it developed naturalism and on the other hand symbolism a spiritual romanti- cism touched with mystery and beauty such as is found in the plays of Mae'terlinck and Synge. During these years Wyspianski, the great Polish painter and poet, had established his own theatre at Cracow, where he designed and painted his own scenery. This was in the main symbolic scenery, and by means of THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE 7 original and extraordinary lighting he also created an " illusion " stage. So fine were some of his effects that several well-known English critics credit Wyspianski with greatly influencing the Moscow Art Theatre. Wyspianski aimed to make his theatre " the theatre of the Polish conscience." It was a Little Theatre with nationalistic inclinations. It produced plays by Polish authors. It strove to be to the Polish drama what Chopin is to Polish music, inspirator and interpreter. How far Wyspianski's Art Theatre influenced the next theatre to be established in Russia, the Art Theatre of Madame Vyera Kommisarzhevsky, the Russian actress (Petrograd, 1904), cannot be determined. But this Petrograd theatre devoted itself to symbolism and sym- bolic plays, experimenting with these ; making no attempt to experiment with the theories of naturalism. The Convex Mirror Theatre of Petrograd was estab- lished in 1911. This Little Theatre produces Russian plays that have political as well as literary significance, such as Andreyeff's Sabine Women, and places less stress on stage decoration than does the Moscow Art Theatre. (in 1891 England's first Little Theatre, the Independent TReajre, was started in London by J. T. Grein. It made nb scenic innovations; but it produced plays both one- act and longer ones by English and foreign authors. It had a subscription system and from this derived a small income barely two thousand dollars a year. It lasted six years, and was the precursor of much that was dramatically valuable. \ 8 THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE s Then came the Stage Society (1897) whose actions are discussed in the brilliant prefaces of George Bernard Shaw. This Society had in it the " makings " of a Little Theatre. But its performances were sporadic, largely owing to the fact that it had no permanent the- atre of its own. Nothing can kill a Little Theatre idea more quickly than lack of a permanent home. Neither, had the Stage Society a permanent band of players. No scenic experimentation was made by the Society. Styliza- tion was unthought of. Its emphasis was placed solely on repertory. The next movement which might have resulted in a Little Theatre was the organization of the Irish Players. But with the establishing of this group one fact of very great significance became apparent, namely, that while in itself the Irish movement probably would not have come to fruition if Antoine's Theatre had not prepared the way for it, when it came it was not strictly a Little Theatre movement ; it was a National Theatre movement. The Abbey Theatre gave the plays of its own nation, not of other nations. It was not experimental. It sought no new effects unless simplicity be called a new effect. It is a repertory group rather than a Little Theatre >group in this respect. Nationalism not Little Theatre- ism is the note of the Irish Players. Thereafter, between the years 1904 and 1913 group after group of players with Little Theatre attributes were established in the British Isles. The Manchester Players, founded and directed by Miss Horniman, have the catholicity that is the hall mark of the Little Theatre. THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE 9 They produce both classic and modern plays. Their plays by local authors, mirroring with bitter fidelity life in and about Manchester and other manufacturing cities, has earned for these playwrights the title of " The Man- chester school " a group as distinctly Idealistic as the Irish Players are nationalistic. Beyond this, Miss Horni- man's players do not indulge in experiment. There is no attempt at the new inscenation. The theatre is not intimate. There is no subscription system. It is in fact " a permanent stock company of picked front-rank actors." The Welsh National Theatre is, by its very name, fessedly not a Little Theatre, but of its open-mindedness there can be no doubt, since its prize for the best one- act play dealing with Welsh life was won by an Ameri- can woman, Miss Jeanette Marks. The Glasgow Liter- J^^J? 1 ??*! 6 ' too > i s national. It exists primarily for the production of plays of national character written by Scotch men and women. Basil Dean's Literary Theatre hi Liverpool was the first of these group theatres to lean toward reform in lighting and scenery and new problems in interpretation. Very probably his theatre would have become a true Little Theatre in the exact sense of the word as would the proposed Little Theatres of Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, and Bristol, had not the Great War cut their plans. Thomas Hardy's Wessex Players and M'Evoy's Devonshire Players might have formed the Little Rural Theatre groups of England were it not for the fact that io THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE they only gave sporadic performances. Had the per- formances been consecutive there was the making of a wonderful folk theatre in these groups. The more the pity that the performances did not continue. The desire for Little Theatres is everywhere mani- fest in England yet in only two instances has this desire touched actuality. The Afternoon Theatre in London was of brief duration. Thus the one real Little Theatre of the British Isles having intimacy, experimentation, and variety in choice of plays with a fine ensemble to act them is Gertrude Kingston's Little Theatre in London, where that admirable actress-manager has striven to give the British public the best work of their own authors and of foreign authors. The Great War has affected this theatre as it has all British theatres, and Miss Kingston and her company have spent part of their season in the United States. (/Meanwhile, in Germany, where there had for gener- ations been small court theatres but no real Little The- > atre, there rose the star of Max Reinhardt. This great producer began his stage craftsmanship with a Little Theatre.) Reinhardt and his intimates used to meet in a Berlin restaurant, where, for their own delectation, they gave one-act plays. The idea of intimacy on the part of players and audi- ence took such hold on Reinhardt that he and his group the Schall und Rauch group they called themselves moved into a theatre-hall, the Kiinstlerhaus. The next step was to " inurn this name, and the Kleine's Theatre sprang from its ashes." This theatre had a draped in- THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE n terior the draperies held in place by Bocklin masks. The ushers were in odd black-and-white costumes, fin this Little Theatre were produced one-act plays by Strindberg, Wilde, Wedekinch and Von Hofmansthal. In 1905 Reinhardt was called to the directorship of the Deutsches Theatre, a theatre of the large non-intimate type. But Reinhardt's interest in the intimate theatre still continued. Next door to the Deutsches Theatre was a dance hall. This Reinhardt promptly remodeled into a theatre seating three hundred people. He called it the Kammerspielhaus. Its name denotes its purpose. The large theatre was comparable to a large orchestra: this small theatre was comparable to chamber music, as its title indicates. Both one-act plays and longer plays were produced in the Kammerspielhaus. Experimentation is the dominant note of the Kam- merspielhaus. The naturalistic drama was represented by such playwrights as Ibsen, Shaw, and Wolf, and the one-act plays of Strindberg and Schnitzler; while the poetic drama was represented by Maeterlinck, Goethe, Von Hofmansthal, and Eduard Stucken. The settings for these plays were austerely lovely. But for love of experimentation Reinhardt added a third type of drama the decorative drama, embodied in such plays as Salome and Sumurun. To these Reinhardt gave exotically gor- geous settings. In Sumurun he showed how costume effects could be marvelously heightened by the use of scenery without perspective. For, with all his allegiance to the moderns, Max Reinhardt is first and foremost a superb colorist, decorative rather than analytical. He is m THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE at heart a romanticist, not a realist. The Little Theatre might have become narrow had it devoted itself solely to the production of realistic plays. But men like Rein- hardt and Stanislavski pointed the way toward new accomplishments in creating the decorative drama that exists for beauty's sake, that makes no pretense at reality, that is imaginative and not photographic, that belongs to the world of vision and dream. The decorative drama has nothing whatever to do with the false romanticism which existed previous to the founding of the Theatre Antoine. It is new, free, and splendidly colorful. It widens the experimental scope of the Little Theatre. The Art Theatre established in Munich under the direction of George Fuchs showed the direct influence of Little Theatreism, although it cannot be called a Little Theatre. It is a small theatre with a small stage. It stresses the value of intimacy between players and audi- "ence. Its settings are of the simplest, flat perspectiveless backgrounds in the manner of Reinhardt; yet lacking Reinhardt's color. Neutral tones and ascetic lines mark the stylization of the Munich Art Theatre. It does not experiment with scenic innovations. Nor is it entirely devoted to drama. Like many of the court theatres of Germany, it alternates plays and operas. Architecturally it is one of the most beautiful of the Littmann theatres; but as a creative force it is inferior to the Kammerspiel- haus of Max Reinhardt. In 1907 came another salient Little Theatre. August Strindberg, whose plays had been produced by Andre Antoine, was more and more impressed as time went on THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE with the possibilities of the intimate stage. In 1888- 1889 he attempted to establish a Scandinavian Experi- mental Theatre at Holte near Copenhagen for the pro- duction of his own plays. This project was abandoned after Strindberg's Pariah and Creditors had been given, and it was not until igcff.that his plans in this direction came to fruition. In that year, with the help of August Falk, he established the Intimate Theatre at Stockholm, Sweden. He believed as did Antoine in reducing the stage setting to " interchangeable backgrounds and few stage properties." Scenic simplification was one of the ideas for which he strove. Repertory and_experimentation were part and parcel of this theatre which produced only the plays of Strindberg, and for which he wrote five dramas " marked by the same blend of mysticism and realism that form such a striking feature of The Dream Play." This Intimate Theatre seated two hundred people. Its company was a resident one. Meanwhile other Little Theatres were springing up in I the capitals of Europe. Brussels and Budapest had their intimate playhouses. Paris had its Grande Guinol, a type of theatre which produced one-act plays whose leit motif was " horror." It was a theatre where " shocks " were guaranteed, where the grizzliest tales of Edgar Allan Poe found their dramatic counterpart. In Paris Jacques Rouche established his Theatre des Arts; and the Parisian Theatre du Vieux Colombier, the last Little Theatre to be established in Europe before the Great War, was also one of the most significant. Its originator and 14 THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE director, Jacques Copeau, says of it : " It is established because I, myself, and those who work with me are enemies of the commercial theatre as it exists today." Henri Pierre Roche says of Jacques Copeau:. "He is to the modern theatre of France what Antoine was to Paris twenty-five years ago its soul." Through this Little Theatre the intellectuals of Paris hope to see the rehabilitation of theatre ideals. In their earnestness and simplicity Copeau's group of players strikingly suggests the Irish Players. But Copeau produces the plays of all nations, not the plays of one nation. His is a Little Theatre, not a National Theatre. Speaking of this Little Theatre Copeau has recently said : " We have a small theatre with only five hundred seats, which allows our enterprise to live inexpensively and to be by far the cheapest theatre in Paris. " Our troupe is engaged and paid by the year. Note that all the ladies' costumes are furnished by ourselves. Our public, especially at the beginning, was the culti- vated few the students, writers, artists, and the for- eigners who live around the Latin Quarter. " We do not know what the Theatre of Tomorrow will be like; we are simply the enemies of the com- mercial theatre as it exists today." Monsieur Copeau is now in America, and will revive his Theatre du Vieux Colombier in New York next season. r ii The Little Theatre Tnovement_eached the United Nutates in 1911-1912. In that year three Little Theatres THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE 15 were established : The Little Theatre of Mamice_Erawn in Chicago ; Mrs. Lyman Gale's Toy Theatre in Boston, and Winthrop Ames' Little Theatre in New^Ybrk the last a Little Theatre in its architecture rather than in its policy. Since the establishing of these Little The- atres the growth of the Little Theatre movement has been so rapid and spontaneous that at present, in the matter of Little Theatres, numerically speaking, our country leads the world. 1 Over fifty Little Theatres have sprung up throughout the United States. It can- not be claimed for them artistically (save in one or two instances) that they equal the Little Theatres of Europe. Not yet. But it can be claimed for them and justly that they have greater differentiation than the Little The- atres of Europe ever dreamed of having. Herein lies their enormous value. Every Little Theatre now extant in the United States has met and conquered problems as widely different as can be imagined. They are racially expressive of America in that they show an indomitable pioneer spirit. For the problems they have conquered are not only those of art, policy, and finance such as every Little The- atre in Europe has had to face ; but also those of varying localities, of varying. jaeedsi au,d -conditions. Europe has centuries of culture behind her : and her Little Theatres have found their audiences ready and waiting. In the United States the Little Theatre in many cases has to create itself and its audience at the same time. In each of the European countries Little Theatres have centered 1 See Appendix II. 16 THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE the intellectual life of such larger cities as Moscow, Lon- don, Berlin, and Paris. In the United States, cities and suburbs, seashore villages, prairie towns and mountain / farm-lands have their Little Theatres.^ America has had to expand the idea of a Little The- i atre in order to meet the thousand different needs of the country at large. This has led to the creation of new | types of Little Theatres types which Europe has never seen. Europe has no collapsible Little Theatre that can I be packed up and moved in less than six hours ; no college \ laboratory theatre; no Little Theatre for farmers such I as one of our Western States can boast. Neither has ' Europe a beautifully equipped Little Theatre set in the 1 very heart of a city slum, showing^ the socializing force \ of the Little Theatre as a community asset. Nor from Petrograd to Paris is there a cultural Little Theatre where admittance is absolutely free. Yet all these types of Little Theatres exist in America. ' It is true that many of the Little Theatres in Europe began in hired halls. But even Andre Antoine might gaze with astonishment at the ingenuity with which Little Theatre directors in this country have grappled with the problem of no-hall-to-be-had. The stable, the chapel, the art museum, the masonic temple, the private dwelling house, the store, and even the saloon, have been made into charmingly decorative Little Theatres in this country. While an abandoned fish house in a picturesque Massachusetts town has been so metamorphosed that Stanislavski himself would applaud it ! There is, too, wide dissimilarity in the policy of the THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE 17 Little Theatres of the United States. Some specialize y/ in producing plays by American authors only; others specialize in producing plays by European authors only. Still others confine themselves to local authors, or to " first productions/' Certain theatres are addicted to the one-act play, and no other appears on their boards. Again it may be that a Little Theatre will alternate short three or four-act plays with one-act plays. And in some Little Theatres classic revivals are added to the list, though in the main the one-act play forms the chief staple of production. The reason for this is obvious. Since the players and directors working in Little The- atres are artists or potential artists they will produce only such plays as have a distinct value. And where can such plays be found plays that will fill the needs of the Little Theatre ? Little Theatres have only a small amount ^ to spend on production and a still smaller amount to spend on royalties. They must turn to plays that have been written con amore, with no commercial end in view, plays that require a small royalty or none. Almost the only plays in this category are the one-act and occasional two-act plays written by European and American dram- atists who have something to say and want to say it regardless of money. What form of play could be better suited to an intimate stage? The one-act play affords excellent examples of comparative drama. Facets from the stage literature of Russia, Spain, Denmark, and Iceland can be given in an evening. Or an idea of love as it was yesterday, is today and will be tomorrow, ca: be set before an appreciative audience. The thought o i8 THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE the world changes every ten years and the Little Theatre can easily show forth this change. For first and last the Little Theatre is a theatre cj Jmagination, of thought. Before the advent of the Little Theatre in this country poetic drama went starving; fantasy shivered in the biting wind of neglect. Now poetry, fantasy, grim realism, star-dust pantomime, and tingling satire find place in the Little Theatres. Brief social preachments have their say. Historical personages live, move, and have their being; for the Little Theatre is nothing if not inclusive. The historic play, the prob- lem play, and the play with or without a purpose can all find space on its boards. (The one-act play makes a special appeal to Little The- atre players because, being short, it requires less sustained characterization than a long play. There is another reason why the one-act play has be- come a necessary concomitant of the Little Theatre. Since the Little Theatre houses a democracy .of artists each artist must be given an opportunity to reach his public. The more varied the programs of the Little The- atre, the greater the opportunities for its staff. An eve- ning of one-act plays gives the players a chancjtQ_appe^r irr-sfyeraTj^^ artist a chance to try out several designs. No commercial the- of one-act plays. Therefore the Little Theatre has the field to itself in this respeo) To the production of these plays the work- ers in Little Theatres bring sincerity and in many cases a keen sense of dramatic values. From the first THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE 19 Little Theatre companies in the United States have real- ized that wonder and beauty of effect can be obtained through inexpensive as well as expensive means. They employ simplicity and suggestion true corner stones of the significant in art. As to the content of the plays, the Little Theatres of the United States produce many of the same plays that are given in the intimate theatres of Europe. That is, they give plays by European dramatists, and also plays by American authors. They provide our native play- wright with a place where he can come into his own. As yej/America has no Dunsany, no Maeterlinck, no Synge. But her Little Theatres give incipient Dunsanys and Maeterlincks a chance to experiment, to get a hear- ing, a thing they have never had before/ Some com- pellingly interesting one-act plays by native authors have been the result, plays showing different facets of Ameri- can life, interpreted both in terms of comedy and tragedy. In scenic investiture several of the Little Theatres of the United States are rapidly approaching the Euro- pean standard, notably the Washington Square Players. At devising remarkable effects for very little outlay the Little Theatres in the United States surpass their Euro- pean contemporaries. The much famed scenic use of potato sacking by the Irish Players fades almost into insignificance compared with what some little American Theatres have accomplished for $3.98! Histrionically the Little Theatres of the United States do not equal the Little Theatres of Europe. Many of their players are at the stage where the Moscow Art The- 20 THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE atre players were before they perfected their art. All the players in the Little Theatres of Europe have become professional. Players in the Little Theatres of the United States are of two kinds professional and semi-profes- sional. If professional, the players receive a living wage ; if amateur, no wage at all. They give their services. They are what one critic has termed " amateurs on the way toward being professionals./' In either case the com- pany is a resident one. It does not travel about except perhaps for a brief stated period. Its theatre is its home, and there it stays. It is not haphazard, it is steadfast. One of the finest things accomplished by Little The- atres in this country is the fact that they bring new quickening art forces to the smaller towns that would otherwise never see the changes that are being wrought in stage decoration as well as in the content of modern plays. Intellectual and decorative drama, fresh outlook, and keen stimulus are thus put within the reach of those who hunger for them. It is one thing to read Shaw, and another to get the impact of his dialogue as the play is acted on the stage. It is one thing to hear of sim- plicity of line, of the beauty obtainable through sheer color, and another thing to see line and color work their miracle. j~ Above all, 4;ittle Theatreism must not be LgonfusedjEith. private theatricals. Private theatricals are exactly what that name implies private and theatrical. They are given by a coterie of amateurs before another coterie of amatetiis^ purely for the sake ofjfoe amusement derived. There is nothing of the potential artist in the labors of THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE 21 these amateurs. They are not working toward a goal: nothing that they do is intentioned. In^the matter of plays they are content to repeat : never to create. And last but not least, tfaey are not judged by theatre standards. Private theatricals invite leniency. The Little Theatre invites criticism. The former is social ; the latter artistic.^ In fact the spirit of Little Theatreism is as far removed from private theatricals as is painting on china from a Pennell etching. Little Theatres are not imposed on the community. They are the natural outgrowth of its art-life free, spon- taneous, resilient. Theyjjrejfree in spirit, in outlook, in pecuniary standard -free as nocommercial theatre_ ever can be free. They are the heralds of the theatre of to- morrow";^ disturbing factor in the theatre of today. David Belasco has lately said : " Little Theatres are ^V a menace. They cannpt. last." A critic promptly replied : " If they can't last, then why are they a menace? " The old order changeth and the Little Theatre is responsible for the change. It has put art into the hands_njLihe jpeople instead of into the hands o f jhgjjox office, and art that is of the people, that is native and authentic, is a force to be reckoned with in all ages and all climes. The j/eryjittkness_p_f Jhe jy tJl^ jn^eaLtrejs_its_ safe- ' guard. There is no vast expense for rent, salaries, scen- ery, costumes, heat, light, printing and advertising, such as the commercial theatre has to face. The Little The- atre is not forced to please a large majority, does not consider what the public wants. It can advance towards the goal it has set for itself unhampered by the difficul- 22 THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE ties that beset the commercial playhouse. Indeed, all difficulties are promptly overridden. Perhaps because the movement in this country is young it has the daring, the ardor, the eager up-struggle of youth. It is the the- atre of the Future. It has no musty traditions to fall back on, no hidebound theories. It hoes its own row. With its audience it creates and fulfils a demand for the best. A noted critic has recently observed that he could tell whether the art life of a city was an affectation or a reality by inquiring whether it supported a Little Theatre. It was like feeling the art pulse of the community. If a Little Theatre existed then that community was a thriving place, creatively, in all the finer things of culture. If a Little Theatre did not exist then that place was artis- tically moribund. Like all wit his rapier thrust had a flash of truth, for a Little Theatre is made possible by spirit rather than by money. \North, South, East, West, this country has responded to the Little Theatre movement. New York, the largest city in the country, naturally has the greatest number of Little Theatres, and movements instigated by Little The- atres. jWinthrop Ames' Little Theatre has already been mentioned. There are also the Washington Square Players, .the Provincetown Players, the Neighborhood Playhouse, the Portmanteau Theatre, the Greenwich Village Theatre, the East-West-Players, the Bramhall Playhouse, and in process the Workshop Theatre. Groups of New York players directly influenced by the Little Theatre idea include the Morningside Players and the THE RISE OF THE LITTLE THEATRE 23 Negro Players. Brooklyn has a Community Repertory Theatre directly traceable to Little Theatre influence. Richmond Hill, L. I., and Montclair and Newark, N. J., have each a group of Community Players. There is a Workshop Theatre at Yonkers, N. Y. Rochester, N. Y., has a Little Theatre and also a group called The Prince Street Players. Bridgeport has a Little Theatre ; Buffalo has the Drama League Players and their Little Theatre. Philadelphia, Baltimore, Northampton, Mass., and Plain- field, N. H., have Little Theatres. So have Erie and Brookfield, Penn. New Orleans and Louisville are estab- lishing Little Theatres. There is a recently started Little Theatre in Washington, D. C. Chicago has three Little Theatres; Duluth, St. Louis, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Detroit, Galesburg, and Lake Forest, 111., have Little Theatres. So also have Fargo and Kensal, N. D. Laboratory Theatres have been established at Harvard, Carnegie Institute, and Dartmouth. Wisconsin is justly proud of its Wisconsin Players. Movements toward establishing Little Theatres are afoot in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Port- land, Ore. To describe these Little Theatres, their contributions and achievements, is the purpose of this book. CHAPTER II THE LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY WINTHROP AMES' LITTLE THEATRE, ETC. As New York is the largest city in the country it naturally follows that it has the greatest number of Little Theatres. Indeed, the very first Little Theatre (so-called) to open in this country was that of Mr. Win- throp Ames. But this theatre does not represent the Little Theatre movement. It is only a Little Theatre architecturally. Its policy is not that of a Little Theatre as the term is universally understood. Itjias neither a resident company, experimentation, repertoire, nor a sul> scriptionsystem. So much confusion has resulted from it V > Above, scene from Evrienof's The Mrny D*'dlh. Below, scene from Bushido. THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PLAYERS 33 mordant satire on philanthropy. It had a " punch " end- ing. It showed the escapades of a beggar trying to collect money from the bystanders at a smart resort, and the reactions of a crowd of French boulevardiers to the senti- ment of heroism and charity. After the boulevardiers have disappeared, the beggar, having had a successful day, skips into a fine coat and whistles for his automobile. With every production the acting of the Players im- proved. They had something to say whether they said it awkwardly or not, and ideas eventually overcome awkwardness. Part of the success of the Washington Square Players is due to the fact that they all pull together; every one works his or her best for the good of the whole. Gradu- ally, out of this team work, it became apparent that individual work would arise. Some of the Players shone as scene painters; some at costume-designing; others were able translators of foreign plays; some took the burden of the acting; some put their talent to producing; still others to playwrighting, though the American one- act plays they produced were by no means confined to those written by their own group. Perhaps the best plays during the season 1915-1916 were Pierre Patelin, the old French farce, with delight- ful posteresque setting, by Lee Simonson ; Lewis Beach's powerful The Clod] Philip Moeller's splendid comedy Helena's Husband', Alice Gerstenberg's Overtones one of the most original plays the Washington Square Play- ers ever produced; and Zoe Akins' Manhattanesque vers libre drama The Magical City, with a really mar- 34 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY, velous setting, a room with an open window giving on the blue twilight sky of New York and against this sky a slender tower spangled with lights. It is interesting to note that of these five successes four are by American authors. By this time the acting of the Washington Square Players had reached a state where it could be called " professional " in the true sense of the word. For 1916-1917 the Washington Square Players took the Comedy Theatre, one of the smallest of New York's playhouses in the " theatre belt." Its seating capacity is 700 and the scale of prices now runs from fifty cents to two dollars. To many discerning folk who followed the Washing- ton Square Players from the very beginning this rise in price was a matter of sorrow. It seemed to curtail the idea of democracy. However one may disagree with the Washington Square Players' change of abode (the rent of the Comedy Theatre is a great deal higher than that of the Bandbox), one cannot disagree with their definite accomplishment. The Washington Square Play- ers may have changed their prices; but they have not changed their ideals. They still choose their plays to suit themselves; not to suit the public. The most successful, plays of 1916-1917 have been Bushido, a poetic Japanese tragedy, its moving story enriched by the imaginative acting of Jose Ruben in the title role, and by its singu- larly effective setting of cream color with touches of black designed by Michio Itow and William Pennington; Plots and Playwrights, an hilarious two-act travesty by THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PLAYERS 35 Edward Massey; Altruism, by Karl Ettlinger; Another Way Out, by Lawrence Langner, both splendid examples of saturnine comedy; and Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, a tragedy of American farm life tellingly poignant in its hopelessness. Honors again go to the American play- wright for the season of 1916-1917. At first the Washington Square Players had a tendency to warp some of the best of their work with overemphasis of sex. A better balance is now observable in this re- spect. Their appeal has steadily grown. In their earlier productions they pleased the high-brow and the dilettant. Then their public widened. People other than the high- brow and the dilettant are now drawn to the Comedy Theatre. Nothing succeeds like success. As one clever lady remarked : " The Washington Square Players please both High-brow and Hofbrau." They have shown New York at large that there is something to be found in the theatre beside some of the endlessly commonplace plays of Broadway. The Washington Square Players have had several fail- ures; several times their programs have fallen short of the high standard they usually set ; but in the main their plays are well selected, played so they give variety and surprise, yet lend the whole program balance and unity. Where else will the drama enthusiast find such a blend of satire, beauty, poetry, and wit? The satire of their plays has "bite." No program is complete without a fling at popular foibles. Their whimsies are staged with an effect of truth that sometimes catches the unwary. For in their comedies the Washington Square Players 36 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY can be solemnly droll even about themselves. It is a theatre which demands that the people in its audience be sympathetic and wide awake/ It will not allow them to check their brains with their hats. Farsightedness has been one of the keenest contrib- uting factors to this Little Theatre's success. Mr. Ed- ward Goodman, the director of the theatre, increased the membership list by offering the subscribers " intellectual inducements." These consist of lectures on the drama- free to subscribers; and private performances of unusual plays given to the subscribers, from which the general public is excluded. In the season of 1915-1916 an ex- quisitely wistful performance of Maeterlinck's Aglavaine and Selysette was given. The subscription performance of 1916-1917 was Andreyeff's Life of Man (see frontis- piece). The policy of the Washington Square Players includes five subscription performances a year of one-act plays and longer plays, as well as revival of previous successes. These performances are open to the general public. The repertory system is adhered to even in the face of successes that would make a commercial manager change his mind about long runs. The only " run " the Washington Square Players have permitted themselves was in Bushido, the memorable Japanese tragedy, which saw its one-hundredth performance, " the longest run of any one-act play in New York," says Alexander Wool- cott of the New York Times. It could easily have reached its two-hundredth performance but, true to his policy, Mr. Goodman replaced it by a new bill. THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PLAYERS 3? The accomplishment of the Washington Square Play- ers in three years is little less than miraculous. From their start in the back room of a bookshop they have marched forward till they now have not only a theatre but a school of acting. Across from the Comedy The- atre is a tall narrow building, every floor of which and there are seven floors is occupied by the activities of the Washington Square Players. Here are the executive and business offices, the class rooms, the press department, the atelier, and " shops " where costumes and scenery are made. At the present writing the Washington Square Players have the only theatre in this country which has a school in connection with its work. Its pupils, as they advance in proficiency, are given small parts in the com- pany. They are, moreover, able to observe the evolving of a play from the time the manuscript is accepted through the stages of its scene designing, rehearsing, and costuming to its final production. It is the avowed permanent intention of the Washing- ton Square Players to " produce new works by American authors and important plays by foreign dramatists that would not otherwise be given a hearing, always main- taining our custom of free experiment without which we believe progress in the theatre to be impossible." The repertory of the Washington Square Players has been as follows : 1915-1916 Eugenically Speaking, by Edward Goodman; Licensed, by Basil Lawrence; Interior, by Maurice Maeterlinck; Another Interior, by an anonymous author; Love of One's 38 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY Neighbor, by Andreyeff; My Lady's Honor, by Murdock Pemberton; Moondown, by John Reed; Forbidden Fruit, by George Jay Smith; In April, by Rose Pastor Stokes; Saviors, by Edward Goodman ; A Bear, by Anton Tchekoff ; The Shepherd in the Distance, by Holland Hudson; Two Blind Beggars and One Less Blind, by Philip Moeller; The Miracle of St. Antony, by Maeterlinck (these were the plays of the first half season, and the following the plays of the second season) : The Magical City, by Zoe Akins; The Clod, by Lewis Beach ; Children, by Guy Bolton and Tom Carlton; The Age of Reason, by Cecil Dorrian; Overtones, by Alice Gerstenberg; The Antick, by Percy Mackaye; The Red Cloak, by Josephine A. Meyer and Lawrence Langner; Helena's Husbands, and The Road- house in Arden, by Philip Moeller; Fire and Water, by Hervey White ; Literature, by Arthur Schnitzler ; Aglavaine and Selysette, by Maeterlinck; Pierre Patelin (anony- mous); Whims, by Alfred de Musset; The Tenor, by Frank Wedekind; The Honorable Lover and Night of Snow, by Roberto Bracco; The Sea Gull, by Tchekoff. 1916-1917 The Sugar House, by Alice Brown; The Merry Death, by Evrienof ; Lover's Luck, by Georges Porto Riche ; Sis- ters of Suzanna, by Phillip Moeller; Trifles, by Susan Glaspell; Another Way Out, by Lawrence Langner; Bushido, by Takeda Izumo; Altruism, by Karl Ettlinger; The Last Straw, by Bosworth Crocker; A Private Account, by Georges Courteline and Beatrice de Holthoir ; The Hero of Santa Maria, by Kenneth Sawyer Goodman and Ben Hecht ; The Death of Tintagiles, by Maeterlinck ; The Life of Man, by Andreyeff ; Plots and Playwrights, by Edward Massey; Sganarelle, by Moliere; The Poor Fool, by Her- mann Bahr; Ghosts, by Ibsen, with Mary Shaw as guest artist. STUART WALKER'S PORTMANTEAU THEATRE STUART WALKER'S Portmanteau Theatre is proof of the fact that if you have something original to offer peo- ple, it does not matter when or where you offer it. Mr. Walker is a college man who received his the- atre diploma from Mr. Belasco, for whom he was play reader, and later play director, before evolving a play- house of his own. The Portmanteau Theatre is what its name suggests a portable, collapsible theatre, that can be taken, apart and packed up at three hours' notice. For this reason it has been aptly called " The Theatre That Comes to You." It can be set up in a hall, or an auditorium, or a professional theatre; or in a park or city square. It is a traveling Little Theatre, a theatre that roves. There- fore it is an independent theatre. It has the power to create its own circuit. It can give performances in cities, or in country towns. It can be set up in colleges, before clubs, in art museums, in ballrooms, in schools, in set- tlements or in parish houses. All it demands is an audi- torium seating from 150 to 700 people, and space for a stage. The Portmanteau Theatre is a New York product. It was founded in 1915-1916. It was first set up, and gave its first performance at Christadora House (Social Settlement, N. Y.), at an off season of the year, in an inaccessible part of town. Yet the critics went eagerly 39 40 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY to see it, and brought it to the attention of the genera public. Such were the modest beginnings of the Portmanteau Theatre, a theatre that has now become an established fact. From the time of its firsf performance at Christa- dor House the Portmanteau became more and more in demand. It traveled about in New York City, giving performances here and there. Next it was set up in a regular theatre: and soon the demand for it spread so that it now has a circuit reaching from coast to coast. When this theatre goes on the road it does not send out a second company. The original players and the New York company go with it. It is the only traveling Little Theatre in this country, and even on the road it preserves theatre ideals. The spirit of the Portmanteau Theatre is uncommer- cial. This is proved by Stuart Walker's Christmas gift to the City of New York. He set up his Portmanteau Theatre in Madison Square on Christmas night, 1916, and gave a free performance of his play, The Seven Gifts. His audience was the homeless of the city. The park benches, the seats of the out-of-work and despairing, were drawn up to form an outdoor auditorium. People came early and waited for hours to see the play. Snow had fallen. The Square and its trees were white with it. And this white background seemed to intensify the deep mysterious colors used in the Portmanteau performance. Mr. Walker will do much in the future; but it will be difficult to equal the emotional quality of his gift to the city and the season. WALKER'S PORTMANTEAU THEATRE 41 Simplicity is the keynote of the Portmanteau. It has one scene-setting which it uses throughout. This scene- setting is painted with different colored lights; is .nade brighter or darker as the case may be. New backgrounds are added to it, or subtracted from it. But the scene framework remains the same. It is itself the Port- manteau Theatre. This stationary interior scene of the Portmanteau is wrought in four colors: black, blue, gold, and white though the note of white is used very sparingly. Half way up the walls of the scene are black, as if they were wainscoted in black. It is a dense black, with no sug- gestion of wood. Above this black the walls are a deep yet intense blue the blue that is seen in the skies of Maxfield Parrish pictures. This blue is flecked with tiny disks of white and gold disks that look like a constella- tion of faint stars. Where the blue joins the black, a narrow border of gold and black joins the two colors together. The constellation disks are just above this border at the right and left walls of the scene and appear again near the border in background. There are three entrances. Doors at the extreme right and left facing each other, and made exactly alike, have curtains of blue. In the background is a wide square arch, bordered in gold and black. Above it is a curious- looking half-circle design in the four colors of the scene. It is eastern in its pattern, and might come from Japan or India. This background arch is the most important thing, scenically speaking, about the Portmanteau Theatre. 42 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY Behind this archway glowing scenes may be placed, tropic in their color. Minarets may soar against a vivid sky; or storm clouds drift against the heavens; or curtains fall in sumptuous folds. Or poplar trees may stand in grace- ful silhouette, as they do in The Moon Lady. The scene that is placed in this archway determines the whole atmosphere of whatever play is being produced, whether that play is laid in the Never Never Land, in France, in Far Japan, or in the Mountains of the Moon. All these are projected from this background scene. It dominates the play. Its power suggests and creates. It makes the rest of the stage into a palace, a temple, a garden, or a street. It collaborates with the imagination of the audience. Nothing is used on the stage of the Portmanteau that is not necessary to the forward-action of the play. Instead of overloading his stage, Mr. Walker strips it. He relies on line and color for his effects. Indeed his stage is so small that any attempt at ornate furnishing would be in the way. It is surprising what an effect of largeness and mystery can be given in so small a space, and it is due to his unencumbered stage, and his way of using it. His lighting, too, plays a prominent part in securing these results. As to the personnel of the company, Mr. Walker's players are young professionals more interested in gain- ing a hearing than in receiving inflated salaries. Mr. Walker looks forward to the time when he can charge fifty cents for every seat in his house. At present regu- lar theatre prices prevail with the Portmanteau. . That WALKER'S PORTMANTEAU THEATRE 43 is, fifty cents to two dollars a seat. But Mr. Walker gave a series of matinees for children asking only twenty-five and fifty cents for the whole house. The first plays produced by the Portmanteau Theatre in its very early struggling days were A Fan and Two Candlesticks, by tyfary MacMillan; The Trimplet, by Mr. Walker, and Six Who Pass While the Lentils Boil, a whimsy, also by Mr. Walker, which has since become celebrated. Then Mr. Walker added the strange parable plays of Lord Dunsany to his repertoire, staging The Gods of the Mountain, in three short acts; The Golden Doom (one-act) and King Ar gimmes and the Unknown Warrior (one-act). Certainly these were not plays ex- pected to appeal to the average audience. Yet Mr. Walker proved at once that there is a public for such dramas. He invested these plays with simple yet curiously lovely scenic effects, and with costumes rich in color and sug- gestion. Obviously these costumes were dyed under the eye of the director. There are some expensive materials, but in the main they seem to be created from inexpensive stuffs. Canton flannel, cotton crepe, and cambric are made to look like fabrics brought from the mysterious East. Besides the Dunsany plays Mr. Walker gives Oscar Wilde's Birthday of the Infanta, and his own Lady of the Weeping Willow Tree, a three-act play of medi- aeval Japan, as charming as a Willow Ware plate come to life! Another of his productions, Gammer Gurton's Needle, g, mediaeval English play, is in direct contrast to his 44 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY other plays, as it has bluff and hearty humor, and investi- ture of bluff and hearty colors. Gordon Bottomly's Crier by Night is also given. The rest of the repertoire consists of brief interludes given before the curtain. That is, after the Dunsany play or the Wilde play has been acted, there is a pause while costumes are changed and a new background slipped into place behind the Portmanteau's blue and gold arch. The curtain is lowered and between the shallow space that lies between the curtain and the footlights an inter- lude is given. Quite in the Elizabethan manner stage attendants bring in a chair, a table, a lamp, or whatever is needed. The actors enter from right or left, and the play begins. There are several of these interludes: Nevertheless, The Very Naked Boy, The Flame Man, The Medicine Show, by Stuart Walker, and Voices, by Hortense Flexner. Perhaps the exotic needs the balance of the common- place. That can be the only reason why Mr. Walker chose these interludes. The spell of Dunsany's Gods, or Walker's Old Japan, is suddenly broken. Modern clothes and modern chatter blot it out. Then again comes the strange and exotic. But the modern play has broken the atmosphere built up by the first Dunsany play, and it is more difficult to become enthralled by the second offering. Contrast is doubtless desirable, but there are other means by which it could be had. It would seem as if the fantastic play might be a better foil than the modern play, People go to the Portmanteau expecting the un- STUART WALKER'S PORTMANTEAU THEATRE. Above, a scene from Lord Dunsany's The Golden Doom. Below, the Theatre unpacked and set for a performance. WALKER'S PORTMANTEAU THEATRE 45 usual, so that a performance blending the exotic and the fantastic would not be out of the way. But, after all, Little Theatres are an expression of per- sonality. Mr. Walker's programs express Mr. Walker's idea of what programs should be. If there are defects, these defects are slight ones. He has created a theatre that is absolutely unique; he gives for the most part plays of a high order. There is no doubting his sincerity, his courage, or his artistry. He has made the play, minus sex appeal, succeed, though Broadway declares it can- not; he demands less of his players than of himself, for he is at once actor, regisseur, and playwright. THE PROVINCETOWN PLAYERS r LIKE the Washington Square Players the Provincetown Players are a group of writers, editors, costume design- ers, actors, and poets who have banded themselves to- gether to produce plays.^ These players have for the most part their habitat in or near Washington Square. There they spend their Winters ; their Summers are spent at Provincetown, Mass., on the end of Cape Cod, and though the idea of the theatre may have come to them in Washington Square it was on Cape Cod that it was put into practise. To be sure, there was a single per- formance of one-act plays given on a certain night in the Winter of 1916 in the back room of the Washington Square bookstore. But the first series of plays were given quite simply on porches in Provincetown during the Sum- mer of 1915. These went so well that an abandoned fish house that was on a wharf was taken, and made into a theatre (1916). It was scoured within and without. Fish nets and lobster pots were ousted : a stage was built : and an auditorium was arranged, seating 200 people at a pinch and 150 comfortably. Thus, at the end of a wharf, with the Atlantic beneath and beyond them, the Provincetown Players began. They had a large num- ber of associate members, and the funds paid in by these members gave a financial basis on which the players could depend for their production. 46 THE PROVINCETOWN PLAYERS 47 This Wharf Theatre, admirably decorated, and with a splendid lighting system installed, served as a laboratory. The plays tried out there were later to be put on at the Provincetown Players Theatre in New York, on Mac- dougal Street, hard by Washington Square, and next door to what was once the Washington Square book- store, where so many Little Theatres have had their be- ginnings. The dues of associate membership would not have been enough to establish a theatre in New York had not the Provincetown Players been so fortunate as to gain the interest of the Stage Society, who took the entire house for the opening night of each production. It will be remembered that it was the Stage Society that was responsible for bringing Granville Barker to this coun- try ; and for giving Robert Jones a greater chance to show the public his extraordinary scenery. Tickets for the Provincetown Players are sold only to members. They cannot be purchased at the door. The Washington Square Players started with seats at fifty cents ; Stuart Walker proposes having seats at that price in his New York playhouse; but the Provincetown Players have gone one better than this /a season ticket can be had for four dollars, and that season ticket in- cludes ten performances^The purchaser of the season ticket becomes an associate member of the Provincetown Players. And these members, as has been said, are the only ones who can purchase extra tickets for the per- formances. Ten performances for four dollars! No wonder the 48 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY house is filled !\And there are no reserved seats. First come, first served. This holds good whether you are a I member of the four hundred or the four million. There | are 200 seats and no more. The theatre itself consists of two long high-ceilinged rooms made into one such rooms as one sees in the stately old houses of New York. In the back room is the stage, a small stage curtained in vivid purple. The theatre itself is in brown brown walls and floor and brown benches for the audience. These benches are arranged in tiers like a grandstand. There are two doors leading into the theatre. They are a vivid green. Above the proscenium arch is a bas-relief border of bronzy gold. The purple curtain has a yellow border. Everything about the theatre is primitive primitive color and primitive accessories. Its strange bareness is attrac- tive. \The performances of the Provincetown Players begin at a quarter to nine and last till eleven. Each program consists of three or four one-act plays. It is the only Little Theatre in America at the present writing that has both a Winter and a Summer home. It is the only Little Theatre in New York whose avowed }raison d'etre is producing plays by living American [authors principally by New York authors! It does not I import the works of foreigners. J As Provincetown is essentially an American place, knit up with American history, tradition, and art, so the purveyors of plays to the theatre on Macdougal Street are mostly Americans. The Provincetown Players differ from the Washington Square Players in many respects; but in none more sig- THE PROVINCETOWN PLAYERS 49 nally than in program-making. The Playwrights' The- atre, as the Provincetown Players call their tiny play- house, is essentially a " try out " theatre, a " feeder " to other theatres. The plays they produce are as frankly " for sale " as the pictures in an art store's gallery. /The fact that the Provincetown Players give a new production every three weeks and that the people who act are also engaged in doing other work shows that the performances cannot approach perfection. JIndeed it must be confessed that in this respect as well as in the tech- nique of their plays the work of the Provincetown Play- ers is extremely uneven. At one performance plays and acting will be exceedingly good; while at the next per- formance they may suffer a sea change. That the per- formances are as good as they are when they are put together so quickly is worthy of comment, since all the work of the theatre falls on the shoulders of the players, y make and paint their own scenery, using their small stage as a workshop ; the costumes are not only designed by themselves, but literally created by their own work- manship. ^JThey are dyed, cut, and sewn by the feminine members of the staff. In some cases the costumes pre-. pared at the Wharf Theatre in the Summer are used again in the Playwrights' Theatre in the Winter. Other- wise it would be almost impossible for the players to keep up with the demands on their time. The proper- ties are likewise hand-made. The lighting experiments used in connection with the various scenes are managed by members of the Players. And these economies are what make it feasible to run this Little Theatre on a 50 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY sum that a commercial manager would not believe pos- sible. There have been mistakes in program arrangement such as was made one evening when all three of the plays presented were gloomy in theme and outlook. But these mistakes are few and far between, and the very surprises offered by the Provincetown Players are tonic and intriguing. If a current week's performance is not up to the mark three weeks hence the program may prove astonishingly rewarding. And as the Washington Square Players have grown in stage craftsmanship from month to month, so also have the Provincetown Players. Their theatre is a theatre of surprises. It may on occasion be lacking in technical proficiency ; but it is never lacking in interest. (The plays produced by the Provincetown Players are those, as a rule, that are written, by their own memberO If an outside playwright wishes to have a play produced he must submit his manuscript to an active member, who in turn submits it to the organization. Once a week the | Provincetown Players gather to read plays aloud. Three [ I plays are read in an evening, and the final selection made. During the Summer of 1916 eleven original one-act plays were given their first production at the Wharf The- atre. To these were added two plays produced the pre- vious Summer. The best of these plays have been trans- planted to the New York Playhou'se of the organization. During the Winter 1916-1917 thirty one-act plays by American authors were given. Ut is worthy of note that the most expensive pfoduc- THE PROVINCETOWN PLAYERS 51 tion of the Wharf Theatre cost only thirteen dollars, in- cluding scenery and costumes./ In the Playwrights' Theatre on Macdougal Street each play is staged under the direction of its author: the the- atre is essentially a place for dramatic experiment. The prospectus of the Provincetown Players announces that with the exception of two salaried officers who de- vote their entire time to the work the members give their plays and their services without recompense. Apparently the players have divided themselves into two groups. While one group of ten or twelve people are acting in a play the other group is rehearsing. As to the content of these plays the result is at once interesting and disturbing. Here are plays by American authors; yet how few of them are distinctly American in locale or in theme; that is, most of the plays of the Provincetown Players might be laid anywhere. Perhaps this points to the fact that America is all countries com- bined. It certainly points to the fact that the playwrights of the Playwrights' Theatre go far afield for their themes. The question arises as to whether the time devoted to the American play had not been better spent in producing the masterpiece of some foreign author. This question must, Irishly, be answered by another. If the American author of one-act plays does not get a chance to experiment in an American theatre where else can he hope to find a laboratory for developing his technique? Everything with the trade-mark " Made in Europe " finds readier acceptance than a home-grown play. Granted that the American one-act play is very often not as good as its 52 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY foreign contemporary, how will it ever improve unless its author is given a chance to try his powers ? It may be said that no theatre can be wholly an Ameri- can theatre which produces mostly the works of its own coterie. This is true. But the very fact that the Prov- incetown Players give preference to the American author albeit the author in question is apt to be a mem- ber of the^r own group is a long step in the right direc- tion, ffhey have already in their ranks several play- wrights of signal power, among them David Pinski. whose plays have been produced by Reinhardt :._ Susan v^Glaspell, well known as both novelist and playwright; and j^ugene O'Neill^Bon of the veteran actor, James O'Neill. Eugene O'Neill is original in his themes and in his treatment of them. His one-act play, Bound East for Cardiff, with its unusual scene-setting, showing the interior of tramp steamer with bunks ranged in tiers against the wall, remains one of the best things the Provincetown Players have done. This play has been 1 sold to the Greenwich Village Players. It has also had \ \production in several other Little Theatres throughout fthe country. The stark realism of Mr. O'Neill's Before Breakfast, with its one character a poverty-stricken nag- ging woman, talking to her husband,' who is supposed to be shaving himself off stage, was a grizzly and impres- sive bit of realism, ending with the suicide of the hus- band. This play has also been sold. Cocaine, the study of a drug fiend, by Pendleton King, was powerful though repulsive; while Suppressed Desires, by Susan Glaspell and George Cram Cook, was the comedy success of the THE PROVINCETOWN PLAYERS 53 theatre. It also has had production in several other Little Theatres. Indeed a large percentage of the plays tried out by the Provincetown Players have since been placed either in Little Theatres or in magazine or book form. In the matter of scenery the Provincetown Players are far more assured than in their acting. Considering the size of their stage they have given some amazing effects. Notably in the one-act play, The Fog, with its sense of distance, of broad expanse of sea now partly revealed, now hidden by driving mists. The scene was the work of B. J. O. Nordfeldt. There have also been excellent examples of scenery without perspective, and some de- lightfully decorative effects by the Zorachs. Plays produced during 1916-1917 include: The Game, by Louise Bryant; Bound East for Cardiff, by Eugene O'Neill; King Arthur's Socks, by Floyd Dell; Freedom, by John Reed; Enemies, by Neith Boyce and Hutchins Hapgood; Suppressed Desires, by George Cram Cook and Susan Glaspell ; Before Breakfast, by Eugene O'Neill; Lima Beans, by Alfred Kreymbourg; The Two Sons, by Neith Boyce; Joined Together, by B. J. O. Nordfeldt; The Obituary, by Saxe Commins; Sauce for the Emperor, by John Chapin Mosher; A Long Time Ago, by Floyd Dell ; Bored, by John Chapin Mosher ; Fog, by Eugene O'Neill; Pan, by Kenneth MacNichol; Winter's Night, by Neith Boyce; The Dollar, by David Pinski; Ivans Home Coming, by Irwin Granich ; Barbarians, by Rita Wellman ; The Sniper, by Eugene O'Neill ; The Prodigal Son, by Harry Kemp ; Cocaine, by Pendleton King; The People, by Susan Glaspell. THE NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYHOUSE ( THE Neighborhood Playhouse was founded in 1915 by Alice and Irene Lewisohn. It is outwardly and inwardly one of the most satisfying Little Theatres in this country. "Ti is situated oil Gi 1 aiid"Stfeel. It seats 411 people, and is, as its name implies, devoted to the interests of its neighborhood. This theatre and the Hull House Theatre in Chicago represent the Little Theatre movement in its sociological aspect. This does not mean that they are full of "uplift" or dry-as-dust drama! Far from it! But it does mean that they continually place the best in modern drama before their public at a nominal sum. Fifty cents will purchase a seat in the orchestra row or the low-swung balcony of the Neigh- borhood Playhouse/) It is well known that this theatre is content to lose rather than to make money if only its artistic and altru- istic end be gained. Its purpose is twofold : First, to set before the people of its thronging tenement district plays they could not otherwise hope to see; and also to afford the young people of the neighborhood a chance to act in plays and festivals, to give them imaginative^timu- lus and emotional outlet after days spent in store and office and factory. To the children of the neighborhood it means a place where they can dance and sing in com- munity festivals, and to the fathers and mothers a place 54 THE NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYHOUSE 55 where they can witness wonders undreamed of in Russia, Poland, Galicia. It is indeed a Playhouse, a place for recreation and neighborhood delight. Associated with the Misses Lewisohn on the produc- ing staff are Miss Agnes Morgan, a playwright, and Miss Helen Arthurs, for several years play reader at the Shuberts. And from the year of its founding to the year of her death an accomplished actress, Mrs. Sarah Cowell Lemoyne, was actively connected with this theatre. (The Neighborhood Playhouse is, with the exception of MrT~Ames' Little Theatre, the best equipped theatre, large or small, of which this country can boast*. It has provided superlative comforts for.the actors in its won- derfully equipped dressing rooms./ And it even betters Mr. Ames' Little Theatre in its stage equipment in that it has the only " horizont " in this country, that is, a concave wall of white plaster at the back of the stage that is flooded with varying lights and can thus give superb sky effects. A particularly fine effect was given in the first act of Bernard Shaw's Captain Brassbound's Con- version (acted by Gertrude Kingston's company), where the sunset melted imperceptibly from rose to lavender and from lavender to a blue twilight impearled with mist. The history of the Neighborhood Playhouse is as full of human interest as the work done within its four walls, V^The Playhouse grew out of work done by the dramatic clubs at the Henry Street Settlement under the direction of the Misses Lewisohn. To these clubs belong the young people of the neighborhood who, being Jewish, had racially the fire, the intellectual hunger, and the 56 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY power of self-expression that makes for a plastic and competent dramatic company. The Settlement stage and auditorium became too small for the number of working people who wished to participate as players and audi- ence. ^So further productions were given in Clinton Hall on tfie Bowery. There were from the first two types of productions: the play of ideas and the festival play. In the festival plays old and immemorially lovely stories were used, Hiawatha, or the Sleeping Beauty, with opportunities for dances and group effects. In the plays of ideas serious modern authors had their say. From the very beginning the policy of meeting both these needs has always ob- tained, first in the Henry Street Settlement; then in Clinton Hall; and latterly in the Neighborhood Play- house. And there has always been an eager audience for both. The first play in Clinton Hall was The Shepherd, a drama in blank verse, by Olive Til ford Dargan, and the second, Galsworthy's The Silver Box. /Later the Neighborhood Playhouse was built, and the wo!*k of the Neighborhood Players continued.) Each month they give a series of special performances, usually of one-act plays. But the Neighborhood Players are not the only ones who act at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Its hospitable policy includes the work of both amateurs }" and professionals. Guest artists famous stars come there for a series of performances with their respective companies. Ellen Terry, Gertrude Kingston, Ethel Barry- more, Emanuel and Hedwig Reicher, David Bispham, p THE NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYHOUSE, GRAND STREET, NEW YORK. THE NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYHOUSE 57 and the late Eric Blind have acted to packed houses. For these performances there has been no change in the price of seats. At certain seasons a locally famous Yid- dish company gives Yiddish plays, which are the joy of the older immigrants in the neighborhood who speak no English, as well as a joy to immigrants lately landed, and similarly handicapped. There is never a time when the theatre is idle. On Sunday afternoons there are movies for five and ten cents to which whole families come flocking. Needless to say these movies are of a high order, an antidote to the blood-and-thunder cinemas that flaunt their luridly melodramatic posters the length and breadth of the East Side. There are also folk dances, readings, and orches- tral concerts. The Neighborhood Playhouse is a home of art in many forms. Naturally, after its first performances, its fame spread. People from uptown showed as keen an interest in its offerings as did the people from Grand Street, with the result that the " Neighborhood " of the Neighborhood Playhouse has widened to include all of New York that looks upon drama as something better than a mere stop- gap for the hours between eight and eleven. Some of the festivals produced at the Neighborhood Playhouse have been The Kairn of Koridwen; the ballet Petroushka, with music by Stravinsky, and confetti colored costumes; and Jephtha's Daughter, a re-telling of the Old Testament story through spoken word, dance, and chorus. The music for Jephtha's Daughter was taken from ancient Jewish ceremonials, and traditional chants. 58 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY Indeed this whole festival, with its lyric feeling, its won- derful Old Testament decorations, and its plastic group- ing, was one of the finest achievements ever set before Neighborhood Playhouse audiences. For one thing, the Neighborhood Players looked the parts they were taking. They were acting a moving story from their own im- perishable history, and they lent to that acting ardency and truth. Amongst the many one-act plays produced by the Neighborhood Players have been A Marriage Proposal, by Anton Tchekoff ; The Price of Coal, by Harold Brig- house; The Subjection of Keziah, by Mrs. Havelock Ellis ; Black 'Ell, by Myles Maleson ; The Glittering Gate, by Lord Dunsany; A Sunny Morning, translated from Quintero by Anna Sprague MacDonald; With the Cur- rent, by Sch.olom Asch. rThey seldom produced plays by Americans; and never, so far as can be ascertained, plays interpretative of the locality of the city in which the Playhouse stands? The most notable of all their achievements in the pro- ducing of one-act plays was the almost startling success won through that "tremendous trifle," A Night at an Inn, by Lord Dunsany. The Neighborhood Players gave the first production of this play, termed by many critics the greatest one-act play written by any author in the last ten years. The story of the robbed and revengeful Eastern god seeking his thieving victims when they had taken refuge in a lonely house set in a still lonelier English moor, and implacably drawing them to their death, was portrayed with imaginative power. THE NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYHOUSE 59 This play was to the Neighborhood Playhouse what Bushido was to the Washington Square Players, a mile- stone. Much of the interest now manifest in the work of Dunsany undoubtedly traces to the stir created by A Night at an Inn. That memorable performance at the Neighborhood Playhouse set people to reading, see- ing, and producing more Dunsany plays. The Neighborhood Players and the festival groups belong to the amateur side of dramatic work at the Play- house. On the professional side of the work one of the most popular of the yearly engagements is that of Miss Gertrude Kingston and her company from the Little Theatre in London. Miss Kingston appeared in reper- toire in both long and short plays by Shaw and Dunsany. During the season of 1916-1917 she gave three one-act plays : The Inca of Perusalem, by an anonymous author supposed to be Bernard Shaw ; The Queen's Enemies, by Lord Dunsany, and Shaw's Great Catherine. The Inca of Perusalem was dull; Great Catherine was amusing; while The Queen's Enemies created an impression only second to that created by A Night at an Inn. A full list of the productions of the Neighborhood Playhouse since 1915 includes the following: FESTIVALS Jephtha's Daughter, with music by Lilia Mackay-Cantell ; A Thanksgiving Festival; Petroushka, with music by Stra- vinsky; The Sleeping Beauty, with music by Tchaikowsky; The Discontented Daffodils; The Shadow Garden of Shut- Eye Town, with music by Lilia Mackay-Cantell ; Hiawatha, 60 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY with traditional Indian music; The Goose-Girl, with music by Humperdinck; The Gift of the Fairies; The Jewel Box, with music by Debussy; The Kairn of Koridwen, with music by Charles T. Griffes. PLAYS The Shepherd, by Olive Tilf ord Dargan ; The Silver Box, by John Galsworthy ; The W oldies, by J. C. Hamlen ; Teth- ered Sheep, by Robert Gilbert Welsh; Wild Birds, by Violet Pearn ; Womenkind, by Wilfred Wilson Gibson ; Ry- land, by Kenneth Sawyer Goodman and Thomas Wood Stevens; The Price of Coal, by Harold Brighouse; The Maker of Dreams, by Oliphant Down; A Marriage Pro- posal, by Anton Tchekoff; The Subjection of Kesia, by Mrs. Havelock Ellis; The Glittering Gate, by Lord Dun- sany; A Night at an Inn, by Lord Dunsany; Ghosts, by Henrik Ibsen; Lonesome Like, by Harold Brighouse; Red Turf, by Rutherford Mayne; Captain Brassbound's Con- version, by Bernard Shaw ; John Gabriel Borkman, by Ib- sen; The Shadow, by Riccodenci; Early Morning, After Burial, and Sisters, by Isaac Perez ; The Fires of St. John, by Herman Suderman; Three Generations, by Ronetta Ronano; An Enemy of the People, by Ibsen; Great Cath- erine, by Bernard Shaw; The Queen's Enemies, by Lord Dunsany ; The Inca of Perusalem, by an anonymous author ; The Married Woman, by C. B. Fernald; Black 'Ell, by Miles Maleson; A Sunny Morning, by Quintero; Pippa Passes, by Robert Browning. CHAPTER III THE LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY (Continued) THE EAST-WEST-PLAYERS THE East-West-Players are an interesting group of young people who have not yet arrived at having a Little Theatre; but they are working toward it and in the meanwhile renting any theatre that they can lay their hands on for special performances until a small theatre can be found, or until some one interested in what they have to offer helps them to their goal. This company of players, mainly Jewish, gave their first production in New York in the early Spring of 1916. They are not diletants. They are a group drawn directly from the working people. Teachers in primary and grade schools, designers, stenographers, workers in the various trades, clerks, and artisans are among their numbers. Their work in the theatre and for the theatre must be done after their day's work is finished. For this reason they are one of the most significant of the many groups of players in New York City. Their work is a movement of the people, by the people, for the people. They have raised the money for their productions by having each member of their organization contribute to 61 62 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITYi the general fund. This has meant actual self-sacrifice for art. The money gained through their productions is to be placed in a theatre-fund for the future Little Theatre which they hope to have. A group of workers who are also players is not a new thing, even in New York. The Neighborhood Play- house has a group of players who are employed during the day, but their theatre is provided and their plays selected for them. It is not their own money that makes the production possible. The idea of a Neighborhood Playhouse came from without, and worked back to the working people. The cultural influence of drama was provided for them. Advantages were placed before them, and it was their privilege to avail themselves of them. With the East-West-Players it is quite different. With them the impulse comes from within. They are not blessed with a theatre. They must shoulder their own responsibilities, and evolve their own policy. It is highly to their credit that they have done all these things so well. Their theatre is a definite expression of their own thought, and a new contribution to Little Theatres in general. They are in a measure to the literature of the Yiddish stage what the Irish Players are to the litera- ture of the Irish stage. But they have no Yeats or Lady Gregory to lead them. They are fundamentally self-led. The policy of this group is expressed in its name the East- West-Players. The Jews are an Eastern people to bring the unknown plays of the East to the people of THE EAST-WEST-PLAYERS 63 the West is what these players are striving to do. By accomplishing this they open doors on a life and litera- ture, on a set of customs and traditions that are wholly unknown to the Western theatre-goer. Therein lies the value of the East-West-Players' work, its stimulation and interest. Plays that would otherwise go unpro- duced or unheard of are brought to light by their efforts. They began their work in the Educational Alliance auditorium on East Broadway, the centermost place of the intellectual life of the East Side. In this vicinity Yiddish papers are published and Yiddish books sold. Here poets of the sweatshop have sung their sad songs of labor and longing. Here are to be found the black and white postcards, by Lillien, depicting Jewish life in Russia and America, touching it with fire and poetry pictures as extraordinary in their poster effects as the work of Aubrey Beardsley, yet totally different, and absolutely original. This was the locale in which the East-West-Players started, a locale in which many of them live. East Broadway is to them what Washington Square is to the Washington Square Players. Their first program consisted of four one-act plays, translated from the Yiddish. He and She, by Isaac L. Perez; and Colleagues, by Zalmon Libin, the most com- mercially popular of all Yiddish playwrights; Night, by Sholom Asch; * and The Stranger, by Perez Hirshbein. 1 The East- West-Players were the first to bring the work of Asch to the American public, though Reinhardt had already pro- duced one of his plays in Berlin. 64 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY Greatly encouraged by the success of these plays, which were repeated a number of times, the East-West-Players rented a little uptown theatre, the Berkeley Lyceum, where they gave further consecutive performances of the same program with but one change in it. The Yellow Passport was substituted for He and She. Early in 1917 the Garden Theatre was taken for a few perform- ances, and a third program produced. This consisted of The Stranger, Paul and Virginia, by James Rorty; Night; and The Awakening of Narradin, an Arabian Night's fantasy, by Gustav Blum, the director of the organization, and Elias Lieberman, translator of The Stranger. The Stranger and Night are the best offerings of this group so far. In The Stranger, a fantastic play, the scene is laid in Russia, on a Sabbath night, and the story is wrought around an old Jewish observance that of leaving vacant a chair at the table so that if Elijah the Prophet were passing he might come in and break bread. This he does, in the house of Chayim David, a poor vil- lager. The atmosphere of this play, with, its mysticism and sacred beliefs, was splendidly sustained. Night, the allegorical play, by Sholom Asch, was equal to the best of Andreyeff in its dark color, its power of stripping the souls of men. If the other Yiddish plays produced by this organization do not as yet equal The Stranger or Night it is scarcely to be expected that they should for Night and The Stranger would be rare finds in any litera- ture. Paul and Virginia, a modern offering of the occi- dental world, was commonplace ; The Awakening of Nar- THE EAST-WEST-PLAYERS 65 radin was excellent in color. Music was written for it by a member of the organization; its costumes designed by still another member. This was a good production; but it was not as compelling in interest as the Yiddish plays because it was familiar, and because any other group of players might have given it. It lacked the stamp of race. Twenty-five cents to one dollar was the democratic price of seats for this venture. The East- West-Players have now announced that they will continue to follow their original intention of giving Yiddish plays only. All their plans cannot be divulged in advance; but undoubtedly the plays of David Pinski will have a place on their programs Pinski, whose Treasure was produced by Max Reinhardt in Berlin in 1910; who is the author of a well-known pamphlet Dos Yiddishe Drama ; who has written many plays deal- ing with the hopes and struggles of the Jewish prole- tariat. He has also written a series of poetic one-act plays dealing with the life of King David, all of which may in time form grist for the mill of the East-West- Players. There are other plays by Perez Hershbein that will doubtless be produced plays of a darker color and more tragic texture than The Stranger, Sholom Asch, the greatest of all Yiddish dramatists, will be re-intro- duced not alone as a mystic, but as a creator of genre studies. The one-act plays of Sholom Aleichem, the Yiddish Mark Twain, may also find their place in East- West programs. In producing translations of Yiddish plays the East- 66 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY West-Players give something that can be found in no other place in this country. It is difficult, their director says, to get enough of these plays, since the Yiddish The- atre has only been in existence since 1876. Yet in no other way can the East-West-Players make as distinct a contribution. Their translators should search further through Yiddish literature, through folk tale and fable, and then set contemporary playwrights to work on what they have found. The poets of the East Side, men of the stamp of Rosenfeld, whose songs found echo in a million hearts, might lend their creative ability to this movement. In the offices of the Jewish press might be found some young dramatist who could put the Yiddish folk lore into simple dramatic form, if that folk lore were found for him. Immigration is another theme that the East-West-Players have not dealt with. The comedy side of immigration has been shown in our theatres; but its deeper side, the tragedy of the middle-aged in the New World, trying to accustom themselves to new conditions, is untouched. The mother who cannot speak English and who feels her children growing away from her is an endlessly pathetic figure that would make a strong appeal. Nor need the work of the East-West-Players be con- fined to the modern world. The Old Testament is rich in undeveloped dramatic material. If the Song of Solo- mon has been made into an arrestingly lovely pantomime by a dramatist in the Little Theatre of Baltimore, why are there not a hundred Biblical themes from which tne East- West-Players can choose their material? Nor is THE EAST-WEST-PLAYERS 67 this all. The old religious plays of the Hebrew Purim are unknown to Western audiences. The East-West- Players might render them familiar. It is not in the East of the Arabian Nights that their greatest talents lie; but in the East of Israel, her customs and traditions. BROOKLYN REPERTORY THEATRE NOT actually a Little Theatre movement in the exact sense of the word, yet undoubtedly stemming from it is the work done by the Brooklyn Repertory Theatre Company, a group of professionals of good standing who, with very simple scenery, costumes, and accessories, have given satisfactory performances in the auditorium of the Brooklyn Y. M. C. A. Their repertoire is made up of modern plays, non-commercial in their appeal. These players have made it possible for Brooklynites to see much that is interesting in drama without journey- ing to Manhattan for that privilege. The price of ad- mittance has been kept within the limits of slender pocket- books. Some of the plays given by this company have been: The Bank Account, by Howard Brook; A Ques- tion of Morality, by Percival Wilde; Sweethearts, by W. S. Gilbert; Sabotage, by Valcross and D'Estoc; and the Spanish drama, Zaragueta. 68 THE NEGRO PLAYERS HAD not the Little Theatre movement fostered the new, the original, the unusual things of drama it is very pos- sible New York never would have seen the Negro Play- ers, and a stimulating controversy would have been lost. For the Negro Players, during their first week's per- formances at the Garden Theatre and later in an uptown theatre, were a storm center for critics and drama en- thusiasts, and such storms make people think about the theatre in terms more creative and constructive than is their wont. The Negro Players under the management of Mrs. Emilie Hapgood and the direction of Robert Edmond Jones appeared in three one-act plays written about their own race by Ridgely Torrence, the American poet. The strength, beauty, and impressiveness of these plays, The Rider of Dreams, Simon the Cyrenian, and Granny Maumee, were beyond question. It was the first time that Negroes had ever appeared in plays interpretative of their own race. This was a significant fact. But it would have been more significant had the plays been written by an author of their own race, and had the desire to act in the plays been a racial desire expressed from within instead of imposed from without. Then the whole production would have had 69 70 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY deep racial expressiveness. As it was, it was interesting as an experiment. Negroes have acted before in New York. They gave a Shakespeare Tercentenary performance of Othello wholly on their own initiative; but the appearance of a Negro company in plays of Negro life was something new under the sun. One New York critic declared that the fine flavor of the plays was lost through the amateur- ishness of the acting, and that though the players looked the parts they impersonated, they did not sound their depths. Other critics praised the acting for its natural- ness and pictorial qualities. So the war waged! Between the one-act plays the Cleft Cktb Singing Orchestra gave genuine delight. They played the music of a Negro composer, Rosamond Johnson, whose songs and marches have given pleasure to thousands. THE MORNINGSIDE PLAYERS THE Morningside Players were established in the Fall of 1916. They are a group of professionals and ama- teurs, many of whom come from the vicinity of Columbia University. They are not a Little Theatre group; yet have undoubtedly been more or less influenced by the Little Theatre movement. They produce long plays and one-act plays written by members of their own group. Sporadic performances of these plays have been given in various theatres of Manhattan. So far they have struck no particularly significant note either in dram- aturgy, scenery, or costumes. The most ambitious of their offerings, The Iron Cross, by Elmer Reizenstein, . author of On Trial, was a play protesting against the' horrors of war. It was not a memorable piece of work. There is talk, however, of making the Morningside Play- ers into a regular " Workshop Theatre " group, 'actively connected with the classes of drama and playwriting in Columbia University, in other words, of making the Morningside Players into a genuine Columbia University Theatre group, in which the players shall be chosen from Columbia and Barnard ; the scenery and costumes designed by Columbia and Barnard students ; and last, but not least, the plays written by the students in the classes of play- writing. Should such a change take place, work of genu- 71 72 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY ine significance may be looked for, since such eminent authorities as Brander Matthews and Clayton Hamilton are on the drama staff of the University, the latter hav- ing a class of would-be playwrights seldom numbering less than 150. THE GREENWICH VILLAGE THEATRE Herman Lee Meader, Architect. THE GREENWICH VILLAGE THEATRE, NEW YORK CITY AMONG the newest of new Little Theatres planned for New York is the Greenwich Village Theatre, to be run by Mr. Frank Conroy, a graduate of the Washing- ton Square Players. For a theatre which purposes giving unusual ijon^ commercial plays no playhouse in New York will be bet- ter situated than the Greenwich Village Theatre, tucked away in a quaint part of the city known as Sheridan Square. Richard Brinsley himself would have delighted 73 74 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY in the Pomander Walk two-story houses of cream and green and pinkish red that face the theatre and that are whimsically reminiscent of the days when Green- wich Village really was a village, and when the three- cornered grass plot in front of them almost as big as a lace handkerchief really was the village square. This odd corner of New York, flavorsome and unexpected, is such an admirable setting to the theatre that it will do much toward giving it vogue. All about live artists and painters and actors some of the already famous; others on the way toward being so. The exterior of the theatre will express the neighbor- hood traditions by recalling architecturally the period of early colonial work in New York. The fagade of the theatre will be of red brick, . white stone, and wrought iron. The Greenwich Village Theatre will be like one of the old homes of this quarter, dignified and stately. The main auditorium will be colonial. It will have no boxes. There will be a narrow balcony across the rear. The four walls and their diagonal corners will be symmetrical, designed to give the effect of a large room in a private mansion rather than a place of public amusement. The walls are to be in ivory white with old blue drapery, and there are crystal chandeliers. The lobby and lounge will be in Dutch tile; the lounge, unlike the usual smoking room, will not exclude women. Indeed it is both lounge and art gallery, for its walls will be decorated with pic- tures painted by members of the Art Colony of Greenwich Village. As soon as one exhibition ends another will begin. It has been the aim of the theatre management to THE GREENWICH VILLAGE THEATRE 75 make the Greenwich Village Theatre an art center. Sunday night concerts at popular prices will be given. Informal lectures and conferences on art, literature, music, and the drama will also be held. " In fact," as one of the people interested in the theatre says, " we hope to make our Little Theatre a teeming center of artistic expression of every kind, showing in a small way the correlation of all the arts." The prospectus of the Greenwich Village Theatre says: "There is a certain portion of the public to whom the theatre means much more than a mere form of casual entertainment. The great interest shown in the recent experiments made by several groups of semi- amateurs in the producing field has proved beyond a doubt that not only does such a public exist, but is an enthusiastic and an ever-growing one; in other words, a public dissatisfied with the usual fare offered by the commercial theatre and eager for something better, finer, and more satisfying to its artistic taste. In view of this, it would seem that the time is now ripe for the permanent institution of a small theatre thoroughly progressive in spirit and designed from first to last to meet the needs of this portion of the playgoing public. It is with this end in view that the Greenwich Village Theatre comes into being." As to the policy : " No set policy will be adhered to regarding the length of plays presented, thus affording greater scope in the matter of selection. Plays by the more important European dramatists hitherto unseen in 76 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY this country will be given. Particular attention is being paid to younger American playwrights this field is full of promise and already some interesting discoveries have been made. Occasionally a classical play will be revived. NEW YORK'S AMATEUR COMEDY CLUB WHILE the Amateur Comedy Club, Inc., of New York, founded 1885, is not directly influenced by Little The- atres, and does not possess a theatre of its own, it is interesting from the point of view of amateur dramatic work because of the record of its productions which are given in various theatres rented for the occasion. It has given six plays by Pinero, which is more than any other organization in this country has done with the work of this particular author. These plays have included The Amazons, Sweet Lavender, The Magistrate, etc. Amongst its other productions have been You Never Can Tell, and How He Lied to Her Husband, by Shaw; The School for Scandal and The Critic, by ShefTdan; London Assurance, by Boucicault ; Sweethearts, Engaged, etc., by W. S. Gilbert. The Maister of Woodbarrow, by Jerome K. Jerome ; Pantaloon, by Sir James Barrie ; One of Our Girls, by Bronson Howard; Held by the Enemy, and All the Comforts of a Home, by William Gillette. These productions repeated plays that had already been made familiar on the professional stage; but in the last few years a genuinely creative rather than an imitative policy has been adopted by the Comedy Club. They gave the first production in America of Dunsany's The Gods of the Mountain, rendered memo- rable alike by its fine inscenation and its fine acting; a 77 78 LITTLE THEATRES OF NEW YORK CITY, first performance of Austin Strong's impressive Drums of Oudh, and of Cleveland Moffat's Greater Than the Law. It also gave an admirable production of Dunsany's The Golden Doom. CHAPTER IV OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE EAST THE RICHMOND HILL PLAYERS THE Richmond Hill Players of Richmond Hill, L. I., established 1916-1917, do not as yet possess a Little Theatre; but they will undoubtedly possess one in the near future for they are working strenuously and successfully for that end. Pending the time when they have a theatre of their own they are using a rented hall near their interesting barn workshop. In taking this hall for their temporary theatre they have had to overcome all manner of difficulties, and they have done so with a spirit which augurs well for their future efforts. The hall, when not in use for the three performances a month given by the Community Players of Richmond Hill, is a Masonic Temple. Scenic effects having depth and verity have to be produced on a stage twelve feet wide and nine feet deep with a proscenium measuring only twenty-four feet. Added to this handi- cap there is a drop curtain which goes with the hall and cannot be removed. This curtain can best be described in the words of Arthur Pollock, literary director of the Players, who says that it looks as if it were painted ;with tomato ketchup. 79 8o OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE EAST Far from allowing themselves to be discouraged by this enforced monstrosity the Players have turned it into an asset for educating their audience. It is a clear case of " Look on that picture and on this." When the ketchup curtain discloses the stage, 'having scenery that is simple in line and lovely in color, the audience gets a distinct impression of what the Players are trying to do. They are trying to banish all that the ketchup curtain stands for. The idea of establishing a Community The- atre at Richmond Hill grew out of the success of a trial performance of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, given in the Winter of 1915-1916. The group who were later to form themselves into the Community Players had been interested from the first in the Wash- ington Square Players and their remarkable achievements in creating beautiful scenery for small cost. The Rich- mond Hill Players decided to do in a small way for their community what the Washington Square Players had done on a larger scale for New York City. There- fore they organized very early in the Autumn of 1916. The group is made up of professionals and ama- teurs, all of whom give their services to the theatre with- out remuneration. This is made possible because they have their performances every five or six weeks instead of every week. This theatre represents the Community Players' avocation, not their vocation. The Community Players, heartened by the reception of their initial effort The Importance of Being Earnest, started a subscription list. Enough was secured from this to cover the first running expenses of the " theatre." THE RICHMOND HILL PLAYERS 81 A barn was hired for a workshop, office, and rehearsal room. Here scenery is painted and costumes made. The Masonic Temple was hired for the performances. The interior of this hall is not so irritating as its proscenium curtain. The walls are cream color and there are fumed oak panels and beams, so that when the scenery devised by Ruth Hambridge or G. B. Ashworth is given to view, and the ketchup curtain banished, there is some sense of completeness. The auditorium seats 342 people. Seventy-five cents and fifty cents was what the Com- munity Players asked for seats for their first perform- ance. This price was lowered to the democratic sum of fifty and twenty-five cents for the next performances with markedly improved results. The first audience was complacent; and the house was not filled. The second audience was homogeneous, and filled every seat in the hall. Any suburb striving for a Community Theatre has to face the fact that people say to themselves, " Oh, I can go to a show in New York for fifty or seventy-five cents, and a better show at that." But at fifty and twenty-five cents this spirit does not so easily arise. Here is drama reasonable-in-price-drama within easy reach, without the trouble of commuting. This is the way an audience is caught, and held when the work is as meri- torious as that done by the Richmond Hill Community Players. " Better a full house at fifty and twenty-five cents than a sparsely filled auditorium at higher rates," said the Community Players, and time has proved that they are right. The sale of tickets added to the sub- 82 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE EAST scription list, covers their running expenses, and leaves them free from worry. The accomplishments of the Richmond Hill Players are twofold: they have formed the nucleus of a Com- munity Theatre : and they have kept the spirit of this theatre free and experimental. It is both a Community Theatre and a " try-out " theatre. One of the actresses has, through her work there, received an offer of a pro- fessional engagement from one of the most progressive and artistic of the younger New York managers dis- tinguished for the worth of his productions. A modern one-act play given its first production by the Community Players, was purchased by a New York manager. As a side light on " costs/* the manager in question equipped this play with a three-thousand-dollar setting. The Community Players had put it on to their own, the author's, and the visiting manager's satisfac- tion for exactly six dollars ! Some of the plays in the repertoire of the Community Players for their first season has been as follows : Crispin, by Le Sage; Such a Charming Young Man, by Zoe Akins ; A House of Cards, Playing with Fire, and Ac- cording to Darwin, by Percival Wilde; At Night All Cats Are Gray, by Robert Garland ; The Prodigal Doll, a mari- onette comedy, by Santiago Rusinol; A Bright Morning f from the Spanish of Quintero. THE WORKSHOP THEATRE OF YONKERS THE Workshop Theatre of Yonkers (1917) is unique in that it is a theatre established by women, and run by them. Young women are the directors and the players, the playwrights, and scenic and costume designers. They have fitted up a pretty little playhouse on Palisade Ave- nue and given several spirited productions. These pro- ductions have been such as children and young people delight in; but like all true fairy tales there has been enough of folk lore in them to make their appeal uni- versal. These plays have been The Sleeping Beauty, The Golden Goose, and The King of Camarand. This theatre has no subscription system. It asks the democratic price of fifty and seventy-five cents for its performances. THE DRAMA LEAGUE PLAYERS OF BUFFALO THE Drama League Players of Buffalo (1917) have fitted up a small stage and installed an adequate lighting system in the Drama League headquarters of that city. During 1917 its stage decorations have been very simple, even sparse. No elaboration has been planned for. Next season experimentation in scenery is to go forward. With real practicality the Drama League Players of Buffalo decided that instead of trying to do too much in any one year they would devote each year a certain sum toward accumulating all that is necessary for their Little The- atre. The Spring of 1917 was therefore given over to acquiring the stage and its lighting equipment. 1917- 1918 will be scenery year, when scenery will be acquired. So many Little Theatres try to do too much all at once, and overreach themselves. The balance and far- sightedness of the Drama League Players of Buffalo are commendable, and make for stability. It is an ama- teur group, with a skilful amateur as director. This group produces one-act plays and leans toward the pro- duction of work by American rather than by foreign playwrights. Their first plays have been The Florist Shop, by Winifred Hawkbridge; The Rescue, by Rita Creighton Smith; and The Neighbors, by Zona Gale. The activities of the Drama League Players of Buffalo are not confined to their own small theatre. The Players 84 DRAMA LEAGUE PLAYERS OF BUFFALO 85 go afield and bring pleasure to people other than Drama League members, as when they presented Zona Gale's significant play, The Neighbors, at the Buffalo Light- house, for the Association of the Blind. As their report quaintly and succinctly puts it : " The Drama League Players wish to be of use to the community." THE LITTLE THEATRE OF ROCHESTER ROCHESTER'S Little Theatre, founded by The .Drama League in February, 1917, is housed in the hall of the Fine Arts building. Its attractive auditorium, decorated in black and white, seats 250 people. The purpose of the Little Theatre players is to produce in a simple and convincing manner interesting and important one-act plays by the world's best dramatists, European or Ameri- can. The Little Theatre frankly announces that it makes no boast of novelty since this idea is being successfully carried out in many other cities. The Little Theatre Players are all amateurs imbued with the love of drama and a relish for hard work. So far the Little Theatre has no director. The Little The- atre Players stage their own plays and design and make their own costumes and scenery. Sincerity and sim- plicity are their watchwords. Their theatre depends upon the public for support. There is no subscription system. The best seats in the house are one dollar. The remaining sets are fifty cents. The performances have been so admirable and met with such response that the Rochester center of the Drama League feels that the founding of this Little Theatre is the most constructive work which they have yet done. Among the plays they have produced are Fancy Free, by Stanley Houghton; Pierrot of the Minute, by Ernest 86 THE LITTLE THEATRE OF ROCHESTER 87 Dowson ; Riders to the Sea, by John Synge ; A Marriage Has Been Arranged, by Alfred Sutro; Kayat, an Arabian Night's episode, by Milton Bond ; The Campden Wonder, by John Masefield, and A Good Woman, by Arnold Bennett. The production of the two last plays was con- sidered by Rochester ians the most successful of the Little Theatre offerings from the point of view of art. The Little Theatre Players give one performance every month. THE PRINCE STREET PLAYERS OF ROCHESTER STILL another group of amateur Players are in Roches- ter, using the Conservatory auditorium for their theatre. They have been organized under the direction of Anna Wynne O'Ryan. These Players are called the Prince Street Players. They also give one-act plays by Euro- pean and American dramatists. /They further announce that they will produce plays which have not had previous production, thus giving the aspiring young dramatist a V chance to see his work acted. / The Prince Street Players have no subscription system'. Their well attended per- formances are given once a month. Seats range from fifty cents to one dollar. Their opening bill consisted of The Noble Lord, by Percival Wilde; A Marriage Pro- posal, by Anton Tchekoff ; A Play in One Word, by Frank C. Egan, and the first act of Lady Windermere's Fan, by Oscar Wilde. The Theatre, which has been remodeled from a quaint stable, seats 260 people. Other plays pro- duced by the Prince Street Players have been Dawn and A House of Cards, by Percival Wilde; The Workhouse Ward, by Lady Gregory; The Supper Scene from Anatol, by Schnitzler; Duty, by Shamus O'Brien; The Locked Chest, by John Masefield; 'Sauce for the Emperor, by John Chapin Mosher. *s THE COMMUNITY PLAYERS OF MONTCLAIR, N. J. THE Community Players of Montclair, N. J., were organized in the Autumn of 1916. They do not yet own a Little Theatre of their own and like the Com- munity Players of Richmond Hill, L. I., have to use local auditoriums for their efforts until a tiny playhouse is secured. Amongst the plays given by them in the Autumn of 1916 was a production of Dunsany's Tents of the Arabs. It had poetic costumes, setting, and ren- dition. 8 9 THE NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYERS OF NEWARK, N. J. THE Neighborhood Players of Newark, N. J., a simi- lar organization, lean more to American plays, and have (given productions of several plays by native authors, notably The Noble Lord, Playing 'with Fire, and A House of Cards, by Percival Wilde; The Alibi, by Wil- liam Hamilton Osborne, of Newark; The Magical City, by Zoe Akins ; and plays by European dramatists, includ- ing Rada, by Alfred Noyes; Sabotage, by d'Estoc; The Glittering Gate and the Lost 'Silk Hat, by Lord Dunsany. The Neighborhood Players have a " studio theatre," with an auditorium designed along studio lines. All seats are reserved. They are fifty cents and one dollar. Performances are given three nights a week, and the bill changed weekly. At the Art Theatre in Moscow the audience is not allowed to applaud. At the Studio Theatre the audience is requested n6t to break in upon the play with applause ; but to applaud only after the curtain has fallen. 90 THE BRIDGEPORT PLAYERS THE Bridgeport Players, organized early in 1917, are working toward obtaining a Little Theatre. They are wholly an amateur group. Their ultimate aim, after they have established a Little Theatre in their city, is to pro- duce good, wholesome plays, and " to perpetuate and uphold the best traditions of the theatre." This Little Theatre is to be " a theatre of the people, by the people, for the people." Its first production consisted of two plays meant tp contrast the new and old schools of comedy. These plays were Barrie's Twelve-Pound Look, and Sheridan's The Rivals. Until such time as the Little Theatre is built the Bridge- port Players are using local theatres for the production of their plays. Several members of the Bridgeport Center of the Drama League are also members or associate mem- bers of the Bridgeport Players; but the founding of the Players is not wholly a Drama League venture. The Bridgeport Players are divided into two groups an active group which will do active service for the the- atre within its four walls; and an associate group who forward the impulse through every means in their power and who help to sustain the Players financially and artis- tically by their presence as audience. THE McCALLUM THEATRE OF NORTHAMPTON (MASS.) A THEATRE where seats are free ! Not a private theatre where a select few are put on an invitation list. Not a college theatre, or an institutional theatre, or a work- shop theatre, or a settlement theatre, or a philanthropy; but a genuine Little Theatre with a permanent company and a well-known stage manager as director a theatre where any one who loves the art of the stage may attend an evening of poetic plays or Shavian plays, or decora- tive plays as freely as he may attend a public library, or an art museum. Only in this case he goes to see not a static art but a living art the art of the theatre. This free theatre is one of America's unique contributions to the rapidly growing list of differentiated Little Theatres that we have in our midst today. The town that boasts such a theatre is Northampton, Mass., a place that Jenny Lind called the Paradise of America. The famous songstress spent her honeymoon there, and Paradise Road was named in memory of the compliment she paid the town. What more natural than that Paradise Road should be the street on which this / free theatre is situated. It is a gift of the townspeople ] from a public-spirited citizen, Mr. George B. McCallum, \ and it is called after its owner, The McCallum Theatre. It exists solely to awaken public interest in the finer things 92 McCALLUM THEATRE OF NORTHAMPTON 93 of drama. We have free libraries to inculcate love of literature; free art galleries to awaken a love for the best in art, why not a free theatre so that every one can know what is being done along the lines of modern the- atre literature as well as along the lines of modern lighting and scenery? At any rate, this is Mr. McCallum's idea and he has developed some remark- able results. Northampton has playfully been hailed as the dramatic Bayreuth of the United States because although it is a small city it possesses three forces that work for drama Smith College, with its fine yearly production of a play the admirable Northampton Stock Company the on< and only municipal theatre in America; and thirdly, th< unique McCallum free theatre. Each of these has its own field. Mr. McCallum's theatre does not compete with the Northampton Municipal Theatre, because the latter produces plays that are in the main Broadway suc- cesses; while the plays given in Mr. McCallum's Little Theatre are those of Maeterlinck, Dowson, Galsworthy, and Synge. The McCallum Theatre exists not for the college girl who has mental stimulus all the year round; but for the townsfolk of Northampton in order that they may interest themselves in the newer manifesta- tion of theatre art. Mr. McCallum believed that there was enough dramatic talent lying dormant in the Connecticut River Valley to form a group which should be to the Valley what the Irish Players are to Dublin with one exception. The Irish Players give plays of Irish life. Mr. McCallum 94 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE EAST decided that his players should give plays by European dramatists rather than by American dramatists because the Northampton Theatre is already keeping the work of American dramatists before the public. Thus the policy of the McCallum Theatre may be said to be a " foreign policy." But in spite of its " foreign policy " anything more democratic than this theatre is hard to imagine or any- thing more original than the way in which the company of community players were drawn together. In order not to have the company represent a special social set or " group," Mr. McCallum advertised in the daily paper in September, 1916, saying in effect that all those who were interested enough in the art of community acting to be willing to work hard for it would meet on a certain evening to " try out " for parts with the director of the proposed Little Theatre. Every one was welcome. Mr. McCallum's name did not appear in connection with the advertisement. No one guessed that he had any- thing to do with it. How deep-rooted the love of drama is was shown by the result. Northampton is a conserva- tive New England town, of strong Puritan tradition, but seventy people answered the advertisement, people from all ranks of life. Nor were they all young people. Love of drama is not confined to the early twenties. The early forties take just as keen an interest in it. From the seventy applicants thirty-two were selected to form the nucleus of the permanent company. The artist chosen as director of the theatre was Francis Powell, well known for his work as stage manager with McCALLUM THEATRE OF NORTHAMPTON 95 Sothern and Marlowe and as coach of the Harvard Dra- matic Club. Merit was the touchstone of decision for enrolment in the McCallum Theatre company. Members were chosen according to what they could do, not according to who they were. The company was largely made up of people who had never met before, and this Mr. McCallum be- lieves does away with self-consciousness. It certainly does away with class-consciousness, that stumbling-block of united effort ! Very few of the people had had experi- ence in amateur dramatics. To put them through a rigorous training, to get unity and smoothness of per- formance out of elements new and dissimilar was Powell's " job." The eagerness with which these problems were attacked was a credit to every one concerned. The open- ing performance showed team work, and inscenation equal to the best in Little Theatre standards. People were astonished at the finished work that could be done by amateurs under professional guidance. Yet it has always been Mr. McCallum's dictum that all actors were once amateurs save those who come from professional families where acting begins in the cradle ! Since the McCallum Theatre is a free gift to the public no one connected with it receives a salary save the direc- tor, on whose shoulders the strenuous part of the work falls. The scenery, costumes, and properties are provided by Mr. McCallum as well as the theatre itself. The the- atre occupies the top floor of Mr. McCallum's residence. It seats 250 people. Its woodwork, beam ceiling, latticed 96 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE EAST windows, and bench-like seats arranged in tiers are in mission brown. Rehearsals take place every afternoon and evening. Each one-act play has its own evening and its own hour of rehearsal. Strict attendance on rehearsals is abso- lutely obligatory. It is also required that each member of the company be a citizen or citizeness of Northampton. No casual members from outside are admitted. Meanwhile there was the problem of how the free tickets were to be distributed. Since each member of the cast gave his or her services to the theatre each mem- ber was entitled to five tickets, and each member repre- sented some different element in Northampton. This meant that as many varying groups of people as possible received tickets. But to make " certainty doubly cer- tain " Mr. McCallum had a mailing list arranged which should reach all Northampton's townsfolk in rotation. Thus the elements of a free theatre were assured. After the play is over refreshments are served down- stairs, and people linger to discuss what they have seen, and as proof of the socializing force of the theatre, townspeople meet fellow townspeople whom otherwise they might never have known, had they not discovered interests in common. Postcards are distributed on which the audience is requested to send in criticisms of the plays or questions about them or preferences for other dramas which might be produced in the future. These postcards are not signed in order that expression of approval or disapproval may be perfectly free. On each program there is a serious comedy, a farce, McCALLUM THEATRE OF NORTHAMPTON 9 7 a poetic play, or a play of ideas. Sometimes a decora- tive play is substituted for a poetic play, that is, a play depending absolutely on its picture qualities. One of the most successful of these was a Chinese play, The Turtle Dove, by Margaret Scott Oliver, where the proscenium arch was arranged in the outlines of a Chinese jar, and the scenes, exquisite in their coloring, took place on the outside of the jar like figures in bas-relief. Other plays of special interest, scenically and dramati- cally, have been The Book of Tobet, with severely simple setting and Biblical costumes rich in color ; Earnest Dow- son's Pierrot of the Minute, staged in black and white, the garden set having black walls on which fantastic white flowers were stenciled. The bench, the statue, and Pierrot and his lady love were in white. To have tried to depict a real garden would have crowded the small stage, so a garden was suggested, and by suggestion caught the spirit of the piece. Strindberg's The Stronger had a poster setting, a cafe with an oddly striped wainscot and above the wainscot were panels, each panel stenciled with a bird in a cage. Of the productions of the McCallum Theatre Mr. Clayton Hamilton has said : " The acting is far above the average, and the mise en scene is more than usually meritorius." It is to be hoped that the time will come when this country may have free art theatres as well as free art museums and libraries. The McCallum Theatre has led the way in this direction. It has many excellencies, and so far as can be discovered, only one fault. On its nar- 98 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE EAST row golden-brown programs appear the names of the various one-act plays ; yet the names of the authors who have created these plays are never given. Thus through an evening people can be left in doubt as to whether they are listening to Rudolph Besier or Stephen Leacock. Amongst the plays produced at the McCallum Theatre have been Lithuania, by Rupert Brooke; The Good Woman, by George Middleton; The Maker of Dreams, by Oliphant Down ; Suppressed Desires, by George Cram Cooke and Susan Glaspell; Pierrot of the Minute, by Arthur Dowson; The Little Man, by John Galsworthy; Roses, by Sudermann ; The Post Office, by Tagore ; The Stronger, by Strindberg. Some account of Northampton's better-known Munici- pal Theatre, which is not a Little Theatre, may be found in the Appendix. THE LITTLE THEATRE OF PHILADELPHIA THE Little Theatre of Philadelphia, under the direc- tion of Miss Beulah E. Jay, was built by her in 1913 " for the purpose of giving each season a repertoire of the most interesting plays of all types by the most rep- resentative authors ; revivals of old plays and new plays : a theatre where the finest traditions of the stage will live and be fostered." No Little Theatre in the United States has clung more tenaciously to the idea for which it was established than has the Little Theatre of Philadelphia. It is one of the best arranged Little Theatres in this country. Its auditorium, charmingly decorated in brown and old gold, seats 330 people: its adequate stage is equipped with every new device of the theatre save the horizont. It has the newest effects in lighting and inscen- ation; it has a built-in tank by means of which the whole stage can be flooded with water. An unusual regatta- scene in one play made use of this innovation. The permanent Little Theatre company is made up of professionals and gifted amateurs; while from time to time special engagements have been played by well-known companies. These Have included Annie Russell and her company; Lucien Bonheur and his company; Rudolph Christian and the German company from the Irving Place Theatre, New York; as well as the Washington Square Players. 99 ioo OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE EAST Both long plays and one-act plays by American and foreign authors have been given. Foreign authors have achieved a greater number of productions than have American authors. Two original pantomimes with decorative scenery have been given. One of these was Yoku-Ki, by Florence Bernstein, and the other The King of the Black Isles, by Sarah Yarrow. This Little Theatre does not make a point of producing new plays, as do many of the other Little Theatres; still it has had some very interesting first performances to its credit, including Tomorrow, by Percy Mackaye, and His Majesty the Fool, by Charlton Andrews. Another point in which the Little Theatre of Phila- delphia differs from its contemporaries is in the fact that it has no subscription system. It depends upon regu- lar patrons. The price of seats runs from fifty cents to two dollars. The scenic effects are designed by Philadelphia artists, and are admirably done. The repertoire has included plays by Bernard Shaw, Henry Arthur Jones, Maeterlinck, Dunsany, Ibsen, Oscar Wilde, Frank Wedekind, St. John Hankin, and Josephine Preston Peabody. PLAYS AND PLAYERS OF PHILADELPHIA THE association known as Plays and Players was founded by Miss Emily R. Perkins in Philadelphia in 191 1. The organization is composed of experienced ama- teurs and a few professionals. They produce about twenty plays a year by European and American dram- atists, giving a yearly total of fifty performances^ These performances are given on their own small stage, and at various theatres rented for the occasion. They are of a uniformly high order. The Players have been acting together for six years, and their work shows the result in its unity and balance. The only source of revenue comes from the dues of active and associate members, and this amounts to five thousand dollars a year. The plays are produced under the direction of different members. Scenery and costumes are sometimes designed by students or instructors of the Philadelphia School of Design. Mr. J. Howard Reber, now president of the Drama League of America, was at one time president of Plays and Players, and Mr. Henry B. Schaffer, Jr., is the secretary and general manager. Plays and Players have recently purchased the site for a Little Theatre, and the building will be opened in the Autumn of 1917. The stage will be sixty-four feet wide by twenty-five 101 i62 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE EAST feet deep, having an opening of thirty feet, and tHe audi- torium, seating approximately 500, by a simple process may be transformed into a level floor. There will be several rehearsal rooms, library, kitchen, and office. The general scheme of architecture will be of the Elizabethan period. Plays and Players have produced during the past five years among many others, the following plays : The Learned Ladies, by Moliere ; The Ideal Husband, by Oscar Wilde ; The Campden Wonder, by Masefield ; Noah's Flood and Nice Wanton (XIV and XV Century Miracle and Morality Plays) ; What the Doctor Ordered, by A. E. Thomas ; What the Public Wants, by Arnold Bennett ; Comus, by John Milton; Master Pierre Patelin (a French comedy of 1464) ; The Doctor's Dilemma, by G. Bernard Shaw ; The Little Stone House, by George Calderon ; The Son and Heir, by Gladys Unger; 'Op-o'-Me-Thumb, by Frederick Fenn and Richard Pryce ; Dolly Reforming Her- self, by Henry Arthur Jones ; The House Next Door, by J. Hartley Manners ; The Post-Office, by Rabindranath Tagore; Lithuania, by Rupert Brooke; The Contrast (the first American comedy), by Royall Tyler; and Tents of the Arabs, by Lord Dunsany. In addition to the plays just mentioned, a partial list of the authors represented to the present time is as follows : Lady Gregory, Suderman, Yeats, Schnitzler, J. M. Bar- rie, Middleton, Strindberg, Beulah Marie Dix, Debussy, Houghton, Noyes, Vrehlicky, Brieux, Dunsany, Mapes, Sutro, Grundy, J. Palmer, Elizabeth Baker, and Tchekoff. CHAPTER V THE LITTLE THEATRES OF CHICAGO f CHICAGO, the largest city in the West, has three Little \ TKeatres, each one having a strong note of individuality. \ Taken separately they represent three distinct types of theatres. Maurice Browne's pioneer Little Theatre rep- resents the repertory art theatre; the Workshop The- atre represents the localistic experimental theatre; the Hull House Theatre with the Hull House Players repre- j sents the sociological THE LITTLE THEATRE OF CHICAGO these theatres Maurice Browne's Little Theatre I was the first to be established in 1911-1912. ^t is located/ on the fourth floor of the Fine Arts building on Michigan Avenue, (us charming interior is white outlined in gold, and there are dark green seats. The auditorium is long and narrow. The seating capacity is ninety-one. From the day of its founding Mr. Browne, in the face of seemingly insurmountable difficulties, has held to the idea for which this Little Theatre was established."}It was not as easy to make a success of a Little Theatre in 1912 as it is in 1917. There was no public ready and 103 104 THE LITTLE THEATRES OF CHICAGO waitingfor the non-commercial fare Mr. Browne had to offer, \fcle had to fight the early prejudice that labeled a Little Theatre " Dangerous ! Beware of Highbrowism." It is a thousand times easier to succeed with the Little Theatre today than it was when Mr. Browne first sought to establish his. People have become used to the idea of Little Theatres. They are no longer looked upon as strange and impractical*' Maurice Browne's Little Theatre is thus described by its founder : " It is a repertory and experimental art theatre producing classical and modern plays, both tragedy and comedy, at popular prices. Preference is given in its productions to poetic and imaginative plays, dealing primarily whether as tragedy or comedy with character in action. . . . The Chicago Little Theatre has for its object the creation of a new plastic and rhythmic drama in America." The Little Theatre is supported by a membership of some 400 people who pay an annual subscription of ten dollars, and by the sale of seats to the general public. The subscribers who pay ten dollars a year are admitted to, all performances of the Little Theatre Company with- out charge, and to all other entertainments given in the Little Theatre at half price. Admission is one dollar. So admirably have the finances been managed that the Little Theatre, which began with an indebtedness of $10,500, was able to pay off fifty-five per cent, of its debt after three months' work. And this work included the production of plays produced primarily for love of art and not for love of gain. The plays were simply and THE LITTLE THEATRE OF CHICAGO 105 beautifully staged at surprisingly low cost. It is an eagle's feather in the cap of Mr. Browne that eighteen performances were given and well given in his tiny theatre for a total of $868.62 ! The staff and players at the Little Theatre number approximately thirty-five people. (The company is semi- pro fessionalT^Ul those who have completed two years' consecutive service with the theatre receive a small salary averaging ten dollars weekly. During the first three and a half years of the Little Theatre's existence no salary was Jn excess of sixteen dollars and fifty cents a week. ^The Little Theatre produces plays by European and American authors^>One-act plays and three and four- act plays have been produced in about equal numbers. ^Among the greatest successes of the Little Theatre have been the remarkable production of Euripides, The Trojan Women\thidi antedated Granville Barker's and other "art productions of this time-defying drama; the beautiful and reverent Christmas mystery play done in silhouette {and from the point of view of scenic art Maurice Browne's The King of the Jews, and Maurice Baring's Catherine Parr. Mr. Browne is stage director as well as moving spirit of the Little Theatre and C. Ray- mond Johnson his art director!^ Mr. Johnson has de- signed the investiture for all of the Little Theatre's most significant productions. The Trojan Women was a triumph for the Little The- atre because it brought the vasty deeps of that ancient tragedy into a small playhouse onto a small stage and yet gave the illusion of bigness. There was fine breadth io6 THE LITTLE THEATRES OF CHICAGO and sweep to the acting; the poses of the chorus were plastic and pictorial. Its stern simplicity was far more moving than Granville Barker's more elaborate pro duction. The Little Theatre produced The Trojan Women dur- ing the season of 1912-1913. It was the first produc- tion of this play in America. It was revived by the Little Theatre Company during the season of 1913-1914 In the course of both these seasons it was played in sev- eral other American cities by the same company, who revived it again during the season 1914-1915, and tourec the country with it from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast The Trojan Women had one scene throughout: A massive stone wall lost to view beyond the line of the proscenium arch, formed the background. This stone wall, jaggedly cleft in the center, showed the sky beyond Not only were the massive squares of stone that formec the wall played on by different lights as the play pro- ceeded; but the sky beyond the jagged cleft changec gradually from the intense blue of full day to the softer colors of dusk, thus giving differentiation. The red o1 the flaming city also flared beyond this cleft, and char- acters entering or leaving the scene stood out in dark silhouette against the fiery background. It was a scenic triumph made possible largely through its remarkable lighting. The Christmas Mystery Play was given totally in sil- houette, with the figures of the New Testament story moving in flat shadow bas-relief against the curtain. This shadow play was lit from the back. The slightest Photograph by Eugene Hutchinson The Sermon on the Mount at MAURICE BROWN'S LITTLE THEATRE, CHICAGO. From Moderwell's The Theatre of To-day (Lane). By permission. Part of the Auditorium of THE HULL HOUSE THEAIRE, CHICAGO. THE LITTLE THEATRE OF CHICAGO 107 miscalculation of distance or of lighting would have wrought havoc with it; but it was from first to last superbly done. Looking at it one felt that this was perhaps the only way in which the story of the New Testament could be told without offense. The characters were not substantial flesh and blood, but figures of strange mystery, moving as in a dream. Mr. Johnson's work as a colorist was seen to advan- tage in his costume effects for Maurice Browne's King of the Jews. Here color became a symbol, as in the harsh red and gold of the Roman guard. The costume of Judas, a sinister muddy green combined with muddy lavender, gave his vivid red hair and beard a startling effect. Caiphas was curiously effective in purplish gray and ochre. The Little Theatre is fortunate in its decora- tions. The banquet hall scene, designed for Maurice Baring's Catherine Parr, was memorable for its greenish- blue banquet table and greenish-blue high-back banquet chairs set against the background of heavy bluish-purple curtains. These curtains parted to display a flat Rein- hardtesque wall of apple green. Still another strange and regal effect was attained through a Little Theatre design of purple banquet chairs and table placed against the background of dark green hangings that parted on the flat wall flooded with yellow light. 4j was a dictum of August Strindberg's that no Little Theatre with a small stage could ever present outdoor scenes successfully. The Chicago Little Theatre has shattered this idea by a design made by its art director for a midsummer wood. This design was recently ex- io8 THE LITTLE THEATRES OF CHICAGO hibited in New York. It showed a scene flooded with the bluish white of moonlight. There was a shallow stage and a back drop of faint bluish white. In the cen- ter of this back drop was a great creamy midsummer moon, round and low-lying, just coming up over the rim of the midsummer dusk. One great dark branchless tree trunk soared up beyond the proscenium arch, and was lost to view. To look at this scene was to feel that in a moment Titania and her fairy revelers would appear. It was of magic loveliness, yet simplicity itself/^ Mr. Browne's Little Theatre has been a potent influ- ence in the art of the West and its players, many of whom are now appearing in other Little Theatres, are spreading the non-commercial gospel for which he stands. The repertory of the Chicago Little Theatre has in- cluded the following plays: The Trojan Women and Medea, by Euripides ; Hedda Gabler and Rosmersholm, by Ibsen; Creditors and The Stronger, by Strindberg; Anatol, by Schnitzler; The Happy Prince, by Oscar Wilde, dramatized by Lou Wall Moore and Margaret T. Allen; Delphine Declines, by Leonard Merrick, dramatized by Oren Taft; The Pixy, The Moth- ers, and The Subjection of Kezia, by Mrs. Havelock Ellis ; On Bailees Strand and The Shadowy Waters, by W. B. Yeats ; The Philanderer, by George Bernard Shaw ; Women- kind, by W. W. Gibson; Joint Owners in Spain, by Alice Brown ; Catherine Parr, by Maurice Baring ; The Maker of Dreams, by Oliphant Down; Mr. and Mrs. P. Roe, by Martyn Johnson; The Fifth Commandment, by Stanley Houghton ; The Constant Lover, by St. John Hankin ; Jael, by Florence Kiper Frank; The Lost Silk Hat, by Lord Dunsany; Columbine (also produced as a puppet play), by THE LITTLE THEATRE OF CHICAGO 109 Reginald Arkell; The Deluded Dragon (a puppet play), by Harriet Edgerton and Ellen Van Vo&enburg, and The Chi- cago Little Theatre Passion Play (in pantomime and in silhouette). Most of the above plays were produced at The Little Theatre for the first time in America, many for the first time on any stage. THE WORKSHOP THEATRE OF CHICAGO CERTAINLY no Little Theatre in the United States gets the work of its theatre group more surely and quickly before the public than does the Workshop Theatre of Chicago, a Little Theatre with an enthusiastic following and with a strong note of individuality in its efforts. The Workshop Theatre opened in igiii._ Its policy is to give first performances only. It will produce only plays written by Chicago authors, acted by Chicago ama- teurs, with scenic effects and costumes designed by Chi- cago artists. No others need apply! The Workshop Theatre is absolutely localistic and glories in the fact. The programs are given one week in each month, run- ning six consecutive nights. The Workshop Theatre began without any money merely a printed announcement that it intended to be an experimental theatre where ideas could be worked out in actual practice. The theatre would finance itself through two groups, one composed of active and the other of associate members. The dues for membership were exceedingly low. Active members included all those who wanted to write plays, act in plays, or produce plays : also all those who wanted to experiment with scenery, properties and costumes. For these members the initia- tion fee was five dollars, with monthly dues of one dollar. These dues entitled the members to two tickets for the THE WORKSHOP THEATRE OF CHICAGO in program of the month and as many guest tickets at fifty cents as they cared to use. Associate members, were to pay monthly dues of one dollar, which entitled them to two tickets for the program of the month and as many guest tickets as they cared to use at fifty cents each. These were the rates outlined in the Workshop Theatre's first prospectus and they have not changed since. Applications to join the Workshop Theatre poured in. How speedily people became interested is attested by the fact that after one year's work the Workshop Theatre had 100 active members, and 100 associate members. It has entirely financed itself. There is no deficit. More- over, it runs straight through the year, Summer and Winter. It is the only Little Theatre on record that does this. No one connected with the theatre receives any salary whatsoever. While the Workshop Theatre is essentially an amateur theatre it numbers several professionals in its actors and its members include both known and unknown playwrights. Amongst the former may be mentioned Alice Gerstenberg, author of Overtones and Alice in Wonderland; Mary Aldis, author of 'Plays for Small Stages; Kenneth Goodman and Ben Hecht, well-known one-act play dramatists. The Workshop Theatre produces one-act plays and pantomimes. Occasionally a full evening is given of one author's work an exceedingly interesting experiment. The artists most actively connected with the theatre are ii2 THE LITTLE THEATRES OF CHICAGO J. Blanding Sloan and Charles P. Larsen. Most of the stage designs, whether simple or exotic, are the work of Blanding Sloan, who combines a keen sense of color values with an equally keen sense of economy. It is interesting to note that this theatre in fourteen months has given twelve new performances, has produced thirty- one new plays. Ten performances of three one-act plays each have been given for $2,000. And this $2,000 in- cludes rent, light, printing, scenery, costumes, and acces- sories. The costumes and scenery are designed and made in the Workshop Theatre's studios. The auditorium of the Little Theatre which the Work- shop Players have arranged, seats eighty people normally ; but it can and often does without undue crowding seat 100 people. The stage measures seventeen by fifteen feet. The proscenium arch is twelve feet high. Every one connected with the theatre has a free hand whenever his or her work is under way. The Work- shop welcomes " the dramatist seeking new effects, and the radical in stagecraft, who will be given a chance to prove his ideas, working with fellow artists and assist- ants, mutually interested in testing, under favorable con- ditions, one another's efforts to secure variety and beauty along new lines." The producing of the play as well as the acting of the play is divided among the members. Usually an author produces his own play, though this custom does not always obtain. The same group of players, numbering from twelve to eighteen, appear in the consecutive plays of one week's bill while the next group is rehearsing. THE WORKSHOP THEATRE OF CHICAGO 113 This enables the audience to see each player in several parts. Plays tried out on the little stage of the Chicago Work- shop Theatre have since been acted at many other Little Theatres. One of them was given by the Washington Square Players; another by the Workshop Theatre in New York; still others at various Little Theatres in the East and West. The Workshop Theatre of Chicago is essentially an original and practical theatre. From the first it has been a theatre of " deeds not words." It has not talked about getting a thing done; it has done it. There is nothing sporadic in its work. It pushes evenly toward its goal. It makes certain promises and fulfils them. It is a hive of industry and of unflagging energy, and it deserves its popular as well as its artistic success. It puts artist, play- wright, and actor in touch with their public at a minimum cost and at a minimum expenditure of time and effort. The repertoire of this admirable Little Theatre has included the following plays : 1916 Brown, by Maxwell Bodenheim and William Saphier; The Home Coming and The Wonder Hat, by Ben Hecht and Kenneth Sawyer Goodman; Ten Minutes, by Oren Taft, Jr. ; Pierrot in the Clear of the Moon (a pantomime by Gretchen Riggs) ; An Idyll of the Shops, by Ben Hecht and Kenneth Goodman; A Man Can Only Do His Best, by Kenneth Goodman ; The Red Flag, by Kenneth Goodman ; The Hero of Santa Maria, by Ben Hecht and Kenneth Good- man; Dregs, by Ben Hecht; Civilisation, by Elisha Cook; Snow-White, by Marie L. Marsh; The War Gamely Alice iH THE LITTLE THEATRES OF CHICAGO Gerstenberg and Rienzi de Cordova ; The Magnet, by Mary Corse ; The Man, by Oren Taft, Jr. ; The Pot-Boiler, by Alice Gerstenberg; The Lullaby, by Louise Hubbard. 1917 Poet's Heart, by Maxwell Bodenheitn; The Children of To-Morrow, by Maude Moore-Clement; How Very Shock- ing, by Julian Thompson; Mrs. Margaret Calhoun, by Ben Hecht and Maxwell Bodenheim; Skeletons Out of the Closet, by Elisha Cook; You Can't Get Away From It, by Frederick Bruegger; Rumor, by Frederick Bruegger; Out of the Dark, by Donovan Yeuell; Tonsils, by Marie L. Marsh; No Sabe, by Elisha Cook; Where But in America!, by Arthur Munro; Banbury Cross, by Frederick Bruegger. THE HULL HOUSE THEATRE THE Hull House Theatre, the first and most important settlement theatre established in the United States, is an example of the Little Theatre with sociological aspects. By far the greater number of plays given in this theatre by the Hull House Players have a definite social idea back of them. They are constructive plays. This does not mean that the smiling face of the muse of comedy is turned away from the Hull House Theatre, or that plays are not given there which depend on their sheer beauty of effect. There is room for Ben Jonson's Sad Shepherd and W. S. Gilbert's lively Engaged, or Shaw's You Never Can Tell. But in the main the plays pro- duced by that very capable and interesting group, the Hull House Players, are dramas voicing the problems and unrest and passionate strivings of today, the adjust- ments and readjustments of modern life. Galsworthy, Ibsen, Masefield, Sowerby, Kenyon, and St. John Ervine are the authors whose plays best express what the Hull House Theatre stands for. It is interpretative of strug- gle, of the knowledge of bitter inequalities, of valiant aspirations. The theatre seats 230. Its plain interior has walls of dull red brick. The proscenium curtain is dull red with a decorative border. There is a balcony but no boxes. There are frescoes on all sides, mural paintings filled with the ideas which dominate the theatre's productions. The "5 ii6 THE LITTLE THEATRES OF CHICAGO young Lincoln is seen at work on one panel; while on another, his white beard blowing in the wind, is Count Leo Tolstoy and his plow. The Hull House Players are a group of amateurs with professional standards, who work during the day, and devote their leisure hours to acting, under the direction of Laura Dainty Pelham. The organization was founded in JU^QG and has con- tinued ever since. The interest of the members is as keen as in the beginning. For a long time membership in the company was limited to fourteen. But recently this limit has been set aside, and the Players are besieged with applications from ambitious amateurs eager to join their ranks. Talent combined with a capac- ity for hard and eager work is the touchstone of ad- mittance to the ranks of the Hull House Players. The price of seats in the Hull House Theatre ranges from twenty-five to fifty cents. The audiences are com- posed partly of the people of the neighborhood, and partly of people from uptown with whom it has become a custom to dine in the Hull House coffee house before attending the performance of the Hull House Players. The Hull House Players use simple, unobtrusive scen- ery. Now and again elaborate sets are designed for them as in the third and fourth scenes of Shaw's Great Catherine, designed by J. Blanding Sloan and Charles P. Larsen, who have also designed scenery for the Work- shop Theatre in Chicago. In the main, however, the Hull House Players- place more stress on the acting of their plays than on stage decorations. THE HULL HOUSE THEATRE 117 The work of the Players is so good, so sincere and unstriving, that some one has aptly said it is like the work of a genuine folk theatre. The fame of the Players has spread far beyond the confines of their own theatre. They often play engagements at colleges, at country clubs, and give performances for various out of town organizations, as well as special performances in other theatres. The money earned by the Players is partly put back into the theatre to defray running expenses; and partly used for deserving causes. The money earned by the Players during 1912-1913, amounting to $3,600, was spent by the Players on a European tour. The Players visited London, the Shakespeare country, Paris, Holland, and spent six days in Ireland, where they gave a per- formance at Dublin Castle under the patronage of Lord and Lady Aberdeen. Among the innovations of the Players was a four nights' run of one-act plays by Chicago authors. These plays included The Other Dan, by Oren Taft, Jr.; Case No. 34, by Mary Aldis; The Poem of David, by Ken- neth S. Goodman and Ben Hecht; Mr. and Mrs. P. Roe, by Martin Johnson. The first three of these plays were produced by the Hull House Players for the first time on any stage. Rutherford and Son, by Githa Sowerby, received its first production in Chicago by the Hull House Players; The Walking Delegate, by Hilda Satt, and Punishment, by Louise Burleigh and Edward Bierstadt, also received their first production by the Hull HOUSQ Players. ii8 THE LITTLE THEATRES OF CHICAGO Mrs. Pelham considers that the greatest successes of the Players have been made in Galsworthy's Justice, Kenyon's Kindling, and Lady Gregory's Irish plays. While the Hull House Players are the dominating factors of the Hull House Theatre, they are not the only players who tread its boards. Like the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, the Hull House Theatre has other activities going on beneath its roof. Italian, Rus- sian, and Greek companies appear there from time to time, giving plays in their own tongue. There is a Puppet Theatre for children, run by the Marionette Club, which gives fairy plays for children. There is also a Children's or Young People's Theatre which gives performances every Saturday afternoon. When the plays produced are for young people, then such dramas as Josephine Pea- body's The Piper, Housman and Barker's Prunella, Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night are given. The Piper was extraordinarily well staged, with costumes jocund in color and posteresque scenery. A whole series of matinees for children have been given on Saturday afternoons, with an admittance fee of five cents. The children came in eager hordes, proving they would rather spend their five cents on actual drama than on the movies. Among the plays produced at these matinees were adaptations of The Sleeping Beauty, The Frog Prince, 'The Golden Goose, The Shoe- maker and the Elves, The Bird with a Broken Wing, made by residents of Hull House. Also produced at these matinees were Where Love Is, by Leo Tolstoy; The Christmas Guest, Nimble Wit and Fingerkin, an4 THE HULL HOUSE THEATRE 119 The Gooseherd and the Goblin, by Constance D'Arcy Mackay. It would take volumes to include all the plays given in the Hull House Theatre. A partial list of the plays given by the significant Hull House Players is here appended, since the Players are the chief jewel in the theatre's crown. A Mountain Pink, by Morgan Bates and Elwyn Barren ; Engaged, and Pygmalion and Galatea, by W. S. Gilbert; Kerry, by Boucicault; School, by Robertson; The Sad Shepherd, by Ben Jonson; Trelawney of the Wells, by Pinero; You Never Can Tell, by Shaw; The Amazons, by Pinero ; The Devil's Disciple, by Shaw ; Pillars of Society, by Ibsen; The Palace of Truth, by Gilbert; The Liar, by Foote; The Slave, by Towse; The School-mistress, by Pinero; The Silver Box, by Galsworthy; Justice, by Gals- worthy ; The Pigeon, by Galsworthy ; Kindling, by Kenyon ; The Tragedy of Nan, by Masefield; Riders to the Sea, by Synge ; and the following plays by Lady Gregory : Spread- ing the News, Workhouse Ward, Rising of the Moon, Gra- nia and Dervogillia. Also Mixed Marriage and Magnani- mous Lover, by St. John Ervine ; Punishment, by Burleigh and Bierstadt ; Victims, by Edward Lowrey ; Great Cather- ine, by Shaw; Old Letters, by Bronson Howard; The Drone, by Rutherford Mayne; The Neighbors, by Zona Gale ; The Leadin' Road to Donegal, by Seumas MacManus ; How He Lied to Her Husband, by Bernard Shaw ; Marse Covington, by George Ade ; Manacles, by H. K. Moderwell ; By-Products, by Joseph Medill Patterson; The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde ; The Man of Destiny, by Shaw ; Rosalind, by J. M. Barrie ; Mr. Sampson, by Charles Lee ; Rutherford and Son, by Githa Sowerby ; Hazel Kirke, by Steele Mackaye. CHAPTER VI OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST THE PLAYHOUSE OF LAKE FOREST, ILLINOIS THE Playhouse of Lake Forest, 111., a constructive Little Theatre, was established in the Summer of 1911 by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Aldis. It is interesting not only for the pioneer work it does but also because it repre- sents a dwelling house turned into a theatre, a thing that any town can copy any town, that is, that has initiative and love of art. Next door to the house in which Mrs. Aldis lives was a small frame house set invitingly in the midst of lawn and trees. The partitions and ceilings of this house were pulled out; the lean-to kitchen made into a stage; dress- ing-rooms were added, and behold, a theatre! It was dubbed "The Playhouse." It seats 100 people. Its interior decorations are in two tones of brown. Here every Summer since 1911 a group of gifted ama- teurs who make their home at Lake Forest, act in the plays and design the scenery and costumes. Most of the scenic work has been done by Raymond Johnson, Mrs. Aldis, and Allen Phillbrick. Many of the plays are 121 122 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST written by the players themselves ; still others translated, or made for the occasion; while adaptations from short stories in current magazines have been fairly frequent. There is no subscription system at the Playhouse. Nor are seats to be obtained by the general public. Admis- sion is by invitation only. The Playhouse and the Lake Forest Players are a fine example of community work. They have had few frets and jars such as beset the part of amateurs working with- out a director. For there is no director at the Lake Forest Playhouse. The final results are obtained through letting the amateur actor get under the skin of his part, and interpret it as he feels that it should be interpreted. Two rules are posted in the green room: Keep Your Temper and Return Your Manuscript. As to the selection of plays, the Lake Forest Players strive to give their audiences plays that they will not be likely to see in any commercial playhouse. Since the stage of the Playhouse is small, static plays plays in which the action is mental rather than physical are chosen in preference to any other. Plays with a plot which necessitates a great deal of action are not in favor with the Lake Forest Players. Neither are " punch " plays with their requisite emotional acting. It is the belief of Mrs. Aldis, as it is with a growing number of Little Theatre enthusiasts, that the static drama, the drama of the soul, is the most intense of all. This, of course, is bound to remain a mooted question. Certainly it makes things easier for the dramatist if he escapes the PLAYHOUSE OF LAKE FOREST, ILLINOIS 123 scene a faire, which is always the most difficult to write, and with a play dealing with " soul " the dramatist can always escape from having " plot." On this battle-ground the intellectual wars of the Little Theatre will be waged during the next decade. The settings for the Playhouse are for the most part realistic rather than suggestive. Along these lines some excellent effects have been given, telling in their sim- plicity. As example, the setting for Mrs. Aldis' play Extreme Unction, designed by Mrs. Aldis, showed a bed in a hospital ward. On three sides of the bed were screens hung with antiseptic sheets. Against this white background the characters of the play stood out as if in sharp bas-relief as they made their exits or entrances. The policy as to choice of plays has materially influ- enced the acting of the Lake Forest Players. Unity, simplicity, and naturalness are what they strive for. They do not try to rival the professional stage in any way. What they do strive to give and what they succeed in giving is a straightforward, sincere rendering of the parts intrusted to them. Several times the Lake Forest Pfeyers have given performances at Little Theatres in other cities, and always this unstriving quality in their work has met with appreciation. Commenting on their performance at the Toy Theatre in Boston, H. T. Parker of the Boston Transcript had this to say and it explains the best effects of any group of truly creative amateurs : ' Time and again amateurs attain simplicty because they do not suspect intricacy, and truth because they see it and embody it in their acting with no veils of habit. 124 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST method, or precedent. Given histrionic instinct, aptitude, and observation, they act with ease, freedom, and variety, and with full self -surrender to their parts. If the means are not the professional means they do their office which is to bring the personages to life in the terms of the play. Acting for themselves in their own way, they are not weighted with self-consciousness, tradition, or imita- tive effort." The policy of the Playhouse in producing new and fresh material along the line of one-act plays instead of repeating plays that have already been worn threadbare in commercial theatres cannot be too heartily commended. Plays that have thus been worn threadbare challenge the memory of the audience with comparisons that can sel- dom be to the credit of the amateur. People remember how Ethel Barrymore did this or that and compare her work with the work of the amateur. It is a wise Little Theatre that adheres to the principle of producing plays not seen on the professional stage. In doing so its work gains immeasurably in vigor and freshness. Many of the plays produced by the Lake Forest Play- ers are now obtainable in book and pamphlet form, Mrs. Aldis' Plays for 'Small Stages being in wide use and itself explanatory of the workings and beliefs of this distinctive Little Theatre. Some of the plays produced by the Lake Forest Players have been Tradition, by George Middleton ; The Village, by Octave Feuillet ; Pierrot of the Minute, by Arthur Dowson ; The Four Plusher s, by Cleaves Kinkead; In the Pasha's Garden, by Frances Shaw; By-Products, by J. M. Patter- PLAYHOUSE OF LAKE FOREST, ILLINOIS 125 son; The Other Voice, by Sydney W. Fairbanks; Mrs. Pat and the Law, Extreme Unction, and Temperament, by Mrs. Arthur Aldis; Sacred Ground, by Giacosa; Which One?, by Paul Bourget; America Passes By, by Kenneth Andrews. THE PRAIRIE PLAYHOUSE FROM gin to Galsworthy, from soddenness to beauty, from a saloon to a Little Theatre this is the record of Galesburg, 111., a record forever unique in the construc- tive annals of Little Theatres in the United States; a record that makes Galesburg proud of itself, and other people proud of Galesburg, and of the work done there by J. A. Crafton, Abby Merchant, and Mark Reed, three drama enthusiasts who made a dream come true against odds. If genius be " an ardor of the soul " then it was noth- ing less than genius to vitalize the idea of a Little The- atre in a small, indifferent, somewhat somnolent Western town, undaunted by lack of interest, lack of cash, and lack of a suitable theatre building. But these theatre enthusi- asts made up their minds that Galesburg needed and should have such a theatre, and they let nothing stand in the way of their determination. They did not expect to make money out of the venture; but they did expect a chance to try their hands at the things each one of them wanted most to do. They expected nothing but a living wage, and a small living wage at that. They were pos- sessed even obsessed by the idea of what such a theatre could mean to a community. It could bring all the finer things of the big city to the little city whose population 126 Above, THE WHITE HOUSE SALOON, GALESBURG, ILL., as ;jt v it was remodeled into Below, THE PRAIRIE PLAYHOUSE as it is today. THE PRAIRIE PLAYHOUSE 127 was about 25,000, and whose powers of appreciation lay dormant, waiting the quickening touch that just such a theatre would be able to give. The only available building for this experiment that could be afforded, in fact the only adequate vacant build- ing to be found anywhere in Galesburg, was a notorious structure bearing the paradoxical title of the White House Saloon. White House it may have been called; but black with evil was its reputation. It had been a gin place of the lowest type, a place where two murders had been committed, and where gambling and licentiousness had been rampant, a place morally so plague-ridden that the idea of any rehabilitation seemed inhibited. Yet it is proof of the tremendous power of drama that such a building could be made into one of the most lovely Little Theatres to be found anywhere in the Middle West. Of all miracles wrought by Little Theatre workers this seemed one of the most wonderful, for it represents order coming out of disorder : upon destruction the fine flower of construction growing and thriving. Until the coming of the Little Theatre Galesburg was a town that seldom if ever had even so much as a first class "one night's stand." Now the very best of modern drama flourishes in its midst, made possible through intelligent leadership and the awakened public spiritedness of the community. Mr. Crafton is a young college man, a graduate of Knox, which is in Galesburg. After graduation he acted and taught; then took a special course in the drama at Harvard, where he imbued two fellow students with the 128 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST possibilities of a Little Theatre in Galesburg. He went to Galesburg, selected the only site within reach of the trio's slender resources and the work began. There was everything to do, including the renovation of the building, its painting, inside and out, and the in- stallation of its heating, lighting, and stage equipment. The Three Musketeers of Drama faced these difficulties with a combined capital of $1,050, which sum had to last an entire season and finance the plays as well as give the theatre its start. The downstairs part of the saloon was made into a charming theatre auditorium seating 120 people. It had white woodwork, brown walls, seats the color of the wall, carpet and curtains of dark green. The upstairs gam- bling hall was made into dressing rooms and business offices. Completed, this theatre was the place which, in the words of Miss Merchant, " must support itself and us/' It was further decided to ask seventy-five cents for seats; to give four performances of a new bill every two weeks, and to call the organization The Prairie Players. Besides managing the theatre, the Three Musketeers had to train the community actors, and from them evolve the Prairie Players. Miss Merchant was stage director; Mr. Reed art and business director ; Mr. Craf ton leading man. Between the three of them they managed every bit of work which went forward in the theatre. There was no subscription list. That is, no one was asked to subscribe for tickets. The best that could be given was set before the public, and the public instantly responded. They not only flocked to the theatre but they lent the THE PRAIRIE PLAYHOUSE 129 theatre management anything they happened to need in the way of rugs, furniture, portieres, and general proper- ties. It can safely be said of the Prairie Playhouse that it has accomplished more for less money than any Little Theatre in the United States. With only the scantest sums to draw upon, the scen- ery was remarkably atmospheric and remarkably differ- entiated. Its very simplicity was an asset. For the first act of Galsworthy's The Pigeon the walls were a neutral gray. There was a wide window at back opening on a night sky faintly powdered with stars. The furniture in the room was neutral tinted. A fire glowed redly on the hearth. There was a three-legged red stool near by. " And when Ann entered and flung off her bright red cape," writes Miss Merchant, " the whole room started into unity and life. It was a singularly satisfying set, and cost us $3.25." In another set a room with green- gray walls looked toward an expanse of sea, where, as twilight came on, the intermittent flash of a lighthouse lamp could be seen. Lord Dunsany's Glittering Gate was staged with a cyclorama effect and the new lighting the first time Galesburg had ever seen either of these two scenic innovations. How well the acting went, and how well the whole theatre went, is attested by the fact that at the end of its first season the Drama League Center of Galesburg bought out the plant for $1,000, raising this money through selling theatre bonds in denominations of $10 each, with interest at 6 per cent., payable semi-annually. Miss Merchant and Mr. Reed went East to undertake I 3 o OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST other dramatic work, and Mr. Crafton remained as director of the Prairie Players. So the Prairie Playhouse js now owned by the community, and operated by the community. From the first the policy of the Prairie Playhouse was to produce the best plays, one-act or four-act, by Euro- pean and American authors. Since the theatre started it has given first productions of five plays by American authors. Besides this the Prairie Playhouse wishes to foster local playwrighting, to give Illinois playwrights a significant opportunity for a hearing. Of course Illinois is not the only state that will be considered, since the Prairie Playhouse is always glad to consider new manu- scripts by American authors ; but for a one-act play deal- ing with life in the Upper Mississippi Valley the Play- house offers a prize as follows : " The best one-act play . . . the Prairie Playhouse will produce carefully and artistically; will pay the author ten dollars per night for every night of production (three nights guaranteed) ; will reserve no rights over the play after production, and will use its influence to get the play before a larger public. ... Is there not in your experience some situation, some event, some family, which is typical of this section of the country (the Upper Mississippi Valley) and which interests you to the extent of your telling the story in dramatic form?" The desire to picture the life of Illinois truly and dramatically has always been with the Prairie Players since the foundation of the Playhouse. Their opening prospectus said : " The Prairie Playhouse hopes to be- THE PRAIRIE PLAYHOUSE 131 come recognized as a Galesburg institution. In certain cities of Great Britain noteworthy results in dramatic art have been achieved under the influence of the " little theatres." Companies of actors, drawn from the towns- people, have been sent to neighboring cities and to Amer- ica, and plays dealing with local life, written for these theatres, are now widely identified with the names of the cities in which they were first produced, and the result has been that these cities have made reputations as cen- ters of art as well as of industry. " In somewhat the same way the Prairie Playhouse hopes to create in and about Galesburg an interest in the work of the theatre strong enough to assemble a group of players and to stimulate the dramatization of the life of this section. There is a rich vein of dramatic ma- terial, as yet untouched in the life of the Upper Missis- sippi Valley. We have had dramas of the Golden West and of the Great Divide; of the New England Home- stead; of the Southern Plantation; but no one has attempted plays dealing with the life of the great corn and harvest fields, the coal mines, or the quaint settle- ments along the river banks of the Middle West. The Prairie Playhouse sees in such variety of occupation and environment the possibility of a group of * Galesburg Plays/ " Consequently, although the Playhouse will be glad to receive all original plays with the hope of producing them, it is particularly desirous of plays dealing with the life of this section, and promises every help that it can give in preparing them for production. It extends an invita- 132 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST tion, also, to every one finding entertainment from the stage to co-operate at the ' little theatre ' as actors or audience, or as helpers in the work of production. For the theatre in its necessity of representing every kind of life has a use for every kind of ability." During its second season the Prairie Playhouse began to co-operate even more extensively with the citizens of Galesburg. At Christmas time Mr. Crafton in connec- tion with the Drama League and the Woman's Club pro- duced a Christmas fantasy which was given free to the children of the town. As the fame of the Prairie Playhouse spreads dele- gations from surrounding towns buy out the theatre on certain nights. There is no doubt of either its finan- cial or artistic success. Among the plays produced by the Prairie Playhouse have been the following: 1915-1916 At Slovsky's, by Winifred Hawkbridge; The Glittering Gate, by Lord Dunsany ; Sea Pride, by J. A. Crafton, Abby Merchant and Mark Reed (first production) ; The Chimes, by Elizabeth McFadden; Her Husband's Wife, by A. E. Thomas; Dad, by Maxwell Parry; Pierrot of the Minute, by Ernest Dowson ; The Edge of the World, by Albert Hat- ton Gilmer; The Pigeon, by John Galsworthy; The Bank Account, by Howard Brock; Death A Discussion, by H. Woodruff; One Word Play; Eugenically Speaking, by Ed- ward Goodman. 1916-1917 'At Slovsky's, by Winifred Hawkbridge; The Rose, by Mary Macmillan; The Terrible Meek, by Charles R. Ken- THE PRAIRIE PLAYHOUSE 133 nedy; Candida, by G. B. Shaw; The Stranger Star, by J. A. Crafton (first production) ; The Dear Departed, by Stanley Houghton; The Noble Lord, by Percival Wilde; The Poet Writes a Song, by Howard Stedman (first pro- duction) ; The Bear, by Anton Tchekoff; The Great Divide, by William Vaughn Moody; The March of Truth, by Katherine Searle (first production) ; America Passes By, by Kenneth Andrews ; The Lower Road, by Charles Mather (first production). THE LITTLE PLAYHOUSE OF ST. LOUIS THE Little Playhouse of St. Louis is significant as a theatre of high aims in which the company is strictly " professional." All of the Little Playhouse Players have had professional experience, in such companies as those of Sothern and Marlowe, Faversham and Ben Greet. Several of the Players are " Little Theatre Graduates " if one may coin the term : that is, they have served their apprenticeship in the best Little Theatre companies, such as the Portmanteau Company, the Little Theatre of Chi- cago, and the Little Theatre in Philadelphia. Thus they bring to the St. Louis Playhouse technical equipment and a real knowledge of the workings of the intimate stage. When it became known that there was to be a Little Theatre in St. Louis, a Little Theatre with a professional company, applications to join its working force poured in in such numbers that it showed clearly how eager the professional is for a chance to develop his powers rather than his pocketbook if he can only secure that chance. It showed that love of acting as an art burns just as strongly today as it ever did, and that the people of the theatre are eager to serve the theatre uncommercially if only given the opportunity. It was known that the Little Playhouse of St. Louis could not pay large salaries. But this did not deter a host of actors and actresses from THE LITTLE PLAYHOUSE OF ST. LOUIS 135 wanting to join its company. Four hundred applied. From these ten were chosen by Melville Burke, the director of the Playhouse. The Little Playhouse was founded by the St. Louis Society for the Promotion of Drama. That it has thriven in spite of the handicap of this name is partial proof of its vitality. American audiences are afraid of societies that " promote," and in especial wary of socie- ties that promote drama ! The St. Louis Society for the Promotion of Drama has a board of directors, a con- tingent fund made possible by public-spirited citizens, and a list of patrons. The Little Playhouse is sustained as a symphony orchestra is sustained, partly by small en- i dowments, partly by subscription. The history of the beginnings and accomplishments of the Playhouse are so graphically given in its pros- pectus that one cannot do better than quote in entirety the official declaration of its aims. " Thus it is that the St. Louis Society for the Promo- tion of Drama became, by virtue of a pro forma decree of court, a public educational institution, authorized, with no expectation of profit-making, to encourage and sup- port the welfare of the drama and its allied arts in what- ever way it deems best. The Little Playhouse company is the first concrete expression of the desire of the society to give St. Louis a theatre, untainted by the vulgarity of the ordinary commercial stage, freed from the necessity of making money except for expenses of production, and consecrated to an ideal that demands the utmost in dra- matic art. No salaries of any nature are paid to those 136 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST persons in the directing personnel. Only the regularly engaged employees, actors, stage-hands, etc., receive a salary. The actuating desire of those responsible for the enterprise has been, from the beginning, based en- tirely upon the wish to give the community of St. Louis drama in much the same terms under which it enjoys music through the efforts of the Symphony Society. The profits, if any, of each season revert to the treasury for the continuance of those purposes for which the society has been organized and incorporated. The financial sys- tem is modern, with detailed accounting, voucher-check payments, and regular auditing of the books. To support the society either by subscription or by a contribution to the contingent fund is to be sure that whatsoever is given is devoted entirely to the cause of the drama in terms of the greatest practical and artistic service. Make St. Louis even more ' the community art center of America ' by supporting the Little Playhouse Company; it is but contributing its share to the same end that gave the city its excellent symphony orchestra, and the superb pageant in 1915." The Playhouse itself is in a building called The Artists' Guild. The color scheme of the interior is gray and green. The proscenium arch has an opening of eighteen feet. There is a curving, low-swung balcony; but no boxes. The stage is equipped with a modern lighting system. As the Playhouse is run entirely on a subscrip- tion system no individual tickets can be purchased by the general public. But occasional guest tickets can be purchased by subscribers. The price of seats is $1.50 THE LITTLE PLAYHOUSE OF ST. LOUIS 137 a performance. Performances are given on two con- secutive nights every two weeks. The policy governing play production is distinctly a creative one. Long plays and short plays are given in about equal numbers. All have literary merit. ManyV first performances of significant plays have 'been given,' as well as plays that are unusual even on Little Theatre rosters. Some plays are chosen for their significant place in the history of drama; others are frankly selected because they give opportunities to portray the new decorative type of stage-craft. Still other plays have been selected j because they are by St. Louis authors and have genuine ' merit. The whole season's program of the St. Louis Little Playhouse has extraordinary variety and merit. The Little Playhouse gave the first production of Gals- worthy's Joy in this country, and of Lady Gregory's The Golden Apple, with imaginative scenery by Mar- garet and Kurt Toensfeldt; also a first production of An Eye for An Eye, by I. L. Cariagiale, the " father of modern Roumanian drama." For the first time in this country the Playhouse gave the following one-act plays : Don Pietro Caruso, by Robert Bracco; Arduin, by Cale Young Rice; Reflections, by Margaret Ewing. Prose drama and poetic drama have been produced. Plays by * American, English, Irish, Swedish, Roumanian, Italian, German, and Norwegian authors have been set before Playhouse audiences. Altogether St. Louis can pride herself on having one of the most progressive of Little Theatres with good acting ensemble, and with excel- 138 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST lent scenic effects, designed for the theatre by Victor Harles. Another original feature of the Little Playhouse policy lies in the interesting annotations on their programs. Just as the Boston Symphony Orchestra has historical and critical notes on its symphonies, so also does the Little Playhouse of St. Louis have explanatory notes concerning its plays, and the movements they stand for. This is a valuable innovation. If there is any fault to be found with the Little Play- house it is that it has a habit (common to many Little Theatres) of announcing a play for production, and then withdrawing it, and substituting something else in its place. This irritating habit was one of the causes of the demise of the Toy Theatre in Boston. And it is to be hoped that an institution as promising as the Little Playhouse will overcome this fault before it reaches a chronic stage. There is no sound reason why a Little Theatre cannot announce its plays for the season in ad- vance (just as a symphony orchestra announces its sym- phonies), and then carry out its promised program. Besides its regular performances the Little Playhouse instituted a series of children's Saturday morning mati- nees, giving four performances for five dollars. The aim of these performances was to inculcate a love of litera- ture through the spoken word, and a love of beauty through the color and simplicity of the scenes presented. These performances were well attended. THE LITTLE THEATRE OF DULUTH THE Little Theatre of Duluth, Minn., is notable as the first Little Theatre established through the efforts of the Drama League. It is also notable for having an able company made up of amateurs and professionals; five professionals and some fifteen or twenty experienced amateurs. E. W. Laceby, of London, England, an actor of wide professional experience, is dramatic director and general manager. The theatre was established in 1.914. It is housed in what was once an old church ; but it has been remodeled and redecorated to fit theatre conditions. Duluth, a city of one hundred thousand, is out of the general theatrical route, and first-class productions are few and far between. A second-rate company in some Broadway success was the most that its citizens could hope for, with now and again a first-rate company - which played a one-night stand. Of the new theatre art, and the trend of modern theatre literature, Duluth could gain no first-hand impression. All its citizens could do in this respect was to read plays, or read about plays. Under these conditions interest in the drama was not thriving. Then came the idea of having a Little The- atre, and through its work stimulating an interest in all the finer and newer things of theatre growth. Therefore the Little Theatre was organized. It has 139 140 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WES1 sixty supporting members, who pay five dollars a year And membership dues of the Drama League at one dollai and fifty cents a year entitle the Drama League member to seats at the productions of one-act plays which an given every month for the Little Theatre season of sevei months. Thus it will be seen that the prices for thi Little Theatre are exceedingly low. The drama has beei put within reach of the very slenderest purses. Cues tickets can be purchased by Drama League members fo: fifty cents each for any performance. The five dollar of a supporting member entitles that member to a sea at all performances. A casual observer might suppose that such rates woul< work havoc with the financial end of the theatre; but far from being the case, the Little Theatre of Dulutl has thriven from the start because it has set art before tfa people at prices comparable to the movies. The Littl< Theatre of Duluth is one of the most financially sue cessful Little Theatres in the United States. And it i: artistically successful also. After only three years it owns its own theatre building and this without any endowment or contingent fund t< smooth the way. It has hoed its own row, and insteac of asking favors of its townsfolk has bestowed favor! upon them, a truly independent spirit! The theatre seats 250 people. Its interior color schema is gray, with old-blue hangings. It is one of the fevi Little Theatres in the United States which makes use oi the draped stage. This it uses in preference to realistic scenery. The stage draperies of veiled blue, which cat THE LITTLE THEATRE OF DULUTH 141 be painted with different colored lights, form a neutral background, and were chosen under the expert advice of Mrs. John Alexander. For plays such as Milestones realistic scenery is used, specially designed for the occasion. 1 The policy of the Duluth Little Theatre is thus de- scribed by one of its players: "We have concentrated our time and attention wholly on play-producing, and on keeping the standard of acting far ahead of ' amateur ' work of the usual irritating kind." The theatre announce- ment says that the players are selected from the Drama League members and that it is their endeavor rigidly to maintain, through competent direction of every play, the highest possible artistic standard. The Little Theatre produces mainly one-act plays by European dramatists, with an occasional one-act play by an American dramatist, giving two, three, or four one- act plays on a program, according to the length of the play. In addition to the one-act plays a three-act or four-act play is given each season. The Little Theatre offers yearly a fifty-dollar prize and production for the best one-act play written by a local dramatist, and some very encouraging material is coming to light along these lines. The Little Theatre has already ' produced two of these prize plays, Her Sacred Duty, by Margaret C. Banning, and What It Gets Down To, by Mildred B. Washburn. In a word, the Little Theatre of Duluth tries to be (and is) the intellectual whetstone of the community. 142 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST Both Granville Barker and Lady Gregory have mani- fested their keen interest in its progressive spirit and definite artistic accomplishment. The repertory of the Little Theatre is as follows: 1914-1915 The Dark Lady of the Sonnets and How He Lied to Her Husband, by George Bernard Shaw; The Twelve- Pound Look and The Will, by J. M. Barrie; 'Op-o'-Me- Thumb, by Fenn and Price; The Workhouse Ward, by Lady Gregory; The Dear Departed, by Stanley Houghton. 1915-1916 Two Amateur Contest Plays : Her Sacred Duty, by Mar- garet Culkin Banning, and What It Gets Down To, by Mildred Baer Washburn; The Lost Silk Hat, by Lord Dunsany; The Impertinence of the Creature, by Cosmo- Gordon Lennox; The Maker of Dreams, by Oliphant Down; Holly and Mistletoe, by Max Pemberton (the junior league play), and Her Husband's Wife, by A. E. Thomas. 1916-1917 The Far-Away Princess and The Last Visit, by Herman Sudermann; Helena's Husband, by Phillip Moeller; The Glittering Gate, by Lord Dunsany ; The Green Coat, by Al- fred de Musset and Emile Augier; The Carrier Pigeon, by Eden Phillpotts ; The Master of the House, by Stanley Houghton; The Philosopher of the Apple Orchard, by Anthony Hope; Lone some-Like, by Harold Brighouse; Milestones, by Arnold Bennett and Edward Knoblauch; Fancy Free, by Stanley Houghton ; The Beau of Bath, by Constance D'Arcy Mackay ; The Monkey's Paw, by W. W. Jacobs ; Spreading the News, by Lady Gregory ; Paternoster, by Frangois Coppee; Moondown, by John Reed. THE WISCONSIN DRAMATIC SOCIETY THE Wisconsin Dramatic Society, sometimes called the Wisconsin Players, organized in 1911, is a company of gifted amateurs, who " are imbued with the vital prin- ciple of Little Theatreism." They believe in " conducting skilled amateur companies for the production of high- class plays at low prices." They wish to create a demand for a better theatre and a more enlightened audience. Also they wish to give the native playwright a hearing; and to further repertoire. There is something stimulating in the very name of this society. Many Little Theatre groups take the name of the town or city as their patronym; but the name of Wisconsin Dramatic Society suggests a whole state in action; a whole state working for the good of the cause. Acting and producing is only a part of the specific purpose of the society, which is as follows: " First, to raise the standard of dramatic appreciation in the community. " Second, to encourage the support of the best plays. " Third, to encourage the reading of good plays in English, and in translations from other languages. " Fourth, to encourage the translation, composition, and publication of good plays. " Fifth, to conduct companies for the production of high-class plays at low prices." 143 144 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST This last part of the work naturally is of the greatest interest to students of the Little Theatre movement. The society has given productions in Madison, Beloit, and Milwaukee, and as it has no theatre plant, rents local theatres for -the occasion. They use only the very sim- plest scenery. Indeed, they attempt no scenic experimen- tation whatever, preferring to center their energies on the acceptable acting of the plays. Along these lines all their experiments are made. They work for eloquent panto- mime, clear enunciation, and for tempo in ensemble play- ing. To turn out semi-professional groups equipped to give plays the public would not ordinarily see is the aim of the play-producing department of the society. Any- thing that smacks of theatricalism in acting will not be tolerated by either Professor Dickinson, who directs the Madison group, or Mrs. Sherry, who directs the Mil- waukee group. As far back as 1911 these workers for the drama decided that no play under their direction would countenance the old system of spotlights or a built-up entrance. The Wisconsin Dramatic Society eliminates the orchestra; will not raise the curtain in answer to curtain calls. They do everything in their- power to foster illusion in acting. They may, in time, go as far as the Art Theatre of Moscow, which elimi- nates applause as breaking in upon the mood of the play. Many people erroneously believe that the Wisconsin Players are connected with the University of Wisconsin. But as an article in the Drama Quarterly, by W. E. Leonard, points out, " the Wisconsin Dramatic Society is not an academic organization. It has no official relation THE WISCONSIN DRAMATIC SOCIETY 145 to any institution of learning either in Madison or Mil- waukee, though it numbers among its most active mem- bers many university professors. . . . The society stands for no special art form. It believes in the ama- teur spirit." If all this sounds like idealism, it might be pointed out that the society has achieved some very definite results. It produced three plays during the first year of its exist- ence at a flat rate of fifteen cents per seat, and was able to put something in the treasury for the following year. Of course this rate would not have been possible had the society experimented with scenery and costumes as do most Little Theatre groups. The second year eight plays were produced. Owing to various circumstances a higher price of 'admittance was asked for these plays, namely, fifty cents, but it is and always will be, part of the policy of the Wisconsin Dramatic Society to give plays at cost. Anything that is made from the produc- tions is put back into the society's fund, and goes to further theif plans. Besides the plays of American origin, developed out of the work of the Wisconsin group, now published in a volume called Wisconsin Plays, which includes Neighbors, by Zona Gale, and Glory of the Morning, by William Elory Leonard, the society has produced many of the best one-act plays by European dramatists, such as The Hour Glass, by Yeats ; Riders to the Sea, by Synge, ah< The Stronger, by August Strindberg. The Wisconsin Stage Society has lately built a charm- ing playhouse in Milwaukee, Wis., where it will give a 146 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST series of plays every month under the direction of Mrs. Laura Sherry. Plays produced by the Wisconsin Players since 1915: Neighbors, by Zona Gale; Glory of the Morning, by William E. Leonard; In Hospital, by T. H. Dickinson; Ry- land, by Thomas W. Steven ; Dust of the Road, by Ken- neth S. Goodman; Tradition, by George Middleton; As You Do It, by I. B. Kinne; City Hall Central, by Louise Brand; Las Rurales, by Dorothea Massey; The Archae- ologist and the Lady, by Mabel Mayhew ; The Talker, by Rowland Russel; The Valley, by R. S. Crowell; A Branch Road, by Hamlin Garland; The Feast of the Holy Inno- cents and In a Vestibule, by Marshal Ilsley; On the Pier, Romance, Ambition, and Just Livin', by Laura Sherry; A Moving Picture Burlesque, by Mathew Carmel; A Blind Wife and Rich Poor Man, by Walter Morley ; The Topaz ^Amulet, by Thomas W. Stevens and Wallace Rice; The Light of Decency, by Charles Mercein ; The Man Who Mar- ried the Moon, by Charlotte Markham; Bubbles, by Anna Hemstead Branch; Dead Soul, by Austin Simons; Orange Blossom, by Phillips Chynoweth; and The Finger of God, by Percival Wilde. CHAPTER VII OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST (Continued) THE ARTS AND CRAFTS THEATRE OF DETROIT THE Arts and Crafts Theatre of Detroit was founded in November, 1916. The theatre itself is in the Arts and Crafts building, and the idea of the theatre has grown out of the work done by the Arts and Crafts Society, which aims at " the training of true craftsmen, the devel- oping of individual character in connection with artistic work, and the raising of standards of beauty." The building and the theatre within it are owned by the Arts and Crafts Society, and the theatre is entirely financed by the society. It is just such a building as should appropriately house an art theatre with its quaint stucco exterior and its dormered and gabled roof of tiles. The theatre opens off a paved court that is lined on each side with little Arts and Crafts shops, filled with pottery, dyed fabrics rich in hue, hand-wrought jewelry, and hammered metals. The Arts and Crafts Theatre is the only Little Theatre in the United States that is run in connection with an art guild. Sam Hume is the regisseur of the theatre. The theatre itself has a very satisfying interior. The 147 148 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST floor of the auditorium consists of a series of raised plat- forms on which chairs are placed. There is a balcony on three sides of the theatre auditorium. The theatre chairs are upholstered in vari-colored satins; the proscenium arch is square; the proscenium curtain falls in dignified and sweeping folds. The theatre seats 250. The theatre company is entirely amateur. Mr. Hume believes in a very strict standard of acting. Two hun- dred and fifty actors were tried out before the final selec- tion was made. Out of these 150 were chosen to appear as principals or in minor parts. The Arts and Crafts Theatre is run on the subscrip- tion system. The seats are $1.00 and $2.00 for public performances. Friday is subscribers' night, and on Sat- urday afternoons there are matinees for teachers and pupils at reduced rates. Six performances were given during the season of 1916-1917, including the dedicatory performance. Nineteen one-act plays were given by this theatre in its first season. For 1917-1918 six produc- tions will also be given. Subscription tickets will be $12.00 for each season ticket; students' and teachers' tickets will be obtainable for $5.00. As supplementary productions the theatre committee is considering a chil- dren's bill to be presented in the holiday season. The first season of the Arts and Crafts Theatre was a success financially and artistically. There were no debts, and a small balance was carried over for the fol- lowing year. The policy of the Arts and Crafts Theatre has been to produce revivals of old plays of literary significance ARTS AND CRAFTS THEATRE OF DETROIT 149 such as Moliere's Doctor in Spite of Himself and the ancient English miracle play of Abraham and Isaac, as well as plays by modern authors, such as Dunsany, St. John Hankin, and Harold Brighouse. In the season of 1916-1917 more plays by European authors were given than plays by American authors. In fact, only eight of the nineteen plays produced were by Americans. One native play, Sham, a farce by Frank j Tompkins, had its first production. For the rest, the/ plays were all plays that had been previously produced and were more or less familiar to Little Theatre audi- ences throughout the country. Next year the Arts and Crafts Theatre hopes to give more new material. It has offered a prize of $100 for a play written by a resident of Michigan and suited for production on the Arts and Crafts stage. Fifty manu- scripts have been received in this competition. Besides this play the theatre hopes to produce at least six new plays by American authors, giving them their first hear- ing on any stage. These plays have not yet been an- nounced; but among the plays which have been tenta- tively chosen for production in 1917-1918 are: Ariane and Barbe Bleu, by Maurice Maeterlinck ; Riders to the Sea, By J. M. Synge; The People, by Susan Glaspell; Arms and the Man, by Bernard Shaw ; The Theatre of the Soul, by Nicholas Evreinof; The Homecoming, by Kenneth Sawyer Goodman, and Weeping Pierrot and Laughing Pierrot, by Edmond Rostand, with music by Jean Hubert. The scenic work of this theatre is extremely inter- 150 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST esting. Mr. Hume, the director, is favorably known as the originator of the Stage Exhibit which was seen sev- eral years ago in most of the large cities of the United States. He is also known for the excellent scenic effects he devised for the Workshop Theatre, Cambridge, many of which have been repeated during the season in Detroit. Like Gordon Craig, 1 Mr. Hume is a firm believer in the type of scenery that is made possible through the use of squares, cubes, and cylinders used against a flat back- ground, and flooded with white or colored lime- lights. The Arts and Crafts Theatre has a back wall of plaster something similar to the plaster horizont of the Neighborhood Playhouse. Against this background these portable blocks or pylons are arranged to give the effect of palaces or walls or stately gardens. Clipped yew trees, flowers, or the sweep of a splendid curtain may lend a note of color and warmth to these " cube screens." These cubes and pillars are most effectively used in Mr. Hume's setting for Helena's Husband and for a harlequin fan- tasy. The use of these portable cubes is very popular abroad but the Arts and Crafts Theatre is the first Little Theatre to make continual rather than a sporadic use of them in this country. When one considers the dignity and beauty, the sug- gestive stylization made possible through their use it seems a pity that other Little Theatres do not experi- ment in this line, since the cubes and pilasters are in- expensive and can be used again and again, though it 1 For a full description of how Gordon Craig came to originate this type of scenery see Huntly Carter's The Theatre of Max Reinhardt, page 300, ARTS AND CRAFTS THEATRE OF DETROIT 151 takes the artist's eye and the feeling for architecture to gain such sure effects as those of Mr. Hume. These cubes and pillars must be all in one color. Gordon Craig uses them in pale gray; Granville Barker in white, re- lieved by some bit of color, either a sumptuous throne chair or gorgeous curtains. It goes without saying that modern dress cannot be used with such a setting, which lends itself only to costume work. Although these cylinders and cubes can be moved to make many combinations, there is one thing against their continual use as scenery, and that is that they are apt to be monotonous. Mr. Hume very wisely varies this ascetic scenery with scenery of posteresque quality. There is distinction in all he does, whether in the brilliant Chinese interior for Housman's Chinese Lantern, or the decoration for The Lost Silk Hat. Katherine McEwen designed a charming set for St. John Hankin's Constant Lover, delicately vernal, with its posy bestrewn hillock, and curving weeping willow tree. Of this Arts and Crafts Theatre Sheldon Cheney has said : " In this achievement of providing settings far finer than those usually seen on the commercial stage, and at a cost below that of even the least elaborate of the usual Little Theatre sets, Mr. Hume has done something that should inspire every real artist with hope and new determination." Some of the plays produced during 1916-1917 have been: The Glittering Gate (see illustration, page 174), and Tents of the Arabs, by Lord Dunsany; A Chinese Lantern, by 152 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST Housman; The Romance of the Rose, by Sam Hume; Trifles, and Suppressed Desires, by Susan Glaspell; The Constant Lover, by St. John Hankin; Doctor in Spite of Himself, by Moliere; Abraham and Isaac; The Revesby Sword Play; Lonesomelike, by Harold Brighouse ; Helena's Husband, by Philip Moeller; The Intruder, by Maeter- linck. THE PLAYHOUSE OF CLEVELAND FROM the work mapped out on its prospectus it appears that the Playhouse of Cleveland will strike a new note in its Little Theatre, for which a small old-fashioned church on Cedar Avenue is being remodeled. Work will begin there in the Autumn of 1917. Besides the plays which will be given there by the Playhouse company, selected from the most gifted amateurs of the city, the Playhouse will also open its doors to the divergent nation- alities of its city for rehearsal and performances of plays in their own tongue, with settings that will give a chance for broad development in folk art, and that will help to conserve folk traditions. No Little Theatre group has laid its plans with greater vision than the Playhouse group, whose eloquent little folder, adorned with a picture of their future theatre, sets forth their plans as follows: " A group of men and women in Cleveland formed the Playhouse company in 1916 for the purpose of establishing an art theatre ; of encouraging native art in all its forms and native artists; and for cultivating the rich legacies in folk art possessed by our cosmopolitan population. This group consists of artists, of musicians, of those whose interests are sociological, of those who have a leaning toward the lighting and mechanics of the 153 154 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST stage, toward acting, toward writing, and toward con- ' structive activities for children. " The new theatre will be an art theatre aiming to pre- sent on its stage productions in the modern spirit both as to acting and decorations. During the past year the Playhouse has presented to its members eight plays, of which one was by marionettes and one was in shadow- graph. These performances have been private because the Playhouse in its temporary quarters did not have an auditorium adequate for the public. Exhibitions, also, have been held by the painters, sculptors, designers, dancers, and musicians of the group. " Although the Playhouse will sympatheically endeavor to encourage the self-expression of its members, it recog- nizes that Cleveland is cosmopolitan, and that it contains a wealth of divergent national art and traditions. . . . To this end the theatre will offer itself to the groups of varied nationalities in the city, as a place for meet- ing, for exhibition of art and craftsmanship, for re- hearsal and performance of plays and music. " During the year a cosmopolitan committee has ac- quainted itself with cosmopolitan groups with the view of bringing their exhibitions, concerts, and plays to the Playhouse as soon as there is a proper stage. . . . When completed there will be a stage of ample dimen- sion, an auditorium which will seat 150 persons, and such other accommodations as are needed. % " It is apparent that such a theatre will not be self- supporting. The expense will be met in part by dues to be paid by the active members. To those who are not THE PLAYHOUSE OF CLEVELAND 155 of the active group an opportunity is given to join in this work by becoming supporting members, upon a minimum payment of $25.00 per year. " Although supporting members as such shall not hold stock or have votes in the corporation, and although they shall not, by their right, participate in the activities of the theatre, neverthless it is the policy to grant to supporting members such privileges as shall not interfere with the work of the theatre or with such other work as may be undertaken. " The supporting members therefore shall be on an equality with the active members in privileges of attend- ance at all public entertainments and exhibitions, includ- ing an equality of privilege in the purchase of tickets. It is likely that on occasion it will be desirable to hold dress rehearsals to which the supporting members will be invited, to become a kind of ' First Night/ " Also if it is found that a club life can be developed without interference with the organization's primary functions as a theatre and workshop, such club life shall be within the privileges of the supporting members. At this time it is hard to state just the form of club life to be developed. There may be periodic club nights when the Playhouse with its clubroom, theatre, and library will be opened to the use of supporting members." Raymond O'Neil is the art director of the theatre. THE LITTLE THEATRE OF LOS ANGELES WHILE the Little Theatre of Los Angeles no longe exists by the name of the Little Theatre, the work don there in 1916-1917 by Aline Barnsdall and her group o players will be carried on either in Los Angeles or Sar Francisco in 1917-1918. So the Little Theatre prodtic tions of 1916-1917 have a definite bearing on the new . Little Theatre company which is to be called the Players j Producing Company. This theatre is to be distinctly ar v 'art theatre, with a professional company. The plays wr ;' be produced in this home theatre, and then, later, taker on the road and presented in the smaller cities of Cali fornia. When a play that is distinctly Californian in theme and investiture has been developed, it will prob ably be sent to several Eastern cities as an example o what the Players Producing Company is doing. Th Little Art Theatre, however, will remain the producing center. This is its genuinely interesting definite policy, laic down for 1917-1918 a far more definite policy than that which governed the season of Los Angeles 1916 1917, when a group of totally unrelated plays was given beginning with Ossip Dymow's neurotic Nju and endini with a garbled edition of Everyman, rewritten by Georg Sterling. (Who will, one wonders, rewrite Shakespeare' Romeo and Juliet at some later date?) 156 THE LITTLE THEATRE OF LOS ANGELES 157 Miss Barnsdall will be remembered as the producer of Alice Gerstenberg's dramatization of Alice in Won- derland, most successfully given in New York and other cities three or four years ago. This production was memorable for its unerring casting, and for its delight- ful whimsical scenery designed by a Chicago artist whom Miss Barnsdall " discovered." For her Los Angeles Little Theatre venture Miss Barnsdall wisely chose Norman Bel-Geddes, whose orig- inal decorative ideas are widely known to students of art in this country. He evolved some extraordinarily inter- esting sets for the Little Theatre, notably for Nju and for Zoe Akins' Papa, the latter having posteresque effects and a sense of pattern that made the scenes memorable. He caught exactly the gay inconsequential spirit of the piece. Richard Ordynski was the director of the Little Theatre. The company of the Little Theatre was made up partly of professionals and partly of amateurs. While this led to the discovery of Ann Andrews, a young Californian amateur of ability, who has since joined the ranks of the professional stage, Miss Barnsdall feels that to have a company of seasoned professionals and utterly untrained amateurs is a thing not to be repeated. The sure touch of the very experienced professional shows the very unsure touch of the inexperienced ama- teur. This is an interesting fact. It shows that where a Little Theatre company is to be made up of amateurs and professionals, the amateurs must be potential artists, skilled in their craft, or the discrepancies will be 158 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST too great, as they were at the Little Theatre in Los Angeles. The plays given at the Little Theatre included Nju, by Ossip Dymow, a Russian play given for the first time in this country; Papa, by Zoe Akins, an American com- edy, given for the first time on any stage ; Conscience, a play in one act, by Owen Taft, Jr.; The Supper Scene from Anatol, by Schnitzler; The Shadowy Waters, by W. B. Yeats; Mrs. Holyrod, by H. D. Lawrence; Christ- mas week matinees of The Return of Proserpine, by Florence Kipper Frank, and Everyman. Comparisons may be odious, but to one who remem- bers the poignant simplicity of Ben Greet's production of Everyman, the ornate costumes and curtains of George Sterling's revamping of that ancient tragedy of the soul marks the very elaborateness that the Little Theatres of today are trying to do away with. Undoubtedly Miss Barnsdall will do much that is worth while in her new art theatre. It was her gift as a producer which made possible the charm, the f ragrancy, the perfect ensemble of Alice in Wonderland. That was a true achievement. And one can wish for the Little Art Theatre of California no better luck than to have Miss Barnsdall guide its destinies as skilfully as she guided the destinies of Alice. THE LITTLE THEATRE OF INDIANAPOLIS THE Little Theatre of Indianapolis, founded in the Autumn of 19x5, gives one-act plays by American and European authors and also specializes in producing new one-act plays that have never before had production. It also gives, occasionally, a play in three or four acts. Its first director was Samuel A. Eliot, Jr., and the critics have spoken in high praise of the investiture and tempo of the productions given under his direction. The com- pany is made up of amateurs with professional aspira- tions. Mr. Eliot went on to other work after his first year with the Indianapolis Theatre, and since then the theatre has passed through many vicissitudes; appears in danger of dissolution ; changes its director and its com- pany, and struggles bravely on! Its secretary, William O. Bates, describes its policy and achievements thus : ' The Little Theatre Society of Indiana has no theatre of its own. During the season of 1915-1916 it gave its performances in the sculpture court of the John Herron Art Institute, using its entrance hall, only twelve feet wide', as a stage. It is a vast and handsome room, but seats only about 200 persons and the acoustics are very poor. The fine stairways flanking the stage on either side proved its best feature. During the season of 1916- 1917 the performances were given in the Masonic Tem- 159 160 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST pie, seating about 1,000 persons, but with a shallow stage and inadequate dressing rooms. The society is sadly in need of a proper place to give its performances, Indian- apolis having no small theatre with an ample stage. " As to the price of seats, members of the society are given a certain number of coupons for their subscrip- tions, so that seats cost them about fifty cents each. To the general public a charge of one dollar was made at first, but this was soon dropped to fifty and twenty-five cents, according to location. " We have a subscription list of some 200 persons who constitute the membership of the society. " The players are mostly amateurs with an occasional retired professional. Several who began as amateurs have graduated to the professional stage. " So far as difficulties go, the backers of the under- taking have had to make their bricks without the straw of either a proper place to give their performances, or a public more than mildly interested in their efforts. But they made bricks just the same. " The membership is $5.00. " Each membership is entitled to twelve coupons, which may be presented singly or en bloc at performance. The society also offers a combination membership with the Indianapolis Center of the Drama League for $5.00, whereby a membership in that organization is given for one year along with a Little Theatre membership, carry- ing with it ten coupons. " The purpose of the Little Theatre is to encourage the production of new plays, plays which cannot be pro- THE LITTLE THEATRE OF INDIANAPOLIS 161 duced by the commercial stage, either because of their content or lack of commercial possibility in short to encourage all community endeavor of an original char- acter in the field of the theatre. The Little Theatre calls particular attention to the fact that two of the plays listed here have never been produced on any stage and that these two plays are the work of Indiana men W. O. Bates and Theodore Dreiser. " Polly of P ague's Run, by W. O. Bates, is a drama of Indiana in 1863 in the tense moment of the historic ' battle of Pogue's Run/ It is Indianian throughout. Morton, Sulgrove, and Coburn are, of course, historical, and every incident has historical basis. The production of this play is a step in the trail blazed by Lady Gregory, and follows her ideals as worked out at the Abbey The- atre a play of the locality, written, designed, costumed, and played by the community itself. " Laughing Gas, by Theodore Dreiser, was produced as an experiment. Many critics asserted on the publication of Theodore Dreiser's Plays of the Natural and the Su- pernatural that it was impossible to produce Laughing Gas. It is the story of a man who is operated on, and what he meets in the realm of unreality while the opera- tion is actually going on. Rumor has it that Dreiser wrote this first as a motion picture scenario. Certain it is that it is typical of the modern art theatre movement in its problem of rhythm. Those who are familiar with the discussion which Gordon Craig and others have raised as to what is possible in suggestion will find food for addi- tional discussion in this production. The Little Theatre 162 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES OF THE WEST in Indianapolis stands for experiments of all sorts as a laboratory stands in medicine for experiment. The set- ting is the work of Mr. Donald Dohner and Mr. Harri- son Brown, and is an experiment in the suggestion of the motion of reality. Mr. Orlopp has an experiment in light effects. To those who are interested in new effects, the trial is of particular interest/' (For illustration, see page 212.) The repertory of the Little Theatre Society has been as follows : 1915-1916 Polyxena, adapted from the Hecuba of Euripides, by S. A. Eliot, Jr. ; A Killing Triangle, original burlesque in pantomime, author not announced; The Glittering Gate, by Lord Dunsany ; The Scheming Lieutenant, by R. B. Sheri- dan; Dad, original comedy of Hoosier life, by Maxwell Parry; The Pageant of the Shearmen and Taylors, a Christmas Miracle play, adapted by S. A. Eliot, Jr. ; The Pretty Sabine Women, by Leonid Andreyeff; The Broken God, original masque on the war, by Hortense Flexner; Overtones, by Alice Gersternberg ; The Florists Shop, by Winifred Hawkbridge; The Game of Chess, by Ken- neth Sawyer Goodman; How He Lied to Her Husband, by Bernard Shaw; The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, by Bernard Shaw; Dawn, by Percival Wilde; The Kisses of Marjorie, by Booth Tarkington; Chicane, adapted from Jack London; The Groove, by George Middleton. The season concluded with a commemoration of the Tercentenary of Shakespeare's death at which brief scenes from several of his comedies were given by the full com- pany, some 100 in number. During this season some $3,000 was collected and expended. THE LITTLE THEATRE OF INDIANAPOLIS 163 1916-1917 A Centennial Cycle of dialogued excerpts from the works of Maurice Thompson, Grace Alexander, "Robert Dud- ley," Catherine Blake, Booth Tarkington, George Ade, Meredith Nicholson, and James Whitcomb Riley, prepared by Mrs. Kate Milner Rabb, William O. Conway, and Mrs. Aletha V. McNaull. Polly of Pogue's Run, original Civil War play, by William O. Bates ; Laughing Gas, original play by Theodore Dreiser ; The Farce of Pierre Patelin, French Thirteenth Century; The Lost Silk Hat, by Lord Dunsany; Duty, by Seumas O'Brien; The Maker of Dreams, by Oliphant Down; The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde; Lithuania, by Rupert Brooke; Suppressed Desires, by George Cook and Susan Glaspell; Cathleen ni Hoolihan, by William Butler Yeats; The Rising of the Moon, by Lady Gregory; Spreading the News, by Lady Gregory. THE LITTLE THEATRE OF KANSAS CITY THE Harlequin Players of the Little Theatre of Kan- sas City, Kan., were established in 1917 by Ann Peppard. Their director is Charles Edwards and he has under him a completely organized theatre staff, including five pro- ducers. The scenic designs of this theatre are by Theo- dore M. Criley. The Little Theatre company is composed wholly of amateurs very ambitious amateurs if one may judge by the policy outlined on their gray program with its bowing harlequin figures. The outlined policy runs thus: " We wish to be considered a part of the Little The- atre movement in the United States and that movement means, we take it, not a quarrel with the theatre as it is, but an objection to the narrow scope of it. We want, in short, not less but more of the commercial drama more, not in quantity but in range. It is in order to supply this range that groups of people all over the coun- try people not necessarily closely connected with the stage as it is, but interested in experimental trials of new kinds of plays, scenery, costumes, and unities, have at- tempted in a pure amateur spirit to give vent to their ideas and aspirations though not always with amateur material. " Our first object is to amuse. But we believe that even those of you who love the theatre best sometimes feel a 164 THE LITTLE THEATRE OF KANSAS CITY 165 need. It is as if an intelligent reader, doomed to spend his life in a library filled only with books of detective stories, crook stories, eternal triangle stories, society stories, stories of courtesans, and stories of the great Northwest should long, for one brief evening, to read a few pages, say of Kenneth Grahame or of Homer, or of Flaubert, or of Lewis Carroll. " Another of our objects is to crystallize dramatically the local scene. Instead of the familiar comic cockney, is it not possible to have a comic Kansan? Instead of drawing-room conversation in the great hall of the Duke of Dewlap's castle, can we not have something equally racy in a similar apartment on Armour Boulevard ? These we believe legitimate objects and to them we subscribe our hands and hearts. "THE HARLEQUIN PLAYERS." It is interesting to note that a play of Kansas life has already been given: The Bully, by James F. Goodman, with its scene laid in the mining district of Southeastern Kansas. Among the plays produced by the Harlequin Players have been The Price of Orchids, by Winifred Hawk- bridge; Helena's Husband, by Philip Moeller; The Shep- herd in the Distance, by Holland Hudson; The Bully, aforementioned, by James F. Goodman. THE LITTLE THEATRE OF ERIE, PENN. The Little Theatre of Erie, Penn., is a thriving insti- tution. It follows the note dominant in so many experi- mental Little Theatres today, namely, it stresses the work of American authors. Among, the dramas that it has produced have been Dawn; A House of Cards, and The Noble Lord, by Percival Wilde. THE LITTLE THEATRE OF BROOKVILLE, PENN. The Little Theatre of Brookville, Penn., is another small and promising playhouse which has featured the same plays by Mr. Wilde that have been given in the Little Theatre of Erie, Penn. 166 OTHER LITTLE THEATRES AND MOVEMENTS TOWARD LITTLE THEATRES IT is a little hard to know where to place the so-called LITTLE THEATER OF MINNEAPOLIS. A start toward hav- ing a Little Theatre has been made by using one of the halls of Minnesota University. It can hardly be called a Laboratory Theatre since only occasional performances connected with the playwrighting course are given there. It is used for so many different functions that it can scarcely claim the permanent title of a Little Theatre. Yet undoubtedly a Little Theatre may in time grow from the work accomplished there, particularly when that work includes performances of new and unusual plays of such sterling worth as Jeanette Mark's prize plays of Welsh life, The Merry Merry Cuckoo, and Welsh Honeymoon, which have already been given there. A Little Theatre has been discussed for St. Paul; but as yet no definite plans for it can be announced though seed for the venture was sown by a set of experimental performances given there three years ago by Sam Hume, now director of the Arts and Crafts Theatre of Detroit. Other cities who have groups working toward the es- tablishment of Little Theatres are Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Portland, Ore. 167 CHAPTER VIII THE LITTLE THEATRES OF THE SOUTH THE VAGABOND THEATRE OF BALTIMORE To some readers the name of Baltimore's Little The- atre, The Vagabond, may suggest a group of players who travel about the country acting first in one place and then in another after the manner of some of the journeys of the Portmanteau Theatre. But the word Vagabond in this instance is meant to suggest untrammeled freedom of mind rather than a roving foot. The theatre is sta- tionary; but its spirit, like the spirit of the true vaga- bond, is free, experimental, eager. On the cover of its large square program of heavy gray paper there is the picture of a fifteenth century vaga- bond, Frangois Villon-ish in his aspect. A cap with a feather ; a debonair and tattered tunic ; the famous bundle and stick without which no vagabond can pass muster these complete his make-up, and conspicuously carried with the stick and the bundle are the immemorial masks of tragedy and comedy. On the back page of the program is printed the avowed hope and purpose of the organization. ' The Vagabond Players is a group of artists, actors, and authors interested in stimulating and developing new 169 170 THE LITTLE THEATRES OF THE SOUTH and artistic methods of producing, acting, and writing for the American stage and especially in introducing to the Baltimore public those newer ideals which have lately become an intrinsic part of dramatic aspiration princi- pally freedom and free experiment. " The intention of the Vagabond Players is to produce new works by American authors and important plays of foreign writers that would otherwise not be seen in Baltimore. " Admission will be by subscription. The price is $10.00 for one and $18.00 for two subscriptions for the season. A subscription admits the holder to one per- formance of each bill, the same night every month. " Subscriptions are open to all who are interested, and may be obtained upon application to the treasurer. " Single seats may be had at the request of any sub- scriber upon application to the treasurer/' Location always adds its quota toward a Little The- atre's success; and the Vagabond Theatre is most happy in this respect. It is in West Center Street, a pebble's throw from historic Monument Square. Before being remade into a theatre it was a store, though it has become so splendidly metamorphosed that no one would ever recognize it. It is on the ground floor, and is entered directly from the street. The interior of the Vagabond Theatre has been de- signed by one of the theatre's directors, Carol M. Sax an artist whose scenic designs for Ruth St. Denis are among the best she has had so far. This in- terior carries out the Frangois Villon idea. That " poet THE VAGABOND THEATRE OF BALTIMORE 171 vagabond," could he see it, would hardly fail to be pleased. The whole interior breathes an aroma of the mediaeval. The walls are gray; the ceiling beamed in weathered wood. The seats are Gothic benches. They have blue cushions. The curtain is a tapestry of patches like the great cloak of a prince of vagabonds. It gives the effect of something rich and faded a mingling of gray and old gold, Venetian blue and old rose with here and there a patterned bit on which birds or flowers are faintly discernible. The proscenium border is dull gold with an outer border of dull blue. Sconces break the line of the wall. Here and there hang pieces of tapestry. All in all The Vagabond can boast one of the most charming interiors of any Little Theatre in America. It seats sixty people, making it one of the smallest theatres in this country. Its stage is raised some three and a half or four feet from the floor. The whole house with the exception of a few seats is sold out by sub- scription. That is, the subscribers are the actual guar- antors, though they have no voice in the affairs of the theatre. Out of sixty seats there are five seats left. These can be purchased from members at $2.00 apiece. Two performances a week are given throughout the season. Each bill plays a month. The price of seats of The Vagabond, so far as is known, are higher than at any other Little Theatre in the United States ; for there are no one dollar or fifty cent seats to be obtained by the general public even on special days. The small seating capacity of The Vagabond doubtless has something to (Jo with this. A theatre with only sixty seats must cal- 172 THE LITTLE THEATRES OF THE SOUTH culate carefully. It must have emergency funds. But the Chicago Little Theatre with a seating capacity of ninety is able to place dollar seats and fifty cent seats be- fore the public, even though rents are higher in Chicago than they are in Baltimore. The vety people whom a Little Theatre ought to reach an art public slim in purse but large in vision are by such prices debarred from the vistas that a Little Theatre might open for them. And it is not only these people who lose. The theatre itself loses one of the essential things that makes it a Little Theatre its democracy. It becomes a clique theatre. This is the only fault that one can find with The Vagabond Theatre and its many excellencies. Its directors, Mrs. Adele Nathan and Mr. Carol Sax, worked valiantly first to arouse interest in the Little Theatre idea in Baltimore, and secondly to establish the Little The- atre after interest had been secured. It is largely due to their efforts that there is a Little Theatre in Baltimore. Baltimoreans are to a gratifying degree represented in The Vagabond Theatre work. Baltimore has long been the Winter home of many American artists of note, and several of these have given generously of their time and work, among them Joseph Weyrich, who designed the scenery for A Merry Death. Clementine Walker, Raymond Sovey, and Oliver Bell are others who have done scenic work for The Vagabond. Baltimore play- wrights are represented by Henry L. Mencken and Mrs. Adele Nathan. The former's play, The Artist, was given an early production at The Vagabond; and The Vagabond's single effort at pantomime The Song of THE VAGABOND THEATRE OF BALTIMORE 173 Solomon, by Adele Nathan, was rich in the colors of the East. Thus The Vagabond Theatre expresses the native art-impulse of the city of Baltimore, and any theatre with such beginnings is bound to go far. It does not rely altogether on outside forces ; but draws its forces from within itself, a thing that makes for permanence and stability. It goes without saying that the company of Vagabond Players are all Baltimoreans, some of them possessed of a fine degree of talent. No one connected with the theatre receives a salary save the stage carpenter. There is a large corps of work- ers and as Little Theatres go the permanent cast is a large one. There are at least thirty people who can be drawn upon at short notice. The Vagabond Theatre devotes all its energies to pro- ducing the one-act play. Longer plays are not given as yet. Three one-act plays an evening is the rule. The opening bill, November, 1916, consisted of The Artist, by H. L. Mencken ; Ryland, by Thos. Wood Stevens and Kenneth S. Goodman, and A Merry Death, by Nicolai Evrienof. In the latter play the austerity of the new stage art was manifest. The whole scene setting of Ryland was worked out in gray and mauve with touches of white. The prison walls were cold gray; while the eighteenth century costumes of the actors were orchid-like in color, running through a scale of lavenders and purples. This scene setting was designed by Carol M. Sax. In A Merry Death the walls again were gray. Through a quaintly shaped doorway were glimpsed queer bpxlike 174 THE LITTLE THEATRES OF THE SOUTH trees against a yellow sky. A bright orange table ; some three-legged gray stools; a narrow orange-colored four- post bed with a canopy of black and white cubes com- prised the rest of the setting. The walls were unadorned save for a window high in the wall giving on the out- side, and a round clock measuring the hours hung near the bed. Outside the window, just visible to the audi- ence, was a blackbird in a wicker cage. This set was by Joseph Weyrich, who designed the interior of the Prov- incetown Players Theatre in New York. Its fantastical atmosphere was in exact accord with the spirit of the play that recounts the merry death of Harlequin. Yet it was obtained by the simplest possible means. In a later production of Susan Glaspell's Freudian comedy, Suppressed Desires, there was a plain wall with stenciled medalions, highly decorative furniture, and a striking note obtained by the use of widely striped cur- tains that stamped the room with an air of oddness and chic the room in question being a studio in Washington Square South. In these effects, always simply attained, the Vagabond Players excel. The programs of The Vagabond Theatre bring before*' the public plays by Baltimoreans; plays that other Little Theatres are giving; and plays that are acknowledged masterpieces in America and Europe. These Vagabond programs are well spiced with variety, and are most hap- pily arranged. For instance, the first program was an art program music, represented by Mr. Mencken's play ; painting, by Mr. Stevens' play; and acting, by Evrienof s A Merry Death. Another program was a program of Above, a scene from Lord Dunsany's The Glittering Gate, at? THE ARTS AND CRAFTS THEATRE, DETROIT, MICH. Scene Jdesi^'ied by Sam Hume. (See Page 152.) Below, scene from Thomas Wood Stevens and Kenneth S vloodnrin's Ryland, at THE VAGABOND THEATRE, BALTIMORE, Mb. jScene " designed by Carol Sax. THE VAGABOND THEATRE OF BALTIMORE 175 " isms." Nationalism, represented through The Betrayal, by Padraic Colum; Freudianism, represented by Sup- pressed Desires, and Socialism, represented by Contem- poraries, by Wilbur Daniel Steele. All this marks high tide in the art of program-making, for which The Vaga- bond's director, Mrs. Adele Nathan, is responsible. In giving a cross section of what other Little Theatres are doing the Vagabond Players strike a new and happy note. They do not copy other Little Theatres in either the setting or the costuming of the plays. It is as if they simply said : " Here is a play done by the Wash- ington Square Players. Here is a play done by the Provincetown Players. This is what they are doing at the Little Theatre in Chicago and this is what they are doing at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. You have seen what the Vagabond Players have pro- duced. Now take a look at what other Little Theatres are accomplishing in other parts of the country." Too many Little Theatres forget that there are any other players in the world besides themselves. The Vagabond Players give a sense of cosmopolitanism. Their work shows a consciousness of their own world, and of other worlds outside it. They have given not only the work of other Little American Theatres; but the work of five different countries besides America, namely, Russia, Belgium, England, Ireland, and Sweden. The Vagabond Theatre is a much-needed art center for Baltimore, and that city can well be glad to have the new and significant things of drama brought into its midst through the efforts of this pioneer group. i?6 THE LITTLE THEATRES OF THE SOUTH The repertoire of The Vagabond Theatre has been as follows :