l-Piiiii 
 
THE REPERTORY 
 THEATRE IDEA 
 
 By FRANCES JEWETT 
 
 How far that little candle throws his beams ! 
 So shines a good deed in a naughty world. 
 
 Shaketpeare 
 
The Repertory Theatre Idea 
 
 Three Addresses byMRS.jEWETT 
 GIVEN BEFORE THE MEMBERS OF THE 
 FRANCES JEWETT REPERTORY THEATRE CLUB 
 at the meetings of March 3, 1920, March 2, 1921 
 January 4, 1922 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE FRANCES JEWETT REPERTORY THEATRE CLUB 
 
 COPLEY THEATRE, BOSTON 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1922 
 
 BY 
 FRANCES H. JEWETT 
 
THE HEALTH OF THE THEATRE* 
 
 ADDRESS AT THE 
 
 MONTHLY MEETING OF THE CLUB 
 MARCH 3, 1920 
 
 GREETINGS to this Club and gratitude 
 to its members for all that they have 
 done and are doing to help this Repertory 
 Theatre idea. 
 
 As I stand here with this audience facing 
 me, I am reminded of words spoken to me 
 over twenty-five years ago when I was 
 crossing the Pacific Ocean on my way from 
 Australia to America, words that have since 
 
 (The title of this address was taken from a letter 
 which was written by Mr. John Drinkwater to Mrs. 
 John C. Abbot, President of the Frances Jewett 
 Repertory Theatre Club and read at the club 
 meeting on February 4th, 1920. In this letter Mr. 
 Drinkwater wrote ". . . . it is only through such 
 ventures that any health can return to the theatre, 
 and I am sure, moreover, that every such effort 
 reacts definitely upon the whole range of theatrical 
 enterprise.") 
 
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'The Repertory theatre Idea 
 
 become to me as a prophecy fulfilled. An 
 American woman, sailing on the same boat, 
 returning to her own country, said these 
 words to me: "You will not be lonely in 
 America, you will love it, and Americans 
 will love you. I see their faces turning 
 towards you, especially I see the faces of the 
 American women turning to you." This 
 may have been said merely to comfort a 
 young and lonely woman leaving her home 
 and country for the first time and going to 
 a strange land and a strange people, though 
 thank God, not speaking a strange language. 
 However that may be, her words have come 
 true, or I would not be standing here today 
 in the presence of this Club, formed by seven 
 women who did me the honor to call it by 
 my name. And America is no longer a 
 strange country to mei It has become my 
 country and her people my people. 
 
 The Repertory Theatre is essentially the 
 democracy of the theatrical world. In it 
 every man and woman has equal and ample 
 opportunity, the talented to fully exercise 
 their ability, the weak to develop theirs. 
 The idea, however, did not at first make 
 
Three Addresses by Mrs.Jewett 
 
 its direct appeal to me, but to my husband, 
 and it was in listening to him talk of its 
 value to his profession and to the public 
 that I began to see for myself its far-reaching 
 influence and possibilities for good, and as 
 these possibilities unfolded more and more 
 to my thought the call for definite action 
 became more and more imperative, until 
 finally it was I who pleaded and urged that 
 he start this Repertory Theatre in Boston 
 and put his theories into practice. Indeed, 
 it was my hand that pushed his boat from 
 the shore to meet the troubled waters that 
 always await the launching of a more 
 advanced idea but, womanlike, having 
 done so, I jumped on board with him and 
 we have sailed many stormy seas together. 
 
 I do not grudge the struggles and the 
 sufferings we have passed through since 
 that first step was taken, for the goal is a 
 high one, this Repertory Theatre idea, 
 which is to restore the health of the theatre. 
 The work is well started, and in the future 
 it will rest largely with this Club to carry 
 it on. The torch which we have lighted 
 we are already prepared to fling to you. 
 
The Repertory Theatre I dea 
 
 May you and yours carry it high and clear 
 for others to see and follow. May you one 
 and all, in the best sense of the words, "Carry 
 on, carry on, carry on!" 
 
THE HIGHER AIM OF THE THEATRE 
 
 ADDRESS AT THE 
 
 MONTHLY MEETING OF THE CLUB 
 MARCH 2, 1921 
 
 T AM glad to have the opportunity of 
 * speaking a few words to you this after- 
 noon. It is just a year ago since I stood here 
 and asked you to help "carry on" and up the 
 higher idealism of the Repertory Theatre, 
 and I want to thank each and every worker 
 who has done so. During the past year 
 many steps have been taken on and up, 
 and there have been many developments. 
 The latest, it appears that the little house 
 which has for several years sheltered this 
 repertory idea is to be swept aside by the 
 march of events and we are faced with the 
 problem either that Boston must lose this 
 repertory idea, or that we must build it a 
 new and more adequate house. That Boston 
 should lose the idea seems inconceivable, and 
 
'The Repertory Theatre Idea 
 
 that we should build a theatre at this time 
 raises a very grave question. Why? At a 
 time when the world is suffering from the 
 effects of a great and disastrous war, the 
 consequences being manifested in sorrow, 
 disease and famine, why should we give 
 our time, our thought and our money to 
 build a theatre? I am answering myself 
 and I will answer you by one magic word 
 Education. Certainly we should stretch 
 out our hand to comfort the sorrowing and 
 the diseased. But we have yet another 
 hand and that surely should be stretched 
 out to uphold and further education and 
 enlightenment for the race. Education is 
 the watchword of every true democracy, and 
 education, like most other things in this age, 
 has burst its bonds, has swept on through 
 the schools, passed the schools. It has been 
 incorporated in the business world, into the 
 sport world, into almost every avenue of 
 life. It has called each and every art to 
 its aid, and last of all it is calling the theatre 
 and the theatre is answering like "an army 
 with banners" the theatre with its light 
 and its shade, its laughter and its tears, the 
 
'Three Addresses by Mrs. Jewett 
 
 theatre with its wide open doors through 
 which the millions pour day by day and 
 night by night, with its great roll of drama 
 through which many of our greatest geniuses 
 have appealed to universal humanity, pre- 
 eminently our own immortal Shakespeare, 
 the theatre which of all the arts holds up 
 the mirror wherein humanity loves to see 
 itself. Matthew Arnold truly cried, "The 
 theatre is irresistible, organize the theatre!" 
 
 Thus the theatre is a great factor in our 
 midst. It is either to be a great blessing 
 or a bane to our race. And what are we 
 going to do about it? The flame of the 
 higher idealism for the theatre has been 
 already kindled here in Boston. It flickered 
 up, at first a feeble flame, sometimes almost 
 lost in the struggles of its pioneers and often 
 almost quenched by their tears, but it has 
 lived on and it is burning now a steady 
 flame. 
 
 I am not here to beg, but I am here to 
 invite you to nourish and feed this flame, 
 to fan it so that it may become a beacon 
 light to show to the world what the theatre 
 in its higher mission can do for the race, 
 
The Repertory Theatre Idea 
 
 not only for our own generation but for 
 generations yet to come. 
 
 I thank you for all the good you have 
 done, for all the good you are going to do, 
 and again I invite you to "carry on." 
 
THE POWER OF THE SPOKEN WORD 
 IN THE THEATRE 
 
 ADDRESS AT THE 
 
 MONTHLY MEETING OF THE CLUB 
 JANUARY 4, 1922 
 
 MR. SHAW, in his preface to the little 
 play "The Dark Lady of the Sonnets," 
 which is to be given here this afternoon, 
 states that he originally wrote the play 
 to aid a fund to build a National Theatre 
 in England. He adds, rather sadly, that 
 the project failed in England, because 
 so many people failed to see the necessity 
 of such a theatre in order that the people 
 might have a National soul. He goes 
 on to speak, through the characters of 
 this play, of the power of the spoken word 
 and of the glory that may be revealed 
 through lovely words. Finally he quotes 
 from that great Word the Book of Books 
 and I very reverently repeat: "In the 
 
'The Repertory 'Theatre Idea 
 
 beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
 with God, and the Word was God," and, 
 "Man shall not live by bread alone but by 
 every word that proceedeth out of the 
 mouth of God." We know that the theatre 
 has been chosen by many great writers as 
 an avenue for their genius, realizing the 
 power of the spoken word to reach the 
 people, and yet in this day, as never before 
 in history, in thousands of theatres in this 
 and other lands the spoken word is banished; 
 that wonderful instrument, the human voice, 
 is silent, we see only a passing show. Think 
 what it would be if we had such a world, 
 speechless, voiceless a dumb universe. The 
 greatest group of nations on earth today is 
 united by one common tie; it is not the 
 tie of blood, it is much stronger than blood, 
 it is the tie of language, the English language. 
 We are often severely criticised, among other 
 things, in connection with our work in this 
 theatre, for confining ourselves so it is said, 
 to English plays acted by English players. 
 I would like to say here, we do not confine 
 ourselves to anything. On the contrary, we 
 are unfolding, adding a new chapter in the 
 
'Three Addresses by Mrs. Jewett 
 
 evolution of dramatic art in America. Is 
 it not entirely logical that in this vast 
 country with its innumerable theatres, and 
 in this historic city of Boston, there should 
 be at least one theatre offering a welcome 
 and a home for the works of thinkers and 
 writers whose thoughts, training and methods 
 were obtained in the atmosphere where the 
 language was evolved, and for players whose 
 training and voices were also "made in 
 England?" Is it not cause rather for gratitude 
 than for censure, that there is a theatre 
 where American dramatists, poets, students, 
 actors and public have the opportunity to 
 come and study these methods direct from 
 the land and race that mothered our words 
 and speech? I think so. We have tried, 
 however feebly, in this little house to give 
 out beautiful words thoughtfully and 
 adequately expressed, and I trust that this 
 work will be carried on until its horizon 
 deepens, broadens and glows, until it 
 becomes boundless! Art is always untram- 
 meled, never local, never personal, therefore 
 always beautiful, and, thank God, always 
 universal. 
 
The Repertory Theatre Idea 
 
 I hope that some day you will build a 
 home here in Boston, where lovelier and 
 lovelier words may be given out to feed the 
 hungry heart of the people, to the end that 
 in this great land, indeed, the National soul 
 may live. 
 
The Repertory Theatre Idea 
 
 I hope that some day you will build a 
 home here in Boston, where lovelier and 
 lovelier words may be given out to feed the 
 hungry heart of the people, to the end that 
 in this great land, indeed, the National soul 
 may live. 
 
Louis E. CROSSCUP Co. 
 
 PRINTERS 
 BOSTON MASS 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, 
 BERKELEY 
 
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