place. In size they accommodate, so far as the seating arrangement is
concerned, from one to six hundred persons. In the forty towns visited,
four had halls with a seating capacity of less than one hundred and
fifty, fifteen with two hundred, twelve with three hundred, five with
four hundred and four with six hundred and over. The seats were not
stationary, the halls being used for other purposes. For the most part
they consisted of folding chairs, kitchen chairs, boxes, saw-horses,
and barn floor planks. The stages were small and the scenery scarce. In
several places one could stand on the stage, and touch the ceiling with
his hands. The front curtains were usually roll curtains and covered with
advertising. Very few stages had a set of scenery. Oil and acetylene
lamps furnished the necessary light. Barn lanterns were not uncommon.
Occasionally some enterprising community would have electricity. In one
village hall electric light bulbs were set in large tomato cans which
were cut down on one side. These served as footlights. Automobile head
lights facing toward the stage quite frequently gave the necessary
light. Plumbers’ candles were sometimes used. Dressing room facilities
were generally lacking. Sometimes a ladder was placed at the back
window near the stage and the characters in the play who found it
necessary to change their make-up would climb out on the ladder and go
down in the basement between acts and make the necessary adjustments.
Screens, blankets, and sheets pinned across the back corners of the
stage make a good impromptu stage dressing room. Several of the halls
had excellent dining rooms in connection with them. All the buildings
were used for many different community activities. Most of them lacked
good architecture, simply because the agencies in education had never
taken enough interest in planning community buildings for country
districts. The present tendency in consolidated schools is to install
stages, platforms, and gymnasiums, in order to make them available for
every activity characteristic of community life. A great many of the
communities had splendid well arranged halls.
The musical survey showed that in districts where the people were of
foreign descent all kinds of music thrived. The majority of the places
had the talent, but not the leadership and the organization. Music in
the schools was fairly well developed. Dance orchestras were popular.
One town had a good orchestra, a fine band, and a glee club. Another had
just a band of fifteen pieces. Victrolas were popular and in use in every
school for games and folk dances. An interesting feature of the different
kinds of music was the popularity of the violin. Every orchestra was
blessed with this particular kind of a string instrument.
So far as clubs and organizations are concerned, every community has
plenty of them. Some of them are very active and broad-minded, as well as
farseeing in their work. Others are petty in their attitude and inclined
to do very little. Many duplicate each other’s work. Where there is
leadership, the organizations are alert and perform many valuable acts of
service.
[Illustration: Of the Fifty-three Counties in the State Thirty-five Have
County Play Days]
Athletic activities in the various towns and country districts are
extremely popular with both the young and the old. Baseball is generally
played at twilight, between seven-thirty and nine-thirty in the evening.
Basketball tournaments in consolidated school districts attract
considerable attention. Field days at farmers’ picnics create an unusual
interest.
County play days in which all the children in the county meet at some
particular place and participate in games, folk dances, parades, and
pageants have become an integral part of the social life of the state.
Out of the fifty-three counties in the state over thirty-five have play
days. From two to ten thousand people attend these annual affairs.
The attitude of the weekly papers toward social functions and public
programs is excellent. Space is freely given. The library facilities for
furnishing data for presentation on public programs are not good, due
primarily to lack of material and funds with which to purchase it. The
possibilities for library work in the country districts in the state and
even other states are infinite. Thousands of letters besides the survey
of the forty towns attest this fact.
Hundreds of plays are presented in the state every year. Home talent
plays are generally greeted with great crowds everywhere. Everybody
“likes ’em.” Operettas are popular because large casts of characters
are necessary to produce them. And besides everybody likes to see his
offspring, relative, or friend take part. It is human nature to see what
is in a person. The audiences are always enthusiastic and appreciative.
The repertoire consists of comedies, classical plays, Christmas
festivals, pantomimes, operettas, and May fetes. The community without a
play is one without a leader. In a great many towns and rural districts
the play, the picnic, and the Christmas festival are annual affairs. It
is doubtful whether anything proves so popular with the vast majority of
people as a real play staged by honest-to-goodness country folks. It also
unconsciously brings out a spirit of leadership.
These few facts which were gathered by the cast during the day, coupled
with other information secured before and after the tour, tell one
something, perhaps not much, about the social life of country people in a
prairie state.
The experiences encountered during the forty-day sojourn were
interesting, to say the least. The audiences ranged in size from
twenty-six persons to seven hundred. A county fair or circus admission
of fifty cents for adults and twenty-five for children was charged.
Sometimes the audiences were made up of cowboys, or cow-punchers, as
the Westerners say. In one community two hundred sheep herders saw the
play. In another, lignite coal miners and their families witnessed the
production. For the most part the halls were filled with wheat growers
and dairymen and their kin. With a few possible exceptions the crowds
were rural in their complexion. Out in the extreme western part of the
state the lights balked and the play never started until nine forty-five
in the evening. In one town a thirteen dollar and fifty cent crowd
enjoyed the comedy. It was necessary to purchase a bolt of chocolate
colored cambric in another place, because only one screen could be
found in the whole community. The cambric was used as a background and
the screen for a left wing. The back of a piano with the American flag
drooped over it served as the right wing. Old-fashioned acetylene lamps
gave the necessary light. A large dry goods box was used for a ticket
stand. Planks resting on saw horses satisfied the crowd so far as a
seating arrangement was concerned. Social functions frequently followed
the presentation of the play. After paying all expenses, the profits on
the forty town road tour amounted to six dollars and sixty-seven cents.
The tour showed that people actually like plays. It carried the drama to
the people.
COLD SPRING HOLLOW
A little over a year ago it was my good fortune to spend several days in
Berkley County, West Virginia. “Tepee,” a jovial and good natured fellow
and myself were in a camp out three miles from historic Martinsburg. The
place was not so very far from the Maryland border. The festival chosen
was “The Ingathering,” a story about America, in which food for humanity
was the central theme. The characters were the country youth from those
West Virginia hills. The site selected was Cold Spring Hollow near
Opequan Creek. It was a beautiful spot in a little valley on Uncle Nat’s
farm. On the hillsides which rose right and left from the hollow, there
were many stately pines. A spring in the upper part of the valley kept
the grass green and furnished many a refreshing drink.
The scene of the story of “The Ingathering” is laid in the Garden of
Freedom where the Altar of Liberty is concealed. Mother Earth is escorted
through a field of golden grain to the Garden. Here she stops and tells
her escort that the Holy Earth has a soul and that through the ages her
friends have been, Story, Art, and Song and that the elements of nature
when the seasons were made selected Autumn as the most beautiful of all.
The Spirit of Autumn, arrayed in all the colors characteristic of that
season, moves about the field with graceful rhythm. Story then comes
running through the field into the Garden of Freedom and tells Mother
Earth that her children, representing many different races, are coming in
search of the Altar of Liberty. They enter the field talking, though they
do not understand each other. They babble. As they approach the Garden
she halts them, asks them to be seated and gives Story a basket of bread
that they may have food to eat. Mother Earth realizes that when people
break bread with each other they not only understand each other better,
but they also exemplify the noblest virtues of mankind—sacrifice and
charity. Story then tells Mother Earth that people since time immemorial
have commemorated the ingathering of food. Art comes and teaches the
races many games and frolics with them. In the distance Song is heard.
She enters and succeeds in getting all these people singing together.
Mother Earth beckons Story, Art, and Song to bring all these people to
the Garden of Freedom. They come and kneel with hands outstretched. For
a moment darkness reigns everywhere. Story, Art, and Song uncover what
these children for generations have been praying for. Light again appears
and before their eyes the Altar of Liberty is seen in the Garden of
Freedom which is located in the land called America.
The Altar of Liberty was constructed out of poles and evergreens cut from
the nearby woods. Joe and Jim, two country lads, were the architects and
builders. Joe was fat and chubby and about as large around as an apple
barrel. He had a pair of merry blue eyes and everybody liked him. One
day after the rehearsal, when we were laying out the frame work of the
altar with poles, I said, “Joe, don’t you think you had better get a
saw and cut the ends of these poles straight so they’ll stand erect?”
Joe looked at me and said, “Don’t you think I can cut them?” He was
standing with his hand and foot resting on the handle and blade of a wood
chopper’s ax. When told he might try, he raised the ax over his shoulder
and with several strokes cut the pole off as straight and clean as any
first-class carpenter would have sawed it. After that day when anybody
saw Joe carrying an ax around the camp they would follow him, because
they knew Joe was an expert woodsman. Jim, his pal, was lean, had brown
eyes, and was somewhat rough spoken. But Jim could drive twenty penny
spikes. His aim was true. Of the many he drove he never missed a head.
The construction of the Altar of Liberty was the medium through which Joe
and Jim got interested in the festival.
The evening it was presented the automobiles which usually furnished the
lights were not there. The hilly roads prevented their coming down into
the valley. Some other kind of light had had to be found. One day during
the week a fourteen-year-old boy had been seen scratching a match on
the edge of a tin can cover. When asked what made the flame he said it
was pitch. After a few trials as to its light power, the lads were sent
up into the woods to get all they could find. They brought back large
quantities. Chunks of pitch as large as your fists were placed on flat
pieces of limestone near the altar. These natural footlights with a huge
bonfire furnished all the light necessary for the production. A small
organ, about the size of three suit-cases placed on top of each other,
was used for the musical effects. The audience was made up of about a
hundred and twenty-five country people. They were seated on peach crates,
buggy seats, camp stools, horse blankets, and checkered bed quilts.
The evening the festival was presented was an ideal one. The air was
cool and crisp. The stars were out. In the distance Opequan Creek could
be heard. The scene was a most impressive one. Evergreen boughs laid on
the ground in the form of a circle separated the audience from those who
took part in the play. At the right and up the hill a little way the
organ could be heard at intervals. The most beautiful part of it all was
near the end of the festival when the reflection of the lights on the
flat stones showed the ensemble of the characters. They were kneeling in
the Garden of Freedom with their hands outstretched toward the Altar of
Liberty singing—
“Our fathers’ God, to Thee,
Author of Liberty
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King!”
The effect was thrilling. In a valley in the foothills of West Virginia a
group of country people were not only finding themselves, but they were
also expressing a great American ideal.
The message of The Little Country Theater—to help people find their true
expression in the community in which they live—was carried beyond the
golden stubbled field of the land of the Dacotahs into the heart of the
hills of West Virginia.
Knowledge is of two kinds—We know a subject ourselves or we
know where we can find information upon it.
_Samuel Johnson._
APPENDICES
He reads much. He is a great observer, and he looks quite
through the deeds of men.
_Shakespeare._
In order to give the reader of this narrative on The Little Country
Theater an insight into the hidden possibilities for the development of
a life in both town and country, a life with more color and romance,
a select list of reading materials is given. Aside from the program
material sources, a careful reading of such books as _The Holy Earth_, by
Liberty Bailey; _Three Acres and Liberty_, by Bolton Hall; _The Fairview
Idea_, by Herbert Quick; _The Village_, by Ernest Poole; _The Farmer and
The New Day_, by Kenyon Butterfield, and scores of other books cannot
help but broaden one’s outlook upon life. A reading taste could easily
be developed in this and other countries if every community, regardless
of its size, would place a book shelf containing interesting literature
in the country store, village post office, community hall, school house,
or somebody’s home. A few dollars, say fifteen or twenty-five would
be a sufficient fund to begin the reading circle. The school master,
especially the county superintendent, would soon see a changed attitude
and a renewed interest in education. The grown-ups, the folks whose
school days are no more, as well as the school children would, if a
library bookshelf was placed in every hamlet, be given an opportunity to
spend at least a part of their leisure time, with pleasure and profit.
Good books are good friends. Reading one is like visiting somebody you
haven’t seen in a long while. The author dedicates the several pages left
to those who want to read that they may know.
APPENDIX A
Select list of suitable reference material—General References, Country
Life, Suggested Lists of Plays, Presentation of Plays, Promotion of Plays.
GENERAL REFERENCES
_Ancient Art and Ritual_—Jane Ellen Harrison. Publisher, Henry
Holt and Company, New York City, New York.
_Book of Days, The_—R. Chambers. Publisher, W. and R. Chambers,
London, England.
_Dramas and Dramatic Dances_—William Ridgeway. Publisher,
Cambridge University Press, London, England.
_Drama of Savage People, The_—Loomis Havemeyer. Publisher, Yale
University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.
_Fine Arts, The_—G. Baldwin Brown. Publisher, Charles
Scribner’s Sons, New York City, New York.
_Golden Bough, The_—J. G. Frazer. Publisher, The Macmillan
Company, New York City, New York.
_Play of Man, The_—Karl Groos. Publisher, D. Appleton and
Company, New York City, New York.
_Amateur and Educational Dramatics_—Evelyne Hillard, Theodora
McCormick, Kate Oglebay. Publisher, The Macmillan Company, New
York City, New York.
_Art Theater, The_—Sheldon Cheney. Publisher, Alfred A. Knopf,
New York City, New York.
_Book of Marionettes, A_—Helen Haiman Joseph. Publisher, B. W.
Huebsch, New York City, New York.
_Chief Contemporary Dramatists_—Thomas Dickinson. Publisher,
Houghton Mifflin Company, New York City, New York.
_Civic Theater, The_—Percy Mackaye. Publisher, Mitchell
Kennerley, New York City, New York.
_Community Theater, The_—Louise Burleigh. Publisher, Little,
Brown and Company, Boston, Massachusetts.
_Drama, The_—Alfred Bates. Publisher, The Athenian Society,
London, England.
_Drama League Series of Plays, The_—Publisher, Doubleday, Page
and Company, New York City, New York.
_History of the Theater in America, A_—Arthur Hornblow.
Publisher, J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
_Insurgent Theater, The_—Thomas Dickinson. Publisher, B. W.
Huebsch, New York City, New York.
_Life and Art of Edwin Booth_—William Winter. Publisher, The
Macmillan Company, New York City, New York.
_Life and Art of Joseph Jefferson_—William Winter. Publisher,
The Macmillan Company, New York City, New York.
_Masterpieces of Modern Drama, The_—John Alexander Pierce and
Brander Matthews. Publisher, Doubleday, Page and Company, New
York City, New York.
_Mediaeval Stage, The_—E. K. Chambers. Publisher, A. C. McClurg
and Company, Chicago, Illinois.
_Neighborhood Entertainments_—Renee B. Stern. Publisher,
Sturgis and Walton Company, New York City, New York.
_Our American Holidays_—Robert Haven Schauffler, Publisher,
Moffat, Yard and Company, New York City, New York.
_Plays and Players_—Walter Prichard Eaton. Publisher, Stewart
and Kidd Company, Cincinnati, Ohio.
_Studies in Stage Craft_—Clayton Hamilton. Publisher, Henry
Holt and Company, New York City, New York.
_Ten Thousand Words Often Mispronounced_—William H. Phyfe.
Publisher, Putnam Sons, New York City, New York.
_Theaters and Picture Houses_—Arthur S. Meloy. Publisher,
Architects Supply and Publishing Company, New York City, New
York.
_Theater Through Its Stage Door_—David Belasco. Publisher,
Harper and Brothers, New York City, New York.
_Training for the Stage_—Arthur Hornblow. Publisher, J. B.
Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
COUNTRY LIFE
_Adult Recreation as a Social Problem_—Edward Alsworth Ross.
Source, _The American Journal of Sociology_, January, Nineteen
Eighteen. Publisher, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago,
Illinois.
_American Country Girl, The_—Martha Foote Crow. Publisher,
Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York City, New York.
_Chapters in Rural Progress_—Kenyon L. Butterfield. Publisher,
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois.
_Constructive Rural Sociology_—John M. Gillette. Publisher,
Sturgis and Walton Company, New York City, New York.
_Country Life Movement in the United States, The_—L. H. Bailey.
Publisher, The Macmillan Company, New York City, New York.
_Country Town, The_—Wilbert L. Anderson. Publisher, The Baker
and Taylor Company, New York City, New York.
_Educational Needs of Farm Women_—United States Department of
Agriculture, Report No. 105. Publisher, Government Printing
Office, Washington, D. C.
_Fairview Idea, The_—Herbert Quick. Publisher, The
Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, Indiana.
_Farm Boys and Girls_—William A. McKeever. Publisher, The
Macmillan Company, New York City, New York.
_Farmer and the New Day, The_—Kenyon L. Butterfield. Publisher,
The Macmillan Company, New York City, New York.
_Holy Earth, The_—L. H. Bailey. Publisher, Charles Scribner’s
Sons, New York City, New York.
_Introduction to Rural Sociology_—Paul Vogt. Publisher, D.
Appleton and Company, New York City, New York.
_Little Town, The_—Harlan Paul Douglas. Publisher, The
Macmillan Company, New York City, New York.
_Our European Neighbors_—Twelve volumes edited by William
Harbutt Dawson. Publisher, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York City,
New York.
_Outlines of Economics_—Richard T. Ely. Publisher, The
Macmillan Company, New York City, New York.
_Plans of Rural Community Buildings_—W. C. Nason. Source,
Farmers Bulletin 1173. Publisher, United States Department of
Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
_Proceedings—First, Second, and Third National Country Life
Conferences._ Publisher, National Country Life Association,
Amherst, Massachusetts, c/o Kenyon L. Butterfield.
_Psychic Causes of Rural Migration_—Ernest R. Groves. Source,
_The American Journal of Sociology_, March, Nineteen Sixteen.
Publisher, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
_Rural Improvement_—Frank Waugh. Publisher, Orange, Judd
Company, New York City, New York.
_Rural Life Problem of the United States, The_—Sir Horace
Plunkett. Publisher, The Macmillan Company, New York City, New
York.
_Rural Planning and Colonization_—Ben Faast. Publisher,
Wisconsin Colonization Company, Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
_Rural Versus Urban_—John W. Bookwalter. Publisher, The
Knickerbocker Press, New York City, New York.
_Six Thousand Country Churches_—Charles Otis Gill and Gifford
Pinchot. Publisher, The Macmillan Company, New York City, New
York.
_Social Anatomy of a Rural Community, The_—Charles J. Galpin.
Source, Wisconsin Research Bulletin, Number 34. Publisher,
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.
_State and the Farmer, The_—L. H. Bailey. Publisher, The
Macmillan Company, New York City, New York.
_Three Acres and Liberty_—Bolton Hall. Publisher, The Macmillan
Company, New York City, New York.
_Village, The_—Ernest Poole. Publisher, The Macmillan Company,
New York City, New York.
SUGGESTED LIST OF PLAYS—ONE ACT
_Afternoon Rehearsal, An_—Lizzie M. Knapp. Characters, Six
Female. Publisher, Walter H. Baker, Boston, Massachusetts.
_American Beauties_—A. Seaman. Characters, Six Female.
Publisher, Walter H. Baker, Boston, Massachusetts.
_Aunt Minerva_—Catherine Tudor. Characters, Five Female.
Publisher, Samuel French, New York City, New York.
_Bank Account, The_—Howard Brock. Characters, One Male, Two
Female. Publisher, Brentano, New York City, New York.
_Barbara_—Jerome K. Jerome. Characters, Two Male, Two Female.
Publisher, Samuel French, New York City, New York.
_Belles of Canterbury, The_—Characters, Eleven Female.
Publisher, Samuel French, New York City, New York.
_Between the Soup and the Savory_—Gertrude Jennings.
Characters, Three Female. Publisher, Samuel French, New York
City, New York.
_Bishop’s Candlesticks_—Norman McKinnel. Characters, Three
Male, Two Female. Publisher, Samuel French, New York City, New
York.
_Bracelet, The_—Alfred Sutro. Characters, Four Male, Four
Female. Publisher, Samuel French, New York City, New York.
_Brown Paper Parcel, A_—M. J. W. Characters, Two Female.
Publisher, Samuel French, New York City, New York.
_Business Meeting, A_—Arlo Bates. Characters, Ten Female.
Publisher, Walter H. Baker, Boston, Massachusetts.
_Christening Robe, The_—Anne L. Estebrook. Characters, Twelve
Female. Publisher, Walter H. Baker, Boston, Massachusetts.
_Christmas Chime, A_—Margaret Cameron. Characters, Two Male,
Two Female. Publisher, Samuel French, New York City, New York.
_Christmas Tale, A_—Maurice Boucher. Characters, Two Male, Two
Female. Publisher, Samuel French, New York City, New York.
_Clod, The_—Lewis Beach. Characters, Four Male, One Female.
Publisher, Doubleday, Page and Company, New York City, New York.
_Cooks and Cardinals_—Norman C. Lindon. Characters, Four Male,
Two Female. Publisher, Harvard Plays, 47 Workshop, Brentano’s,
New York City, New York.
_Courtship of Miles Standish_—Eugene W. Presbrey. Characters,
Two Male, Two Female. Publisher, Samuel French, New York City,
New York.
_Cut Off with a Shilling_—S. T. Smith. Characters, Two Male,
One Female. Publisher, Dramatic Publishing Company, Chicago,
Illinois.
_Dancing Dolls_—Kenneth Sawyer Goodman. Characters, Four Male,
Seven Female. Publisher, The Stage Guild, Chicago, Illinois.
_Day That Lincoln Died, The_—Prescott Warren and Will Hutchins.
Characters, Five Male, Two Female. Publisher, Walter H. Baker,
Boston, Massachusetts.