trained to enjoy the best drama in the best way.
Not only is modern drama being read and studied in the English
classes, but the schools are becoming centres of Little Theatre
movements and leading their communities in pageants and dramatic
festivals. An editorial in _The New York Evening Post_ in 1918 put it
in this way: "As Froude states that in Tudor England there was acting
everywhere from palace to inn-yard and village green, so, the
prediction is made, future historians will record that in our America
there was acting everywhere--in neighborhood theatres, portable
theatres, church clubs, high schools and universities, settlements,
open amphitheatres, and hotel ballrooms."
One reason that amateur dramatics have taken on a new lease of life in
the schools is because other teachers besides teachers of English have
become interested in the project of giving a play. Students in physics
classes have planned and executed lighting systems for the school
theatre, students in carpentering and manual arts have built the
scenery from designs made in drawing classes, curtains have been
stenciled, costumes made and cloths dyed in domestic art classes,
programs printed by the school printing squad, music furnished by the
school orchestra and dances taught by the physical training
department. In most cases the line coaching and the general direction
of the play have been part of the work in English.
A concrete example will illustrate this kind of co-operation. Several
years ago the department of English at the Washington Irving High
School gave two plays, _Three Pills in a Bottle_, a product of the 47
Workshop, by Rachel Lyman Field, and _The Goddess of the Woven Wind_,
by Alice Rostetter. _The Goddess of the Woven Wind_ had grown out of
class-room work. The girls in an industrial course were studying the
origin of the silk industry. A pamphlet stated that the wife of
Hoangti, Si-Ling-Chi, was the first to prepare and weave silk. This
legend offered suggestive dramatic material peculiarly appropriate for
a girls' high school.
The work of obtaining the setting and the properties was divided
between two committees, each working under the direction of a
chairman. Since fifty dollars had been fixed as the limit of
expenditure for the two plays, the problem was rather a difficult one.
Fortunately, _Three Pills in a Bottle_ calls for a small cast. The
cast of The _Goddess of the Woven Wind_, however, included thirty-four
girls, most of whom had to be orientally clad and equipped. The
teacher who contemplates putting on a rather elaborate costume play in
his or her high school will be interested to learn that the amount was
so exactly fixed and the department so resourceful that fifty-one
dollars and nine cents was the total sum spent on the two plays. Then,
lest anyone think that there had been a miscalculation, let it be
added that this sum included the money spent for hot chocolate to
serve to the casts of the plays, between the afternoon and evening
performances.
The problem of staging _Three Pills in a Bottle_ was greatly
simplified by the fact that the frontispiece of the play gives a
simple, effective setting not difficult to copy. With the aid of some
amateur carpentering, the regular interior set was easily transformed
to suit the purpose. The problem of color was solved when the chairman
of the committee found a patchwork quilt in the attic, during a visit
to her mother's home; a conference with the janitress of her city
apartment developed the fact that she possessed a freshly scrubbed
wash-tub, which she was willing not only to donate to the cause, but
to have painted green.
The task of staging _The Goddess of the Woven Wind_ was difficult and
interesting, because it was decidedly a costume play, and because it
was a first production. Some of the difficulties that confronted the
chairman of the committee for that play were amusing.
For instance, after some perplexed thought on the subject, she tacked
the following list of costumes and properties on the Bulletin Board of
the English office:
WANTED:
Mulberry tree
Gardener's spade
Teakwood stool
Chinese necklaces
Large, colorful abacus
Mandarin coats and hats
Sky-blue Chinese bowl
Chinese gong
Bamboo rod
Silk cocoons
She also advertised the need of these things and many others in all
her classes. Within two weeks nearly everything had either appeared or
been promised, except a Chinese gong with a proper "whang" to it, an
unbreakable sky-blue bowl and the mulberry tree! A teacher in a
neighboring school lent the company a splendid gong, sometimes used in
their orchestra; a student transformed a wooden chopping bowl by means
of clay and tempera into an exquisite piece of pottery, copied from a
priceless bowl on exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The mulberry tree was still an unsolved problem, when Dugald Stuart
Walker, the artist who has produced a number of plays at the
Christadora House in New York, was consulted. He suggested that the
tree be a conventionalized one of flat "drapes" of green and brown
poplin, with cocoons sewn on in a simple border design.
The staging of the play then became a project for members of a
third-year art class. During their English period they read the play,
recited on the subject of the China of remote dynasties, constructed a
miniature stage, and then, forming committees among themselves, worked
out the practical details. One group purchased the necessary paint,
another painted the vermilion sun. Her neighbor affixed it to a bamboo
rod. To emphasize the Chinese setting, two girls made a frame with a
dragon as head-piece and huge, colorful Chinese medallions to be sewn
on the side drapery. The design for the medallions was obtained from a
Chinese brass plate. Almost every girl in the class took part in the
project. Interest was easily aroused, as a number of girls in this
class took part in the play.
As for the costumes, for the thirty-four members of the cast, only
eight dollars' worth was hired. The rest were either borrowed or made
by the girls. The most successful one, perhaps, that worn by the
empress, was copied from an Edmund Dulac illustration of the Princess
Badoura. The astrologers' costumes were obtained from photographs of
_The Yellow Jacket_, lent by Mrs. Coburn. To complete the project, the
girls wrote a composition explaining how to organize the staging of a
costume play.
Meanwhile, the selection and coaching of the two casts was going on.
Competition for the parts was open to the girls of the entire school.
A great many girls were tried out before the two committees made a
choice. In fact, every girl who was recommended by her English teacher
was given an opportunity to read a part. In a number of cases two
girls were assigned for one part and it was not known until almost the
last moment who was to have the role or who was to understudy.
Rehearsals were held at least three times a week, for three weeks, and
a full-dress rehearsal was held two days before the final performance.
It was thought advisable to allow a day to elapse between the last
rehearsal and the real performance, in order to give the girls an
opportunity to rest.
In coaching the plays, an effort was made to have a girl read the line
properly without having it read to her. The members of the coaching
committee would explain the mood or frame of mind to the speaker; the
girl would then interpret the mood in her reading.
In addition to the coaching committee, several teachers sat at the
back of the auditorium during rehearsals, to warn the speakers when
they could not be heard.
The advertising campaign began soon after a choice of plays had been
made. In compliance with the request of the Publicity Committee, one
of the teachers of an art class and a teacher in the English
Department assigned to their pupils the problem of making posters to
advertise the plays. To the painter of the best one a prize was
awarded.
Announcements of the play were posted by pupils in various parts of
the building. Tiny brochures decorated with Chinese motives were
prepared by students during an English period, and later were
circulated among the faculty, and placed upon office bulletin boards,
and in diaries. In writing these brochures the girls applied the
knowledge they had gained in studying the writing of advertisements.
Two illustrated advertisements made in one class were displayed in
other high schools; a number were sent in an envelope with tickets to
patrons and distinguished friends of the schools. One class wrote
letters to firms of wholesale silk merchants and importers,
advertising _The Goddess of the Woven Wind_, the story of silk.
In order to increase the sale of tickets and to prepare an
appreciative audience, various subjects were suggested to English
teachers for projects in class work connected with the plays. In many
classes every girl wrote and illustrated a paper on some topic
pertaining to Chinese life, such as customs, costumes, religion,
occupations, silk, China, umbrellas, fireworks, fans, position of
women, objects of art. Oral compositions were devoted to phases of
some of these subjects. In the oral work and in the written
composition, accurate knowledge of authorities consulted was insisted
upon. Chinese proverbs were studied. "A man knows, but a woman knows
better," used by the author in her play, was one of the most popular
ones. Translations, found in the _Literary Digest_, of Chinese poems
of the sixteenth and of the eighteenth century were produced and read
by the girls, many of whom brought to class all the Chinese articles
they could find at home. Incense burners, fans, pitchers,
embroideries, chop sticks, beads, shoes, vases, and even a Chinese
newspaper, found their way to the class-room and were exhibited with
pride. Interest in things Chinese was so great that clippings and
prints continued coming in for almost two weeks after the play had
been presented. Class visits were made to the Chinese exhibit at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art and to importing houses in the
neighborhood.
The kind of co-operation described has led in some schools to the
establishment of workshops similar to those conducted in connection
with certain university courses in playwriting and dramatics and with
many of the Little Theatres. A paragraph that appeared recently in a
calendar of the New York Drama League explains in a convincing way the
necessity for a workshop in connection with all amateur producing.
"One of the most vital problems that the amateur group has to solve,"
says the writer, "is that of securing a proper place for the preparing
of a production. Not all organizations can hold rehearsals, paint
scenery, experiment with lighting on costumes and scenery on the
stage on which they are finally to play. Even where this is possible,
it is costly. Much of the activity is now carried on in the homes of
members so far as rehearsals go; in barns or garages as regards the
painting of scenery and not at all so far as the lighting question is
concerned. More often than not, a few hasty final rehearsals are
relied upon to pull into shape some of the most important elements of
a satisfactory performance.
"The remedy lies in the acquisition of a workshop. A large room with a
very high ceiling will serve admirably. But you must be able to work
recklessly in it, sawing wood, hammering nails, mussing things up
generally with paint and riddling the walls and ceiling with hooks and
screws to hang lighting apparatus and other properties. An
old-fashioned barn can be converted into an ideal workshop, if
provision is made for proper heating. All the activity should be
concentrated in the workshop and there is no reason why all the
experimentalists cannot be at work at once--the carpenters, the scene
painters, the electricians, the property men, and even the actors with
their director."
The use of miniature model stages is becoming more and more common in
the schools, the preliminary model serving the workshop, until the
background, lighting, properties, and costumes are completed. It is an
excellent thing for schools to start a collection of models of famous
theatres and notably successful stage-sets. The material for these
exists in illustrated books and magazines and in the mass of
descriptive material in regard to the stage that is now being
published.[21]
[Footnote 21: There is a comprehensive list of books
published by the Public Library of New York that is an
indispensable guide to amateurs interested in Little Theatres
and play production and in matters connected with lighting,
scenery, costumes, and theatre building; it is W. B. Gamble,
_The Development of Scenic Art and Stage Machinery_, New
York, 1920. Cf. also the articles of Irving Pichel that have
appeared from time to time in _The Theatre Arts Magazine_.
The three following books are especially valuable for school
theatres: Barrett H. Clark, _How to Produce Amateur Plays_,
Boston, 1917; Constance D'Arcy Mackay, _Costumes and Scenery
for Amateurs_. _A Practical Working Handbook_, New York, 1915
(the illustrations are especially valuable); and Evelyn
Hilliard, Theodora McCormick, Kate Oglebay, _Amateur and
Educational Dramatics_, New York, 1917.]
[Illustration: Interior of the Beechwood Theatre.]
[Illustration: Exterior of the Beechwood Theatre.]
Two school theatres designed especially for the purpose of
fostering in the schools to which they are attached an interest in
the drama are the Garden Theatre of the high school at Montclair, New
Jersey, and the Beechwood Theatre in the private school at
Scarborough-on-Hudson, New York, built by Frank A. Vanderlip. At
Montclair the present high school building was completed in 1914. To
the northeast of the building at that time was a ravine which afforded
a natural amphitheatre. The site was perfect, and a gift from a
public-spirited citizen, Mrs. Henry Lang, made it possible to create
on this spot a very artistic and beautiful place for outdoor
performances, either plays or pageants.
On the slope nearest the building are semi-circular rows of concrete
seats accommodating about fifteen hundred people. A brook spanned by
two arched bridges separates the audience from the stage. Back of the
turf stage is a graveled stage slightly raised and reached by two
flights of steps. The pergola and trees make a beautiful background.
The house in the rear is a part of the plant and is used for dressing
and make-up.
The Beechwood Theatre within the school has a proscenium opening of
twenty-seven feet and a stage depth, back to the plaster horizon, of
the same dimensions. There are two complete sets of drapery, one of
coarse ecru linen and one of blue velvet; there is also a stock
drawing-room set of thirty pieces. Back of the stage are ten
dressing-rooms. The lighting arrangements are extraordinarily
complete: the theatre has a standard electrical equipment of
footlights and borders and a switchboard of the best type to which has
recently been added the latest lighting devices, consisting of an
X-ray border, the end section of which is on a separate dimmer, a
thousand-watt centre floodlight, six five-hundred watt-spotlights,
each on separate dimmers, in the false proscenium or tormentor,[22]
and a line of one-thousand-watt floodlights for lighting the plaster
sky. All of this recently added equipment is controlled from a
separate portable switchboard.
[Footnote 22: For the explanation of this and kindred
technical terms, see Arthur Edwin Krows, _Play Production in
America_, New York, 1916.
Cf. Maurice Browne, _The Temple of a Living Art_. _The
Drama_, Chicago, 1913, No. 12, p. 168: "Nor is this just a
question of stage jargon; that man or woman who would
establish an Art Theatre that is an Art Theatre and not a pet
rabbit fed by hand, must be able to design it, to ventilate
it, to decorate it, to equip its stage, to light it (and to
handle its lighting himself, or his electricians will not
listen to him), to plan his costumes and scenery, aye, and at
a shift, to make them with his own hand."]
Though this plant was built primarily for the school, it is used also
by the Beechwood Players, a Little Theatre organization, and by other
community clubs which comprise an orchestra, a chorus, a group
interested in the fine arts, and a poetry circle. Mr. Vanderlip looks
forward to the development of a school of the arts of the theatre from
the nucleus of the Beechwood community clubs. With this idea in mind
he has just built a workshop for the Beechwood Players in a separate
building. It contains power woodworking machines, and rooms for
painting scenery and for the costume department, the latter containing
power sewing machines.
There is no doubt but that these two schools have unique facilities
for developing an interest in the acted drama. But artistic results
have often been secured in the school theatre with equipment falling
far short of the ideal standards achieved at Montclair and at
Scarborough. Other less fortunate schools are, moreover, at no
particular disadvantage when it comes to the class-room study of the
drama for which this book is primarily planned, this work being the
first step in the direction of a more intelligent attitude toward
modern plays and modern theatres. A class-room reading of modern plays
without any accessories, as Shakespeare is often read from the seats
and the aisles, is one of the most practical methods of speech and
voice improvement. Louis Calvert, the eminent actor, speaking of this
kind of training says: "After all it is one of the simplest things in
the world to learn to speak correctly, to take thought and begin and
end each word properly.... A little attention to one's everyday
conversation will often work wonders. If one schools himself for a
while to speak a little more slowly, and to give each syllable its
due, it is surprising how naturally and rapidly his speech will
clarify. If we take care of the consonants, the vowels will take care
of themselves."
[Illustration: Ravine where the Garden Theatre was built.]
[Illustration: The Garden Theatre.]
At the present time, then, the theatre in the schools means a variety
of things. It means first and foremost, as suggested by the latest
college entrance requirements, the study of modern plays, side by side
with the classics. It means also the improvement of English speech,
through the interpretation and the reading aloud of the text. It means
a study of the new art of the theatre such as the present book
suggests. It means often the presentation of plays before outside
audiences and the consequent strengthening of the ties that should
exist between the school and the community. It may mean the
co-operation of several departments of the school in the production;
and, in this case, it usually results in the establishment of some
kind of a workshop. And finally, in certain favored schools, it means
the erection of model Little Theatres. It seems fair to suppose that
this newly aroused interest in modern drama and in modern methods of
production in the schools will have far-reaching results.
BEAUTY AND THE JACOBIN[23]
By BOOTH TARKINGTON
[Footnote 23: Copyright, 1912, by Harper and Brothers.
Copyright in Great Britain. All acting rights both amateur
and professional reserved by the author.]
Since the days of Edward Eggleston, Indiana has been accumulating
literary traditions until at the present time it rivals New England in
the variety of its literary associations. Newton Booth Tarkington,
born in Indianapolis in 1869, and continuing to make his home there
still in the old family house on North Pennsylvania Street, is one of
the most distinguished of the Hoosier writers. As a lad of eleven he
began his friendship with James Whitcomb Riley, then a neighbor. "He
acknowledges (shaking his head in reflection at the depth of it) that
the spirit of Riley has exercised over him a strong, if often
unconsciously felt, influence all his life." The delicious stories of
Penrod and of the William Sylvanus Baxter of _Seventeen_ that Booth
Tarkington has told for the unalloyed delight of old and young are
said to reproduce quite accurately the author's recollection of his
own boyhood pranks and associations in the Middle-Western city of his
birth. Tarkington went first to Phillips Exeter Academy and later to
Purdue University at Lafayette, Indiana, before he became a member of
the class of '93 at Princeton. His popularity and his good fellowship
are still cherished memories on the campus.
It seems that he was infallibly associated in the undergraduate mind
with the singing of _Danny Deever_; so much so, that whenever he
appeared on the steps at Nassau Hall there would be an immediate
demand for his speciality, a demand that often caused him to retire as
inconspicuously as possible from the crowd. These old days are
commemorated in the following verses, a copy of which, framed, hangs
on the walls of the Princeton Club in New York.
RONDEL
"The same old Tark--just watch him shy
Like hunted thing, and hide, if let,
Away behind his cigarette,
When 'Danny Deever' is the cry.
Keep up the call and by and by
We'll make him sing, and find he's yet
The same old Tark.
No 'Author Leonid' we spy
In him, no cultured ladies' pet:
He just drops in, and so we get
The good old song, and gently guy
The same old Tark--just watch him shy!"
No biography of Booth Tarkington, no matter how brief, should omit to
mention that he was elected to the Indiana State Legislature and sat
for a time in that body, where he accumulated, no doubt, some data on
the subject of Indiana politics that he may afterwards have put to
literary use.
He has found the subject for most of his novels and plays[24] in
contemporary American life, which he treats unsentimentally,
spiritedly, and vigorously. _Beauty and the Jacobin_, like his famous
and fascinating tale, _Monsieur Beaucaire_, is exceptional among his
works in deserting the modern American scene for an Eighteenth Century
situation. The story and the play are likely, for this reason, to be
compared. The tone of _Monsieur Beaucaire_ is more urbane, more
whimsical, more romantic than the mood of _Beauty and the Jacobin_
which "breaks with the pretty, pretty kind of thing. There is a new
quality in the texture of the writing.... The plot here springs
directly from character, and the action of the piece is inevitable.
_Beauty and the Jacobin_ gives evidence of being the first conscious
and determined, as it is the first consistent, effort of the author to
leave the surface and work from the inside of his characters out....
The whole of the little drama is scintillant with wit, delicate and at
times brilliant and somewhat Shavian, which flashes out poignantly
against the sombreness of its background."[25]
[Footnote 24: For a bibliography of his works through the
year 1913, see Asa Don Dickinson, _Booth Tarkington, a
Gentleman from Indiana_, Garden City, no date.]
[Footnote 25: Robert Cortes Holliday, _Booth Tarkington_,
Garden City and New York, 1918, pp. 155-156; p. 157.]
_Beauty and the Jacobin_ was published in 1912 and has had at least
one performance on the professional stage. On November 12, 1912, it
was played by members of the company then acting in _Fanny's First
Play_, at a matinee at the Comedy Theatre, in New York. It has always
been a favorite with amateurs and quite recently was performed in St.
Louis by one of the dramatic clubs of that city.
BEAUTY AND THE JACOBIN
_Our scene is in a rusty lodging-house of the Lower Town,
Boulogne-sur-Mer, and the time, the early twilight of dark November in
northern France. This particular November is dark indeed, for it is
November of the year 1793, Frimaire of the Terror. The garret room
disclosed to us, like the evening lowering outside its one window, and
like the times, is mysterious, obscure, smoked with perplexing
shadows; these flying and staggering to echo the shiftings of a young
man writing at a desk by the light of a candle._