Los Angeles herald., 1909-04-11
Musical
BERLIN correspondent writes to

| A BERLIN correspondent writes to
| III the Cleveland Plain Dealer the
IA following letter concerning certain
matters that are also or interest IN Los
| Angeles. and the epistle is respectfully
submitted to the consideration of Her
aid readers:
| Almost any Sunday afternoon. If you
| happen to be in a Berlin street after
luncheon you will see somewhat I'M
der-sized, pallid man in black coat
and wideawake hat. He is subdued, 81
| lent. distracted; plainly he is man VINO
| for his station thinks too much, and MS
nockets bulge suspiciously! But in re-
ality he is typical German skilled ar
tisan: his pockets bulge not with
bombs, but with oranges and butter
brots, and he is on his way to the the
alter.
| At first you will laugh at his butter
brots and sum him up as barbarian.
| If he is really off for amusement you
will argue, 1t is to the Chat Noir in
| Frederick strasse, or to one of those
numerous "peasata cafes" beloved or
Rerliners. where city bred walters,
dressed as Saxon Doors, slap you gent
| ally on the back and ask you 10 pfen-
nigs.
Thereby you wrong the Berlin
workman and accuse him of acting like
a mere IQ6Ilp6T Oh lliO hiid0AO N'ooe',
which he would highly resent He is
off to a theater of his own and he Is
the one workingman in Europe who
can boast: L provide my own amuse-
ments, and it is much better than is
provided for you. None of your CAPT.
talist impresario for me-
Free Stage for the People
The man with the butterbrots is only
type of some 10000 Berlin worf 'ng-
men and working women who support
| the society known as the New Free
Peoples Stage" and in supporting 1t
see the best plays from the best parts
of the theaters at the hours they choose
themselves and at lowest prices.
Outside the New Free Peoples
Stage" nobody save a millionaire could
unite the first three of these ideals, and
he could only do 1t by having thea
ter to himself That is what the Ber-
lin workingman does. The New Free
Peoples stage" gives him his own
theater and not only one, but at pres
ent eight theaters, and in the future 1t
will give him a greater number still.
The founder of the New Free Peo-
pies Stage" was DR.. Bruno Willie, VINO
started with a premise taken from an
cient Greece and still ever in the
mouth of Tolstoi, that no nation is ar
| tistically saved until us art is the
property of all.
DR.. Willie began by starting the
Free Peoples Stage" the main pur-
| pose of which was to take disengaged
| theaters on Sunday afternoons and
produce good plays on cooperative
principles for the benefit of the mem
bers of the society.
See Best Plays for IL Cents
| The enterprise succeeded from the
| beginning. The first production, The
| Pillars of Society," was produced at
| the Oskend theater before 1000 mem
beers, each of whom had paid so pfen-
nigs, or IL cents, for his seat. That
was twenty years ago when lbsen
| seemed a doubtful proposition to per-
sons with much greater mental preten-
sions that the Berlin workman. Therf
was no loss to meet. Equality was Cd"
served in the distribution of seats. as
each member took his ticket from an
urn or if with friend from an urn
containing double tickets. There was
no favoritism, no rush for the best
seats, no standing In the quene and no
extra charges.
At present the New Free People 8
Stage'' has thirty-one branches and
| 81 600 members in Berlin alone. 1t
| hires every Sunday two Schiller thea
| ters, the Observation-Disclosures thea
| ter, the Deutsche theater, the New the
alter, the Hebbel theater, the Berllner
theater and the New opera house. pro-
duces the best plays, carefully chosen
by its arts committee, and has reye-
nue. of 100000 a year.
Company Hired for Afternoon
In the early days the society had its
own stock company of actors; but as
It took theater after theater this be-
came impossible, and 1t now engages
for the afternoon the company Of each
theater hired, thereby, of course, limit
ing its choice of plays. However. the
society is not an academic institution,
and, though it's standard is high, 1T is
not its purpose to force high art upon
workmen if they do not want 1T.
Another change was the raising or
the price to 80 pfennigs or % cents.
This was causel by increased theater
rents But the % cents covers ward
robe, programs and books of words, 50
that the Berlin workman gets his
drama for what the average theater-
goer pays for these last conveniences
alone.
But the greatest merit of the New
Free PEOPLES Stage" is that it is really
a peoples stage. 1t has avoided snip
wreck on the rock which has destroyed
such undertakings in other lands. To
mention only one instance, st. Peters
burg has the best built PEOPLES theater
in Europe: but it's best parts are mon-
opolized by admirals and privy coun-
cilors. and the workmen for whom 1t
was built resolutely stay away.
Sixteen Thousand Workers Belong
The Berlin Peoples stage is essen
TALLY workman's society. On its lists
are 10000 men and women who gain
their living by manual labor. There arel
hundreds of bricklayers. carpenters, en-
cheering mechanics, even messengers,
and nearly a couple of thousand seam
stresses. During the last ten years
each member on the average attended
100 performances, and at these per-