The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-12-18
Making The Theatre Democratic
 Mission Cf Poi, Master Builder


 ing school for adults. The child in his mimic plays learning of e and the stage teaches grown ups the lessons of fe not duly and supidy lips of droning teacher but pleasantly and without effort Thus is virtue compared with vice. the highest ideals ncucated and received without effort
 The theatre IS school of manners and morals Some times the manners are not very good Frequently the moras leave much to be desired But the best there, and in tlrne the best will be adopted
 There wonderful meaning in the circumstance that the stage has within recent years been brought within the reach of everybody It is cycle; return to the ways of four thousand years ago.
 The amphitheatres of Greece and Rome open to the populace Everybody in the ancient cities enjoyed
 Then came the middle ages, and the decadence of drama, and the long, dreary wait until the Ezabethan Eng1is-speakng world revived the methods of ophoces and Eschyus giving to the world stories of real and
 Art and invention have brought much to the modern heatre beside the play itself Electricity has done it's veoped to point of realism unknown in any previous age. The moving picture machine and the glorious pam of color behind powerful projectors have cont
 It is EVENT when really worthy play house is given to city It has been an event during the turies when such thing has happened
 Bridgeport now has it's first modern play house, a great and massive structure of brick and steel crete of architect artisan reproof, com1nodious, and fit in every way to dra nae home for the people of the second city of Connee cut
 That this goal much to be desired has been reached is due to the genius, the artistic spirit the imagination and the business skill of S. 2. Po gentleman who to the happiness of their fellow
 MT. Poh is the of chain of theatres. He has several in New Haven He has in Hartford, in Wa terbury in Meriden, in Norwich in Springfield in Wor cester in Wikesbarre in Scranton, in Washington and two-zincluding his splendid new one-in Bridgeport
 Some of these playhouses magnificent structures embracing the very latest in design and construction All of them dedicated to democratic drama They morals for the exclusive few but for the great masses of the plain people.
 And in them something is offered adapted to the tastes and the capacities of EACH man or woman who enters the for art is broad enough to be for whomsoever is narrow deep for whosoever is deep and merely amusing for whomsoever is capable of being ly amused.
 But this is the distinctive quality of Mr. Polls ac- comp1ishnent: has brought the theatre within the reach of everybody HE HAS MADE TT DEMOCRATIC He is among those commercial spirits, touched by the fires of imagination and inspiration who building the way to great national drama The way to that distant perhaps not very distant goals precisely the way that Mr. Poli has shown to
 It is the that brings the of the people into the theatre for until they they receive what has to offer or learn in that school first the primer lessons of the drama, and then the school and finally the ofes ideals that the stage has to offer.
 By bringing popular prices to the theatre MT. Poli1 brought the people to the theatre By bringing the peo abilities of moral and mental instruction and all those gateways to honest amusement which were mpossibe the stage the exclusive possession of those who were of more than modest means.
 This new theatre, which the genius of MT. Poi has given to Bridgeport will in few days It has the capacity to receive 5000 and daily Beneath it's roof may be sheltered 36O0O persons week. from Monday until Saturday in the evening.
 Surely there few municipal institutions which will draw many souls, and commercially con- ducted from which patrons will go forth with pro- their investments worth has been given to them
 For the people of Bridgeport we thank MT. PoH for his good gift to Bridgeport and the stage
 True, he will himself profit thereby, but did Bar profit when he gave Washington Park and again Sea- Park It is not demanded that of talent shall profit by their superior efforts and superior powers
 It is merely demanded that they shall GIVE MUCH ing the gifts of Roman ancestry and the ripe of ancient people, has done in Bridgeport and in many