The Washington herald., 1914-11-15
Old Imitation Arti-
ficial Stage Has
Gone Plumb Mad.
Say New Rhythmic
Artists, Who Want
to Get Imagination
Out of Her Prison.
By RAYMOND o'NEIL.

who is generally credited
with knowing what he is
talking a b out, stage
scenery was architecture. little later
it became imitation architecture; still
later 1t became imitation artificial archi-
lecture. Then 1t lost its head, went quite
mad, and has been in a lunatic asylum
ever since"
This man. who is generally credited
with knowing what he is talking about.
particularly when he talks about the the
ater, is Gordon Craig. It would scarcely
be proper to call him the father Of the
modern stage; so many fathers and
would-be fathers Of the modern stage
have popped suddenly out Of obscurity in
the LIST few years and done so many fine
things for it that it would be egregiously
unfair to give any one of them full pa
ternal credit.
But Gordon Craig comes nearer to pos
>essing the honor than any other worker
As early as anyone he began the work Of
clearing the unwilling stage of its imita-
tion artificial architecture. its imitation
artificial rocks and rills, woods and
tempted hills, and its imitation artificial
what-nots that have been cluttering it
up for the past century or more.
AS early as anyone he saw how the
passionate desire Of producers to copy
and initiate, not nature, but an artificial
nature was producing in the modern
stage the stiffness Of death. He saw the
absurdity of massive piles Of imitation
masonry which trembled in every stage
draft; the foolishness of giant oaks
which tottered whenever a hand was
placed near them; the Righteousness Of
making living characters move about in
a painted imitation outdoors.
He did more than see It. He set to
work to remedy it. Wherever and when
ever he could, with lectures, sketches, ex-
hibitions and actual stage settings of his
own design, he did his best to blow the
old order sky-high, and to set new life,
phantasy, beauty, Imagination and sug-
gestion n its place.
To bring the stage out Of the insane
asylum he set up an asylum Of his own
in Florence, Italy. 1t is a great school
for the theater to which from far and
wide youths and elders come to learn all
about acting. theater-building, scene
making and music-composing as the new
theater votaries would have these things
done
II you visit Mr. Craig at his Florence
studio and Mr.. Craig f. Is in the mood
he may take you for a walk through the
place, talking much but explaining little.
II is more likely. however. that he will
lead you away from the place through
the outskirts OF Florence, talking, talk
ing, talking necessarily about his work
for the new theater.
There IS no more fluent talker in the
world than Gordon Craig. He talks
duently. but disjointedly. He is never al
loss for words, but the words come in
phrases rather than sentences, and he
gives suggestions rather than facts. He
is the theorist of the new theater and,
while it is doubtful that the theater will
ever quite catch up TO the theories he has
set down, there is no question but that
his ideas of the stage, along with the
ideas Of Frenchmen. Germans, Austrians
and Russians who have been working in
the same direction. have brought about
a revolution in things theatrical.
Briefly, these new theater men are try
ing to make of the stage a place where
imagination can be set free and where
a series of new sensations can be given
the spectators. They aim to make the
tGeater a place where a new sensation
will affect the ear or the eye every mo-
ment that play lasts.
They are trying 10 bring back into
modern life an understanding of the
enormous importance of rhythm. Rhythm
occurs in everything. in hundreds of diff
ferent ways. each way having the ability
to produce a certain effect upon us. The
~ea has its rhythms and the varied feel
inss it produces in persons is the result
Of its varied rhythms. The grain in wood
has its rhythms and in many cases the
finer the rhythms the more valuable the
wood is.
The anCients were aware Of rhythm
and the effects it could produce. Hun
dreds of years ago the Chinese painters
understood rhythm, as did also the early
painters of the Christian era. In some
manner K was lost sight of and only now
is making its appearance in the world
again. The new stage men have not made
= discovery in this respect, but only a re-
discovery.
In the settings the modern stage artists
are making for the theatPr rhythm is
playing a tremendously important part.
Rhythms Of lines stretching vertically
upward, others running horizontally and
others curving this way or that with
hundreds of variations lying between.
are all used as the requirements of the
play demand
Not only in the settings themselves are
the principles OF rhythm used. but they
are made to do extra duty in the group,
ing of the people on the stage. Max Rein,
hardt who is the most advanced of the
modern German producers and who
operates in Berlin two theaters. one
very small and the other very large, has
staged productions requiring hundreds
of people on the staCe. These he makes
move in large masses, and the effect oil
than ahrart POinQ oh