Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-02-26

ana other places have all tried little the.
ttres III greater or less degree super.
imposed from above The Toy In Boston
hved so long as II remained in the hands
| OF the amateurs. When 1t built larger
| mouse and went into the booking busi-
ness II went to grief on the rocks. Those
VINO live In Philadelphia and Indianapolis,
no doubt, can best say why their ventures
ceased. But II seems TO stand to reason,
In the case say, of Indianapolis, that when
your plays are to be acted by amateurs. un-
less there is strong impulse among men
and women to act so that casts are abund.
ant and rehearsals always attended, there
can be no success. All the endowments in
the world will not buy this impulse.
Well, the Washington Square Players
had the impulse. They had, some of them,
the impulse to act; others to direct; others
to paint scenery; others to write plays:
others TO look after the business end and
the publicity. They rushed hopefully in
where the wisest theatrical angel would
rear to tread, poor as the young and en-
thusiastic generally are, on the assumption
that II they did what they liked as we'll
as they could, its novelty and incentive
would appeal to other people And their
assumption has proved so correct that
their current bill is a great success, for
the first three weeks selling out the
theatre at every performance, and now
they are paying their actors $50 week.
and when their first birthday cafne around
why they just danced!
The first play on this bill, by the way,
Is a capital piece of work, and capitally
acted. Already. after n year. these play
ers, many of whom began as amateurs,
are showing what training can do. The
play Is called THE Clod." The author is
Lewis Beach, a recent graduate OF Har-
ward. The scene is in a poor farmhouse,
on the border between North and South
L., L.. .l.-I.A 4
farmer and his overworlted wife complain
of the hard times. and the poor woman
DULY complains that she'd do better If she
could only get her sleep A pursued
Northern soldier slips into the house, and
presently his two Confederate pursuers
follow. Unreasoningly, merely TO escape
further persecution and loss of sleep. the
woman helps to conceal the Northern dis
patch-bearer. Goaded to desperation by
the Confederates, when one of them calls
her hag, she seizes a shotgun and kills
them both. The Northerner embraces her
as the savior of his life. and incidentally
of 10000 soldiers. But she only contem-
plates her broken china, and means that
now they'll have to eat off tin. War
means nothing to her but nightmare
that wrecks her house and keeps sleep
from her poor old tired eyes. The sketch
Is thrilling in its suspensive excitement,
and truly profound in its implications.
1t Is little gem.
1t is followed by a gay fantasy, called
"a Road House in Arden" by Phillip
Moeller. in which Shakespeare and Bacon
pursue Immortality, who runs away with
Robin Goodfellow the son of the innlIeep-
er, Mr. Hamlet, and his wife Cleopatra,
a very temperamental lady. WedelSinds,
'"rhe Tenor" Is not we'll acted. and the
final pantamine is poor stuff. But THE
Clod" redeems the bill 1t is native work
all through, and significant work.