Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-11-18
''HUT CIRCUIT"
SOLDIER SHOW
WORLD LARGEST
Would Require Eleven Years
tor Actors to Play to All
Men in U. S. Army
Overseas.

Pittsburg, Pa, Nov. l6-The "hut
circuit" of theatrical performances
in the American army in France is
perhaps the longest and largest in
the world. Thomas Wood Stevens,
head of the department of dramatic
arts at the Carnegie Institute of
Technology. who has just returned
from France where he was asso-
ciated in the production of soldier
talent shows, estimates that single
company playing every night to diff
ferent soldiers would require II
years to 60 through the American
army in France.
The general scheme of diversion
for our men in France" said Mr..
Stevens is in three divisions.
There is the Over There theater
league, represented in New York
by George M. Cohen, Winthrop
Ames and James Forbes; the French
concert companies managed by Wal
ter Johnson; and the soldier talent
shows under the direction of Joseph
Lindon Smith. Mr.. Stevens went to
France primarily to help Mr.. Smith
with the soldier talent shows. To-
gether they selected Is local direc-
tors for these performances with
the various Young Mems Christian
association divisional headquarters.
Now f. c. Cater, chief secretary of
the Y. NJ. c. A. in France has asked
for more directors, and the Carnegie
Institute has announced that as soon
as the influenza quarantine is lifted
it will begin to train Is additional
men and women Y. NJ. c. A. work
ers for this work.
Transportation Is Problem.
Difficulty of transporting proper
ties and costumes is one of the hard
est problems in improvising shows
for the soldiers, according to Mr.
Stevens. They had to be carried in
small vaises, instead of drays, piled
high with trunks, and the directors
had to make their shows fit on the
small stages of. the "Y" huts in
stead of the big theater stages.
"One of my jobs has been to dis
cover or write plays for use where
no cotumes, or props, even citizens
clothes can be had; that is to say.
>soldier plays, not war plays" said
Mr.. Stevens. my first effort in that
direction called Three Wishes has
been given in dozen camps at pres
ent, but we want other plays just as
we need more directors. The TWEEN
ty-hve. we have at work are far too
Jew.
Soldier Players Aid.
One of the main performances
given for the American soldiers was
that of festival play presenting the
main features of the life of Joan of
Arc" written by Mr.. Stevens. 1t was
presented at Domreny, the home Of
Joan, three days after the great
American drive on the St. Mihiel
salient and during the performance
Liberty motors on the way to the
front were purring over the heads
of the audience. Miss Marie Young
played the part of Joan, but the per-
Torrance as whole did not depend
upon the professional actors but up
on numerous soldier actors who had
been rehearsed for three weeks.
twenty-five hundred soldiers at
tended the performance, although
none of them are stationed at Dom
yeny.
The American front was for many
months in that section of French
Lorraine associated with Joan's Ca
reer. and it is said that more than
$4,000 American soldiers have made
pilgrimages to the house where she
was born.