The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-12
"A VONDALE PARK SELECTED PLACE FOR SEMI CENTENNIAL PAGEANT;
 RICE AND ROBERTSON REACH CITY
Producers State Park Is Ideal Place for Spectacle-Rice Outlines Plans for Pageant Which Will Include Scenes Symbolic of Products of District

Birmingham's semi-centenniaI pa- geant will be staged at Avondale park, following the selection of that site by Wallace Rice, pageant writer. and Donald Robertson, the producer, who arrived here yesterday from Chicago.
 Mir. Rice and Mir Robertson were met at the Louisville and Nashville station yesterday morning by mem bers of the pageant committee. and the entire day was spent in inspect ing various sites which had been suggested for the pageant. Both of them were enthusiastic in their choice of Avondaie park, and declared that they had seldom seen more ap- propriate place for staging such q spectacle.
 The selection was formally made by the members of the committee. subject to the approval of the city commission, at meeting yesterday afternoon at the Tutwiler hotel at which both Mir. Rice and Mir. Robert son spoke.
 Protray Local History MT Robertson stressed the fact that q pageant should not have as its primary object entertaining peo- pie who are visitors in a city, but should be used as means of draw ing together various groups of the population in common effort to rortray creditably the history of the place. He called attention to the necessity of keeping the ideals of an industrial city high so that they may not forget the great things in life in their quest of the material.
 Mir. Rice outlined briefly his plans for the pageant, and expressed his pleasure at being able to come to Birmingham at this time. Follow ing the meeting of the committee he vent over the historical data which they have prepared for him oy the historical committee.
 Members of the pageant commit tee were very much pleased yester- day at their success in getting MT. Robertson and MT. Rice to prepare the pageant. Both of them are men of national reputation, and both have presented a number of notable page ants.
 Early American Writer
 Mir. Rice was one of the earliest American writers to begin pageant work, following the revival of pag- eantry in England in 1905 by h. N' Parker. His earliest pageants were written in collaboration with Thomas Wood Stevens two years later. since that time he has written 13 pageants, or heinz ITS 14th Among the most notaoie or these are the pageant for the lndiaEa centennial at Ft. Wayne, the lili- nois centennial pageant, and the Santa Barbara pageant in l9ls. lie has inst completed the pageant Tor the semi centennial of the Chicaso fire. which will be staged early III october, and which MT. Robertson Is producing.
 In addition to his work in pageant ry. MT. Rice has written numocr of poems and dramatic criticisms, and jokingly says he has the honor of having been fired from every cs- isting newspaper in Chicago, and five others, which have since ceascd publication.
 Indian Chief
 "Mr. Robertson will probably take the part of the Indian chief. Iusca . loosa, in the Birmingham pageant Mir Rice said, when asked abou. bis nlans for the local pageant, and will anpear in a special Indian cos- tune which has high war bonnet a breast plate of eagle thlghpones and other features of the lhuiah garb. He will appear as the prophet announcing the scenes which ioliow'
 T am planning a number or sym bolic scenes in which the splrits ol the mountains, fields, cotton, Iron and other inanimate things VIII ap pear. One of the features will prop ablv be a dance of all the foreign nationalities represented in Birming- ham; in which their adoption or America will be represented.
 .It is a coincidence that the Chi cago fire semi centennial should oc- cur the same year in which the DIT mingham semi centennial occurs, and MT. Robertson and I are also at work on a pageant for that celepratloh' It is to cost $65,000, and seats nave been arranged for 17,000 people on the lake front. l am worklng espe- cially hard to get the school chil- dren interested in this pageant, and intend doing the same thing here
 Is Noted Actor
 MT. Robertson is noted actor, in addition to being a producer, ana claims the distinction of first having introduced to American audiences the plays of a number of the foreign writers. He has produced plays of Goldoni of Italy, Moliere and flau- bert of France. Gogol of Russia, as well as having produced the plays O. Ibsen, Voltai/s and Browning.
 T am very much pleased with the place selected for the local pageant" MT. Robertson said yesterday. In fact. it can be called an ideal loca- ton. We will reproduce a Creek amphitheatre around the small pond in front of the spring, and seats can be provided for 25,0uU people. I tcied my voice there this afternoon, and could be heard easily.
 "At present I am working for civic theatre in Chicago, and believe I will get it. I want to give free matinees on Saturdays for the school children. so that they may be given the vision of the ideal. The Amer lean theatre needs the spoken word again. A person cannot remember the actions of the motion picture, but in words there Is power"
 Mir. Robertson has a deep voice of wonderful carrying power, which is well suited for open air productions.
 Work to Begin
 o. Gordon Erickson, general chair man of the pageant committee, an nounced last night that actual work on the pageant will be begun inn mediately. MT. Rice will again con- fer with the historical committee this morning at Il o'clock at a meet ing in the office Of the executive committee in the Jefferson County Bank building. MT. Robertson left last night for Chicago. and will re- turn within few weeks to begin rehearsing. His assistant will begin preliminary work with the cast as soon as it is selected.
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