Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-04-04
Letters to the Editor
why Not Rspsrsory Theatre hsrs'

1if--l ehOuld In generei nAo w
dorse DR.. Arthur II. Quinn's plea Ior
now 'siys III idea % Is %Tis' y column, and
at the same time take hearty exception
to the idea advanced By. him that the
creative effort, the writing OF plays Is
the most important" 80.
4 DR.. Quinn cites in support of his
contention the Theatre Guild: EVERY
project along these lines. which has sue
ceeded," he declares. "has had one or
more playwrights, connected waa.,f,,i Win hi
because It has had the services OF
body Of very expert stage people VINO
not only wrote plays, but built up
Assuming that the quotation is ac-
curate. DR.. Quinn 10 mistaken In his
fncts. The Theatre Guild Is not
playwrights' theatre in any sense; "
has no playwrights. ~ such, assocalatns91
with It. Until this season the Hunu
may be said. broadly speaking; msris.u msvsr 70
Its list OF authors include such names
ny Benavente, st. John Ervine. Tol-
stoy, Milne. Molnar, Shaw, and Anare,
yev, A few years ago 1t tried out
baii. hesrtediy Tor few matinee per
formances a play by an American never
heard Of before or since. The produc-
tion Of Pinski's 1.-THE Treasure does
not properly come under. the head OF na.
tive drama because; although H r,n'Ii I'm Nav is
was translated from the Yiddish,, in
which It had previously been played on
the Fast Side. "Ambush,' by Arthur
Richman, staged last fall when the
Guild was in its fourth season. inny
thus be said to have been the hrst real
venture with On American play.
The Guild is a producing orsana.
zation. differing from the Shvoerts' tot
example. only in ideals. and tne iaTt
that It is on cooperative basis. ~
has only one object: the production OF
good plays artistically..,
Like the Theatre Guild, the Prov
incetown Players had playW,r,GRhtso R o..;Dn esso
ciated with their ventures Dr. Vuinn ~,
ia quoted as saying. Eugene. O,Neili
made the idea n success ana susan
Glaspell helped greatly
Quite true, If not happily expressea,
but there is no lesson for Phiindeipnia
here. TO say that the Provincetown,
piayers had playwrights associated will
them is hardly adequate. The Provlhce
town Theatre IL a playwrights' move
ment. O'Neill and Miss Claspell are
the Proyincetown Theatre, bearing tht
same relation to 1t that Synge and Lad!
Gregory bore to the Abbey Iheatrc
The success of the Provincetown inca
tire has been with these two authors. ~
il reasonable to expect that wasting
away in PHILADELPHIA are writers OK tnii
same callber? The Provinceto%n @ anG
the Abbey are native theatres, the kline
that happen once in n century IN any
country.
town PLAYERS be repeated in Philadel'
nhia? Personally. I think not, f,ol
one thing, there is no Greenwich. VIZ
. iare to encourage stumbling experiment
crs. no matter how talented. until the!
, develop. For another. theatrical writ
= ing talent hocks to the producing cen
( ter. particularly when they are as cios
veloped an O'Neill or Glaspell IT I
Z doubtful if we could have held them
q and without at least one playwright o
. real caliber no writers theatre can en-
Ia it not the complaint Of Or: Quin
and of every other Philadelphian N
| terested in good drama that Philadel
phia gets few worth while plays! wei!
then, isn't it obvious that our neeo
for q theatre to which we can or.h ~
Z plays come from? DR.. Quinn states tina
= he knows several men in this city VIII
tbey been produced? There is a mar
/ ket in New York for superior drama
. The Theatre Guild, Provincetown Play
ers. Arthur Hopkins, etc. The prim
r need here Is not to encourage writers
. Plenty Of fine things are produced u
I America. The essence of onr complain
! is that they are not brought mere.
!. ."rhe Deluse." AMBUSH and 9Th
, Dctour." among others. all first rate
produced in New York. but not sent o.
the road. Let us supply that lack an
+ not confuse the issue. II we have
@ rencrtoirc theatre and a Philadelphia
Q offers a GOOD play, let US produce 1t, no
because it is by a Philadelphian, Du
|. because it is a good play. A repertoir
theatre has nothing to do with nativ
nride or with encouraging talent D.
producing immature plays. 1t y con
cerned solely with art as nn'sne
product. A., nj
, we have q model at hand in the Phil
D adelphia Orchestra, which is the roper
:. tory idea applied to music. 4 roper
4 torv theatre must be operated in ex
> sctiv the same manner. It must hav
> a director as able in his field as Sto
> koweki in his. 1t must have an en-
: dowment and a subscription list. Bn
: the problem Is simpler than with an or
; chestra. In my opinion, at least.
| repertory theatre on the right plan cal
and, will be self supporting-certainl'
after the first year-for theatre play
every night in the week. and can rea
, sonably expect patronage by persons o
, avery class, since the appeal OF tn
I The repertcry idea is in the air i,
Philadelphia. The important question
is: when shall we get started! VIII
will take the first step! 1t requires
hig man, one who can rally all tn
interests OF the city about him, leade
and an executive. who can 10 TOT IN
cause of drama in this city what Mr
Box has done for music: ,,,,,
: THERON BAMBERGER.
Philadelphia. March 81, 1922
Prohibition and Unemployment
70 the Editor Of the Eveniro Public LEDGER,
!. Eighteenth Amendment now being pub
lished, nothing is said of the evil IT Il
working by causing unemployment. Coo
made the punishment Of toll for the siI
of disobedience. and by reason Of fas
producing machinery the chance to carr
living, especially among unskillet
workers, is growing less.
The pain of work was put on man
not woman. II these 5000 900 womer
could be barred from the industrial
field and those without bread winners
given $40 per week out Of work money
while unmarried, the men taxed to pay
It, 1t would make grander world.
There were few tramps and bandits
during the boom years. The most seri