THE FORTY-EIGHT THEATRE GROUP

(In association with the Anglo French Art Centre)

Directors
VELONA PILCHER
ELIZABETH SPRIGGE
DAVID TUTAEV (Productions)

29, ELM TREE ROAD,
ST. JOHN'S WOOD,
LONDON, N.W.8

Dear Miss Toklas,

I think you have already heard from Miss Margery Vosper of our wish to open Fortyeight Theatre with a production of YES IS FOR YES FOR A VERY YOUNG MAN, and in the hope that you will grant us this permission, I am writing to tell you a little about the group.

It was founded early in the year by a number of writers and artists feeling the need for a theatre that speaks to our condition. Velona Pilcher was one of the founders of the old Gate Theatre in Villiers Street, and David Tutaev is a young Russian producer who has studied with Zadevsky and with Michel Saint-Denis. We have been invited to cooperate with the Anglo-French Art Centre - the Académie Libre of London - and use its big studio for our productions. We aim at making our own working quarters into a Studio Libre of the theatre.

We all love Miss Stein's work, and if you give us permission to do this play, we will abide faithfully by her words and do our best to interpret her meaning. How wonderful it would be if you could come over and give us your advice. If not, perhaps you will allow whichever of us is next in Paris to call on you.

As we have to fit in our productions with the other work of the Anglo-French Art Centre, we aim at present for just six or possibly eight performances of YES IS FOR YES FOR A VERY YOUNG MAN during week ends towards the end of April. We shall at the same time arrange for readings and lectures about Miss Stein's work. Remembering Edith Sitwell's delight in GEOGRAPHY AND PLAYS, and the beautiful things she has written "Miss Stein, has on her part, carried Rimbaud's system of dissociation and reassociation even further than Rimbaud ..." we shall ask her if she will give the main lecture.

Please let me know if there is any other information you would like.

Yours sincerely,
Elizabet Sprague

THE FORTY-EIGHT THEATRE GROUP

Studio: 30 Abbey Gardens
London N.W.8.

March 11th 1948

Dear Miss Toklas,

Thank you very much for your answers to
the questionnaire which I sent you. They will prove most useful
in the course of production.

Sir Francis and I are in close consultation
over the whole presentation and I will write to you again a little
later should any problems arise.

I need not tell you how delighted the
Company and I are to have the privilege of presenting the
play and we thank you for all your words of encouragement.

FORTY-EIGHT THEATRE

(In Association with the Anglo French Art Centre)

Directors
VELONA PILCHER
ELIZABETH SPRIGGE
DAVID TUTAEV (Production)

Organising Secretary
Joanne Symons

STUDIO,
30, ABBEY GARDENS,
N.W.8

June 16th, 1948

Dear Mr. Gallup,

Last Sunday was the last of our four performances of Miss Stein's play at our temporary premises -- the Anglo-French Art Center, and I enclose some posters and programmes for your collection.

There have been a few notices ( and more are coming, though late) -- one in last week's "Stage" that was very good. I have not yet been able to get extra copies for you, and Carl Van Vechten -- or even Miss Toklas -- because of the difficulty of obtaining extra copies of such things in England. But I hope soon to have some, and will forward them to you.

We have all been very happy and proud to do "YEs" -- and sorry to end its present run. But we have plans . . . We are going into the small Players Theatre for two weeks in August, with a Salacrou play, and we hope to do some matinees of the Stein play then. I will keep you informed.

We had the good luck last Sunday, by the way, to have Tennessee Williams and Margo Jones as our guests -- and they liked the show. So if you see them, they will give you, and Yale, an account of what we were able to do.

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

In association with the ANGLO-FRENCH ART CENTRE

Presents GERTRUDE STEIN'S

"YES IS FOR A VERY YOUNG MAN"

Produced by David Tutaev

Cast includes: Marion Jennings, Robert Marsden, Pauline Wynn, Willoughby Grey, John Fabian.

ON SUNDAY MAY 16TH AT 8 P.M.
also on SUNDAYS, May 23rd, 30th and June 6th.

at
THE ANGLO-FRENCH ART CENTRE
29, ELM TREE ROAD, N.W.8.

TUBE: ST JOHN'S WOOD. BUSES: 2, 13, 113, 59, 159

ADMISSION

Members of the Anglo-French Art Centre
and Fortyeight Theatre Members ... 5/–

GUESTS 7/6

Bookings: CUNningham 7854.

Particulars of FORTYEIGHT THEATRE membership from the
Organising Secretary, 30, Abbey Gardens, N.W.8.

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

Presents GERTRUDE STEIN'S

"YES IS FOR A VERY YOUNG MAN"

Produced by David Tutaev

ON SUNDAY MAY 16TH AT 8 P.M.

at

TUBE: ST JOHN'S WOOD.

BUSES: 2, 13, 113, 59, 159

ADMISSION

5/–

GUESTS 7/6

Bookings: CUNningham 7854.

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

Presents GERTRUDE STEIN'S

"YES IS FOR A VERY YOUNG MAN"

Produced by David Tutaev

ON SUNDAY MAY 16TH AT 8 P.M.

at

TUBE: ST JOHN'S WOOD.

BUSES: 2, 13, 113, 59, 159

ADMISSION

5/.

GUESTS 7/6

Bookings: CUNningham 7854.

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

PRESENTS

“48 REVUE”

Produced by Bernard Sarron

with Charmian Innes, Elsie French, John Mott, Carlotta Makins,
Leslie Heritage and Stephen Chambers

Opening SATURDAY, MAY 1st at 9-30 p.m.

also on
Sunday May 2nd at 9-30 p.m. Saturday May 8th
Sunday May 9th Saturday May 15th

Members: 3/6

Guests: 5/-

AT

THE ANGLO-FRENCH ART CENTRE

29, ELM TREE ROAD, ST. JOHN'S WOOD, N.W.8.

....for the following PRESENTATION please see over....

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

Presents GERTRUDE STEIN'S

"YES IS FOR A VERY YOUNG MAN"

Produced by David Tutaev

TUBE: ST JOHN'S WOOD.

BUSES: 2, 13, 113, 59, 159

ADMISSION

5/-

GUESTS 7/6

Bookings: CUNningham 7854.

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

(IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE ANGLO-FRENCH ART CENTRE)

Application Form

I wish to become a FULL THEATRE Member of the Fortyeight

Theatre Studio and enclose cheque for £2 2s. 5/6

NAME ....................................................

ADDRESS ....................................................

Cheques to be made payable to the Fortyeight Theatre and addressed to 30 Abbey Gardens, N.W.8.

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

Presents GERTRUDE STEIN'S

"YES IS FOR A VERY YOUNG MAN"

Produced by David Tutaev

ON SUNDAY MAY 16TH AT 8 P.M.

at

TUBE: ST. JOHN'S WOOD. BUSES: 2, 13, 113, 59, 159

ADMISSION

GUESTS 7/6

Bookings: CUNningham 7854.

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

For weekly Announcements see The New Statesman

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

In association with
THE ANGLO FRENCH ART CENTRE
29 Elm Tree Road, N.W.8.
Bookings CUNningham 7854.

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE STUDIO
30 Abbey Gardens, N.W.8.

All communications

Directors: Velona Pilcher . Elizabeth Sprigge
David Tutaev

Organising Secretary: Joanne Symons.

Fortyeight Theatre has the honour to announce that it has been invited by the Anglo French Art Centre to join the art of the Theatre to the Centre's other activities.

The policy of Fortyeight Theatre is in the hands of Velona Pilcher, one of the founders of the Gate Theatre in Villiers Street. She feels that the time has again come for an active theatre like the old Gate. Therefore Fortyeight Theatre was founded early this year by a group of writers and artists sharing this view.

Elizabeth Sprigge, writer and translator, is associated with direction of policy.

David Tutaev is Director of Productions.

Guest producers will also be invited.

Several well-known players have already offered their services.

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

will hold its first general meeting
at The Anglo French Art Centre
on March 16th at 8 p.m.

Mr. Herbert Read
has kindly consented to take the chair.

The aim of Fortyeight Theatre, which is forming a non-profit making Limited Liability Company, is to develop a continuity of policy and eventually to establish a company of its own in its own theatre.

AT THE ANGLO FRENCH ART CENTRE

Fortyeight Theatre has the use of the Centre on three
nights of the week—Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
As a result of this arrangement we have pleasure in
announcing the following plans.

THEATRE LECTURES, READINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
will be held every Tuesday evening at 8 p.m. at the
Centre.

MARCH 23rd:

Armand Salacrou "The Contemporary French Theatre"

MARCH 30th: Reading from Lorca works

by Alan Wheatley, Selma Vaz Dias and R. M. Nadal

APRIL 6th: E. Martin Browne "The Poet and the Theatre"

APRIL 13th: David Tutaev "The Soviet Theatre"

Lectures will also be given by:

Michael St. Denis Jack Lindsay Peter Brook

Jean-Louis Barrault Caryl Jenner Michael MacOwan

PRODUCTIONS: To begin with plays will be presented
on Sunday nights only, each play running for four
Sundays.

MAY 16th

Yes Is For Yes For A Very Young Man
(A Play of the Resistance in France)
by Gertrude Stein.

JUNE 13th

The Unknown Woman of Arras by Armand Salacrou
(Translated by Emmanuel Wax)

Neither of these plays has been performed in England before. It is hoped that, for our third production, we will have permission to perform T. S. Eliot's translation of St. Jean Perse's poem "Anabase," as a choral drama.

Future productions will include works by contemporary British playwrights as well as plays from the following:

Garcia Lorca Jean Anouilh Kataev

Jean Cocteau Lauro de Bosis Ostrovsky

And a season of three plays by August Strindberg—whose centenary falls in January 1949—in new translations by Elizabeth Sprigge.

WEEK-END REVUE: A Late-night Satiric Revue will be presented every week-end in the Gallery. The date of the first production will be announced later.

DIO

OPEN STUDIO OF THE FORTYEIGHT THEATRE
Fortyeight Theatre has just acquired its own premises

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

Application Form

FULL THEATRE

Member of the Fortyeight

NAME

ADDRESS

Founder members of Fortyeight Theatre Ltd. (Minimum £1)
will be welcomed.

MARCH 23rd:

Peter Brook

Michael MacOwan

MAY 16th

by Gertrude Stein.

JUNE 13th

STUDIO

Fortyeight Theatre has just acquired its own premises
nearby at 30 Abbey Gardens, N.W.8. Here, under the
direction of David Tutaev, the work of the theatre will
go on—rehearsals, classes, discussions, experiments, a

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

Application Form

NAME

ADDRESS

Art

£1

WEEKEND REVUE. A late night Battle Revue will
be presented every week-end in the Gallery. The date
of the first production will be announced later.

E STUDIO

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

PRESENTS

“48 REVUE”

Produced by Bernard Sarron

Sunday May 2nd      also on       Saturday May 8th
Sunday May 9th      at 9-30 p.m.   Saturday May 15th

Members: 3/6

Guests: 5/-

AT

THE ANGLO-FRENCH ART CENTRE

OPEN STUDIO OF THE FORTYEIGHT THEATRE
Fortyeight Theatre has just acquired its own premises
nearby at 30 Abbey Gardens, N.W.8. Here, under the
direction of David Tutaev, the work of the theatre will
go on—rehearsals, classes, discussions, experiments, a

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FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

Presents GERTRUDE STEIN'S

"YES IS FOR A VERY YOUNG MAN"

Produced by David Tutaev

ON SUNDAY MAY 16TH AT 8 P.M.

at

TUBE: ST JOHN'S WOOD.

BUSES: 2, 13, 113, 59, 159

ADMISSION

Members of the Anglo-French Art Centre
and Fortyeight Theatre Members ... 5/-

GUESTS 7/6

Bookings: CUNningham 7854.

AT THE STUDIO

Fortyeight Theatre has just acquired its own premises
nearby at 30 Abbey Gardens, N.W.8. Here, under the
direction of David Tutaev, the work of the theatre will
go on—rehearsals, classes, discussions, experiments, a
club, a *studio libre* of the theatre, a meeting place, not
only for workers and students, but for all who are
interested in theatre in the widest sense of the word.

The Open Studio offers

THE ACTOR

A chance to take part in the practical work of the theatre and
so enlarge his experience by playing in experimental contem-
porary drama and in plays of merit which have had little oppor-
tunity of production in the past. He will also be able to relate
his work in new ways to the literary, musical, choreographic
and scenic aspects of the theatre.

THE WRITER

The means of coming into contact with the practical problems
and work of the theatre, thus giving him the opportunity of
developing his dramatic ideas in direct relation to the theatre.
It offers him means through lectures and discussions of guiding
and improving the studio's work in understanding the theatre's
traditions and its contemporary problems.

THE STAGE DESIGNER

A practical means of integrating the plastic arts of painting,
sculpture and architecture into the theatre.

THE THEATRE LOVER

An opportunity to join in the work of the theatre. The Open
Studio offers him a library and a meeting-place where he may
attend readings and rehearsals and so actively follow the
theatre's work.

MEMBERSHIP

Full Membership entitles members to the use of the
Open Studio and to buy tickets for all Fortyeight Theatre
activities. £2 2s. a year.

Additional 5s. 6d. payable to Anglo French Art Centre entitles
full members of Fortyeight Theatre to become associate
members of Anglo French Art Centre Club.

Theatre Membership entitles members to buy tickets for
Fortyeight Theatre activities at the Anglo French Art
Centre. 5s. 6d. a year.

LECTURE ADMISSION: Members 1s. 6d.; Guests, 2s. 6d.

MARCH 23rd:

MAY 16th

by Gertrude Stein.

JUNE 13th

AT THE STUDIO

The Open Studio offers

THE ACTOR

THE WRITER

THE STAGE DESIGNER

THE THEATRE LOVER

MEMBERSHIP

FROM TESTAMENT OF THEATRE BY VELONA PILCHER. THEATRE ARTS MARCH 1947

Art is for life's sake, not art's sake.

Life on earth, at this hour we hang on, is in peril.
Theatre, the art of action, can inspire us to live, not die.
To be equal to our fate, not fall away from it. Open
these circles, O artists of earth—and quickly! Break
into these cages of consciousness and take our souls by
storm—soon, it can't be too soon!—or we perish from
this planet, and leave a dead globe to be blown about
the sky . . .

... Tomorrow is today and yesterday is tomorrow and we have stepped straight out of those vicious circles into the open spiral of the queue. The spell is broken. The queue's our cue! Its very shape is full of virtue, both marking a question and making a promise. A spiral, not a circle. There's our clue. Let's cling to it. A lifeline, a line of life winding about the threshold of the theatre, waiting to get in. For these are they, the survivors. Remnants of recent devastations. These are the men, women and children who slept in the shelters and now—for theatre's sake—sleep in the streets. What shall we give them, when the doors open tomorrow? What bread and wine to feast this faithfulness? What revelation scene, what passion play?

Stand still and wake, you walking sleepers. It is not true
that man is no more than the sum of his acts. The whole
is greater than the sum of its parts. Within that immortal
law the new theatre theory for which we are waiting is
waiting for us. A full orchestration of all instruments.
An adult art. An act of art. Concretely and practically
there are powers for peace in the theatre which, by
deliberate and intense production, may now be released
and a new element of truth result. Unexplored unities
are ready round the corner. Instead of circling back to
the three rules of the great French classics, why not
adventure forward to the fourth?

The Fourth Unity . . . the very phrase stirs a perception
of dimensions in theatre that have failed as yet to unfold.
Sight, speech and sound; movement, form and colour;
and light unlimited. Fabulous technical means too mar-
vellous to be used for mean ends and dead issues—that
can carry us back to the Greeks. And beyond. For we
must travel beyond the great Greek tragedy because our
living tragedy is greater. We must command a theatre of
initiation into truth as operative as Aeschylus, but more
so. Because it must be more so. More art is needed to
shock us into self-knowledge before we destroy our-
selves . . .

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

FORTYEIGHT THEATRE

MARCH 23rd:

Peter Brook

Michael MacOwan

MAY 16th

by Gertrude Stein.

JUNE 13th

(Translated by Emmanuel Wax)

Neither of these plays has been performed in England before.
It is hoped that, for our third production, we will have per-
mission to perform T. S. Eliot's translation of St. Jean Perse's
poem "Anabase," as a choral drama.

AT THE STUDIO

The Open Studio offers

THE ACTOR

THE WRITER

THE STAGE DESIGNER

THE THEATRE LOVER

MEMBERSHIP

Founder members of Fortyeight Theatre Ltd (Minimum £1)
will be welcomed.