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Page 48
Mrs. Clement's first step was to improve the lecture which was a part
of the regular program. These Ten-Minute Talks are now given by a good
reader and really worth-while material is presented. Such men as Arthur
Deitrick, Eugene Farnsworth, and C.W. Russel have prepared these talks.
In order to secure good singing, it was made known that one day each
week would be open for all those who wished to try. In this way good
material has been secured and developed within the walls of the house
itself. National songs, appropriately costumed, were made a part of the
program, and recently the idea has been enlarged into a whole series of
folk songs and dances. Mrs. Clement is too clever to force the growth
of any tendency, but lets it develop and strengthen of its own accord.
There is no set policy, rigidly followed, but changes are made whenever
they are needed, and each new development aims to be a real improvement.
There is a spirit of co-operation on the part of all those connected
with the theater which has meant much in its success.
The idea which makes the Bijou especially deserving of notice is the
introduction on Feb. 28, 1910, of a regular policy of producing a
one-act play each week. This, with the occasional introduction of a
short opera, has continued to the present time. As early as June, 1909,
'Shadows,' a mystical tragedy by Evelyn G. Sutherland, was put on, and
in January of the following year a one-act comedy, 'The Red Star,'
by Wm. M. Blatt, was produced. The success of these plays decided the
management to adopt the one-act play as a regular part of the program.
The play first to be acted under the new policy was Hermann Hagedorn's
'The World Too Small for Three.' This is important because the one-act
play has almost no place on the professional stage. Vaudeville houses
put on an occasional one-act piece of the lighter sort. The Bijou now
provides a place where the serious worker in this form may see his
work produced and watch the effect on the audience. That there is
a constantly growing interest in this country in one-act plays as a
separate genre of dramatic composition is proved by the continuing
success of the experiment. This winter the manager opened a prize
contest; one hundred dollars for the best one-act comedy, and fifty
dollars for the second best comedy, to be produced at the Bijou. The
first prize went to George F. Abbott, Rochester, N.Y., for his very
excellent comedy, 'The Man in the Manhole,' and the second prize to
S.F. Austin, of San Antonio, Tex., for a farce, 'The Winning of General
Jane.'
One hundred and seventy-nine manuscripts were received. The judges were
Prof. Geo. P. Baker, Walter Hampden, and Francis Powell. Ten plays,
five comedies and five serious plays, were reserved from the contest for
production at the Bijou. As far as settings are concerned, the plays
are well produced. Unfortunately, the acting is not all that one could
desire, but with the limited resources at command the results are
remarkably satisfactory. Such authors as Upton Sinclair, Hermann
Hagedorn, Percy McKaye, Hermann Suderman, Pauline C. Bouv�, Gerald
Villiers-Stuart have permitted their plays to be given at the Bijou,
which speaks for the quality of the work.
THE LITTLE THEATER
The LITTLE THEATER, in New York City, under the management of Winthrop
Ames, is the first theater in America designed for intimacy. It was
carefully planned, and has been well executed. Such theaters are known
abroad, but this playhouse is a decided novelty, and an advance in
America. The distance from the front of the stage to the rear of the
last row of seats is a trifle over forty feet. There are no balconies
and no boxes. The lighting is by an indirect system, which suffuses the
auditorium with a soft, restful glow. The lobby, the retiring room, and
the smoking room are all done in quiet, pleasant fashion. The auditorium
decoration again is novel. There is paneling in dark-brown birch, with
inserted tapestries above and a curtain in gobelin blues and carpet of
gray.
The lighting system for the stage is most complete, as are all the
arrangements behind the scenes, dressing rooms, flies, and bridges. The
chief novelty on this side of the playhouse is the use of the Japanese
idea of a revolving platform for the stage. The revolving stage has been
used largely in Germany, but this is one of the few instances where it
has been used in America. Its value is shown for sets that require no
great depth, and it permits quick changes of scenery. The circular stage
is thirty feet in diameter.
Mr. Ames said in advance that his aim was to create a house of
'entertainment for intelligent people.' Behind this vague statement lies
a force which has already proved that the Little Theater can entertain
and at the same time show itself worthy of the best ideals in drama. Mr.
Ames has produced Galsworthy's admirable comedy, 'The Pigeon'; Charles
Rann Kennedy's 'The Terrible Meek,' and the same author's translation of
M. Laloy's French version of the Chinese play, 'The Flower of the Palace
of Han.' However diverse likings and dislikings of these pieces may
have been, there is no doubt that they were all worthy of a first-rate
production.
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