Page 19 - To Dragma January 1934
P. 19
34 T O DRAGMA 1934
I
"COME EASY"
Goes to
Broadway
By ELIZABETH
MORRIS HACKNEY
Tau Delta
-+- I N 1923, WHILE TEACHING school in Annis- Felicia Metcalfe, Omicron, went to see her •
ton, Alabama, Felicia Metcalfe became in- play open on Broadway.
Adlyii Moeller, Zeta, is one of fire Representative Nebraska Worn
terested in the theater, joined the local Play- and the stock rights already have been pur- picked bv the student body.
ers Guild and began writing one-act plays chased by several other leading stock compan-
which were presented in the homes of different ies. I t is said to be essentially a stock play
members of the group. Ten years later, after and probably its biggest success w i l l really
notable successes in amateur dramatics, she come f r o m stock presentation.
has experienced the supreme thrill of a sea-
soned playwright when she sat in the Belasco Two other f u l l length comedies preceded
Theater in New York and saw the curtain go "Come Easy" f r o m Felicia's assiduous type-
up on her play, "Come Easy." writer, " A l l Night Long" and "Auntie Up."
Both of these were sold to eastern publishers.
This was more than an ordinary thrill be-
cause the announcement of the production of Among the best known of her short plays
the play in New Jersey and of the possibility are "The Second Daughter" and "Dark Pre-
of its being carried to the Great White Way lude," the former having been written while
came just in time f o r the author to rush f o r she was living in Anniston. "Dark Prelude,"
a train and reach the Lyric Theater in Sum- a one-act play with a mystic theme, won first
mitt as the curtain rose f o r the last act of prize in the Birmingham Little Theater con-
the last performance. "Come Easy" was car- test of 1930.
ried to New York, and after several changes
in the cast was given a run of three weeks— Felicia is a resident of Birmingham, having
and Felicia says, "The miracle is that it ever lived there f o r the past seven years. She
reached Broadway at all." teaches French in Ensley High School and
writes in her spare time. She treats her writ-
"Come Easy," which previous to production ing, she says, as one does knitting—just picks
in that mecca of dramatists had been awarded it up and puts it down. But she always has
first prize in the 1933 Alabama College con- something at hand and has had since those
test, deals with the reactions of a happy-go- Players Guild days in Anniston.
lucky family to the ups and downs of the
depression. They carry on with good cheer in A f t e r one year at the University of Tennes-
spite of a good many downs and, of course, see, where she was an active Alpha O, Felicia
come out on top at last. studied at the University of Chicago, Columbia
University and Peabody Teachers' College. I t
Before opening, last August at the Belasco was not until after her student days were over
Theater, Miss Metcalfe's play was presented that she became interested in writing and in
in Summitt, New Jersey, with a cast that in- the theater. A f t e r ten years of spare time
cluded Edward Raquello and Jean Adair. work her efforts are rewarded by an appear-
Later, the lead was given to Helen Lowell, ance on Broadway. Not many authors have
who will always be remembered as Mrs. a better record than that.
Wiggs in "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch."
The Co-Star Players of New York City
now include "Come Easy" in their repertoire.
