Page 29 - 1911 November - To Dragma

26 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

has spent one at a Shakespearean revival or for months after an
evening with Ibsen.

And lastly I would make responsible the municipalities for their
failure to provide municipal play houses for their children.

The trend of our times seems to be toward the drama as a means
of literary expression. I n countries where there are municipal
theatres and opera houses the work of the literary leaders find a
ready production, but more than that it finds a public ready to
receive it. Here, with the exception of the New Theatre in New
York, and one, possibly two, endowed theatres in the west, all serious
efforts toward good drama must pass the test of popularity in order to
find a market. A municipal theatre possesses the advantage over one
endowed by private capital, in that it can offer to the public its en-
tertainment at a nominal admission fee. Thus far the endowed
theatre in New York has had to overcome the hostility of the thea-
tres managed by individuals and by the Syndicate—and, allied with
them—the press. I t has to maintain a large staff of players with a
correspondingly large salary roll, and thus far it has not been able
to offer its attractions at popular prices. I t has however lived up to its
promise of presenting the best of the new, with frequent Shakespear-
ean productions and old comedy revivals, and it has opened its doors
to newer dramas and dramatists. The record for the first year was
not as encouraging as we could wish. Out of the quantity of plays
submitted by Americans only two were found worthy of production—
"Don" and "The Nigger," and at least one of these was from the
pen of an accepted writer. Mr. Corbin concludes an account of his
year's work as reader for the theatre with the statement that "The
Great American Drama" is still to be written. I am optimistic
enough to belive that it will be just as soon as the public is educated
to a point of understanding it and wanting it.

In France and Germany—in Italy to a degree, and in the cities
of Russia the artisan and the student know what the great minds
of the age are doing and teaching. They are impatiently awaiting
the production of the new works long before they are ready, both
drama and in music, and above all they know their classics thor-
oughly !

The Parisians were so eager for the production of Chanticleer
that even the flood with its threatened destruction of the city did
not dampen their enthusiasm. The romantic and music loving Ger-
mans are familiar with the theme and significance of their drama and
operas before they see them. Something over a year ago my brother
and his wife were journeying to Bayreuth, and in the same compart-
ment was a portly German, obviously of the artisan class, noisy about