The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 19, 1927, Page 12

Em Jo Basshe, Avth or at “Karth,” Draws a Pic- ture of the Coming Rm Jo Basshe came to ‘we Un'tcl States from Russia when he was 14. Tough still a good w-y- from 50 he has traveled over a large por- tion of the counéry, has written stories, poems, reviews and articles for many magazines, including the Masses, the Liberator, and the Freeman. His first play, “Adam Solitaire,” house last year. was produced at the Provincetown Play- His “Earth,” an intense and gripping Negro folk drama is now playing at the New Playwrights 52nd Street Theatre, of which he is one of the five directors. By EM JO BASSHE. Several years ago I happened to be in Gary, Indiana, and went to a thea- trical performance given by a group of workers for a fund to establish a library. The program consisted of Synge’s “Rides to the Sea,” Chekoff’s “The Boor,” Polish and Russian folk dances, and finally mass recitations of poems by Shelley and Joe Hill. The audience stood up and joined in these. As they left the hall, they kept on singing, and at night one could hear them still humming the music they had heard during the day. Audiences like that are rare. In this miserable and damnable town I saw enough of the proletarian theatre to give me an idea of what it will be when the worker decides that he has supported Hollywood and Broadway long enough. I can visual- ize a theatre where the worker will portray his own tragedies, laugh at his own foibles, vanquish his enemies and traducers, and glory in his achievements and his future. But to say that he can do all this alone, discarding the dreams and plans of those artists who for years have been part of his struggle, his defeats, and his victories, would be like undermining the foundation be- fore the house is up. There is a union of dictatorship to- ay: the Mass and the Machine. They yo hand in hand. The rhythm is one. If you believe in fidelity, you must portray both as one. The proletarian theatre will be first to make use of this “‘character.” It will create new types, new dances, new songs—the gmachine motif running through it all. It will ask such artists as Louis Lozo- wick to bring his dreams of engines, of sewing machines, of tenement houses upon the'stage.. It will order from Bill Gropper his collection of mad mankind to dance and make gay the passing of the day. It will insist that the playwright forget the im- potent middle class, the perfumed so- vial register, and devote his talents to. the portrayal of the brothers and sis- ters of the machine, of the toilers of the soil—the children of the future. Most of the®talk about a proletarian theatre is kosher pork. You can’t have such a theatre until you have a place where you can do as you like; where you are not hampered by too much or too little money; where there is no Tammany Hall union (which makes no distinction between Shubert and, say, the Habima, and is ready to strangle you because it hasn’t for- gotten the days whefi it labored 18 hours a day); where your audience is not composed of dilletantes and “hold- your--breath mesdames.” The work- er, if he wants, can force the policy of newspapers, concerts, political plat- forms, and the theatre. The reason why he has not done it up to now is a mystery. The New Playwrights Theatre is composed of people who have taken part in the labor movement in various _ capacities. If up to now their plays have not been thoroughly proletarian, the blame is not all theirs. The theatres, directors, and actors of the old school have made it a point to slash, tear, and recast our thoughts and themes on the .ground that “propaganda isn’t art.” In my first long play, produced at the Province- town Theatre last year, I had a priest represented as a cardboard figure through whose mouth a voice drawls in a meaningless singsong “Faith, sacrifice, sin.” In the production t cardboard figure became a flesh-and- blood Shepherd of the Lord whose love for humanity knew no bounds and who spoke his platitudes as if they had come red hot from my own mouth. Irony certainly is a clever trickster. We want working class audiences to mould our policy, direct our efforts, signalize its disapproval when we do something that does not “belong,” and help us when we miss our step. Then they can claim us as their own, as we sincerely hope our theatre can claim them. : The New Plays MONDAY “HER CARDBOARD LOVER” will be presented by Gilbert Miller and A. H. Woods Monday evening at the Empire Theatre, with Jeanne Eagels as star. This adapted by Valerie Wyngate comedy is by Jacques Deval, and and P. G. Wodehouse. The sup- porting cast will include Leslie Howard, Valerie Wyngate, Stanley Logan, Arthur Lewis, Terrence Neil, Ernest Stallard, Charles Esdale and Henry Vincent. TUESDAY “LUCKY,” Charles Dillingham’s new production, will open Tuesday night at the New Amsterdam. Harbach and Kalmar and Ruby, music by Jerome Kerne. The book and lyrics are by Otto The principals are Mary Eaton; Walter Catlett, Richard (Skeets) Gallagher, Joseph Santley, Ivy Sawyer, Kathryn Martin, Joe Donahue, Barrie Oliver and Paul Whiteman and his band. “THE SPIDER,” a new play by Fulton Oursler and will open Tuesday evening, at Chanin’s 46th Street ell Brentano, eatre under the management of Sam H. Harris and Albert Lewis. The cast includes: John Holliday, Eleanor Griffith, Roy Hargrave, Pris- cilla Knowles, Lytell and Fant and Mack and La Rue.. WEDNESDAY “THE CROWN PRINCE,” by Joe Akins, from the Hungarian of Ernest Vajda, will open Wednesday night at the Forrest Theatre, presented-by L. Lawrence Weber. Joe Akins wrote the English version from the Hungarian. The cast is headed by Basil Sydney and Marry Ellis and includes Henry Stephenson, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Kay Strozzi, Jerome Lawler, Dennis Cleugh and Arthur Bowyer. THURSDAY “SAVAGES UNDER THE SKIN,” a drama by Harry L. Foster and Wyman Proctor, will open next Thursday night at the Green- wich Village Theatre, presented by Carl Reed. Louis Calhern, Flora Sheffield and William B. Mack lead the cast. ey i Seg Workers Theatre - ; A. H. “WOODS ; PRESENTS | A Sensational and Revealing Melodrama of New York's Underworld , by Samuel Shipman and John B. Hymer, wit? JAMES RENNIE & CHESTER MRRIS and CAST OF iC? LLTINGE THEATRE, WEST 42nd STREET Matinees Wednesday and Saturday. Evenings 8:30, Matinees 2:40, Moves to Times Square Theatre Monday. BERNARD SHAW’S The Theatre Guild Acting Company in PYGMALION 52nd Street, West Street, West of Broadway. GUILD THEATRE Matinees THURSDAY and SATURDAY at’ 2:3¢ Week of March 28—THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV (Last Week) Week of April 4—THE ROCHESTER AMERICAN OPERA COMPANY Eves at_ 8:30, SIDNEY HOWARD'S NED McCOBB’S DAUGHTER JOHN GOLDEN THEATRE Matinees THURSDAY & SATURDAY. 58th St., East of B'way. | —- 8 Week of March 28—THE SILVER CORD Week of April 4—NED McCOBB’S DAUGHTER th MONTH CIVIC REPERTORY - COR. 6TH AVE. & 14TH ST. PRICES 50c, $1.10 & $1.65 Wed. & Sat. Matinees TELEPHONE WATKINS 17767 EVA EVA LeGALLIENNE WEEK OF MARCH 21 Mon Eve., Mar. 21....“Cradle Song” Spec. Mt. Thurs., Mar. 24, ‘Cradle Song’ Tues. Eve., Mar. 22 Thurs. Eve., Mar. 24, “Master Builder” “John Gabriel Borkman” Fri. Eve., "Mar. 25...... “Snheritors” Wed. Mat., Mar. 23....“Cradle Song” Sat. Mat., Mar. 26..... “Cradle Song” Wed. Eve., Mar, 23...... “Inheritors” Sat. Eve., Mar. 26....... “Inheritors” OWING TO peci Matinees “Cra Sone” THURS., MARCH 24, DEMAND 8 ial tin dle e THURS., MARCH 31. B.P. es Now in Its 5th Month THE LADDER By J. FRANK DAVIS WALDORF Thea. 50th Street, <i East of Broadway. Eve. 8:30, Mats, Wed. & Sat. BROADWAY’ PRICES EVES, $1.10 TO sateen 85. Neighborhood Playhouse 466 Grand St. Drydock a 516, gees. PINWHEEL mom ‘H ARRIS THEA. West 42nd St, Twice Daily, 2:30 & 8:30 - WHAT PRICE GLORY Mats. (exc. Sat.) 50c-$1. Eves. 50c-$2 rew PLAYWRIGHTS thea. 306 West|Mats. Thurs.&Sat, 52% Thea. Col. vaaive, 8:45. Mats.2:45 ” BARTER” se babs “Loudspeaker” resumes Mon., March 21, ee eo Vanities CARROLL Barl Carroll Suis Aiba alt 935 — 42nd _ Street, Bronx Opera House 19th | Street, ae WALLACK’S WG cdeas 8:30. Ave. Pop. Prices, Mat. wea. yg * ‘at. MARY NASH I “BIRDS OF PASSAGE” Mats. Tues., Wed., Thurs, and Sat. '|What Anne Brought Home A New Comedy Drama WUEATRA! “Michael featuring the late celebrated Jewish actor, J. SATURDAY, Also WUEXTRA! SPECIAL FOR ONE DAY ONLY—the motion Off” WUEXTRA! . Strogoff” MARCH 26th “LENIN”. icting the highlights of the former Russian Premier before, during — and af after the Revolution.—To be shown in the Auditorium ‘of THE CHURCH OF ALL NATIONS, First St. and Second Ave. Continuous from 1 till 11.—Added attraction: RUSSIAN BALALAIKA OR- CHESTRA and of All Nations; "International Music a Two-reel Comedy.—Tickets can be purchased: at Church Store, 218 Bast 6th St., and Jimmie Higgin’s Book Store, 127 University Pl.—Afternoon, {}0c; Evening, 40c. BROADWAY BRIEFS “The Brothers Karamazov” will continue at the Guild Theatre for two more weeks and will then be re- placed by S. N. Bohrman’s “The Second Man.” “The Brothers Kara- mazov” will play its final week be- ginning March 28th. “The Second Man” will alternate with “Pyg- malion” at. the Guild Theatre. Prior to her spring engagement in New York, Bertha Kalich will play a brief engagement at the Adel- phi Theatre, Philadelphia, starting Monday in the “The Riddle Woman” and “Magda,” in both of which dramas she has been tourtng to the Pacific coast and back. George S. Brooks, co-author with Walter B. Lister of “Spread Eagle,” will shortly be represented on Broad- way by another plan, a drama en- titled “For Two Cents.” The Treasurer’s Club of America will give its thirty-erghth annual benefit at the Hudson Theatre Sun- day evening. <a tt ee