The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 26, 1927, Page 12

ew York Want a th MONTH CMiGeREPERTORY Proletarian Theatre? tS rmtistio sey matinee EVA LeGALLIENNE WEEK OF MARCH 28 2! Ra tae vib “Cradle Song” Thurs. Eve., Mar. 31. .“Three Sisters” Peas weed “Inheritors” Friday Kve., April 1....“imheritors” f -..“Cradle Song” Sat. Mat., April 2,.... “Cradle Song” - “La Locandicra” Sat. Eve., April 2..“Master Builder” Does “Reflect American Life With Robust Careless- ness, Says John Howard Lawson ean eae Mon., ues John Howard Lawson’s ““Processional,” produced by the Theatre W Mat. NV Guild several years ago, is the finest labor play yet written in America. | Wed, Eve, M Mr. Lawson is likewise the author of “Roger Bloomer” and Loud Speak- OWING TO Sreni : “ q »THU c h z ver GTO. Snecial Matine THURS., MARCH 31. er,” and is one of the directors of the New Playwrights Theatre. For DEMAND ae tinees “Cradle Song THURS., APRIL 7 years, as the leading advocate of the “dynamic” theatre, he has been ey erying out against stuffy bedroom and Sibrary sob-storics and demanding |) == $2 Bee oF germ i eae “ The Theatre Guild Acting Company.in The Brothers Karamazov 2 GUILD THEATRE 53na Street, West ‘of Broadway, Eves at 8:30. Matinees THURSDAY and SATURDAY at 2:3¢ Week of April 4—THE ROCHESTER AMERICAN OPERA COMPANY Weck of April 11—BHE SECOND MAN SIDNEY HOWARD'S THE SILVER CORD ui THEATRE, 58th St., East of B'way. CIRCLE JOHN GOLDEN Matinees THURSDAY & SATURDAY. 5678 Weck of April 4—NED McCOBB’S DAUGHTER Week of April 11—THE SILVER CORD more movement, more life, more play ef imagination on the stage. He will preside at the symposium on the new type of drama to be held at the 52nd Street Theatre tomorrow afternoon, with Mossaiye Olgin, Jo- seph Wood Krutch, Helen Westley, Romney Brent, and Eleanor Wylie as speakers. Other articles in this. weekly series on the new Ametican drama are being prepared by M. Olgin, Louis Lozowick, V. F. Calverton, and N. Buchwald of the Freiheit.. Manifestos of intention and She jancience. The only test of a play is like have no place in the running of!the degree to which this audience a theatre. The whole point of the}contact is established. thing is to put on plays as well as we} It is my own feeling that similarly are able and to be judged by the fruit{too much has been said about new- of our work. To say that the New]|ness and oddity in the theatre. Ina Playwrights Theatre makes a special/sense of course every play must be appeal to the mass of people whola new entity, because a creative play- have been alienated by the stuffed|housc, if it is to exist at all, must be shirt atmosphere of the commercial]/a place of continually fresh inven- establishments does not mean that we|tion. Beyond this reliance on fresh are committed to any ism or to anyjideas (provided to be sure that the =naneeee aieiiina RL a AM Das special type of play. We believe that|ideas hold out), there is no essential any art that is living is good art, in|difference between the Playwrights whatever form it may be cast. If it]Theatre and any other organization lives. up to this requirement its social] trying to’ present plays before an au- effect. can be tremendous, for it can]dience. We are out to get audience / hold a mirror up to the distortions|support, because we cannot exist i and social problems of our chaotic] without it. We believe there is a | day. But this does not at all mean|definite value in relying upon inven- that any solemn lesson is embedded] tion rather than upon the jaded tricks | in the design of the thing. which make up the bulk of the Broad- | One of the main criticisms which} way output. And we believe that | I hear concerning my own play,|this freshness can appeal to a new “Loud Speaker,” is that it is low-|sort of crowd—-the workers, the peo- brow and popular in character. This]ple with living contacts and living seems to me one of the main values] minds. of the play and I am delighted that} Such a theatre cannot be high- many critics who came to the first] brow and it cannot’ be dull, because night of this entertainment expecting|solemnity about art is as out of place symbolism sobs and solemnity wentjin American life as a telephone in a away to write horrified notices con-] medieval monastery.. It is my im- cerning the simple flippancy of the| pression that most of the art-stuff in show. It seems to me about time|the American theatre is a monastic that the idea of a revolutionary thea-| flowering, a wish-fulfiilment on the tre be divorced from the idea of a]part of people who would much pre- preachy message. It is the age-old] fer to go back to the middle ages. But function of the theatre to express|this is the day of the telephone, and feeling and thought in its own terms} we iive in a country and in an age ~—to say.it with laughs, emotion, the} which conspicuously takes nothing electric spark that welds actors and! seriously. Whether this curious The New Plays MONDAY. “LOST,” a drama by A. E. Thomas and George Agnew Chamberlain, based upon a novel by Mr. Chamberlain, will be presented Mon- day night at the Mansfield Theatre by Ramsey Wallace. The players include: Ramsey Wallace, James Crane, Rosalinde Ful- : ler, Harry Davenport, Mona Kingsley, George Henry Trader, i Edward Van Sloan, and Louise Mackintosh. “CHERRY BLOSSOMS,” a musical play, with score by Sigmund Romberg, and book and lyrics by Harry B. Smith, will open. Monday night at the 44th Street Theatre, presented by the Shuberts. “Cherry Blossoms,” which is based on “The Willow Tree,” by Benrimo and Harrison Rhodes, will have Howard Marsh and Desirel Ellinger featured in the cast. Other players include: Ann Milburn, James Marshall, Frank Davenport, Fred Harper, Frank Greene, William Pringle and Ann Yago. “MARINERS,” the new Actors’ Theatre production of Clemence Dane’s play, starring Pauline Lord, will occupy the Plymouth, A. H. WOODS PRESENTS. CRIM A Sensational and Revealing Melodrama of New York’s Underworld by Samuel Shipman and John B, Hymer, with JAMES BENNIE & CHESTER MORRIS & CAST OF 100 TIMES SQ. THEATRE, “;:2" Matinees Thursday and Saturday, Evenings 8:30, Matinees 2:20, Neighborhood Playhouse 466 Grand St. Drydock 7516. Every Eve. (Except Mon.). Mat. Sat. Now in Its 5th Month St Performance March 30. THE cam EARL *,° carro. Vanities Earl Carrol] Thea.. 7th Ave. & 50th St, LADDER Mats. Thurs, & Sat. 2:36 ALLACK’S West 42nd _ Stree, Evenings $:30. Mats. Tues., Wed., Thurs. and Sat. What Anne Brought Home By J. FRANK DAVIS WALDORF Thea., 50th Street, of Broadway. Eve. 8:30, Mats, Wed. & Sat. A New Comedy Drama Tew PLAYWRIGHTS. thea, 52nd Thea, 306 West|Mats, Thurs.&Sat, St. Col.7393|Bvs.8:45. Mats.2:46 j : TW. 4405 bras 830 Mats Wed LSob 230 Lo udspeaker’ Wewerd leninea PRICES EVES. $1.10 TO $3.85. H AMPDEN’S T, H_EATR RE b 62nd St. at Broadway vs. 8:15. Matinees Wed. and Sat. quality of the American ‘mind is an % asset or a horrible liability is a mat-| WALTER HAMPDEN ter rather for prophecy than for in CAPONSACCHI dramatic presentation., It is a ques-| 0 Ps tion to be thrashed out on the lecture! gam THEA. W “4 platform. But the immediate concern| HARRIS TEMA, West sana 6. { : if th about us with the robust earelessness|WHAT PRICE GLORY | \ of the actual scene. I do not mean| Mata, (exc. Sat.) 50c-$1. Eves. 50c-$2 if carelessness in technique, or careless- ' meses segs beginning Monday night. The cast includes: Haidee Wright, Arthur Wontner, Mary Kennedy and Beulah Bondi. “RUFUS LeMAIRE’S AFFAIRS,” with Charlotte Greenwood, Ted Lewis and Lester Allen as the stars, will open the new Chanin Majestic Theatre on West 44th street next Monday evening. ‘ TUESDAY. * “THE LEGEND OF LEONORA,” James M> Barrie’s fantasy, will be reviewed at the Ritz Theatre on Tuesday evening by William A. Brady, with Grace George in the stellar role. Bruce McRae, Moffat Johnston, Leonard Willey, George Thorpe, Edward : Cooper, and Richard Simpson are other members of the cast. “THE SCALAWAG,” by David Higgins and Bennet Musson, with Mr. Higgins in the principal role, will be ushered in Tuesday night at the 49th Street Theatre by Cast Productions, _ PRIDAY. “FOG-BOUND,” a new play by Hugh Stanislaus Stange, will be presented by Richard Herndon at the Belmont Theatre next Friday night. Nance O’Neil is featured. Others in the cast include: Alfred Hickman, Curtis Cooksey, Betty Linley, Clara Blandick, W. W. Shuttleworth, Dorothy Ellin, Lois Ross, Parker Fenelly and William Johnston. ty ness in fundamental thinking. But I stated in the} with sciousness. But here again, in a manner utterly different from the flippancies of my own play, you have the direct contact across the foot- lights. The play says exactly what it means to say. Symbolism has no place in a real theatre. Away with theories! Away with aesthetics and formulas! Laugh us or at us. Give us feeling, first paragraph of this article that ry color, movement, above all vitality. the Playwrights; in their tal work in Fifty-second street, are not committed to any special type of play. As a matter of fact, “Earth,” the Negro folk play by Em Jo Basshe, which alternates with “Loud Vaudeville Theatres Amusement Park, in the that x