The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 14, 1927, Page 6

THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, | Aimee Tries Out New Operator Page Six ‘SDAY, APRIL } , 1927 “Les Ginka” (The Les Ginka is a native Georgian folk dance.) ‘Constructivism in the Theatre Freiheit Critic Tells What It Is and Puts It In Its Place By NATHANIEL BUCHWALD. With the Young Worker LINOTYPE OR TWO. Goose Stepping in Pennsylvania } Officials of West Chester, Pa. State Normal School suppress Liberal Club at the behest of the local American Legion for discussing the situation in Nicaragua. In addition two of the pro- fessors who supported the Liberal Club were dismissed, The explana- 1| tion for this attack is that it is “dis- respectful to the government” in dis- cussing the administration policy in Nicaragua. Did these super-patriots By MARGARET GRAHAM. «THERE will be a hurricane. It was our chauf- | feur who spoke—and the road was the famous Georgian road—the link between the Caucasus and Georgia—where revolution and counter-revolution had raged for ten terrible years—the prize had been Baku The sand swirled in front of the decrepit car, y mile or so for a drink, which the | fed to it from a watering can time inner tube. We ran our hands wiped inches of it from around our| into our coat collars, prepared to eet intervals to view the awesome peaks we mounting with their snow crowns glistening I know a guy Named Ike McGore He works eight hours But gets paid for four. What is a constructivist sétting? Why is it peculiarly adapted to mass plays, to the modern age? Why doesn’t the tired business man, the bourgeois intellectual, like it? Constructivism on the stage has ap- peared recently in America in such plays as “God Loves Us,” “Pinwheel,” and “Loud Speaker.” It shocked or delighted theatre-goers. Is it merely a new fad? Or has it a useful purpose, a place in the theatre? These questions are answered in this article by Nathaniel Buchwald, dramatic critic for the Freiheit, most brilliant and profound of Ameri- can Yiddish dailies. Mr. Buchwald’s daily comments and reviews on the New York theatre are more penetrating, more scholarly than all the cackle printed in the voluminous dramatic sections of the capitalist press. i e' a er er stra, 1 Bn eer ea Ta GE lek USAR RAR WC MRRP EG EON RIDE OM MARINE TNR NR ee et ad race ap enbatc ss fei lt _ Reduced to brass tacks, construc- {lowers to make a cult of this new deserted fortresses buttressed in the mountain side—|tivism, as applied to the theatre, | scenic method, we are moved to pro- d wind blown sands swirling up from the road. means the substitution of solid, three-/ test. It is awkward to denounce a rithe hey was cloudless, the sun shone, the wind died|dimentional stage settings for the} thing one likes, yet one cannot but Rowan and the mountains fell away from each side of| flat, painted canvass. The advantage |denounce the hurrah-constructivism the winding ribbon of a road in golden grandeur. Then|0f the constructed’ setting over the | for its extravagant claims and for the soft rolling red brown hills, and herds of browsing | Painted one is that it gives the actor | way it distorts the entire art of the buffalo, and turreted towns, and church bells and a| one more dimension in which to move. theatre in order to appear the main swiftly sink ing sun. |Mere solidity is not the aim of the| thing in it, When we see construc- t The star: ame out in a velvet sky. A soft mellow | constructivist. He wants his settings | tivism thus served up to us as mB Cures Sounds of a guitar along the|to afford the actors several levels,}it-all, as an absolute principle, suf Mary had some little Jambs From which she earned some dough The trust, it came around one day; Now Mary’s funds are low. Headlines seen in the “Daily Rot”: Bosses Strike For Increase in Profits. fear that the students might learn the| Great Unemployment in Country: | truth about Nicaragua? What is the | 100,000 Bosses Walk the Streets. | role of Admiral Latimer of the U. S. i | navy if not the open tool of the house | THE ARMY OF UNEMPLOYED. | I |of Schlessinger, Brown and Co. Why | We’re in the army, now, are the liberals under the leadership | We’re out of a job right now R\ of Sacasa being shot down in cold| We'll never get rich, blood by American armed forces? The | We'll never get rich, answer is that Diaz is the paid agent | We'll never get rich. . . of Wall Street whose interest it is to | (etc. until we have a workers’ govern- extract as much as possible from this ment), supposedly free and independent coun- try. American guns are shooting down | Chinese and Nicaraguan workers not and oil. which stopped e chaufte A_FRIEND INDEED. ac Br : ; to save A: i i » lights sft fb: a | eaattl ) “a A qu half old, half new. Armenians and|0f gradual transition from one level Hie re pe pring! ha | slowly but surely being put on a mili- | Native wares in intriguing|t® another. He wants to “conquer , veiled women in many tiered|SPpace” and afford the director vari- w power house, hospitals, dispen- | OUS possibilities of plastic motion on riological institute where serums | the part of the actors, of mass action malaria and typhus—all since the |@nd mass rhythm. | tary footing. The C. M. T. C.’s and| R. O. T. C.’s are being boosted to the fullest extent and the authorities will | not allow any organization, even | Georgia’ baleonied s fulled saries, the new A Theatre of Masses. | As a cult constructivism has no} basis of existence, If the artist has} the urge to create in the spirit of| An opportunity arrived. Now I can were made to fig! f brag though its name might be as tame as | plunk down my dollar ($1.00) and sub- der res iat a vl | The conquest of space also affords |modern life, to move with its dyna- ; page eee y ui agp Mud baths pains venlied heya thes ota the spectator a new sense of the|mic sweeps, he must regard himsel | Ll aoe “ 2 oe in its way. | seribe to the Young Worker for one where 10,000 pe me eae seroma oe cred a |theatre. Under the scheme of flat,|as part of the bigger thing to which| 4 soe, Ue lem KS me erica youth | year. If you don't have the dollar rheumatism (fr¢ Of charge: for workers peal painted settings, the contents of the|he seeks to adjust his creative urge, nt up the struggle against the | ($1.00), you can send in 50 cents for servants). A visit to trade union headquarters repre- aul nck ox tha “ilelador co teen” open militarization of the youth, | a half year subscription. senting 150,000 organized workers of Georgia, a gain of 140,000 trade w ince the revolution. A visit to government headquar where the premier of Georgia, a former printer who had spent years of exile in Finland, greeted us in the former palace of the Czar. There were too many impressions and the air was too seductive. \stage, including the actors, are pro- |jected against the flat background |and mingle with the painted back- jdrop to create from a distance the jillusion of a painted picture, and jeven though the actors move about, |the play as a whole remains essen- | tially static and flat in the literal After a few hours’ rest, we met our hosts in a little |Sense. The constructivist setting restaurant, where caviar and wine and native fish and |@°es away with the background (at fruits were spread on a snowy board. This was Geor- | /east with the bi sctag ps! and gives gian hospitality. In front of us four native musicians the spectator a view of the action as strummed their inlaid instruments. The commandante, | t@king place in space and not upon tall, lithe, in blue close belted uniform and shining |@ flat surface, thus making the pro- leather boots, directed the program. He had been a prince, but now he was the Red Commander. The talk shifted from economics and health research, and malaria, to lighter things. After much urging and clap- ping of hands, the commandante swung to his feet and was caught in the rhythm of the Les Ginka. The swarthy musicians strummed their lazy instruments, eyes alert to his every movement beneath drooping lids, With a jerk of his shoulders as signal, the music stopped. Armenian and Georgian and Mussulman—at peace and building socialism after ten years of revolution and counter-revolution—and oil the prize, going at last to the revolution as victor—and the Red Commandante, erstwhile prince, dancing the Les Ginka, to the drawling guitars of swarthy musicians. I next day was a round of visits. There had been «n earthquake, so we had been unable to meet the head of the Public Health Administration. He was called to thquake zone, had been away for three days and t returned to make his report to the executive— a and apologies. We would meet him on the train to Baku. We boarded the train and were invited to the private car, which served as sanitary headquarters and was switched off at stations where Dr. K. stopped to inspect the district, instruct the doctors and arrange for neces- sary reports and supplies. Three nights ago he had received a telegram at 4 a. m. In two hours seven emergency cars had been on their way to the earth- quake zone. One car held the necessary fire fighting apparatus; the other six were equipped with red cross supplies, stretchers, medicines, bandages, and manned by doctors, sanitarians and nurses, There had been three sleepless nights for the director of public health and his staff. The dead had been buried, fires had been put out, first aid had*been organized and the dis- trict put in charge of a sanitary corps, He had re- turned, made his report and was now on his rounds of sanitary inspection. His car would be switched off two stations ahead—twelve o’clock—and he would get a few hours’ sleep before going on duty in the morning. * * * He was a heavy set man about sixty, this sanitary director of Tiflis, who had worked his way through medical school in Moscow as a waiter. Imprisoned for his revolutionary activities he had been exiled to Siberia. the had Reminiscences brought back the picture of those far off | days—and the Georgian in him, in spite of three sleep-| less nights, and deaths of earthquake victims and the round of inspection for the following day, thrilled to the old rhythms. His two assistants supplied.the ac- companiment for the old revolutionary songs—The Prisoners’ Song of Siberian dungeons—‘“Soldier; Unloose Those Chains, and I Will Show You What Liberty Means,” “At Home a Wife and Children Wait For Me. Soldier, Unloose those Chains and I will Show Yon How To Love Liberty.” The eyes, puffy with three days and nights of suffering and work, half closed in reminiscence. The deep full voice, rose and fell to the chant of the song—years of exile, imprisonment—and then the revolution and the Workers’ Republic. “Enough of sadness,” he said. “To our guests, the American comrades,”—“Bruderschaft!” Arms locked and glasses clicked in the toast. ceedings on the stage more dynamic, more real even if not quite so |“realistic,” as in the “regular” | theatre. | Useful, Not Ornamental. | Necessarily, constructivism does |away with most of the old devices jas well as with some of the new |methods of stage setting, and if we |examine the destructive and the negating aspect of constructivism we find that it aims to abolish: (1) The old naturalistic decor which under- takes to reproduce (or to fool you |into believing that it does) a chunk of “real life’; (2) the interpretive decor, which seeks through various means, such as construction, paint- ing, lightning effects, to produce the “atmosphere” or induce the “mood,” jor bring out the “soul” of the play; (3) the esthetic decor which is con- |cerned primarily with the outward jare not organically related to the |play. The constructivist, then, does |not want to be “true to life,” nor to create moods, nor to interpret, nor |to mystify, nor to make pretty things for the sake of prettiness. What does he want? As a co-operator in the collective art of the theatre he wants to be use-| ful rather than ornamental. His chief aim is to help bring out all the| |plastic potentialities of the actor, hitherto unused and neglected. He wants to make settings upon which and within which the actors and the} play as a whole could move about freely. He wants to “conquer space” | both for the director, the actor and, the spectator, and in his extreme | expressions the constructivist wants to do away entirely with estheti- cism in stage settings, to rid the stage decor of decorative elements which generally usurp the attention of the spectator to the neglect of the performance as a whole. Close To Spirit of Age. Within this meaning constructivism is a welcome innovation in the theatre and aside from other consid- erations it has the added value of | closer kinship with the spirit of our times than the naturalist or the \esthete can claim for his method. IN jan epoch of skyscrapers, Ford fac- |tories, I-beams, tractors, moving |stairways, the constructed decor, | dominating space and affording op- |portunity for dynamic effects is more jin harmony with the spirit of the times and can better serve its needs beauty of scenic effects, even if theyfit follow that by accepting construc-| jis well that the constructivist seeks The constructivist must remember, what he so often neglects to remem- ber, that his method in stage craft must go hand in hand with, and be an expression of the theatre as a) whole; that his constructed settings) cannot all by themselves make the old theatre new and that together with the revolution in the craft or the art of making stage settings there must go the greater, the more | inclusive revolution in the theatre as a whole, in its method as well as in its contents, in its artistic as well as its social orientation. The new theatre is in need not only of new artists or artistic devices, but of new patrons as well. The tired business man goes ill with construc- tivism, and the bourgeois intellectual goes ill with dynamic mass action. The new theatre, to be really new,/| must be a theatre of the masses, and must harken to the rumblings and stirrings of masses, whence the modern “spirit of the times” derives its restlessness and its tremor. Theatre An Art. While the constructed devices seem tobe better suited to the require- | ments of the new theatre, it does not | by any means follow that if the set-| tings are solid and scaffold-like in-| stead of being flat and sheet-like, all | is well with the theatre and nothing more remains to be desired. Nor does tivism we must unreservedly reject expressionism or estheticism in gen-| eral. | We must remember that the ‘thea- | tre is an art, and that the function} of art is to create living beauty. It | survival of Soviet Russia, I hope you will not walk into Sinclair Assails War Plot Against Soviets EDITOR’S NOTE:—The following copy of a let- ter which he forwarded to the Russian publication “Vetcherniaya Moskva” has been sent to The DAILY WORKER by Upton Sinclair: “Vetcherniaya Moskva” 22 Bolshaya Dmitrovka, | Moscow, U. S. S, R. EDITOR: I have your request for a message to my readers and friends, in Russia, and I am moved to send this state- ment in what seems to me the greatest crisis you have ever confronted. | Your enemies are trying to draw you into war, kno ing that if they can do it, they can destroy you. By raiding your Pekin embassy, through their hired agent, | Chang Tso-lin, they commit what they know is an act | of war. They hope you will retaliate, Believing, as I do, that a century of human progress depends upon the their trap. Do not think that I presume to know better about Russian affairs than your own leaders. What I do know is American affairs, and it is about these that I would venture to write. Britain alone dare not attack you. Her labor unions are-too strong; but if she can drag America with her, she can do anything. And do not let anybody misinform you on this point, America will follow England’s lead. The caste-conscious and money-conscious officials in our state department are as putty in Britain’s hands. We have ten million young men with the bodies of workers and the minds of plu- tecrats, who would be convinced that they were saving their souls by destroying the Soviet system. I do-not say that Russia ean be invaded and con- quered, You will be blockaded, and forced to divert all to be utilitarian, but if he does not) at the same time seek to be artistic he removes himself from the realm | of art, hence from the realm of the theatre, for theatre is after all an| art. | | Millionaires Salve Sore Conscience by Puny Charity Sops After all the crowing and breast beating over America’s wonderful, generous philanthropic millionaires, what a shock it is to come across the rude figures! In that golden quarter of a century from 1900 to 1925 they have given to religious and social organizations a beggarly $70,- 000,000. And the income of Amer- ica’s wealthy is estimated now to be in exed’s of $20,000,000,000 a year. But from that stupendous horde, a_ meager $5,579,000 trickled out in 1925 to salve the consciences of the men who have gutted a continent and ex-| ploited millions of workers. A| The figures are sponsored by the respectable national bureau of econ- | omic research, which operates under! th presidency of that great savant | and labor strategist, John P. Frey | your energies to war manufactures, and thus your social progress will be stopped. And this you must get clear, We few in America,| who believe in Soviet Russia, are‘ helpless. The’ great! capitalist propaganda machine would smash us like so} many insects. On the. other hand, if you withdraw and avoid the trap, nothing can harm you. Every day you survive, | you are stronger. Your mere existence heartens every thinking worker. going down. | gymnasts. the principle: Mass physical culture as much as possible without any ap- paratus. the sake of mankind. to system, the Russians differ. systems such as the Swedish, Sokol, Jahn, ete., are rejected. The best has been taken from all of them and the intention is to create something ex- clusive. tute in Russia. established, it answers to proletarian ideas and feelings. able already now when ,the institute is just developing. The institute oc- cupies a former princely mansion, the |owner of which was driven out of the |country by the revolution. |takes into consideration that apart from the scientific departments and the gymnastic hall mentioned above there are other rooms for practice, reading and boarding school, one will get an idea| of the dimensions of the place. Strange to say, the former chapel is| And in the meantime, capitalism is|the present gymnastic hall, It cannot find markets, it cannot make | grounds are ready and well laid out. Read The Daily Worker Every Day. Send it to The Young Worker Edi- torial Committee, 33 First St., N. Y. Sport in Soviet Russia By PAUL REINHARDT. In order to get acquainted with the idea and technique of the Russian Sport move- ment, one must pay a visit to the Physical Culture _ Insti- tute in Moscow. All sorts of gymnastic ap- pliances are to be found in a small gymnas- tic hall of the institute which can accommo- date about 60 The Russians believe in This is physical culture for With regard All Formerly there was no. such insti- Now that it has been This is notice- If one school rooms and a Sport profits for its swollen masses of capitaf. That explains There is an artificial tobegganing its desperation. You confronted the ver and ‘same conditions at Brest- are also made for the digging of a! skiing ground. Arrangements Litovsk. The peace was humiliating, unthinkable, but) rowing and swimming pool sur- you had to sign it. Lenin’s great wisdom guided you.| If you had not signed, you would not exist today. The crisis now recurs, and I plead with you from half way round the world, withdraw, avoid war at all hazards, stay clear of world capitalism with its. blind working people can make a civilization of their own. | It is literally true, there has not been a week for ten years during which this message to Russia has not been in my thoughts. So the ideas here expressed have had all the consideration my mind is capable of giving. Sincerely, UPTON SINCLAIR. A BackWard Race Mongol Prince: “One day I will visit you in your swimming takes water is available. |vounded by old trees. This work is performed by the so-called unem- ployed welfare departments. considerable interest to note that for this kind of work 50 per cent of the |rapacity, Show the workers of the world that a great | Standard wage is paid. It is of The arrangement of the courses is as follows: 400 pupils with a four- years’ medical men for. scientific reasons) with a one-year’s course. five per cent of the pupils are women. The teaching staff for prac- tical and scientific training as well as for investigations is 78 in number. course, 200 (including 100 Twenty- As to the actual sport, bathing and place wherever There is no room yond the preliminaries of the sport movement. It would be certainly wrong to assert that wrestling was common property of the Russians, although it is true that about 20 years ago two of the best interna- tional wrestlers (Lurich and Hacken- schmidt) were Russians. Sport is developing differently in Russia. Not according to clubs and leagues but according to factories and trade unions, This was brought home through the fact that the work- ers of big enterprisés have, wherever possible, arranged gymnastic halls in their club houses. Where do the club houses come from? They are either palatial villas of former manufac- turers or similar former private houses, which were nationalized through the revolution, Thus, there is no absolute independence in the Russian sport life which has its basis in the factories and is under the guardianship of the trade unions, and the sport movement benefits by it. This is probably the main reason of the differences between the Lucerne and the Red Sport International. One must admit that there is enor- mous progress. To this must be added education in hygiene through other institutes which, however, can- not be dealt with here. But one thing is certain: The entire Russian prole- tarian cultural work which was for- merly impeded by the reactionaries and particularly by the churches (Moscow alone has 1,600 churches) is now in full swing and is making rapid progress. Sport Briefs SN \ Weer cater e SRA: They’re at it again boys, The baseball season is on, Some hundred and fifty thousand bugs will pay from fifty cents to a dollar and a half at the opening games. Figure it up. “A hundred and fifty thousand at one buck makes—not a bad little sum! Pro baseball is sure a great little sport. They ought to play it on Wall St. bs for false shame—men and women bathe together naked. - A_ tourist movement on a scientific basis will spring up through this younger gen- eration, for the schools arrange every year several excursions of a scientific nature. As yet winter sport is not very general. One would not be far wrong in saying that rifle sport is gaining ground for of this there are many signs, Yachting, motorboat and rowing sport has been given an impetus by simply taking away these himself. No less than 185 agencies | cooperated, and among them all the biggest ones. ‘ inted ith the The mood had changed. The Georgian had gotten the | srt ial Valy-pretty frills abba pe better of the doctor and the revolutionist. The cadences laround it of the “Les Ginka” rose and fell to the clapping of) But when: we observe the efforts of many hands. “The Les Ginka,” we urged, The old) me cgnstruetivists and their fol-|Read The Daily Worker Every Day. doctor arose. “For our American comrades,” he said, | ——— = = and light as a ripple, his body in its dark blue peasant smock swirled and swayed to the voices of his com- rades. The train slowed down, The engineer slipped into the car, whispered a hurried question, received his answer from one of the assistants. The train went on, The dance was finished. The last toast was drunk. From some one of the many brief cases piled in a cor- country,” Finnish Minister: “But Finland is a long way from your country. M. P.: “What matters? camels and flocks of sheep.” . M.: “But, you cannot travel through Europe with horses, camels and sheep.” M. P.: “Is there no grass?” F. M.: “Yes, but it is not allowed to travél through grassland which belongs to people.” M. P.: “How can land belong to people? No one can buy land, I buy something I take away in pocket. No one can take away land in pocket.” Who’s going to win the pennant this year? Put this down in your/ notebook. The Pittsburg Pirates are going to make the rest of the teams in the National League walk the gangplank. In the American ie (of business men) the Athle! are going to bring home the. bacon—and | eggs. But don’t bet your money on this inside information, The prophesy is made without knowing what the gamblers are going to do. I have many horses and 4 Vv ner of the car photographs were found. This was a FM “In E r h craft from the bourgeoisie, enabling } i ae sara tate at r | 6 Ms urope "men buy land and get a paper #4 pate = + ae peatanig ye pee a“ was al/ whicH:says the land belongs t6 them.” pap beac Lo re eo eee up fl, Have you organized a_ baseball hew hospital. Here wai new la Wagan ar sb M. P.: (Overcome by sense of ridiculous) I under. | 2727C", 0% Sport. restling and box-| team? Let us Know if you have. The statistics to show how the death rate was dropping. It] petit ing will not reach their proper de-| Youth Column will gladly tell the So if some fool wish to buy moon from me I was two o'clock, “How about the station?” we asked, velopment until one will have got be-| world about it. “Oh, we decided to go on with you,” said the chief. “We will get off in another hour—only a few hours | less sleep. We will make it up tomorrow.” From Tiflis to Moscow. Working his way through college as a waiter. Siberia, Exile for revolutionary activities. Then the revolution. Director of sanita- tion. Organizer of earthquake relief. Medical inspec- tor. whispered to me; he has heart disease) after three sleepless nights, he was going six hours out of his way and singing songs of revolutionary exile and dancing | the Les Ginka, and drinking “Bruderschaft,”—“To the American Comrades”—“To the World Revolution.” Read The Dailv ibn Everv Dav Yet, at sixty (and he shouldn't do it, the assistant | Photo sent from the south by Seagrave’s 1,000 horsepower “M. set by Milton in 1920, id | in a trial at Daytona Beach, Fla., at 166.51 miles an hour, setting a | new American record. The old record ns 156.04 miles an hour, A. T. & T. wire of Major H. O. D. stery S" passing the timing wire / long to you’ and he pay me money.” —Translated by .D. J. Orchard from Japanese Paper. SEND IN YOUR LETTERS The DAILY WORKER is anxious to receive letters from its readers stating their views on the issues con- fronting the labor movement, It is our hope to de- velop a “Letter Box” department that will be of wide interest to all members of The DAILY WORKER family, Send in your letter totlay to “The Letter Box,” The DAILY WORKER, 33 First street, New York City. | sell moon to him. I give him paper saying ‘moon be- s JOIN OUR RANKS y YOUNG WORKERS 1 _,