Harrow Theater and Hutchins' Plays.
Will Hutchins is considering plans for some further dramatic work for the
rest of the summer season. He has been collaborating with Prescott Warten of
Boston, a business man and former Harvard foot ball player with literary and
dramatic tastes in writing "The Unwritten Law," a production of which
has been announced for next week at a summer theater at Squirrel Island, Me.
This play is put on in part by professional stage people.
The Harrow Theater company may have another performance this season. Consideration
is being given to a double bill to consist of Conan Doyle's "Waterloo"
and a one act play by Mr. Hutchins, in which the death of Abraham Lincoln is
made a turning point in the family life of some people in Maine. This play would
have a rustic setting and hence would be appropriate to the Harrow theater stage.
The final performance of "Jeanne d'Arc at Vaucouleurs" Tuesday night
was very well attended. The seating capacity is 260, and this was all taken
and a large crowd was standing so that the attendance was probably about 350.
Nearly 1000 people have seen the play. Owing to the crowd which came in bunches
some people unfortunately secured entrance without buying tickets. At future
plays there will no doubt be better arrangements for taking up tickets. Many
of the people who like the play have suggested its suitability for production
at some of the colleges.
Edward Simonds, who is closely associated with Clyde Fitch, the playwright,
attended the performance of "Jeanne d'Arc at Vaucouleurs," and says
that he was enormously interested in it and greatly impressed by the possibilities
of productions having a rural setting of this character. The genuine country
exterior, with the treatment given the stage seemed, he thought, a far more
convincing background for a play of peasant life than anything the regular theater
with painted scenery could produce. The stage pictures with the harmony of colors
as arranged by the Deerfield women, he felt, were of exquisite beauty. Mr. Simonds
regarded the work of Mr. Hutchins as a playwright as of great promise, and considers
his company a remarkable one for amateur players. |