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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.

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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According to a handbill, the Harrow Theater was "a voluntary association of experienced amateurs for the study and production of the serious literary drama." Under the direction of artist Will Hutchins, the theater group held productions in an old shed at the back of Margaret Whiting's home. The shed served as a stage and the audience sat out under the stars. The theater was dedicated to art for arts sake, and the revenue was funneled back into the enterprise.

 

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"Harrow Theater and Hutchins' Plays"

publisher   Greenfield Gazette and Courier
date   Aug 14, 1909
location   Greenfield, Massachusetts
width   2.25"
height   6.5"
process/materials   printed paper, ink
item type   Periodicals/Newspaper
accession #   #L02.093


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See Also...

"Will Hutchins Manages Yale Plays"

"Preparations for Jeanne D'Arc at Vaucouleurs"

Jeanne D' Arc Performance


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