of voice, this flow of rhythm, this plastic posing, and above all this treasure of emotional power?

Of the three plays, two are modern. And they both make one gasp as does the revelation, say, about "some disturbance of the Indians by drunken whites." For here is Granny Maumee, reveling in her lineage of the "royal black," and struck to horror and despair by the treachery of her daughter, whose child has white blood. The torrent of phrases, combining the Christian terminology with the voodoo, is marvelously contrived to body forth the old creature, whose son has been burned by a mob and who is living her life for the purification of her race. And once more, in The Rider of Dreams, there is Madison Sparrow, led into temptation and put upon by the white men, with their get-richquick schemes and their brick and mortar, and from these white men he is warned to keep clear. One is not accustomed to see either one's race or one's nation regarded impersonally. Only other races, other nations.

Then there is Simon of Cyrene, cross-bearer for the Christ, and according to the early artists, an African. It is here that Robert Jones has brought his freedoms and his bestowals, in a setting of awful simplicity of white line and white space, and skilful use of level. And how the figures move! Procula, the wife of Pilate, the attendants, the litter-bearers, the lithe Ethiopians, the slaves. Beautiful skin, set off by costumes designed to stress that beauty and the movement, costumes such as we, who do not know Ethiopia, have never seen these people wearloose, flowing, freedom-giving, accenting every grace.

The cast was selected from colored people all over New York, a few acting in stock companies, but most of them untouched by the crudities of the burlesque written for them. The players came now to be themselves. Intonation, business, interpretation, were never given to the players first-merely modified as the work progressed. The effect was unforgetable, prophetic.

The Colored Players and these plays are like a gesture or a window. Beyond is a prospect. Ridgely Torrence believes that it holds a way for art to take and a people to move. If this is so, the service which he has done, both to this art and to these people, is one which is done only by a great artist in a great

cause.

ZONA GALE

The inn of The Merry Wives of Windsor. Joseph Urban has given here a hint of the village bridge, which could be glimpsed in every scene of the production, and has centered the attention on Falstaff sitting on his guzzling throne. Compare this with frontispiece plate.

The sleep-walking scene from Macbeth as designed by Joseph Urban for James K. Hackett's production in New York. Lady Macbeth entered at the right, crossing the moonlit parapet and descending the steps to speak her famous lines in the darkness below.

News of Theatre Art and Artists

The Washington Square Players presented their fourth bill of the season in March, as follows: Plots and Playwrights by Edward Massey, The Poor Fool by Hermann Bahr, and Molière's Sganarelle. On May 7th Ibsen's Ghosts was presented as the last production of the season, and proved so popular that the run was extended twice. A bill of revivals was scheduled to open the summer season, consisting of Edward Massey's Plots and Playwrights, Lawrence Langner's Another Way Out, and Strindberg's Pariah.

An interesting historical revival took place in Boston on April 5th and 7th when students of the New England Conservatory of Music, under the direction of Clayton D. Gilbert, produced The Contrast by Royall Tyler, called "the first American comedy." The stage settings were designed by Frank Chouteau Brown.

The St. Louis Art League, an organization which fosters creative effort in all the arts, has offered three prizes aggregating $175.00 for the best one act plays written by residents of St. Louis. The competition will close on September 1st, and the prize-winning play will probably be produced at the Artists' Guild Theatre in the fall.

At the Arts and Crafts Theatre in Detroit an extensive exhibition of designs for stage settings and costumes was opened in May. The most important groups of drawings were those by J. Blanding Sloan, Raymond Johnson, and Joseph Urban, with smaller groups by Robert Edmond Jones, Alexander Pope, members of the Washington Square Players' staff, and others. The most striking costume exhibits were those by Ilonka Karasz and Martha Ryther.

At the Folsom Galleries in New York, John Wenger held during February and March an exhibition of his drawings, paintings, and stage settings. Mr. Wenger will be on the staff of the Greenwich Village Players when they open their theatre in the fall.

By arrangement with the Symphony Society of New York, Margaret Anglin will present there next season the series of Greek plays which she recently staged so successfully at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. Walter Damrosch, who had charge of the orchestral work for the productions on the coast, will be associated with Miss Anglin as Musical Director in New York.

Joseph Urban and Richard Ordynski took over the Bandbox Theatre in New York and presented in March Nju, a modern Russian play by Ossip Dymow. The critics disagreed over the value of the offering, and the play was withdrawn through lack of public support.

During May the Brooklyn Museum held an exhibition illustrating "the scenic art of the theatre." The exhibits were drawn largely from the commercial studios of New York, but such progressive designers as Rollo Peters, Lee Simonson, Edmund Dulac, and John Wenger were also represented.

The Players Workshop in Chicago_presented in March Rumor by Frederick Bruegger, Out of the Dark by Donovan Yeuell, Tonsils by Marie L. Marsh, and No Sabe by Elisha Cook. The April bill was The Myth of the Mirror, adapted by Gretchen Riggs, Banbury Cross by Frederick Bruegger, Beyond by Alice Gerstenberg, and Where but in America? by Oscar M. Wolff. For its May offering, marking the first anniversary of the founding of the theatre, a review bill was announced.

The Prairie Playhouse at Galesburg presented, early in March, The March of Truth by Katherine Searle, America Passes By by Kenneth Andrews, and The Lower Road by Charles C. Mather. Later in the month A. H. Gilmer's The Edge of the World was revived. The two bills announced for the remainder of the season were cancelled because Director J. A. Crafton and several members of the company were called into army service.

New York will have another little theatre organization with a home of its own when the Greenwich Village Theatre opens in the fall. A building with a seating capacity of 450, and with a stage modernly equipped, is now under construction. Frank Conroy, formerly with the Washington Square Players, will be director of the new playhouse.

The Provincetown Players produced at their laboratory theatre in New York in March The Prodigal Son by Harry Kemp, Cocaine by Pendleton King, and The People by Susan Glaspell. The season closed with a review bill, including Cocaine, The People, Rita Wellman's Barbarians, and Sup pressed Desires by Susan Glaspell and George Cram Cook. During the summer the organization will continue its work at its Wharf Theatre in Provincetown, trying out plays to be presented next year in New York, and experimenting in new directions.

The East-West Players, a New York organization devoted to the production of Yiddish drama in English, in April presented At the Threshold by Perez Hirschbein, The Dollar by David Pinski, She Must Marry a Doctor by Sholom Aleichem, and Night by Sholom Asch. Public interest in the production was so great that the same bill was presented in May.

At South Bend, Indiana, a playhouse called "Our Little Theatre," seating 150, has been built in connection with the High School. Under the direction of Miss Gena Thompson an interesting experiment is being made in substituting laboratory work in theatre production for the usual courses in "Dramatics."

The Arts and Crafts Playhouse in Detroit presented in March Helena's Husband by Philip Moeller, Trifles by Susan Glaspell, The Glittering Gate by Lord Dunsany, and The Lost Silk Hat by Lord Dunsany. The April bill was as follows: Lonesomelike by Harold Brighouse, The Intruder by Maurice Maeterlinck, The Last Man In by W. B. Maxwell, and Suppressed Desires by George Cram Cook and Susan Glaspell. The May bill, which closed the season, included The Constant Lover by St. John Hankin, The Romance of the Rose, a pantomime by Sam Hume, and Molière's A Doctor in Spite of Himself. During the season of 1917-18 a series of six productions will be given. Sam Hume has been retained as director for the coming year.

A new little theatre was opened in February on the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Charles C. Goodrich at West Orange, New Jersey. The auditorium is attractively_decorated, and the stage equipment is modern, including a "skydome." The theatre was opened with a masque, written and staged by Howard Greenley, and acted by the Blythlea Players, a local organization.

The Ypsilanti Players, who have at Ypsilanti, Michigan, a playhouse of tiny dimensions, seating only 52 spectators, presented as their last bill of the season The Glittering Gate by Lord Dunsany, Helena's Husband by Philip Moeller and Suppressed Desires by Susan Glaspell and George Cram Cook.

The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York presented in May the following plays: The People by Susan Glaspell, A Sunny Morning from the Spanish of the Quinteros, and A Night at an Inn by Lord Dunsany. This bill proved so popular that it will be revived in June as the last production of the season.

The Community Players, who have established an experimental theatre at Richmond Hill, Long Island, presented in May their fourth bill of the season. The feature of the program was Percival Wilde's According to Darwin, staged by the author.