Washington Square Plays

								

joy was a greater incentive to work than money.
This enthusiasm among the workers, both in quality and quantity, was
generously shared by the spectators. The public which looked for plays,
acting and producing different from what it could find on the regular
stage, proved us right in believing that it was sufficiently large and
interested to warrant our experiment. Critics and patrons gave us from
the first, and we hope will continue to give us, that personal interest
and sympathetic appreciation which have been among the most vital
factors contributing to our growth.
So far we have produced thirty-two plays, of one-act and greater length,
and of these twenty have been American. The emphasis of our interest has
been placed on the American playwright, because we feel that no American
theatre can be really successful unless it develops a native drama to
present and interpret those emotions, ideas, characters, and conditions
with which we, as Americans, are primarily concerned.
Of these twenty American plays the Drama League has selected four for
this volume of its series. Excluding comment on my farce--for an author
is notoriously unfit to judge his own work--I think it may be said that
these represent a fair example of the success the Players have met with
in trying to encourage the writing of American plays with "freshness and
sincerity of theme and development; skilful delineation of character;
non-didactic presentation of an idea; and dramatic and esthetic
effectiveness without theatricalism." They are the early products of a
new movement in the American theatre of which we are happy to be a
part, and if their publication meets with the sympathetic, appreciative
reception that has been accorded their production, we feel and hope that
not only these authors, not only the Washington Square Players, but all
of the workers in this new movement will be encouraged and stimulated to
a further effort, a greater mastery, and a bigger achievement.
EDWARD GOODMAN, Director of the Washington Square Players. Comedy
Theatre, New York, 1916.

I. THE CLOD
A One-Act Play
By Lewis Beach
Copyright, 1914, by Emmet Lewis Beach, Jr.
(Note--The author acknowledges indebtedness to "The Least of These," by
Donal Hamilton Haines, a short story which suggested the play.)
"The Clod" was produced by the Washington Square Players, under the
direction of Holland Hudson, at the Bandbox Theatre, New York City,
beginning January 10, 1916.
In the cast, in the order of their appearance, were the following:



     MARY TRASK.          Josephine A. Meyer

     THADDEUS TRASK.      John King

     A NORTHERN SOLDIER.  Glenn Hunter

     A SOUTHERN SERGEANT. Robert Strange

     A SOUTHERN PRIVATE.  Spalding Hall
The Scene was designed by John King.
"The Clod" was subsequently revived by the Washington Square Players
at the Comedy Theatre, New York City, beginning June 5, 1916. In this
production Mary Morris played the part of Mary Trask.