Part 2

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.

Later it was presented in vaudeville by Martin Beck, opening at the Palace Theatre, New York City, August 21, 1916, with the following cast:

MARY TRASK. Sarah Padden THADDEUS TRASK. John Cameron A NORTHERN SOLDIER. Glenn Hunter A SOUTHERN SERGEANT. Thomas Hamilton A SOUTHERN PRIVATE. Gordon Gunnis

"The Clod" was first produced by the Harvard Dramatic Club, in March, 1914, with the cast as follows:

MARY TRASK. Christine Hayes THADDEUS TRASK. Norman B. Clark A NORTHERN SOLDIER. Dale Kennedy A SOUTHERN SERGEANT. James W. D. Seymour DICK. Richard Southgate

THE CLOD

CHARACTERS

THADDEUS TRASK MARY TRASK A NORTHERN SOLDIER A SOUTHERN SERGEANT DICK

SCENE: The kitchen of a farmhouse on the borderline between the Southern and Northern states. TIME: Ten o'clock in the evening, September, 1863.

The back wall is broken at stage left by the projection at right angles of a partially enclosed staircase, four steps of which, leading to the landing, are visible to the audience. Underneath the enclosed stairway is a cubby-hole with a door; in front of the door stands a small table. To the left of this table is a kitchen chair. A door leading to the yard is in the centre of the unbroken wall back; to the right of the door, a cupboard, to the left, a stove. In the wall right are two windows. Between them is a bench, on which there are a pail and a dipper; above the bench a towel hanging on a nail, and above the towel a double-barrelled shot-gun suspended on two pegs.

In the wall left, and well down stage, is a closed door leading to another room. In the centre of the kitchen stands a large table; to the right and left of this, two straight-backed chairs.

The walls are roughly plastered. The stage is lighted by the moon, which shines into the room through the windows, and a candle on table centre. When the door back is opened, a glimpse of a desolate farmyard is seen in the moonlight.

When the curtain rises, THADDEUS TRASK, a man of fifty or sixty years of age, short and thick set, slow in speech and movement, yet in perfect health, sits lazily smoking his pipe in a chair at the right of the centre table.

After a moment, MARY TRASK, a tired, emaciated woman, whose years equal her husband's, enters from the yard, carrying a pail of water and a lantern. She puts the pail on the bench and hangs the lantern above it; then crosses to the stove.

MARY. Ain't got wood 'nough fer breakfast, Thad.