Screen Guilds Mag (September 1935)

Why Little Theatres ? L ITTLE Theatres! Why? ' Apprenticeship! Where? Quite suddenly the flourishing legi¬ timate theatre of the late twenties gasped and expired. There was much mourning because it carried with it huge bank rolls and lucrative box-office receipts, but it was the Hollywood of the middle thirties that was fated to feel the real loss. From the advent of talking pictures it has been the legitimate theatre's prov¬ ince to feed them talent. Madly rush¬ ing to Broadway, Hollywood snapped up every known artist, great and near¬ great, then stood on the door-steps of the legitimate shows that followed and snatched their young at birth. Broad¬ way flopped because Hollywood had its talent. Now Hollywood is feeling the pinch of killing the goose that laid the golden egg. IC’ROM the ashes of the legitimate theatre sprang up this thing called the Little Theatre. No psychological set-up or theatrical setback can stop the flow of new ideas to the 'budding play¬ wright or the dramatic urge in would- be actors. The ideas and the urge de¬ mand an arena. The little theatre is depression's feeble attempt to provide an outlet for its creative and artistic newborn. “She is lovely and photographs well," says the casting director, “but she has no experience." ‘ 4 How am I going to get experience, ' ’ questions the young actor, “if you won't give me a chance ?'' And today, the casting director an¬ swers this query: “Go out and get parts in the Little Theatres around town, and see me later." A ND thus, in sheer desperation, the picture business is turning to this new laboratory of talent, undeveloped and slip-shod as it is in its methods, with a hope that it may, in some degree, answer their problem of filling the ever increasing demand for new faces. The studio scouts cover the Little Theatres as religiously as they ever did the Broadway show or the presentation house in the old days. The serious Little Theatre is a God¬ send to the young actor. Here he may be tried, be cast in leading roles, recast in comedy roles until his real place in a cast is established. Here he may serve his apprenticeship and get the feel of a part in his hand, improve his timing of lines, and gain some knowledge of the 'business of his chosen profession. A pprenticeship ! what has be- ^come of that word? Those sterling old actors who are the backbone of the picture industry could, each one, recount to us years served in apprenticeship before they were given the dignity of recognition or entrusted with any manner of speaking part. They could tell of years spent in the sticks playing in store buildings, ram¬ shackle lodge rooms and barns. They weren't laughed at. It was all a very serious part of their growth, and their present place in the profession will at¬ test its worth to them. It was from these barns and lodge halls that the great legitimate theatre grew, for it was from these very sticks that the great actors came to Broadway. History is only repeating itself, for as Broadway flourished and the motto seemed “everything goes" the barn and the lodge hall disappeared. Opportunity ran rife and any little girl or boy who had a flare was entrusted with a role. Great producers; Belasco, Hammerstein, would fasten on a protegee and launch her overnight, making a star with one production, and apprenticeship became a lost art. The legitimate theatre rose and grew and expanded until, like the proverbial bubble, it burst. T HE dramatic schools have seen the necessity of teaching the profession by the actual application of the player to the play, and have built for them¬ selves small theatres financially sus¬ tained by their tuition fees and to which the admission is free that the students might be assured of that all important factor, the audience reaction. While colleges and private schools have always had their mid-year ‘ ‘ show'' and played around with the idea of amateur theatricals, never in their his¬ tory have they taken the subject as seriously as they are doing now. Col¬ leges have placed on their staff of in¬ structors well-known New York pro¬ ducers and directors, and are turning out into the theatre and the picture business talent of which they may be justly proud, and they are doing it all with the commercial theatre definitely in mind, whereas up to 1930 it was con- By Lela E . Rogers sidered recreation and play among them. I T is estimated that in and around Greater Los Angeles there are one hundred and thirty-four Little Theatre movements and clubs. Sadly enough, many cheap individuals, fascinated by the five to twenty dollars a night taken in through a small admission charge at the door, have rented a building for forty dollars a month, seated it with ninety- nine seats (on time payments), set a regular production cost of seventy-five or a hundred dollars per show to be collected from the author or some in¬ dividual interested in playing a part, and by so doing have brought the Little Theatre in line with a petty racket. But, even this, cannot rob the activity there of its worth to the actor and author. W HAT of the young writer? He hasn't a ghost of a show on the Broadway of today. Only the well- known author has a chance of having his work presented. But, in the Little Theatre the new author hears his lines read, finds his play's strength and weak¬ nesses, rewrites, cuts and, when he has a good play, it is often published by one of the better play libraries; thus giving him courage, confidence and recognition. Several of the Little Theatre move¬ ments have been founded by writers for the sole purpose of exploiting the writer only. P ROBABLY the greatest problems in the Little Theatre today are plays and direction. It is difficult to convince a good director that he should come and lend his art to a struggling group of young performers. The limited pro¬ duction possibilities and stage space frighten him, and being commercially minded he hesitates to hazard his repu¬ tation, and the playwright with any degree of success to his credit would as soon throw his child to the wolves as his brainchild to the Little Theatre. There¬ fore, the Little Theatre must struggle (Continued on Page 17) September, 1935 7#