HOW TO PRODUCE AMATEUR PLAYS

Setting for a Poetic Drama. By Sam Hume.
(Courtesy of the artist).

Copyright, 1917, 1922,

By Little, Brown, and Company.

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION

This book aims to supply the demand for a simple guide to the production of plays by amateurs. During the past decade a number of books dealing with the subject have been published, but these are concerned either with theoretical and educational, or else with limited and, from the practical viewpoint, unessential aspects of the question. In the present manual the author has attempted an altogether practical work, which may be used by those who have little or no knowledge of producing plays.

The book is not altogether limited in its appeal merely to producers; actors themselves and others having to do with amateur producing will find it helpful. The author has added a number of suggestions on a matter which is rapidly becoming of prime importance: the construction of stages and setting, and the manipulation of lighting.

It is always well to bear in mind that no art can be taught by means of books. The chief purpose of this volume is to lay down the elements and outline the technique of amateur producing.

A careful study of it will enable the amateur stage manager to do much for himself which has heretofore been either impossible or attended with dire difficulty.

The plan of the book is simple: each question and problem is treated in its natural order, from the moment an organization decides to "give a play", until the curtain drops on the last performance of it.

This new edition of "How to Produce Amateur Plays" has been revised throughout, and the list of plays in Chapter X completely re-written and brought up to date.

The author acknowledges his indebtedness for suggestions and help, as well as for permission to reproduce diagrams, photographs, and passages from plays, to Mr. T. R. Edwards, Mr. Hiram Kelly Moderwell, Mr. L. R. Lewis, Mr. Clayton Hamilton, Miss Grace Griswold, Miss Edith Wynne Matthison, Mr. Maurice Browne, Miss Ida Treat, Mr. Sam Hume, John Lane Company, Samuel French, Brentano's, and Henry Holt and Company.

March, 1922

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Preface v

   I. Choosing the Play 1

  II. Organization 8

 III. Choosing the Cast 18

  IV. Rehearsing I 22

   V. Rehearsing II 48

  VI. Rehearsing III 73

 VII. The Stage 76

VIII. Lighting 86

  IX. Scenery and Costumes 91

   X. Selective Lists of Amateur Plays 110

APPENDICES

I. Copyright and Royalty 127

II. A Note on Make-up 130

INDEX 139

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Setting for a Poetic Drama, by Sam Hume Frontispiece

PAGE

"The Grotesques", by Cloyd Head. Produced at the Little Theater, Chicago 8

"The Trojan Women" of Euripides. Produced at the Little Theater, Chicago 18

"Captain Brassbound's Conversion", by Shaw. Set of Act I, as Produced by the Neighborhood Playhouse, New York 22

Set for Musset's "Whims."