Washington Square Players
The Washington Square Players was a theatre troupe and production company that existed from 1915 to 1918 in Manhattan, New York City. It started as a semi-amateur Little Theatre then matured into a Repertory theatre with its own touring company and drama school. It received national newspaper coverage and sparked like-minded companies across the country. After it ceased operating, three of its members founded the Theatre Guild.
Purpose and plan
At the "Washington Square Bookshop" owned by the Boni brothers and the adjacent building housing the Liberal Club, an eclectic group of locals used to gather and criticize the state of American theatre. Sometime in late 1914 or early 1915 this group of creative types decided to join forces and produce their own plays. The company was formally organized in 1915, with playwright Edward Goodman as its director and Lawrence Langner as business manager. The New York Tribune referred to the troupe members as both professionals and semi-professionals. An article on the finances of the WSP from 1917 clarified its nature:The Washington Square Players are a corporation, but they pay no dividends. That is, their stockholders are stockholders in name only, and there is a general understanding that all profits must be turned back into future productions.
According to a "manifesto" that was given out to the press, the company's goal was to present works of artistic merit, regardless of provenance though giving weight to American dramatists, that might not otherwise be performed in commercial theatres. New works by American playwrights were encouraged to be submitted, and new ideas for staging and setting would be considered.
Their original venue was to be a barn in an alley off Washington Square. Unable to afford anywhere closer to Greenwich Village, the company took a sub-lease on the Bandbox Theatre, which seated less than 300. It stood at East 57th Street just east of Third Avenue in Manhattan. Originally Adolph Phillips' Theater, where German plays were presented, it was renamed by new owners who leased it to the "New York Play Actors" corporation, headed by Douglas J. Wood. They had the same idea as the WSP but charged $2 a seat and could not make it work, so they sublet to the WSP.
The WSP plan was for performances to be given on Fridays and Saturdays only, for four weekends running. After these eight performances finished, a new program would be offered for the next four weeks. All seats were only 50 cents, a considerable discount over commercial theatres of the time. The troupe preferred tickets to be purchased on a subscriber basis rather than at performance time. One reviewer noted that Edna Ferber and Fola La Follette were subscribers. There were no salaried performers among the WSP that first season. All money raised went to the rent of the theatre, lighting, and other production expenses. The membership was described as composed of dramatic, musical, and literary people who lived in the "art colony" around Washington Square.
First season: Feb 1915-Jun 1915
The debut production was given on February 19, 1915, consisting of some one-act playlets and a pantomime, three of which had been written for the event. The program was preceded by a little charade between Edward Goodman and two shills in the audience, whose complaints about the tardy curtain raising allowed for exposition on what the WSP were trying to accomplish. Reviewers from major newspapers covered the opening night; all praised the performances and lauded the experiment it represented. One mentioned that the pantomime was performed by "young mimes gathered from the Italian quarter near the square". Another listed all twenty-seven performers by name, though without ascribing playlets or roles for most.The Bandbox was filled completely for every subsequent performance of that [|first program]. On one weekend, nearly 150 people were turned away from the box office, so that the first bill was extended for another week, with matinees and weekday performances added. For amateur performers, many who had other careers to pursue, this unexpected success was proving very demanding. The news about the debut of the WSP was also spread around the country in the drama columns of newspapers in other states.
The [|second bill] presented by WSP was again a series of one-act playlets and a pantomime. Because of the first bill's extension its opening night was on March 26, 1915. There were three original works by WSP members, a classic by Leonid Andreyev, and a little-known playlet by John Reed. One of the previously announced playlets was not performed opening night due to the illness of its leading actress; its unknown whether it was ever performed.
The [|third program] started on May 7, 1915, with four one-act playlets. Most successful according to reviewers was a Maurice Maeterlinck satire, in which St. Anthony appears at a modern funeral and resurrects the deceased to the dismay of the hopeful heirs. A social drama about self-sacrifice in the tenements by Rose Pastor Stokes was also praised. A previously announced pantomime failed to be presented. Once again extra performances had to be scheduled on weekdays to meet the demand.
The [|fourth and final bill] of the season was presented starting May 25, 1915. It consisted of a one-act farce by Anton Chekov, plus repeats of three popular playlets from earlier bills. This program was for one week only, ending with two performances on May 31, 1915, for the Irish Theater of America was due to mount plays at the Bandbox starting June 1. However, the WSP was invited to perform their [|fourth program] at the Little Theater in Philadelphia. They gave two performances there on June 5, 1915, dropping the Chekov farce of the fourth bill in favor of a Philip Moeller playlet from their second program.
Lectures and bookshop
During the first season, the WSP sponsored monthly lectures by Clayton Hamilton on Sunday afternoons at the Bandbox Theatre. Only the third and final topic is known: The Little Theater - How Can It Grow Up?.An interesting feature of the tenancy of the WSP at the Bandbox was a small "bookshop" off the main lobby where copies of the plays presented could be purchased.
Second season: Oct 1915-May 1916
At the end of their first season, the WSP announced they had leased the Bandbox theatre for the coming season. The company would have full control of the theater instead of sub-letting it. They also announced some policy changes: the better seats would now cost $1 in order to provide some compensation for the artistic and production staff, and performances would now be every evening plus a Saturday matinee. Boston drama critic Hiram Kelly Moderwell wrote an essay called Art and Buttered Bread which explained why the policy changes were beneficial. There would be a special subscriber list at $2 a performance which would subsidize keeping some seats at 50 cents, with all others going for a dollar.Personnel changes
, a founding member of the WSP, defected to the Provincetown Players after the first bill. Performer Samuel A. Eliot Jr left for Indianapolis to assume the leadership of the Little Theater Society of Indiana. Joining the company were Beverly Sitgreaves, who set up a small workshop in the Bandbox on dramatics and stagecraft for the WSP only, Grace Griswold as house manager, Lydia Lopokova, Frank Conroy, Glenn Hunter, and Roland Young.Productions
The [|second season] opened on October 4, 1915 at the Bandbox Theatre with four one-act plays, only one of which, Helena's Husband, was original and written by an WSP member. The New York Times reviewer thought it the best piece in an [|uneven bill], but savaged Ralph Roeder for his work in Roberto Bracco's A Night of Snow. Cleveland Rodgers, critic for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, agreed and noted the program ran overly long with unexplained delays and poor settings. However, Hiram Kelly Moderwell was familiar with the Italian verismo style of Bracco, recognized that Roeder did an excellent job portraying a pretentious and disagreeable character, but acknowledged that American audiences were not yet ready for this sort of drama. Heywood Broun writing for the New York Tribune provided a complete cast list while heaping praise on Lydia Lopokova in The Antick. Finally, Aleck Woollcott in his column Second Thoughts on First Nights pronounced three of the playlets a success and expressed hope that the WSP would stick to one-act plays. Two weeks into the first bill, A Night of Snow was replaced by a popular first season revival, Interior.For their second bill of the season the WSP presented four one-act comedies starting on November 8, 1915. Two of them, Whims by Alfred de Musset and The Honorable Lover by Roberto Bracco, were original translations from French and Italian by Ralph Roeder. Literature by Arthur Schnitzler and Overtones, written in 1913 by American Alice Gerstenberg, completed the quartet. The new program was presented Monday thru Thursday evenings, while the first bill of the season continued running on Friday and Saturday evenings and Saturday matinee for a few weeks. Heywood Broun found the comedies imaginative but felt they merged one into another, though he ranked Overtones as best. Aleck Woollcott felt Overtones was a clever idea whose execution could have been better; he ranked it and Literature as the two best performances. He also deflected protest at so much attention being given to the WSP by proclaiming "theirs is the only experimental theatre in New York".
The third program for this season didn't appear until January 10, 1916. It consisted of three one-act plays and a pantomime in five scenes. Lydia Lopokova left the WSP before the third bill's premiere to resume dancing. The whimsical playlet The Roadhouse of Arden by Philip Moeller and the pantomime The Red Cloak by Josephine A. Meyer and Lawrence Langner were both original works, and proved the most successful for this bill. A dissenting view came from Heywood Broun, who thought Andre Tridon's translation of The Tenor by Frank Wedekind the best work, but noted the audience responded most to The Clod by Lewis Beach. Nearly all reviewers praised the sets by Lee Simonson and Robert Lawson.
The fourth program of the second season didn't start until March 20, 1916 but then ran for two months. It consisted of three American playlets and a 15th Century French farce. It also featured a new actress, Mary Morris, who graduated from apprentice to leading lady with this bill. The general consensus among reviewers was that this program was the strongest yet presented in terms of material, acting, and sets, and would have wide appeal. A plaintive note was sounded by Heywood Broun, when he questioned whether Children by Guy Bolton and Tom Carlton, or The Age of Reason by Cecil Dorrian really belonged at the Bandbox as any more commercial theater would have been happy to stage them. Children according to critic Cleveland Rodgers, was "unmotivated melodrama, where you see people getting into the way of Fate's locomotive in order that they may be run over for your entertainment". Another reviewer was impressed with the urban tragedy of The Magical City by Zoe Akins, but thought the rhythm of the free verse meter in which it was written could hardly be detected. Pierre Patelin, an anonymous medieval work translated and adapted by Maurice Relonde, was judged an excellent presentation for its historicity as well for the sets by Lee Simonson.
During April 1916 the WSP announced they had leased the larger Comedy Theatre for their next season, and would start giving longer plays. Their [|fifth and final bill] for the second season began May 22, 1916, but only ran nine days, as the lease on the Bandbox Theatre expired June 1st. For the first time they performed a full length play, Chekhov's The Sea Gull. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle praised the production, particularly the acting of the leads, Roland Young and Helen Westley, but also mentioned Mary Morris, Ralph Roeder, and Florence Enright favorably.