AMATEUR THEATRICALS. Amateur theatricals have had a long and distinguished history. In the beginnings of art, in the primi tive history of humanity, all artists were neces sarily amateurs. The renowned tragedians and comedians of Athens were amateurs. Ama teurs created the mystery and morality plays of medieval times and ushered in the modern theatre of Shakespeare and Moliere, Racine and Calderon. The marvelously popular Roman farces, the Atellanie, which augmented the theatre with types that exist to this day, came from the country players of Atella (see ATELLsrus). Recent researches suggest that amateurs founded the famous Commedia Dell' Arte of Italy (see HARLEQUINADE). In late years amateurs, true to their lineage, labored to bring forth the Theatre Libre of Paris, the Irish Literary Theatre of Dublin, the Art Theatre of Moscow, and many others in Eu rope similar to these world-approved experi ments. In New York a group of young artists called the Washington Square Players, with little or no professional experience, have per formed with noteworthy success a number of excellent one-act plays that would most prob ably have remained outside the commercial theatres. Maeterlinck, Tchekoff and Bracco were among their authors; but the two most pronounced successes were by local writers. These facts present but surface evidence of the stir going on in and around the theatres all the world over; and often enough, in places that never before had known of a theatre. A new age, quite unparalleled in history, has be gun for amateur theatricals. Never before have so many sides of the art received equal attention and sustained so many possibilities; never before have so many accomplished vir tuosi in every country in the world concerned themselves with the theory and practice of the theatre. The actor for the moment has been
displaced from his old strategic position, and the regisseur, with all the reins of all the arts in hand, wields the sway. Books on the drama and the theatre are issued by the million. Lit erary and debating societies find in the drama the dominant topic. Drama clubs flourish everywhere. The Drama League of America has given a powerful impetus to thousands of these clubs and societies. This organization, with headquarters in Chicago and New York, and with producing or non-producing centres in nearly every State, and in Toronto and Ot tawa, makes the publication and distribution of dramatic material of all kinds (plays, bul letins of current plays, sectional play lists, book lists, a quarterly Review, a monthly bulletin, etc.), the maintenance of inquiry bureaus and the booking of lecture courses, the chief means for educating the public. The institution is unique in history, and is the literary centre of the major part of amateur dramatic per formance and discussion in the United States.
It would seem that to-day even the most conservative bodies, hitherto strongly opposed to it from various standpoints, have undergone a complete change of front with regard to the theatre. In the energetic realization by so many educationists of the breadth and depth of the dramatic instinct, and of ways and means of profitably utilizing this love of play making and play-going, both within the school and beyond, we see other signs of the renais sance of amateur dramatics. The colleges and universities have awakened to the need of en couraging a broader theatre than the higher institutes of learning have yet known (see