There is certainly no space here, and just as certainly no necessity, for
dwelling long upon the prime importance of repertory. Several excellent
books have been written on that absorbing subject, and we may surely take
for granted that which we know beyond all doubt to be the truth, namely,
that repertory as opposed to the "long run" and to the "star" system is the
ultimate solution of a most vexatious and perplexing problem--how to change
the modern theater from an industry to an art. The disadvantages of the
present mode of procedure are too evident to call for recapitulation;
witness the results obtained. On the other hand there can be no question
that there is a practicable and simple panacea in repertory; see what has
been done by the Abbey company in Dublin, by Miss Horniman's players in
Manchester, by the _Scottish Repertory Theater_, on a smaller scale, in
Glasgow, by John Drinkwater's repertory theater in Birmingham, concerning
which I have, unfortunately, no exact data, but which I understand is doing
remarkable work with distinct success, and by the Portmanteau company in
the United States. It would be well also to include Charles Frohman's
season at the _Duke of York's Repertory Theater_ in London; in fact the
inclusion of this seventeen weeks' season would be inevitable. Where the
experiment has failed it has failed for reasons which did not, in any way,
shape or manner, invalidate the principle at stake. Thus, to cite the great
example on our own side of the water, the _New Theater_ was doomed to
failure from the very start in the fact that it was born crippled. It may
be restated to advantage, just here, that from the spring of 1916 to the
spring of 1919, a period of three years, Mr. Walker has produced
forty-eight plays, has given seventy-six weeks of repertory, and has had a
nearly unbroken run of one hundred and four weeks with one play which has
been commercially successful beyond the others. Of the forty-eight plays
produced during this time eighteen had never been seen before on any stage;
four were entirely new to America (except for a possible itinerant amateur
performance); and twenty-six were revivals, modern, semi-modern, and
classical. It is my belief that this record will take a creditable position
in the history of American repertory. Abroad, however, its place is less
secure, but even here the _Portmanteau_ is by no means snowed under.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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