The little country theaterArvold, Alfred G. (Alfred Gilmeiden)
General
The little country theater
Arvold, Alfred G. (Alfred Gilmeiden)
Little Country Theater (Fargo, N.D.); Little theater movement; Theater -- North Dakota -- Fargo
The attic is to the left of the stage and up a flight of stairs. It
was formerly an old garret. For over twenty years it was unused. It
is the workshop of the theater and contains committee rooms, dressing
rooms, a property room, a costume wardrobe, a small kitchen, and a
dining room which will comfortably seat seventy-five persons. In many
respects it corresponds to the basement of a community building, a
church, or an addition tacked on to a village hall. It is often used
for an exhibit hall or a scenic studio. In short, The Little Country
Theater is a typical rural community center, a country-life laboratory.
One significant feature about this experimental laboratory is that the
birch-stained seats, the green curtains, the scenic effects, the stage
properties, the five hundred costumes, the furniture, the dishes, and
all the other necessities have been bought with funds taken in from
entertainments and plays, thereby demonstrating that any community can do
the same. Endowments in the country are always difficult to raise.
Twelve years ago a country school-teacher sent in a request for some
program material. Three personal copies of plays were sent to her, one
of which she staged. It was not very long before others heard where
she secured her data and many inquiries followed. Out of this request,
together with an acquaintance with an old, white-haired man who had just
started a similar system at a leading western university, the package
library idea came into existence. It is a sort of an intellectual rural
free delivery. One might call it the backbone of The Little Country
Theater. In order to understand thoroughly the importance of the service
which the system renders it will be necessary to say something about the
aim of the work, its scope, how the data is gathered, and the practical
results already obtained.
The aim of the package library system is to vitalize all the sources of
information which can be used for material for presentation on public
programs. Its chief object is to make the schools, the churches, the
homes, and the village or town halls, centers of community activity where
men and women and their children, young and old, can meet just to talk
over things, to find out the normal human life forces and life processes,
and really to discover themselves.
The field of work is the state and its people. The scope of the service
is broad. Any individual or group of people in the state can obtain
program material simply by writing and asking for it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account