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
This particular kind of a play was especially well portrayed in “The
Story of Grand Forks County,” a historical pageant in five episodes,
which was presented in the little town of Larimore on June second,
nineteen hundred and twenty. Thirty different communities, working in
coöperation and under the direction of a central committee, selected
the material, dramatized the events, and acted the parts. One thousand
persons, ranging in age from a seven-months-old baby to a white-haired
man of sixty-five were the players. Schools, churches, clubs, bands,
choruses, and various other social agencies contributed their enthusiasm
and energies in making the spectacle a success. Ten thousand people saw
the production. Eleven hundred automobiles were parked on the grounds,
and this did not include those standing in rows in the center of
down-town streets.
Larimore, after all, isn’t such a big town, but it is a mighty
interesting place. Its population is made up of people who appreciate
the big things in life. And when a worth-while thing comes along they
put their shoulders to the wheel and—well they make whatever it is go.
They showed their mettle when they built the stage for the pageant in a
corner of their newly laid-out park. For several days, sometimes in the
morning as early as five o’clock, the men in the community were up and
at work. They used ice tongs to carry the four hundred bridge planks,
which, by the way, were eighteen feet long, twelve inches wide, and
four inches thick. They borrowed these from the county commissioners and
constructed a huge platform seventy-two feet in width and thirty-six feet
in depth. The background was one hundred and fifty-six feet long and
twenty feet in height. There were two wings, fourteen and sixteen feet
high respectively, on each side. All of these were covered with branches
of trees cut and hauled on hayracks from a nearby brook. In the center
of the background rows of seats were built in the shape of a tree which
held a chorus of two hundred girls, robed in pure white. They came from
different sections of the county and sang during the interludes. The
seats were arranged in amphitheater style. At each corner a band was
stationed. Tents pitched back of the stage were used for dressing rooms.
The stage manager happened to be a local auto taxi owner.
June second was an ideal day. At two o’clock in the afternoon the buglers
announced the opening of “The Story of Grand Forks County,” a historical
pageant in five episodes. Then came the procession of the bands and a
chorus. The prologue or story of the play followed. It was written by
one schoolmaster and given by another. It is well worth quoting, for it
not only shows a fine poetic temperament but tells the history of one of
America’s finest agricultural counties.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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