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
In order to feel the pulse of the people of the state in regard to their
attitude toward plays, as well as to carry the drama to the people, a
road tour of forty towns was made. Twenty-two counties were visited. The
play selected for this trip was “Back to the Farm,” written by Merline
Shumway, a former student at the Minnesota Agricultural College. It is
a three-act rural comedy. The central thought running through the play
is the old way of doing things on the farm versus the new method. It
appeals to all classes of people and especially to those who have tilled
the soil. One farmer said it was the best thing he had ever seen. Another
told his friends that “‘Back to the Farm’ had ‘The Birth of a Nation’
skun a mile.” They were both right, because to them the play came out of
the soil.
A cast of eight characters was taken on the tour. They were given
twenty-five dollars a week and their railroad fares. In the evening
they presented the play and during the day made a brief social survey
of every community visited. For instance, one young man would go to the
livery stable or garage and find out something about the roads in the
surrounding community. Naturally, roads have something to do with people
getting together. Another would measure the size of village halls, the
assembly rooms in schoolhouses, the basements of churches, empty country
stores, and lodge rooms—in fact, any place where people assembled.
Listing musical activities in the town was the duty of one member of the
cast. Still another looked up everything he could find about athletics
in the different places. The various clubs, organizations, and societies
in the town were tabulated by one young man. The three ladies in the
cast ascertained the number of festivals, pageants, home talent plays,
programs, games, folk dances, library facilities, and newspapers. All of
these facts, combined with other data obtained before and since then,
make a splendid social diagnosis of certain phases of country life in
North Dakota. They give one an insight into the activities of country
folks out on a prairie. Many interesting conditions were revealed by the
survey and knowledge gained elsewhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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