TOYMAKER (Still clinging to his son, motions feebly. Looks up yearningly into his face). We - we don't go? TOYMAKER (Turns and gives a long and wistful look about the room, still clinging to the lapel of his son's coat. Then he again looks yearningly up at his son, like a child). Please, I—I can stay? ADOLPH (nods). Yes. TOYMAKER. Oh! [Sighs. ADOLPH (brokenly). Yes, Father. Why, I could buy the whole square if you wanted it! It's yours and always will be yours forever! TOYMAKER (looks around room as before). I—I can stay? TOYMAKER (sighs). Oh! forever! Daddy! ADOLPH. Oh, my God, yes! - Daddy forever David! Dave! Oh, oh, come! (Beckons Hesta with both hands) C-come. (Kronfeldt disengages her. She comes quickly to him) Da- (Weakly) David. [Leads her tremblingly to door, and tries to call. All watch him. THE BOY (off stage). Yes, Father! TOYMAKER. Come! [Enter the Boy, carrying his arms full of books. THE BOY. Yes, Father. (Sees Hesta; lets books fall with a crash) Hesta! TOYMAKER. David, it has come. It is the Teddy Bear. THE BOY. What are you saying, Father? TOYMAKER. The Teddy Bear. He is rich. He has come. He is my son. He is Adolph. DAVID. Adolph! TOYMAKER. Yes, he is rich. I told you. He gives you your love lady. So! [Joins hands of Boy and Girl. DAVID. You mean? TOYMAKER. Yes. (Turns his back on the lovers and waves to the others) We -we not look. DAVID (with sob, embraces Hesta). My Hesta! THE GIRL. David! TOYMAKER (His back to lovers. Smiles through tears; his voice breaks for the first time; simply). I-I think I thank God. CURTAIN END OF PLAY ABOUT SIX WHO PASS WHILE THE LENTILS BOIL Who has ever heard of a theater in a portmanteau? Just as well get a camel through the eye of a needle, or make a thimble out of a tea-cup. Well, it's true, nevertheless, and Mr. Stuart Walker, a young man interested in the theater, has done it. When he was a boy, he used to amuse himself with a toy theater. Older men than he-Gilbert Chesterton, for instance have amused themselves with miniature playhouses, complete in every respect, carrying their scenery, lighting plant and repertory. The signs of old age are seen in the incapacity to play. One of the best books I ever read was by H. G. Wells, who, with his own son, mapped out on the floor a complete military campaign with leaden soldiers and their leaden cannon. A toy theater is, therefore, a "play" much like the real thing. The fun Stuart Walker had when he was a boy in Kentucky was remembered when he went to college, at the University of Cincinnati, and his varied experiences in play-acting, his vivid picturings of drama drawn from his favourite ballads, his intense interest in Greek and Elizabethan stages — all of these tendencies went into his imagination which took fire at the thought that he might build a theater complete, so compactly constructed as to fold up in small space. Thus the Portmanteau Theater a most appropriate name came into being; and it was so conceived that it could be taken anywhere, — set up in a parlour, a schoolroom, a settlement house, even a nursery, with the smallest possible expense. - Not being able at first to afford paying royalties for his dramas, Mr. Walker-gifted with a unique ability to write plays of a special character-created his own repertory, and "Six Who Pass While the Lentils Boil" was one of the first dramas he wrote. His idea was to appeal to the imagination of his audiences-young and old alike—to suggest just enough to make those in front of his curtain imagine the rest. When you go to the theater, it is not sufficient that you think only of what is shown you; you must enter into the 'make-believe" spirit of the story, just as the Elizabethans, in the time of Shakespeare when there was little or no scenery - were content to have a sign-post on the stage reading, "This is Elsinor", when "Hamlet" was given. Read what the Prologue says at the very beginning of "Six Who Pass While the Lentils Boil." Put a copper pot in the middle of the stage, and then imagine it full of boiling water, imagine the flames-imagine lots of things not there. You thus become an important part of the play-in fact as important a part as the actors and as the scenery. Mr. Walker's experiment, surveyed in detail in his first volume of "Portmanteau Plays" (Stewart & Kidd Co.), surprised the managers. He visited places, bag and baggage, not to be reached by the big theater; he entertained thousands of folks who were thirsting for just such artistic things as he did, inexpensively and well. Having had the estimable experience of working at one time under the guidance of Mr. David Belasco one of America's most artistic theater directors he learned from that wizard of stage effect certain principles which he immediately adapted to his less extravagant needs. By the simplest means—with the minimum outlay of money—he created atmosphere, and his highest triumph was reached when he gave a series of Arabian Nights plays by Lord Dunsany, the Irish dramatist, and put on a dramatic presentment of the Book of Job. There is every reason to believe that Stuart Walker's idea of a Toy Theater-professionally perfect in its acting and artistically beautiful in its modern scenery — could be carried further and further until it became a regular part of our village life. If there is such a thing successfully managed as a Caravan Library, why should there not be such a thing as a Caravan Theater? At one time, Mr. Ben Greet and Mr. Charles Co burn entertained America in the Spring and Summer of each year with delightful series of out-door plays - given on front lawns, on college campuses, in woodland clearings. What a joy it was, on a clear Summer's day, with the afternoon sunlight dancing and sparkling like the heart of Rosalind, to sit through a performance of "As You Like It"! New professional interests have drawn these two managers in other channels. So, with Mr. Walker, his ambition may carry him in other directions, but his Portmanteau Theater is an idea well worth preserving and using as an excellent and vital part of the modern theater. Since the Mountain could not come to Mahomet, there was nothing else but for Mahomet to go to the Mountain. And so, often, when it is impossible for village folk or hill folk or groups of people in cities to go to the theater, put your theater in several dress-suit cases, and go to them. That's Mr. Walker's idea, and it won success. It's just as if you had a Toy Theater which you wanted to take next door for a friend to play with. It doesn't require long to move it. You tuck it under your arm. In the Spring of 1915, the Portmanteau Theater came into existence. By rights it ought never to go out of existence. It should take root in the amusement life of everyone. The music for the "Ballad of the Miller's Sons" and the "Ballad of the Three Little Pigs" is given in Stewart & Kidd's "Modern Plays", edited by Frank Shay. |