. The art theatre; a discussion of its ideals . o create effects which would have called for anoutlay of several hundred dollars for each sceneunder the usual system. In the ten variationsarranged after The Wonder Hat the total costof added pieces averaged less than fifteen dollarsfor each scene. To the notoriously poor—though often notoriously extravagant—little thea-tres, such a solution of the scenic problem shouldbe a godsend. The success of the system as worked out bySam Hume is dependent upon several , of course, there is the physical require-ment of a stage with a sky-dome
. The art theatre; a discussion of its ideals . o create effects which would have called for anoutlay of several hundred dollars for each sceneunder the usual system. In the ten variationsarranged after The Wonder Hat the total costof added pieces averaged less than fifteen dollarsfor each scene. To the notoriously poor—though often notoriously extravagant—little thea-tres, such a solution of the scenic problem shouldbe a godsend. The success of the system as worked out bySam Hume is dependent upon several , of course, there is the physical require-ment of a stage with a sky-dome or plaster back-ground (a plain cyclorama drop is a passablesubstitute), and a flexible lighting the second place there must be rigid standard-ization of the original elements and of each addedunit. And most important, there must be a di-rector who combines inventive ability with artis-tic taste. The permanent setting at Detroit was usedfor poetic plays, for those productions whichdemanded atmospheric background rather than172. The Question of Stage Settings definite locality, and occasionally for such a mod-ern interior as that of Suppressed Desires. Butno attempt was made to extend its function tothe mounting of realistic plays; special sets werebuilt for such plays as Trifles, The Last ManIn, and Lonesomelike. It happens that thesettings for these plays represented one of theweakest spots, artistically, of the whole achieve-ment at the Arts and Crafts Theatre; and ofcourse each of these poorer settings cost more thanany of the variations of the permanent set. Thissuggests the possibility of standardizing a mod-ern interior which could be used in variation forpractically any modern realistic play. It seemsto me certain that some one of the little theatreswill perfect a setting of this sort. Then it wouldbe possible, with a permanent setting based onCraigs plan or Humes, and an adaptable real-istic set, to stage any play of either the poetic orrealistic sort.
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