Table Of ContentTHE CIVIC THEATRE THEORY
OP PERCY MACKAYE
A Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of Drama
The University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master^of Arts in Drama
by
Jessica Miller Messier
June., 1950
UMI Number: EP44385
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This thesis, written by
Jesaica..Miller..¥esslei:..............
under the guidance of Aer____ Faculty Committee,
and approved by all its members, has been
presented to and accepted by the Council on
Graduate Study and Research in partial fulfill
ment of the requirements for the degree of
Mas.ter...of...Ar.ts...lii. Drama
Date_
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Chairman
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE PROBLEM AND DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED . . 1
The Problem.............. 1
Statement of the problem ............... 1
Importance of the study................. 2
Definitions of terms used ................. 4
The Civic Theatre Theory ............... 4
Civic Theatre . . 5
Community theatre . . . 5
Little theatres ......................... 5
Broadway theatre ....................... 5
Organization, of remainder of the thesis . . 5
Review of the literature on the Civic
Theatre Theory ......................... 6
Materials u s e d ............................ 12
II. BIOGRAPHY OF PERCY MACKA YE .............. 14
F a m i l y .................................... 14
Boyhood . . 17
Manhood .................................. 22
Personal Characteristics ................. 27
"Masque" Technique ....................... 29
III. ORGANIZATION OF THE CIVIC THEATRE........... 34
Local................. 34
iii
CHAPTER PACE
Architecture................. 34
Personnel............................ 35
Audiences....................... 38
Endowment............................ 38
National ....................... 39
Policy ................................ 41
IV. BENEFITS OF THE CIVIC THE ATR E.......... 42
Benefits to the Dramatist and the
D r a m a ................................ 42
Benefits to the Actor and Other
A r t i s t s ................. 52
Benefits to the Community............. 62
Benefits to the Pe«ple................. 69
Recreation............................ 69
Education............................ 75
"A Substitute for War1' ............... 78
Arts and C r a f t s ..................... 8l
V. THE DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH OF
COMMUNITY THEATRE ..................... 83
The National Theatre Conference . . . 88
The American Educational Theatre
Association....................... 90
CHAPTER PAGE
The American National Theatre
and Academy.............................. 90
The National Theatre Assembly ............. 95
Subsidized Theatre <.......................... 102
Professional Theatre ....................... 110
Future Theatre.................. 115
VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS........... 116
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................... 120
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEMS AND DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED
Mr. Percy MacKaye, poet, playwright, author, speaker,
director and humanitarian has spent the greater portion of
his life in expounding the theory and working towards the
fulfillment of what he terms a national "Civic Theatre".^
In no previous instance has this theory been reviewed, criti
cized and interpreted in detail.
I. THE PROBLEM
Statement of the problem. It was the purpose of this
study to review Mr. MacKaye's theory, as recorded by him in
various prefaces, articles, and four books, The Civic Theatre,^
The Playhouse and the Play,3 Community Drama1* and A Substitute
for War,5 and at the same time to interpret the theory; to
report the inherent benefits of the proposed Civic Theatre as
I Percy MacKaye, The Civic Theatre (New York: Mitchell
Kennerley, 1912), 308 pp.
p
Loc. cit.
3 Percy MacKaye, The Playhouse and the Play (New York:
The Macmillan Company, 1909)* 210 pp.
II Percy MacKaye, Community Drama (Boston and New York:
Houghton Mifflin Company^ 1917)* 84 pp.
5 Percy MacKaye, A Substitute for War (New York: The
Macmillan Company, 1915)* 55 PP*
2
described by MacKaye both in theory and from actual practice;
to compare early Twentieth Century conditions of the theatre
and of the people's leisure to present-day conditions of the
same; and to illustrate that the proposed Civic Theatre would
hold even greater beneficial effects for the present and
future than MacKaye realized it to hold for the early Twenti
eth Century.
Importance of the study. When Percy MacKaye wrote his
books on Civic Theatre, there was then no evidence of what
we now know as community theatre, or little theatre. MacKaye
foresaw a great need for? the establishment of such theatres,
with regard to creative recreation and leisure for the people
and the release of the American theatre from commercial
strangulation. Shortly after the beginning of the first World
War, MacKaye also conceived of this proposed Civic Theatre as
"a substitute for war",^ in that the people of the nation
would receive certain psychological and emotional benefits
from this constructive peacetime venture such as are normally
available only in wartime, and which benefits have previously
made war seem attractive, for example the feeling of neighbor
liness and cooperation which is inherent in an all-out war
effort, but which is singularly lacking in peacetime.
Loc. cit.
\
3
The subsequent phenomenal growth, of the community'
theatre in America has proven the validity of MacKaye's
vision. And there is no doubt that community theatres to
day are of infinite value to the members of the community in
particular, and the American theatre in general. However,
the national needs which inspired MacKaye to formulate his
theory in I909-I917 still exist today, greater than ever.
The core of the American Professional theatre still centers
on Broadway, creating financial and artistic problems for
both the drama and contributors to the drama, as our economics
become more and more complicated. There is still no adequate
training ground or sufficient financial security for American
actors and dramatists. It is almost impossible for an un
known dramatist to secure the financial backing necessary for
a Broadway production.
Wage-earners have shorter working hours; hence more
leisure. Increasing standardization and mass-production in
all phases of American living has lessened the individuality
of the people, thereby creating a vague desire for self-
expression and self-assertion without creating an outlet for
them. There is an urgent need today for all citizens to be
come cognizant of world affairs. (Motion pictures are begin
ning to satisfy this need, but motion pictures, too, are
hampered by commercial considerations).
4
More than all else, there Is a vital urgency that
peacetime living, even in its ordinary everydayness, must
satisfy the people's emotional needs, so that they will not
half desire another war as a method of bringing them together
in warm, cooperation and making them feel indispensable. The
American people must be made to abhor war as do the Europeans.
In spite of the achievements of the existent community
theatre, only the fulfillment of a dream such as Percy Mac-
Kaye's can successfully satisfy all of the above needs. The
present community theatre may, by a process of evolution, be
come the equivalent of MacKaye's Civic Theatre if its hori
zons are continually expanded. It must be "seen large", as
Mr. MacKaye terms it.^ This study is hopefully Intended to
contribute to that visionary expansion.
II. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED
The Civic Theatre Theory. This term will be employed
throughout this study to signify the plans for an ideal nation
wide organization of civic recreational theatrical and artis
tic centers, and the over-all effects of such an organization^
7 Percy MacKaye, Preface to The Community Theatre by
Louise Burleigh (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1917)?
p. xii .
