How to Produce Amateur Plays: A Practical Manual

Setting for a Poetic Drama. By Sam Hume. (Courtesy of the artist).
Copyright, 1917, 1922 ,
By Little, Brown, and Company.
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
This book aims to supply the demand for a simple guide to the production of plays by amateurs. During the past decade a number of books dealing with the subject have been published, but these are concerned either with theoretical and educational, or else with limited and, from the practical viewpoint, unessential aspects of the question. In the present manual the author has attempted an altogether practical work, which may be used by those who have little or no knowledge of producing plays.
The book is not altogether limited in its appeal merely to producers; actors themselves and others having to do with amateur producing will find it helpful. The author has added a number of suggestions on a matter which is rapidly becoming of prime importance: the construction of stages and setting, and the manipulation of lighting.
It is always well to bear in mind that no art can be taught by means of books. The chief purpose of this volume is to lay down the elements and outline the technique of amateur producing.
A careful study of it will enable the amateur stage manager to do much for himself which has heretofore been either impossible or attended with dire difficulty.
The plan of the book is simple: each question and problem is treated in its natural order, from the moment an organization decides to give a play , until the curtain drops on the last performance of it.
This new edition of How to Produce Amateur Plays has been revised throughout, and the list of plays in Chapter X completely re-written and brought up to date.