CHAPTER X
SELECTIVE LISTS OF AMATEUR PLAYS
The following lists, which do not pretend to completeness, will at least be found helpful in assisting amateur organizations to choose "worth-while" plays. The general headings "Classic", etc, are clear, but the following explanations must be made regarding the other markings:
An asterisk (*) indicates that the play is in one act. Those not so marked are in more than one act, and are in most cases "full length."
The letter "S" denotes serious or tragic plays, intended in nearly every case for advanced amateurs.
The letter "R" denotes plays of a romantic and poetic nature.
The letter "C" denotes comedies, farces, and plays in lighter vein.
The letter "F" in parenthesis after the title indicates that a fee is charged for production by amateurs. The publisher or agent (see footnotes), must be consulted for particulars.
The letter "D" denotes modern dialect plays, like those of Lady Gregory. Most of these plays are included under the general heading of "Classic" because the costumes and setting, though they may be modern, are not the familiar modern costumes and settings.
All plays not included in the first division "Classics, including modern costume and historical plays" are to be found in the second division: "Modern plays."
It is nearly always unwise for an amateur organization to take a play on faith; it is therefore advisable for it to collect a library of amateur plays, from which successive generations of members can at least form some judgment of the field from which they are to select their plays.
This list makes no pretence to completeness. It has been the writer's purpose merely to mention a number of classic and standard plays which amateurs can produce without too great difficulty.
Scenes from Euripides' "Electra". Produced at Illinois State College.
(Courtesy of Rollin H. Tanner).
CLASSICS, INCLUDING MODERN COSTUME AND HISTORICAL PLAYS
Greek
RS Euripides, Alcestis (Samuel French; Walter H. Baker)
RS Sophocles, Antigone (Samuel French; E. P. Dutton, in Everyman's Library)
RC Aristophanes, The Clouds (Macmillan; "The Drama", Victorian edition)
C Lysistrata (Samuel French. Another version, by Laurence Housman, published by The Woman's Press, London)
Latin
C Plautus, The Twins (Samuel French)
C Terence, Phormio (Samuel French)
Spanish
RC Lope de Vega, The Dog in the Manger ("The Drama", Victorian edition)
RC Calderon, Keep Your Own Secret (Macmillan)
RC Benavente, The Bonds of Interest (in "The Drama", No. 20)
Italian
RC Goldoni, The Fan (Yale Dramatic Association)
RC The Beneficent Bear (Samuel French)
RC A Curious Mishap (McClurg)
RCD The Squabbles of Chioggia ("The Drama", August, 1914)
R* Giacosa, The Wager (Samuel French)
French
C Bruëys (adaptor of 15th century anonymous), Master Patelin, Solicitor (Samuel French)
C Molière, The Merchant Gentleman [Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme] (Samuel French; Little, Brown; Bohn Library, etc.)
C* The Affected Young Ladies [Les Précieuses ridicules]
C The Sicilian
C* Doctor Love [L'Amour Médecin]
C* The Doctor in Spite of Himself [Le Médecin malgré lui]
C The Imaginary Invalid [Le Malade imaginaire] (Samuel French; Little, Brown; Bohn Library; Putnam, etc., publish the above five titles)
C* Dancourt, Woman's Craze for Titles (in "The Drama"; Historical Publishing Company, 1903, vol. viii.)
C* Le Sage, Crispin, His Master's Rival (Samuel French)
CR* Marivaux, The Legacy (Samuel French)
CR De Musset, Fantasio (Dramatic Publishing Company)
CR* The Green Coat (Samuel French)
C Augier, M. Poirier's Son-in-law [Le Gendre de M. Poirier] (in "Four Plays by Emile Augier", published by Alfred A. Knopf, and in "Chief European Dramatists", published by Houghton Mifflin)
CR* Banville, Gringoire (Dramatic Publishing Company; Samuel French)
CR* Charming Léandre (Samuel French)
C Sardou, A Scrap of Paper [Les Pattes de mouche] (Samuel French)
CR The Black Pearl (Samuel French)
CR* Feuillet, The Fairy (Samuel French)
CR* Rivoire, The Little Shepherdess (Samuel French)
CR Rostand, The Romancers (Samuel French; Walter H. Baker; Heinemann)
C* France, The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife (Lane) (F)
C* Picard, The Rebound (Samuel French)
CR Zamacois, The Jesters (Brentano) (F)
SR* Bouchor, A Christmas Tale (Samuel French)
CR* Coppée, The Violin-Maker of Cremona (Samuel French)
SR* Pater Noster (Samuel French)
SR* Theuriet, Jean-Marie (Samuel French)
Danish
C Holberg, The Loquacious Barber ("The Drama", Victorian edition)
C Captain Bombastes Thunderton (in "Three Comedies by Ludvig Holberg", published by Longmans) (Requires cutting)
German
CR Lessing, Minna von Barnhelm (in Bohn Library, Macmillan)
C The Scholar (in Bohn Library)
C Schiller, Nephew or Uncle (Walter H. Baker)
English
S Anonymous, Everyman (Everyman's Library; Dutton)
R Lyly, Alexander and Campaspe (Scribner, and in Everyman's Library) (Requires cutting)
R Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (Dutton) (Requires cutting)
CR Beaumont and Fletcher, The Knight of the Burning Pestle (Scribner; Everyman's Library; etc.) (Requires cutting)
CR Dekker, Old Fortunatus (Scribner) (Requires cutting)
CR The Shoemaker's Holiday (Scribner; Dutton) (Requires cutting)
CR Heywood The Fair Maid of the West (Scribner) (Requires cutting)
SR Jonson, The Sad Shepherd (Dutton) (Requires cutting)
CR The Case is Altered (in any complete set of Ben Jonson) (Requires cutting)
Shakespeare (no plays need be mentioned. The "Ben Greet Shakespeare for Amateurs" contains good directions for staging and acting)
C Udall, Ralph Roister Doister (Macmillan; Dent) (Requires cutting)
CR Goldsmith, The Good-natured Man (in any edition of Goldsmith's plays)
CR She Stoops to Conquer (in any edition of Goldsmith's plays)
CR Sheridan, The Rivals (in any edition of Sheridan's plays)
C The School for Scandal (in any edition of Sheridan's plays)
C The Critic (in any edition of Sheridan's plays)
CR Pinero, Trelawney of the 'Wells' (Dramatic Publishing Company) (F)[12]
[ [12] Apply to Sanger & Jordan, 1432 Broadway, New York, for acting rights.
CR Housman, A Chinese Lantern (Dramatic Publishing Company) (F)
CR* Bird in Hand (Samuel French) (F)
SRD* A Likely Story (Samuel French) (F)
CR* As Good as Gold (Samuel French) (F)
SRD* The Snow Man (Samuel French) (F)
SR* Nazareth (Samuel French) (F)
SR* The Lord of the Harvest (Samuel French) (F)
SR* The Return of Alcestis (Samuel French) (F)
CR (and Barker), Prunella (Little, Brown) (F)
CR Shaw, The Devil's Disciple (Brentano) (F)[13]
CR Parker, Pomander Walk (Samuel French) (F)
CR* Barrie, Pantaloon (Scribner) (F)[13]
[13] Apply to American Play Company, 33 West 42nd St., New York.
CR Bennett and Knoblauch, Milestones (Doran) (F)
CR Noyes, Sherwood (Stokes) (F)
CR Tennyson, The Princess (in any complete edition of Tennyson)
CR The Foresters (in any complete edition of Tennyson)
SR* The Falcon (in any complete edition of Tennyson)
R* Lord Dunsany, The Gods of the Mountain (Little, Brown) (F)
CR* The Lost Silk Hat (Little, Brown) (F)
CRD* The Glittering Gate (Little, Brown) (F)
R King Argimenes and the Unknown Warrior (Little, Brown) (F)
RS* Yeats, The Land of Heart's Desire (Macmillan; Samuel French)
CD* The Pot of Broth (Macmillan) (F)[14]
RS* Deirdre (Macmillan) (F)[14]
RS* The King's Threshold (Macmillan) (F)[14]
[14] Apply to Samuel French, 28 West 38th St., New York.
CRD* Lady Gregory, The Rising of the Moon (Putnam) (F)[15]
CD* The Workhouse Ward (Putnam) (F)[15]
SRD* The Travelling Man (Putnam) (F)[15]
CD* Spreading the News (Putnam) (F)[15]
CD* The Jackdaw (Putnam) (F)[15]
CD* Hyacinth Halvey (Putnam) (F)[15]
SD* Hyde, The Lost Saint (Scribner)
SD* The Twisting of the Rope (Poet Lore)
CD* Mayne, The Turn of the Road (Luce) (F)
CD The Drone (Luce) (F)
SD* Synge, The Shadow of the Glen (Luce) (F)[15]
CD Boyle, The Building Fund (Gill, Dublin) (F)
RC* Downs, The Maker of Dreams (Samuel French) (F)[15]
Sanskrit
SR Kalidasa, Sakountala (Walter Scott, London; and Everyman's Library)
Bengali
RS Tagore, The Post-Office (Macmillan) (F)[15]
[15] Apply to Samuel French, 28 West 38th St., New York.
MODERN PLAYS (NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES, IN WHICH THE COSTUMES AND SETTINGS ARE MODERN)
Italian
S Giacosa, As the Leaves (in "The Drama No. 1, and by Little, Brown)
S The Stronger (in "The Drama", May, 1913, and by Little, Brown)
French
C* Augier, The Post-Script (Samuel French, and in "Four Plays by Emile Augier", Alfred A. Knopf)
SC The House of Fourchambault (Samuel French, and in "Four Plays by Emile Augier", Alfred A. Knopf)
CR* Meilhac and Halévy, Indian Summer (Samuel French)
CR* Panurge's Sheep (Samuel French)
CR* Feuillet, The Village (Samuel French)
C* Labiche, The Two Cowards (Samuel French)
C* Grammar (Samuel French)
C Pailleron, The Art of Being Bored (Samuel French)
C* Bernard, French Without a Master (Samuel French)
C* I'm Going! (Samuel French)
C* Donnay, They! (In "Lovers, The Free Woman, and They!" (Little, Brown)
S France, Crainquebille (Samuel French)
C* Maurey, Rosalie (Samuel French)
C* Hervieu, Modesty (Samuel French)
S Capus, The Adventurer ("The Drama", November, 1914)
C Brignol and his Daughter (Samuel French)
C* Caillavet, Choosing a Career (Samuel French)
German
SC Freytag, The Journalists ("The Drama", February, 1913)
RC* Sudermann, The Far-Away Princess (in "Roses", Scribner, and separately, by Samuel French) (F)
S* Fritzchen (in "Morituri", Scribner)
C* Benedix, The Law-Suit (Samuel French)
C* The Third Man (Samuel French)
C* Gyalui, After the Honeymoon (Samuel French)
Scandinavian
S* Strindberg, The Stronger (Scribner) (F)
SB Lucky Pehr (Stewart and Kidd) (F)
SC Björnson, The Newly-Married Couple (Everyman's Library; Dutton)
C Love and Geography (Scribner)
S Ibsen, An Enemy of the People (Scribner)
Russian
C* Tchekoff, The Boor (Samuel French; Scribner)
C* A Marriage Proposal (Samuel French; Scribner)
C* The Tragedian in Spite of Himself (Scribner)
C* Andreyev, The Dear Departing (Henderson, London), and [same play] Love of One's Neighbor (Boni, New York)
English
C Pinero, The Schoolmistress (Walter H. Baker) (F)
C The Magistrate (Walter H. Baker) (F)
CS The Benefit of the Doubt (Dramatic Publishing Company) (F)
C The Amazons (Walter H. Baker) (F)
C Dandy Dick (Walter H. Baker) (F)
C Jones, The Manœuvres of Jane (Samuel French) (F)
CS The Liars (Samuel French) (F)
C Dolly Reforming Herself (Samuel French) (F)
C Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (Walter H. Baker; Nichols; Luce; Putnam; and French)[16]
C* Sutro, The Bracelet (Samuel French; Brentano) (F—Samuel French)
C* Sutro, The Man on the Kerb (Samuel French; Brentano) (F—Samuel French)
C* A Marriage Has Been Arranged (Samuel French; Brentano) (F—Samuel French)
CR* Barrie, The Will (Scribner) (F)[16]
CR* The Twelve-Pound Look (Brentano) (F)[16]
CR The Admirable Crichton (Doran) (F)[17]
CR Quality Street (Doran) (F)[17]
[17] Apply to Sanger & Jordan.
C Shaw, You Never Can Tell (Brentano) (F)[18]
CR Candida (Brentano) (F)[18]
C* Press Cuttings (Brentano) (F)[18]
C* How He Lied to Her Husband (Brentano) (F)[18]
CR Arms and the Man (Brentano) (F)[18]
[18] Apply to American Play Co.
s Barker, The Voysey Inheritance (Little, Brown) (F)
SC Bennett, What the Public Wants (Doran) (F)
RC Milestones (Doran) (F)
S Cupid and Commonsense (Doran) (F)
C The Great Adventure (Doran) (F)
C* Polite Farces (Doran) (F)
S Baker, Chains (Luce) (F)
S* Gibson, Mates (Macmillan) (F)
S* On the Road (Macmillan) (F)
C Hankin, The Cassilis Engagement (Samuel French) (F)
C The Return of the Prodigal (Samuel French) (F)
C The Charity that Began at Home (Samuel French) (F)
C* Houghton, The Dear Departed (Samuel French) (F)
C* The Fifth Commandment (Samuel French) (F)
C* Phipps (Samuel French) (F)
SC Houghton, Independent Means (Samuel French) (F)
S Galsworthy, The Silver Box (Scribner) (F)[19]
C Joy (Scribner) (F)[19]
SC Hamilton, Just to Get Married (Samuel French) (F)
SC* Chapin, Augustus in Search of a Father (Gowans and Grey, London) (F)
DCR* Brighouse, Lonesome Like (Samuel French) (F)
SD* The Price of Coal (Samuel French) (F)
C Monkhouse, The Education of Mr. Surrage (Sidgwick and Jackson, London) (F)
C Mason, Green Stockings (Samuel French) (F)
SD Ervine, Jane Clegg (Holt) (F)
DCR* Fenn and Pryce, 'Op o' me Thumb (Samuel French) (F)
American
S Gillette, Secret Service (Samuel French) (F)
S Held by the Enemy (Samuel French) (F)
C Too Much Johnson (Samuel French) (F)
C MacKaye, Anti-Matrimony (Stokes) (F)
C Thomas (A. E.), Her Husband's Wife (Doubleday, Page) (F)[19]
[19] Apply to Samuel French for producing rights.
S* Middleton, The Failures (Holt) (F)[20]
S* The Groove (Holt) (F)[20]
S* Tradition (Holt) (F)[20]
[20] Apply to Samuel French for producing rights.
C* Macmillan, Short Plays (Stewart and Kidd) (F)
C Forbes, The Commuters (Samuel French) (F)
C The Traveling Salesman (Samuel French) (F)
S Klein, The Lion and the Mouse (Samuel French) (F)
R Thomas, Arizona (Dramatic Publishing Company) (F)
RD Alabama (Dramatic Publishing Company) (F)
C Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots (Samuel French) (F)
C The Other Girl (Samuel French) (F)
C Oliver Goldsmith (Samuel French) (F)
C The Earl of Pawtucket (Samuel French) (F)
C The Capitol (Samuel French) (F)
COLLECTED VOLUME OF PLAYS
1. Representative One-Act Plays by American Authors, edited by Margaret G. Mayorga (Little, Brown), contains a large number of suitable plays for amateurs. Among these are:
R* Sam Average, by Percy MacKaye (F)
R* Six Who Pass While the Lentils Boil, by Stuart Walker (F)
S* In the Zone, by Eugene O'Neill (F)
R* The Wonder Hat, a Harlequinade by Ben Hecht and Kenneth Sawyer Goodman (F)
C* Suppressed Desires, by George Cram Cook and Susan Glaspell (F)
S* The Last Straw, by Bosworth Crocker (F)
2. Representative One-Act Plays by British and Irish Authors, edited by Barrett H. Clark (Little, Brown), contains, among others, the following plays suited to the requirements of amateurs:
R* The Widow of Wasdale Head, by Arthur Pinero (F)
C* Rococo, by Granville Barker (F)
R* The Snow Man, by Lawrence Housman (F)
C* Fancy Free, by Stanley Houghton (F)
3. Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays, edited by Frank Shay and Pierre Loving (Stewart-Kidd), includes the following plays for amateurs:
C* Literature, by Arthur Schnitzler (F)
C* Françoise' Luck, by Georges de Porto-Riche (F)
S* Mary's Wedding, by Gilbert Carman (F)
C* A Sunny Morning, by the Quinteros (F)
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I
COPYRIGHT AND ROYALTY
The following statement regarding royalties on amateur plays was prepared by Mr. Allen J. Carter, an attorney of Chicago, for one of the Drama League pamphlets listing amateur plays:
"The copyright law of the United States requires that every play, whether published or unpublished, for which copyright protection is claimed, must be registered in the copyright office at Washington, D.C. Until such registration, no action for infringement of copyright can be maintained. The register of copyrights keeps a complete record and index of all copyright entries and publishes a catalogue of such entries at regular intervals. Dramatic works are entered under Class D and are found indexed under that heading in Part I, Group II of the catalogues. Copies of these catalogues are on file in most of the larger public libraries, and sets or parts of sets may be purchased from the Superintendent of Public Documents at Washington, D.C. Anyone wishing to learn whether a particular play has been properly entered for copyright need only consult a set of these catalogues. If such a set is not available, the information will be promptly furnished by the register of copyrights, Washington, D.C, upon request.
"Whenever a play has been published, examination of a copy of an authorized printed edition will disclose whether such play has been properly copyrighted. The law requires that a notice of copyright must be placed either upon the title page, or upon the page immediately following, of each copy published or offered for sale in the United States. Such notice must consist either of the word 'Copyright' or the abbreviation 'Copr.', accompanied by the name of the copyright proprietor and the year in which copyright was secured by publication. If published prior to March 4, 1909, the notice may also be in the following form: 'Entered according to Act of Congress in the year ——, by A. B. in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.' Whenever the author of a play or anyone to whom he has assigned his rights publishes such play without proper notice of copyright in some one of the three authorized forms above mentioned, the play then and forever after becomes the property of the public and may be performed and printed at will by anyone. No subsequent attempt to copyright such play would be valid, and any valid copyright previously secured would be vitiated.
"A play which has never been published nor offered for sale, and which exists only in manuscript form, may be copyrighted upon proper entry being made at the copyright office in Washington, D.C. Should such play be later published, however, the publication must comply with all the requirements of the law as to notice of copyright.
"Any person who infringes the copyright in any play shall be liable: (a) To an injunction restraining said infringement; (b) to pay actual damages to the copyright proprietor, or in place of actual damages $100.00 for the first infringing performance and $50.00 for each succeeding one; (c) to imprisonment not to exceed one year, or to a fine not to exceed $1,000.00, or both, wherever such person has infringed such copyright wilfully and for profit.
"It follows, therefore, that if any group of amateurs perform a copyrighted play without having obtained the consent of the author or copyright proprietor, they are collectively liable to damages of at least $100.00 under whatever conditions the performance is given. If they do it wilfully and for profit, they are in addition each individually liable to fine and imprisonment under the criminal provision of the act."