Twelve years ago a country school-teacher sent in a request for some program material. Three personal copies of plays were sent to her, one of which she staged. It was not very long before others heard where she secured her data and many inquiries followed. Out of this request, together with an acquaintance with an old, white-haired man who had just started a similar system at a leading western university, the package library idea came into existence. It is a sort of an intellectual rural free delivery. One might call it the backbone of The Little Country Theater. In order to understand thoroughly the importance of the service which the system renders it will be necessary to say something about the aim of the work, its scope, how the data is gathered, and the practical results already obtained.
The aim of the package library system is to vitalize all the sources of information which can be used for material for presentation on public programs. Its chief object is to make the schools, the churches, the homes, and the village or town halls, centers of community activity where men and women and their children, young and old, can meet just to talk over things, to find out the normal human life forces and life processes, and really to discover themselves.
The field of work is the state and its people. The scope of the service is broad. Any individual or group of people in the state can obtain program material simply by writing and asking for it.
In order to render the best aid possible, the system gathers data and information from reliable sources. Briefs upon subjects relating to country life, copies of festivals, pageants, plays, readings, dialogues, pictures of floats, parades, processions, exhibit arrangements, costume designs, character portrayals, plans of stages, auditoriums, open-air theaters, community buildings, constitutions of all kinds of organizations, catalogues of book publishers—in short, every kind of material necessary in building a program which will help people to express themselves—are loaned for reading purposes to citizens of the state. A few minutes’ talk with anybody interested in getting up programs in small communities will soon show the dearth of material along these lines.
In the years gone by, as well as in the present, the letters which come to the desk daily have told many an interesting story.
An energetic teacher in a country school in the northern part of the state sent for several copies of plays and play catalogues. None of the plays sent suited her. She decided to give an original play, “The Comedy.” When asked for a description of the staging of the original production, she sent the following letter, which is indicative of what people really can do in the country to find themselves.
“When I wrote to you about ‘The Comedy,’ I do not know what idea I gave you of it; perhaps not a very true one; so I am sending you a copy. The little song is one I learned from a victrola record, so the music may not be correct, but with a little originality, can be used. The little play has the quality of making the people expect something extraordinary, but when performed, the parts are funny, but still not funny enough to produce a ‘roar.’ They are remembered and spoken of long afterwards. Now around here we often hear parts spoken of. I enjoyed training the young people, and they were quite successful. I have found that every place I go people in the country enjoy the school programs very much and speak of them often. We wanted to take some pictures, but could not. The weather was so cloudy before and afterward that we could not take any, but may this Sunday afternoon. I wish I knew just what to write about or just what you wish to know. I liked our arrangements of lights. We only had lanterns. A dressing room was curtained off and the rest of the space clear. We hung four lanterns in a row, one below the other, and had one standing on the floor at the side opposite from the dressing room, and then one on the floor and one held by the man who pulled the curtain on the other side. This gave splendid light. There was no light near the audience except at the organ.
“Hoping you will enjoy reading ‘The Comedy’ as much as we did playing and writing it, I am
“Yours sincerely,