Suggestions for that Gala Night.
So many want to know how to have that "Gala Evening" that we print the directions.
It is intended for out-of-doors—a lawn or vacant lot. If need be, build a platform 16 by 20 feet, but where the grass is smooth this may not be necessary. Get evergreens from the woods for "scenery," and use two pairs of portières sewed together for a curtain. For music use an upright piano, if nothing better offers; for lights use lanterns—head lights, if you can get them; and for seats borrow benches from a church or hall, or they may easily be made from some borrowed lumber.
A capital programme will be a pantomime and a farce. Nobody has anything to learn in the former, so if you want to get it all up in two nights' practice select two pantomimes. Here are some good ones: "The Mistletoe Bough," to be had of French & Son, 28 West 23d Street, New York, price 15 cents; and "Aunt Betsy," "Priscilla," and "Dresden China," Harper & Brothers, New York, price 5 cents each. If you can try a farce, get "A Ticket to the Circus" or "The Tables Turned," Harper & Brothers, price 5 cents each, or "Who's Who?" "Turn Him Out," "The Delegate," "Quiet Family," or "Beautiful Forever," price 15 cents each, to be had of French.
An ideal programme is "The Mistletoe Bough," followed by either "A Ticket to the Circus" or "Who's Who?" The former takes eighteen or twenty; the latter four. A good way is to send for one copy of several farces and pantomimes, then read and select what is best suited to your needs.
Sell your tickets in advance at 25 cents each. When they are presented, give a small blue or red check, which you explain is good for a plate of cream after the performance. Let the ice-cream man attend to all details, and you cash all his checks next day at 5 cents each. He will do this, and your guests will be satisfied.
Do not fear an element of discord from the neighborhood small boy because the performance is out-of-doors, nor need you fear people will come in without paying if you have no rope stretched. You will have no trouble from these sources. The thing is novel, being out-of-doors. There is no rent to pay. The ice-cream to be had free will draw if you advertise it. And, by confining your programme to pantomimes, you can learn all in two evenings. Even farces take little longer, and you cannot fail in rendering them.
One member asks if Chapters have to help the School Fund. Our Order has no "have tos." A company of young persons might give the "Gala Evening," present a small sum to the Fund or some other charity, and with the balance get each one taking part Harper's Round Table for one year. But of course you do as you please with your own. The gala evening or gala afternoon is the thing.