“Give us more artists and craftsmen and we will have a real theater; give us local artists and craftsmen and we will have a Community Theater.”
In the following item from “The Workshop,” the magazine issued by the Little Theater Society of Indiana, the editor writes to the community of the dyed costumes used in “Dierdre of the Sorrows.”
“The Little Theater Society feels it very significant that they are able to call attention to the use of color in the present production and to mention that its application in this play is the work of local artists. The Waldcraft Studios have generously given time, service and experience to help make this production complete. Does not that sound hopeful for our development, and by example, are there not more people in other fields who can give their time, knowledge and experience to the development of something which when it is completed as an institution will belong to you?”
MINIATURE STAGE, PLAIN AND DRAPED WITH BATIKED HANGINGS
The illustrations shown in this chapter are, (1) a plain miniature stage constructed of pasteboard and upon which the study of the decoration for a school play may well begin, (2) two stages that have been thus decorated, (3) two scenes in a play with miniature [!-- original location of illustration --] jointed dolls wearing real dyed costumes made by children, (4) several children at work designing and constructing for plays, (5) a group of scenes from a play given in a backyard, for which the costumes were especially dyed, (6) another miniature stage made of wood, shown plain and decorated with dyed hangings for a play, and (7) some character parts from the Little Theater of Indianapolis, for which special dyeing was done.
The miniature pasteboard stages, page [98], were decorated with opaque water colors by school children. These illustrate the preliminary step in decorating a stage with dyed textiles. They would reproduce in batiks.
The first decorated stage is planned to play “Treasure Island.” The decoration over the proscenium arch is “The little ship that is headed south-west,” and the border,
“Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest,