HART MOUSUTHEATRETORONTO - CANADA

HART HOUSETHEATRE

TORONTO

A Description of the Theatre and theRecord of its First Nine Seasons,

1919-1928

HART Hour;, THEATREHartHouse

Construc-tion ofTheTheatre

An account of Hart House Theatre neces-sarily involves an explanatory reference toHart House, the building of which it is apart . This is an institution within theUniversity of Toronto, which seeks toprovide for all the activities of the under-graduates' life which lie outside the actuallecture room . The building, which is forthe use of men only and is non-residential,includes, in addition to the Theatre, com-mon rooms, a library, dining rooms,gymnasia, a swimming bath, and accom-modation for various other purposes . HartHouse was built by the trustees of theMassey Foundation, under the direction ofits administrator, Mr . Vincent Massey ofToronto, and presented to the Universityin 1919 .

The Theatre, which is structurally thoughnot in an administrative sense, part of HartHouse, is in the sub-basement of the build-ing underneath the quadrangle which issupported by a series of concrete arches ofunusual size and great beauty of form .These also form the roof of the Theatre .Both the auditorium and the stage areapproached by ramps leading directly tooutside entrances . The problem of venti-lation was most successfully solved by amechanical system . The Theatre seats,without crowding, 450 . If necessary, about500 can be accommodated . The architectsof the Theatre, and of Hart House as awhole, were Messrs . Sproatt & Rolph ofToronto .

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Origins

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View of Stage from Auditorium

Hart House Theatre was planned andequipped under the close personal super-vision of Mr. and Mrs . Vincent Massey,who have given much time to the study ofthe modern theatre . This institution, asthe incorporation of the ideas of its founders,was established by them as an experimentaltheatre for the use of the University ofToronto and the wider community which itserves . Already amateur dramatics, withinthe University and its Colleges, had reacheda standard which deserved permanenthousing on an adequate scale . Seriousdramatic work in the University of Toronto,within recent years, had commenced with

The Green Room

the organization of the Players' Club in1913, an amateur organization which pre-sented two productions before the Theatrewas built, using the dining hall of VictoriaCollege for this purpose . The productionswere Ibsen's An Enemy of the People(produced by R . Hodder Williams) and adouble bill, The Dark Lady of the Sonnetsby Bernard Shaw, and The Pigeon byJohn Galsworthy (produced by VincentMassey) .

Manage- The Theatre is under the control of a bodyment

of four, called the Syndics of Hart HouseTheatre, which is directly responsible to theGovernors of the University .

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Director1919-1921

Director The second Director of the Theatre was the1921-1925 late Bertram Forsyth . Mr . Forsyth had

had considerable experience on the profes-

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The Foyer

The Theatre from 1919 until 1921 wasunder the direction of Mr . Roy Mitchell,who received his first experience in theamateur productions of the Arts and LettersClub of Toronto . Before assuming thedirection of the Theatre, Mr . Mitchell wasthe technical director of the GreenwichVillage Theatre, New York . He is anauthor of note on the subject of dramaticproduction .

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Scene from Matsuo

Scene from Hippolytus

ThePresen tDirector

Scene from The Dragon

sional stage and was the author of severalplays which have been produced in London .

Director The third Director of the Theatre was Mr .1925-1927 Walter Sinclair, who had made a distin-

guished contribution to the progressivemovement in the theatre as the Director ofthe Amateur Dramatic Club of Hongkong .Mr. Sinclair's stage settings are familiar tothe readers of dramatic journals both inGreat Britain and the United States .

Hart House Theatre for the current season1927-28 is under the direction of Mr .Carroll Aikins of British Columbia . Mr .Aikins was the founder of the Home Theatre

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Staff

Actors

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Setting for The Chester Mysteries

in the Okanagan Valley, which has severalseasons of important experimental work toits credit . He is also a playwright ofinternational reputation .

The technical staff, with the exception ofthe stage manager is amateur and is com-posed almost entirely of undergraduateswho have in charge the electrical equipment,the workshops and the property rooms .

The actors and actresses are amateurs, andalthough undergraduates and other membersof the University frequently take part, theyare chosen at large, the standard of per-formance of each individual being the onlyqualification .

Scene from The Rivals

Scene from Twelfth Night

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Equip-ment

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The Executioner in T c dot

About four hundred persons have acted inthe productions of the Theatre since itsestablishment . Of these a number havesince appeared on the professional stage,some of them having entered upon perman-ent theatrical careers in London or NewYork .

The technical equipment of the' theatre isprobably as complete as that of any theatreof its size . In electrical apparatus, apartfrom a light-bridge over the stage, a set ofsciopticons, and a projection box at the rearof the house, and the usual footlights,floor-pockets and border-lights,, both , for

CostumeDep' t

Calaf in Turandot

fore-stage and main stage, it possesses aswitch-board with about eighty switchesand dimmers with interlocking devices andmaster-handles .All the scenery and properties are made inthe Theatre which possesses the necessaryaccessories for this work . The Theatrepossesses a permanent apron stage, or fore-stage, with openings to the main stage,flanking the proscenium on each side .These have been found most useful in pro-duction . The main stage is as large as thatof most commercial theatres .

The Theatre has a special department underits own permanent manager for the manu-

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Scene from Twelfth Night

Scene from Good Friday

Malvolio in Twelfth Night

facture of costumes for its own productionsand also for rental for use in masquerades,etc . The theatre possesses a stock of over1,500 costumes .

Annual

The annual season of the Theatre consists asseason a rule of eight productions . Each produc-

tion is played for one week, with an occa-sional extension if the popularity of the playjustifies it. A subscription list is openedbefore the commencement of each seasonfor the benefit of those who wish to subscribefor the plays. The Theatre is open to thegeneral public ; students of the University,however, have the advantage of a reducedscale of prices .

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Scene from Paolo and Francesca

Scene from The Last Cache

The Plays

CanadianDrama

SummerSchool

The Theatre is frequently used by under-graduate dramatic organizations of whichthere are several within the University .

By March 1928, the Theatre will have pro-duced 90 plays in addition to six revivals . Inthe choice of a season's "bill," althoughseveral plays are always selected from theancient drama or the English classics, themanagement endeavours to avoid playswhich possess `educational value' only, ormake a purely archaeological appeal . It isfelt that audiences dislike being `instructed',and that plays, whatever their period, mustgenuinely interest them . A season's pro-gramme covers as wide a range as possible .

The Theatre endeavours in every possibleway to encourage the development of theCanadian drama .

The programme each year includes at leastone play by a Canadian author . Seventeenof these have been produced already andhave been published in two volumes byMessrs. Macmillan under the title CanadianPlays from Hart House Theatre .

Since 1923, the Theatre has conducted aSummer School for those interested in thedirection of amateur dramatic activities .Students have attended from various partsof Canada and the United States .

Information can be obtained from the Secre-tary, Hart House Theatre .

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PRODUCTIONS AT HART HOUSE THEATRE1919-1928

FIRST SEASON 1919-20 .(The Queen's EnemiesLord Dunsany .The Farce of Master Pierre Pa telin . (Traditional) .The AlchemistBen Jonson .The Chester Mysteries of the

(Traditional . ArrangedlbyNativity and AdorationFrank Conroy and Roy

Mitchell) .The Trojan WomenEuripides (Trans. by

Gilbert Murray) .The New SinBasil Hastings .Love's Labour's LostShakespeare .

SECOND SEASON 1920-21 .IMatsuo (The Pine Tree)Takeda Izumo .,Rasmus MontanusLudwig Holberg .You Never Can TellBernard Shaw .The Chester Mysteries (revival) .Alces tis

Euripides (Trans . byGilbert Murray) .

The Romancers (Les Romanes-ques) Edmond Rostand.

Pierre Duncan Campbell Scott .The Second LieIsabel Ecclestone MacKay .Brothers in ArmsMerrill Denison .Cymbeline Shakespeare .

THIRD SEASON 1921-22 .A Night at an InnLord Dunsany .)Pantaloon Sir James Barrie .`White MagicAlgernon Blackwood and

Bertram Forsyth .Candida Bernard Shaw .The Chester Mysteries (revival) .Magic G. K. Chesterton .Playbills, a Georgian RevueArranged by Bertram For-

syth .Rosmer sholmHenrik Ibsen .The God of GodsCarroll Aikins .The TempestShakespeare .

FOURTH SEASON 1922-23 .The Knight of the Burning Pestle . .Beaumont and Fletcher.Hippolytu s Euripides (Trans. by

Gilbert Murray) .

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The DragonLady Gregory.Belinda A. A. Milne .The WitchWiers-Jensen (Trans . by

John Masefield) .fThe Translation of John Snaith . . . Britton Cooke .' The Point of ViewMarian Osborne.The RivalsR. B. Sheridan .The Opera : Orpheus and Eury-

dice Gluck .TrespassersLeslie Reid.

FIFTH SEASON 1923-24 .The Man from Blankley'sF. Anstey .The Toils of YoshitomoTorahiko Kori .Castles in the AirBertram Forsyth.L'Enfan t Prodigue, a Pantomime . . . . (Play by Michael Carre

fils ; Music by Andr6Wormser) .

The Hostage (L'Otage)Paul Claudel .The Bonds of InterestJacinto Benavente .Three Weddings of a Hunchback . . H . Borsook .The Weather BreederMerrill Denison .The Younger GenerationStanley Houghton .The Monkey's PawW. W. Jacobs.Great CatherineBernard Shaw .

SIXTH SEASON 1924-25 .The Romantic Young LadyG. Martinez Sierra .At the Hawk's WellW. B. Yeats .The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet . Bernard Shaw .The Younger Generation (revival) .MisallianceBernard Shaw .The MolluscHubert Henry Davies.Gold Eugene O'Neill .Riders to the SeaJohn M. Synge .The Sabine WomenLeonid Andreyev .The Freedom of Jean GuichetL. A. MacKay .Outward BoundSutton Vane .

(Produced by Vincent Massey) .The Winter's TaleShakespeare .

SEVENTH SEASON 1925-26 .Samson and DelilahSven Lange .

(Produced by Jacob Ben-Ami) .I'll Leave It to YouNoel Coward .The Ship St. John Ervine.Turandot, Princess of China .Outward Bound (revival) .

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The Chester Mysteries (Revival) .The Rose and the Ring,Thackeray's Fireside Pantomime . . . Harris Deans .

The Angel in the HouseEden Phillpotts andMacdonald Hastings .

Autumn Blooming I

And They Met Again }Fred Jacob .,Man's World

IPaolo and FrancescaStephen Phillips .The Silver BoxJohn Galsworthy .(Produced by Iden Payne) .

Good FridayJohn Masefield .Advertising AprilH. Farjeon and

Horace Horsnell .The Mask and the FaceC. B . Fernald .If Four Walls ToldEdward Percy .

(Produced by Kirby Hawkes) .The Toy CartArthur Symons .

EIGHTH SEASON 1926-27 .Heartbreak HouseBernard Shaw .S. S. TenacityCharles Vildrac .The Man of DestinyBernard Shaw .The Rose and the Ring (revival) .T'MarsdensJames R. Gregson .John FergusonSt . John Ervine .At Mrs . Beam'sC. K. Munro .Twelfth NightShakespeare .

JThe Last CacheIsabel Ecclestone Mackay .

y ! Joy ! Joy !Duncan Campbell Scott.Come TrueMazo de la Roche .Twelfth Night (revival) .

NINTH SEASON, 1927-28 .The Swan Ferenc Molnar .The Doctor's DilemmaBernard Shaw .Alice in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll .(An adaptation from the Alice books)Rutherford and SonGitha Sowerby .The Prize WinnerMerrill Denison.The Velvet MuzzleJ. E. Middleton .The Return of the EmigrantMaze de la Roche .

Romeo and JulietShakespeare .

HART HOUSE THEATREStaff, 1927-1928

DirectorCarroll Aikins .SecretaryStella van der Voort .

Stage Manager

T . Tremain-Garstang .Manager, Costume Dep't . . . . Melville Keay .

SYNDICS OF HART HOUSE THEATRE

The Hon. Vincent Massey (Chairman)Mrs. Vincent Massey

Lieut .-Col . G . F. McFarland (Hon . Treasurer & Vice-chairman)Dr. George H . Locke

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