es come--one of the results will undoubtedly be a
more flexible theatre, the growth of repertoire companies, the expansion
of the activities of popular players. In a more flexible theatre, where
repertoire is a rule rather than a strange and dreaded experiment, and
where actors pride themselves on versatility and the public honors them
for it, the one-act play will again have its place, but not then as a
curtain raiser or afterpiece, to pad out an evening or "send the suburbs
home happy," but as a serious branch of dramatic art. In that happy
day Barrie will not be the only first-class talent in the commercial
playhouse daring the one-act form, or at least able to induce a
commercial manager to produce his work in that form.

But that time is not yet. The one-act play in our country to-day is an
ally of the amateurs and the innovators. For that very reason,
perhaps, it is the form which will bear the most watching for signs of
imagination and for flashes of insight and interpretative significance.

WALTER PRICHARD EATON. Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

PREFACE TO THE PLAYS

If fools did not rush in where theatrical angels fear to tread, this
Preface would never have been written. Two years back the Washington
Square Players were called, by many who had theatrical experience,
fools. Now some term us pioneers. The future may write us fools again,
or something better--the conclusion being that the difference between
the fool and the pioneer lies in the outcome; the secret, that the
motive power behind both is enthusiasm.

Without enthusiasm the Washington Square Players could never have come
into existence, nor survived. From the first, when we had barely enough
money for rent and none for the costumes and properties we borrowed and
disguised, ours was an enthusiasm strong in quantity as well as quality.
The theatre is a peculiar art. Both in production and reception it
requires numbers and an enduring faith. Many a similar attempt has
failed because its experimentation and expression have been restricted
by a single point of view. Many have not continued because the desire
has waned in the face of the hardships and sacrifices entailed. But the
Players rightly had a plural name. We were, and are, a collection of
many individuals--actors, authors, artists, and art-lovers--all fired
with the sincere desire to give to playgoers something they had not been
able previously to find on the American stage. And our desire ha