It was on this tour that Nellie Cornish, who would provide a landing spot for the two at her Cornish School some years later, saw their work and was "deeply impressed." Van Volkenberg played Hecuba, and Browne in later years counted it among the best performances of any actress he had seen in his life in the theater. Browne and Van Volkenburg not only revived the play in Chicago, but toured it throughout the Western United States. The company's signature piece was the classic play by Euripides, The Trojan Women. Īmong the notable productions of the Chicago Little theater were The Stronger and Creditors by August Strindberg, On Baile's Strand and The Shadowy Water by William Butler Yeats and Anatol by Arthur Schnitzler. … The Chicago Little Theatre has for its object the creation of a new plastic and rhythmic drama in America. Preference is given in its productions to poetic and imaginative plays, dealing primarily whether as a tragedy or comedy with character in action. It is a repertory and experimental art theatre producing classical and modern plays, both tragedy and comedy, at popular prices. Browne summed up the mission of the company in this way: And these are qualities which the commercial producer so sadly lacks." Van Volkenburg pioneered "modern" puppetry in America, creating a puppet theater for the company that aspired to high artistic values, using new techniques she developed. Of the theater's repertoire, contemporary critic and founder of Theatre Arts Magazine, Sheldon Cheney, wrote, "The list bespeaks nothing if not breadth of view and courage. To the modern plays they were producing in the style of the Irish Players, the company added Greek classical dramas, which were well known to the Cambridge-educated Browne. They were co-producers, with Van Volkenburg developing and directing the company's puppet productions. Browne thought that "a small theatre would cost less than a large one therefore ours was to be a little theatre." īrowne assumed directorship of the company, while Van Volkenburg, who was already an accomplished performer, became its leading actress. The space was built out into a 91-seat house, its diminutive size the key to the company's name. Inspired, they set out to create a theater company on that model, introducing European writers of the age whose work was not much produced in the United States, such as Ibsen, Shaw, Strindberg, Synge, Wilde, and Yeats.Īfter rehearsing extensively, in 1912 Van Volkenburg and Browne rented space for a theater in the Fine Arts Building (Chicago), bypassing the building's large auditorium In favor of a small space on the fourth floor that cost less than a quarter as much per year. Poetic dramas, restrained acting and new concepts in scenography were hallmarks of the Chicago Little Theatre.Īlready well ensconced by 1911 in the literary circles of Chicago, husband-and-wife artistic partners Maurice Browne and Ellen Van Volkenburg socialized with the Irish Players of the Abbey Theatre, led by Lady Gregory, when they toured the Midwest in that year. The company performed work by contemporary writers and Greek classics, as well as pioneering puppetry and puppet plays. Founded in its namesake city by Ellen Van Volkenburg and Maurice Browne, the company was an art theater formed in opposition to the commercial values which held sway at the time. A theater company formed in 1912, the Chicago Little Theatre spearheaded and lent its name to a historic, popular wave in American Theater, the Little Theatre Movement.
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