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voted to allow critics tickets to performances, even though some founding members considered this means of evaluation to be the criteria of commercial theater, and therefore a violation of the mission of The
Players. At the end of the third New York season, Cook and Glaspell decided to step away from the Players for a year-long sabbatical (1919–20). During the sabbatical the theater's day-to-day management was overseen by business manager Mary Eleanor Fitzgerald, known to all as "Fitzi," and James Light.
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218:, formally organized "The Provincetown Players," voting to produce a season in New York City. Jig Cook was elected president of the newly constituted organization. The Players were founded to “establish a stage where playwrights of sincere, poetic, literary and dramatic purpose could see their plays in action and superintend their production without submitting to the commercial managers' interpretation of public taste.”
24:
551:, also participated early on with the Players; his wife at the time, Ida Rauh, became one of their most important actresses, whose work with the Players continued after their split in early 1917. The first New York theater for the Provincetown Players was at 139 Macdougal Street, two doors down from the Liberal Club at 135 Macdougal, a gathering place for young radicals.
480:
Women were a prominent part of the
Provincetown Players. Susan Glaspell and Jig Cook were partners in organizing the Players. Neith Boyce and Glaspell (who co-wrote a play with her husband Cook) wrote the first two plays performed by the Players. Mary Heaton Vorse donated the use of the fish house on
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The
Players was founded as an amateur group, and initially did not allow critics to attend to review its plays, hoping to protect its experimental nature. But during their first New York season, some members began voice their desire to see their work toward becoming professional actors. Finally they
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Enthusiasm for the theatrical experiment in
Provincetown continued over the winter of 1915–16 and the group planned a second season at Lewis Wharf. The plays were funded in part by a subscription campaign in which Cook described the aim of the group: “to give American playwrights a chance to work out
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received, along with a
Broadway transfer of the play, some members of the Players began to see their highest goal as gaining commercial and critical success. The mission of the Players became more clouded when subsequent plays were transferred to Broadway, though less successfully, and the drain of
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succeeded Cook as director of the play, and took over the leadership of the
Provincetown Players. Though the 1921–22 season finished without the public knowing that Cook and Glaspell had left, the Players announced a suspension of their 1922–23 season. Though Cook wrote his subscribers promising a
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The anti-commercial impulse, emphasis on artistic expression, and collective decision-making of the
Provincetown Players were manifestations of the bohemian spirit of Greenwich Village of the 1910s. The Players were founded from a network of friendships among artists, intellectuals and radicals.
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The “Third
Provincetown” operated from 1925–1929. The theater continued to wrestle with the tension between process and product. The original Provincetown Players were founded on ideals of simplicity, experimentation, and group process. Success, on the other hand, relied on finished products and
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in
America came about in reaction to the tepid entertainment offered by the commercial theater. In an effort to appeal to a mass audience, Broadway took few chances with untested plays and playwrights. The Little Theatres provided an outlet for American playwrights, and stories of social
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Commercial success eroded the collective spirit of experimentation on which the
Provincetown Players had been formed. As a result of the growing pressure to succeed in commercial terms, and with no new playwrights coming to them to be developed, Cook and Glaspell asked to incorporate the
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The Provincetown operated under the triumvirate for two seasons. But Macgowan allowed that “the Provincetown Players of the great days. . . ended when Jig Cook went to Greece and Eugene O’Neill went to Broadway.” The triumvirate dissolved after two years.
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donated the use of the fish house on Lewis Wharf, where a makeshift stage was assembled. The two one-acts which had been presented at the Hapgood home were restaged in August, and a second bill of two new plays was presented in September:
119:, Massachusetts (1915 and 1916) and six seasons in New York City, between 1916 and 1922. The company's founding has been called "the most important innovative moment in American theatre." Its productions helped launch the careers of
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In 1923 the primary members of the Provincetown Players’ corporation voted to formally disband. Jig Cook had already written to the company, before he left in 1922, that they had given “the theater they had loved a good death.”
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Similarly, the Players gave voice to women artists. Of the forty-seven playwrights whose work was produced by the Provincetown Players, seventeen were women. Prominent among these playwrights were Glaspell (who later won a
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to advocate for a striking scenic innovation, spending over 500 dollars on the set alone – the construction of a dome in the Playhouse modeled on the scenic element used in art theaters in Europe. The dome
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After the formal dissolution of the Players, several associates sought to create a producing organization that would carry on their success and use the Players' name. When Jig Cook died in Greece January 1924,
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On September 19, 1916, Cook turned the first floor parlor of an apartment at 139 Macdougal Street, an 1840 brownstone row house, into a theatre, which the Players dubbed “The Playwright’s Theater.”
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was an "extraordinarily striking and dramatic study of panic fear.” O’Neill's play “reinforces the impression that for strength and originality he has no rival among American writers for the stage.”
507:. In addition to challenging the artistic status quo of Broadway, the Provincetown Players gave opportunities to women and challenged the sexual segregation of commercial theater.
379:) used a “combination of vertical and horizontal curvatures” as a reflective surface to represent the horizon and create a greater sense of depth than a flat cyclorama.
143:, New York. On July 22 a group of friends who were disillusioned by the commercialism of Broadway created an evening's entertainment by staging two one-act plays.
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and her sister Norma joined the Players as actors. The season featured three new plays by O'Neill, three by Glaspell, and their first full-length play,
436:). It marked a new phase in the life of the company that was still identified in the popular imagination as the Provincetown Players. A triumvirate of
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The first New York season in 1916–17 presented nine “bills” between November and March, including three new O’Neill plays, which included a revival of
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was a collective of artists, people and writers, intellectuals, and amateur theater enthusiasts. Under the leadership of the husband and wife team of
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could not prevent creation of a new producing organization, but she fought to protect the name "The Provincetown Players" from the new partnership.
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395:"Provincetown Players" so as to protect the name. They left in 1922 to travel to Greece after O'Neill fired Cook as the director of his play
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season beginning in October 1923, he and Glaspell remained in Greece, and the original Provincetown Players did not produce again.
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began managing the company in 1927 while a senior at Barnard College, until its closure, then writing a book about it.
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The Players developed a pattern of producing a "bill" of three new one-act plays every two weeks over a 21-week season.
533:, who hosted the most celebrated literary salon of the period, was the former lover of founding member of the Players
444:, and Eugene O’Neill directed the organization; it operated as “The Experimental Theatre, Inc.” and produced in the “
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Murphy, Brenda. "Provincetown Players and The Culture of Modernity". Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2005.
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Experimenters, Rebels, and Disparate Voices: The Theater of the 1920s Celebrates American Diversity
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casting multiple productions as well as continuing their work on Macdougal street drained them.
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and they felt he was using the Players as a try-out for its Broadway run without apology.
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924:"JAMES LIGHT DIES; O'NEILL ASSOCIATE; Staged Playwright's Works With Provincetown Group"
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In the 1918–19 season The Players moved to 133 Macdougal Street and called the theater
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1075:. New York: Frederick A. Stokes and Company, 1927. (A posthumous biography of Cook.)
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804:"The Provincetown Players' Genesis or Non-Commercial Theatre on Commercial Streets"
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In September 1916 before leaving Massachusetts, the group met and, led by Cook and
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by Wilbur Daniel Steele. They were excited about their "creative collective".
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1054:. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP for The Museum of the City of New York, 1993.
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875:""Provincetown Players," Collections Search Center, Smithsonian Institution"
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significance. They were predominantly performed in a social realist style.
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Lewis Wharf as the Players' first home for two summers in Provincetown.
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abruptly added to the theater's burdens. After the final performance of
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opened the 1920–21 season and was an overnight hit. The cast was led by
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The evening was a success and an additional performance was organized.
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Republic of Dreams: Greenwich Village: The American Bohemia, 1910-1960
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Minute book of the Provincetown Players, Inc, 1916 Sep 04-1923 Nov 16
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The 1919–20 season ("The Season of Youth") included three plays by
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The Provincetown Players and the Playwrights' Theatre, 1915-1922
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Inside Greenwich Village: A New York City Neighborhood 1898-1918
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on December 14, 1929, the theater company closed for good.
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Lewis Wharf, first home of the Provincetown Players in 1915
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720:"Susan Glaspell: New Directions in Critical Inquiry"
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975:The Provincetown Players' Experiments with Realism
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555:Artists affiliated with the Provincetown Players
75:amateur productions of new, experimental theatre
1113:New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
115:from Iowa, the Players produced two seasons in
1050:Beard, Rick, and Leslie Cohen Berlowitz, eds.
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810:, Vol. 7, Issue 3 (Fall 1984), pp. 65–70
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1061:. Orleans, Mass.: Parnassus Imprints, 1994.
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694:Eugene O'Neill and the Provincetown Players
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1064:Gewirtz, Arthur, and James J. Kolb, eds.
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503:, Rita Wellman, Mary Carolyn Davies, and
476:Role of women in the Provincetown Players
424:In January 1924, the new group premiered
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762:The Provincetown: A Story of the Theater
1068:. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2003.
1010:Greenwich Village: A Photographic Guide
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851:"History of the Provincetown Playhouse"
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661:'s hand, attracting national interest.
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1027:. Amherst: U. of Massachusetts Press.
839:. Amherst: U. of Massachusetts Press.
835:Jig Cook and the Provincetown Players
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1012:. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
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960:Susan Glaspell and Sophie Treadwell
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1128:Theatre companies in Massachusetts
945:The Theater of Robert Edmond Jones
902:. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 13.
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977:. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama Press.
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792:. New York: Simon & Schuster.
545:, editor of the radical magazine
524:The Players and Greenwich Village
1085:. McFarland & Company, 2004.
932:. February 12, 1964. p. 33.
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489:for drama in 1931 for her play,
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265:. The 1918–1919 season included
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1008:Delaney & Lockwood (1976).
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726:. Cambridge Scholars Publishing
290:Three Travelers Watch a Sunrise
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831:Sarlos, Robert Karoly (1982).
163:were performed at the home of
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855:www.provincetownplayhouse.com
764:. Farrar & Rinehart, Inc.
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267:The Princess Marries the Page
258:written by George Cram Cook.
190:The second season introduced
1023:McFarland, Gerald W (2001).
900:Staging Modern American Life
370:Cook used the production of
269:by Edna St. Vincent Millay.
263:"The Provincetown Playhouse"
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1133:Provincetown, Massachusetts
808:Journal of American Culture
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650:All God's Chillun Got Wings
137:Provincetown, Massachusetts
87:Provincetown, Massachusetts
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947:. Middletown: Wesleyan UP.
802:SarlĂłs, Robert K. (1984).
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383:ran for 200 performances.
1104:provincetownplayhouse.com
973:Gainor, J. Ellen (1996).
958:Ozieblo, Barbara (2008).
943:Pendleton, Ralph (1958).
627:, Fall 1916. Photo shows
623:Setting up the stage for
280:, two by Eugene O’Neill,
187:their ideas in freedom."
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784:Wetzsteon, Ross (2002).
179:by George Cram Cook and
131:Founding in Provincetown
760:Deutsch, Helen (1931).
690:, their Manhattan venue
580:Edna St. Vincent Millay
517:Little Theatre Movement
511:Little Theatre movement
505:Edna St. Vincent Millay
458:1929 stock market crash
286:Edna St. Vincent Millay
252:Edna St. Vincent Millay
1073:The Road to the Temple
962:. New York: Routledge.
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688:Provincetown Playhouse
625:Bound East for Cardiff
446:Provincetown Playhouse
354:Scenes from O'Neill's
250:In the 1917–18 season
231:. Other plays were by
229:Bound East for Cardiff
196:Bound East for Cardiff
109:George Cram “Jig” Cook
1059:Provincetown as Stage
898:Fahy, Thomas (2011).
724:cambridgescholars.com
718:Carpentier, Martha.
596:Marjory Lacey-Barker
456:expansion. The Fall
386:After the attention
105:Provincetown Players
17:Provincetown Players
572:Robert Edmond Jones
466:Thomas H. Dickinson
438:Robert Edmond Jones
412:Continuing the name
316:Alexander Woollcott
256:The Athenian Women,
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1057:Egan, Leona Rust.
929:The New York Times
600:Cleon Throckmorton
428:(a translation of
362:Cleon Throckmorton
321:The New York Times
300:Success and change
153:Suppressed Desires
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1071:Glaspell, Susan.
909:978-0-230-11595-8
635:to the far right.
535:Jack Reed (actor)
430:August Strindberg
388:The Emperor Jones
381:The Emperor Jones
372:The Emperor Jones
357:The Emperor Jones
326:The Emperor Jones
307:The Emperor Jones
304:Eugene O'Neill's
177:Change Your Style
172:Mary Heaton Vorse
167:and Neith Boyce.
141:Greenwich Village
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1099:eoneill.com
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543:Max Eastman
531:Mabel Dodge
401:James Light
233:Neith Boyce
198:as well as
149:Neith Boyce
1122:Categories
860:2023-02-25
700:References
659:Mary Blair
548:The Masses
495:); Boyce,
324:said that
245:Nina Moise
241:Floyd Dell
993:ignored (
983:cite book
653:in which
647:Scene in
588:John Reed
539:Constancy
216:John Reed
145:Constancy
49:Dissolved
34:Formation
682:See also
91:Cape Cod
80:Location
730:9 March
657:kissed
629:O'Neill
610:Gallery
200:Trifles
72:Purpose
54: (
39: (
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880:18 May
602:, and
288:, and
705:Notes
89:, on
995:help
904:ISBN
882:2021
732:2015
633:Cook
515:The
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