The feminist writer and editor Edna Kenton (1876ndash;1954) was elected to the Executive Committee of the Provincetown Players by 1916. This theatrical company, first to present the plays of Eugene O'Neill, rebelled against the commercialism of Broadway and gave unrecognized dramatists the opportunity to experiment. Kenton was a great admirer of company leader George Cram Cook, and when Cook died in Greece in the early 1920s, Kenton dedicated herself to upholding his vision of a Dionysian ideal in American theater. This is Kenton's original history of the influential theatre, from the first seasons at Provincetown in 1915 and 1916, to the final New York season in 1922. This invaluable eyewitness account has been edited from the most complete and latest version of Kenton's text, with consultation of earlier incomplete versions. Kenton transcribed many playbills into the text, and included others whole between the pages; the latter are included as illustrations. An appendix reprints Kenton's two periodical articles about the Provincetown Players and articles from the New York Herald, the Boston Globe, and the Boston Evening Transcript, as well as other memories of the Provincetown Players, including those of Marsden Hartley, Nina Moise, M. Eleanor Fitzgerald, and Djuna Barnes.

A study of the most influential theatre group of the twentieth century, the Provincetown Players.

Excerpt from The Provincetown Plays In the plays contained in this volume, and in others not published or published in previous col lections, there are touches that, to those Of us who can supply from our memories, reveal the spirit Of the Players. This is the best that art can do. To all art we must bring something not contained in it, to see it as art. We must see the unattained youthful effort. If there is a glimpse of that, it is all we can hope for in an unrealized world. These ten are not the best plays ever written; but they are written in a pure spirit; they sprang from an attempt made by a group Of men and women to express something Sincerely, with no regard for fame, money, or power - and what ever they have Of value is due to that. If the Provincetown Players had not been formed, in unusual degree, with the purity of youth and ehrt, so many of them would not, in all likelihood, in this brief time have died. It was not an accident. They gave themselves un reservedly to life, and it was eternity, rather than death, that took them. Among those, of the Players who remain there are some who remain unwillingly. Whom the gods love die young, and if some Of those who remain are loved Of the gods, it is because they are already living beyond in Spirit, and are held here for the purpose of fulfilling some mundane obligation. Hutchins hapgood. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.