Elsie Herndon Kearns and Her Company

              George Carleton Somnes
DIRECTOR



ANNOUNCING

ELSiE·HERNDON·KEARNS 
AND HER COMPANY
 SUMMER SEASON of 1918





MISS KEARNS AND MR. SOMNES



Miss Elsie Herndon Kearns and Mr. George Carleton Somnes need no introduction to the scholastic public.  Miss Kearns' connection with the New Theatre in New York, from the time of its inception until it was discontinued; with Mr. George Fawcett, with Mr. Greet, and for the last two years under her own management, more than justifies the theatre loving public to place all confidence in her work and whatever she may care to present.




Both Miss Kearns and Mr. Somnes have striven to maintain a standard of excellence of detail and finish in out-of-door performances that has never been equalled, except in the best Metropolitan productions, and their combination of the new in the theatre, with the best of the old, is bound to find sympathetic appreciation wherever the art of the stage is given serious consideration.




The unity of their effects in costumes, properties, and lighting has stamped them as beginners in a field that holds unlimited possibilities for them, and their endeavors.





REPERTOIRE



Their repertoire this season is particularly interesting, containing as it does a nucleus of Shakespearian plays, one Moliere, a Maeterlinck play, a modern play on the life of Shakespeare for the first time produced, a Greek tragedy, a Wilde play and two Ibsen plays.





SHAKESPEARE



In Shakespearian plays their work has always called forth the most general praise and it is with great pleasure that we are able to offer a revival of 
ROMEO AND JULIET
 and of 
AS YOU LIKE IT
, with a new production of 
THE TEMPEST
.  The last play of the Master, it comes first in the imaginative poetry and in the spirit of the open—the wood, the sea and its mysteries.  Just as 
AS YOU LIKE IT
 gives the glory of the open in the sunshine, 
THE TEMPEST
 gives out the secrets of the night, when each tree, each leaf nad each grain of sand becomes a living thing, and even the water's sparkling foam bubbles on the crest of the wave rise to meet us and to tell us of their origin.





MAETERLINCK



Maeterlinck's 
PELLEAS AND MELISANDE
 marks a long step to the production of one of the most famous of modern classics by 
The Belgian Shakespeare,
 as he has so often been called.  In the playing of it last year, Miss Kearns achieved a real triumph in the role of Melisande, making genuine again and for all time, her facility and versatility in the realms of imaginative and poetic drama.






THE SHAKESPEARE PLAY



THE SHAKESPEARE PLAY
 by Hubert Osborn and Lawrence Eyre we feel to be an important step in the development of outdoor performances, as we believe that is the first time that a heretofore unproduced play has been given.  But the story and the conception of the characters is so markedly worthy, and the additional fact that the authors are both Americans, make its production a signal event, at this time.  
The play must stand as purely modern drama, designed for production in a manner quite opposed to the pedantic, elocutionary, and—to be short—dull methods against which the vitality of Shakespeare has made such a long and victorious struggle.





AESCHYLUS



This season we plan to do for the Greek Drama what we have already accomplished in the Elizabethan Drama, and that is to make it into a vivid dramatic offering cogent in modern appeal.  Heretofore one of the greatest difficulties in 
putting over
 a Greek play to a modern audience has been due to the clumsy involved translation of the text.  Our translation of Aeschylus' 
THE LIBATION POURERS
, by Anna Hempstead Branch, is unique.  It preserves the spirit of majestic Greek verse, yet conveys, definitely and vividly, the sense of the story and the dialogue to the modern mind.





MOLIERE



Moliere's 
THE BLUE STOCKINGS
 (Les Femmes Savantes), needs no introduction.  Our adaptation is by Vera Beringer and was first produced at the Manchester Repertory Theatre, England.  This is its first production in this country.  As one of our best plays last year, we feel quite justified in keeping it in our repertoire for another season.





WILDE



The production of Oscar Wilde's 
SALOME
 may cause some surprise and possibly some comment, but the poem has been neglected and abused to such an extent by vaudeville and worse expositions and parodies, that it seems at last and worse expositions and parodies, that it seems at least to be reconciled, that it should be done in the manner in which it was conceived.





IBSEN



In conjunction with the other plays, Miss Kearns and Mr. Somnes will give special performances of Ibsen's 
THE LADY FROM THE SEA
, and 
THE MASTER BUILDER
.





I always recall with pleasure the occasions on which I have seen Miss Kearns' and Mr. Somnes' acting, on account of the notable unity of effect in their verse reading, their sense of idealization of the parts, and their general taste and distinction.  It is a delight to remember the seven or more occasions on which I saw them take the leading roles.



Steve 


All communications should be addressed to 
ELSIE HERNDON KEARNS' PLAYERS
, P. O. Box 116, Times Square Station, New York City; Phone, 5942 Prospect.




Performances may be secured outright, or under favorable conditions—on a percentage basis.