The Ben Greet Players

              THE BEN GREET PLAYERS
Redpath




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All the world's a stage And all the men and women merely players




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Let me play the fool With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come




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To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou can not then be false to any man




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For never was a story at more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo



The Ben Greet Players
Smith-Bigelow G. Kennedy-Chicago




Statement by the Vice-President of The Bureau
IT is with no little satisfaction that we announce our success in arranging with Mr. Ben Greet for a company of ten players, personally trained and coached by him, to give plays in a manner and at terms which are practicable for Lyceum Courses.  This is a great step in advance for the Lyceum.  Mr. Greet presents the best in dramatic literature with true histrionic art in a way which has not been excelled by any other producer.  Mr. Greet is considered to-day one of the greatest living authorities on the English drama, and is world famous for his remarkable productions of Shakesperian plays and old English comedies.  He has been connected with the stage for thirty years and has taught many actors; perhaps more than any other man living to-day.  For twenty years Mr. Greet has been prominent in England for the performances which his splendid companies have acted each year in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Stratford, upon-Avon and other places in Shakespeare's England.  Mr. Greet bec
ame well known in America several years ago through his presentation of the morality play Everyman under the management of Charles Frohman.  This is the first time a play was presented in America by a professional company in the Elizabethan manner.  This was later followed by the production of Shakesperian plays and classical comedies.  The Ben Greet players gave a season at the Garden Theatre, New York, covering nearly two hundred performances, followed by appearances in other cities throughout the United States.  Some years ago the Ben Greet Woodland Players gave their first open air play at Columbia University before an audience of over three thousand persons.  This was followed by performances at harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oberlin, Universities of Chicago, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan, Minnesota, California, etc., and repeated ever since almost annually.  Mr. Greet's company was the first to be invited to appear at the White House grounds.  The great success of Mr. Greet's productions 
is largely due to his ability to choose capable players and train them to properly delineate the characters in classical plays.  The plays presented by him are given in pure fashion with the minimum stage effect.  There is nothing to detract attention from the play.  These are real educational productions of master pieces, of classical comedy and drama.  There are no stars in the cast, but every actor is experienced and competent.  Each plays his part with the sole purpose of depicting the character as it should be.  Absolutely correct diction and pronunciation is a distinguishing characteristic of Mr. Greet's players.  In the tour under Redpath management the company will be prepared to present The Comedy of Errors and She Stoops to Conquer.  Where the engagement is for but one performance, the local management can select either play.  On the next page are given Mr. Greet's reasons for selecting the two plays named.

C. A. Peffer
Vice-President Redpath Lyceum Bureau



COMMENTS OF THE METROPOLITAN PRESS

New York Tribune: 
***** One comes from the performance feeling that an evening has been spent with profit to his taste and intel igence.  The Ben Greet players speak well, and that is more than can be said of any other company in town.  To listen to players who realize that words have meaning, and who know what the author was about!—It is an experience too seldom met with in a continuous journey through Theatreland.


New York Evening Post: 
The Ben Greet players opened their season at the Garden Theatre, with a presentation of She Stoops to Conquer.  Goldsmith's comedy is one of the most enjoyable things on the stage, and was played by Mr. Greet's company with a gusto which rarely flagged, and to which the audience responded heartily.  Mr. Greet's enterprise was begun in favorable conditions, and with every prospect of continued success.  His aim is to furnish entertainment to persons of taste and intelligence, and it was pleasant to note the appreciation with which the audience enjoyed the honest and healthy humor of this rare old comedy.


New York Herald: 
Ben Greet's players began a series of plays worth while yesterday evening in the Garden Theatre.  Capitally acted before a large audience.  Spirited and effective almost from beginning to end.  There were calls for the actors after each act.


New York Telegraph: 
Last night's pouring rain didn't hold the Shakesperian enthusiasts indoors.  Not to any great degree.  The true interpretation is that Shakespeare is too good to be missed, be it rain or shine.  Macbeth was splendidly given.  The finely drilled, grandly rehearsed playing machine which Mr. Greet has trained to perfect unity was in excellent order last night, and the great drama was rendered with a spirit and smooth consonance well worth going through even a pouring rain to see and hear.  All of the historic scenes in the old drama were finely interpreted.  Principals and subordinates, from the fierce Macbeth to the ghastly witches, showed faultless quality and ample training.  The scenic efforts were good, while the costumes were perhaps the most accurate seen in a Shakesperian production for many days.


New York Post: 
No theatre in the city offers a program of more solid md dignified quality than that which Mr. Greet has provided for his patrons.  Mr. Greet's intelligence and ability as a manager and trainer are strikingly illustrated.


New York Sun: 
Instead of Shakespeare spelling ruin, as was said once, the bard's works now mean prosperity of the first order.  No better illustration of this can be had than in the remarkable demand for seats for the limited season of Shakesperian dramas and classic comedies announced for the Garden Theatre, New York, by that splendid acting organization, the Ben Greet Players.  She Stoops to Conquer is the most successful of all the list of classic comedies, while that its power to draw audiences is still remarkable is shown by the fact that when offered by Mr. Greet at Daly's Theatre a season or two ago it literally turned money away for the entire course of its run.


Chicago Evening Post: 
The best production of The Merchant of Venice that I have ever seen was given last night by the Ben Greet Company at the Studebaker—and I have seen the Booth, Henry Irving, Richard Mansfield, and Jacob Adler companies, in the play.  There is not a single genius in the cast, but the play is a unity.  It is given practically as the author intended, and so has the ear-marks of a work of art and of beauty as a whole.




Synopsis of Plays by Ben Greet

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER

BEN GREET


This delicious and witty comedy of manners, written by the same author who wrote the beautiful Vicar of Wakefield, viz: Oliver Goldsmith, was produced originally in London shortly before the separation of our two countries.  The simple humor of the play appeals now to our sense of fun in exactly the same manner as it appealed to our forefathers in both Old and New England.  It is known to have been acted frequently in Boston and New York at the latter part of the eighteenth century, soon after it was acted in London.

The reasons for selecting this comedy for the Redpath Bureau tour are manifold.

It is witty, clean, and exquisitely written.

The twenty characters are easily reduced to half the number.

The scenery is simple and will be composed of screens painted to represent an Old English Home of the Period.

The play has not been much acted in this country of recent years until it was revived by Charles Frohman for the Ben Greet Players at Daly's Theatre in the winter of 1904, since which time it has been several times given in New York and other cities by my company, also by Miss Eleanor Robeson and Mr. W. H. Crane.



THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
The choice of this comedy for representation in the Redpath Bureau tour program is threefold.

First: It is one of the earliest as it is one of the best written plays of William Shakespeare and is classic in form.

Second: It is very rarely given; is bright and natural and entirely clean.

Third: It is easily mounted and can be played with a limited cast almost in its entirety.

The scene does not change and can be used in conformity with the other comedy suggested.  I propose giving these plays in a series of screens; those painted for the Shakespeare comedy will be suggestive of the Athenian background.

The costumes will be ancient Greek and strictly correct in every detail.

There are twenty characters in the play, which will now be reduced to half the number without altering the plot or spoiling the play.

NOTE: Mr. Greet does not appear with either of his companies The Ben Greet Players or the Ben Greet Woodland Players, but both companies are personally directed by him from his New York studio and an occasional visit to where the players are appearing.  It will be of interest to Shakesperian students to know that Mr. Greet has recently edited for a large publishing house an edition of Shakespeare for use of Colleges and Universities.

Ben Greet




RLB

REDPATH-SLAYTON LYCEUM BUREAU

REDPATH-BROCKWAY
Pittsburd, Pa.

BOSTON · NEW YORK · PITTSBURG
COLUMBUS, OHIO · CHATHAM, ONT,
COLUMBUS, MISS. · CHICAGO · CEDAR
RAPIDS · KANSAS CITY · DENVER
SEATTLE · SAN FRANCISCO

REDPATH PRIEST
Seattle, Wash.





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