The Project Gutenberg EBook of Washington Square Plays, by Various

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Title: Washington Square Plays
Volume XX, The Drama League Series of Plays

Author: Various

Release Date: February, 2002 [Etext #3068]
Posting Date: November 1, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WASHINGTON SQUARE PLAYS ***

Produced by Dianne Bean

WASHINGTON SQUARE PLAYS

Volume XX, The Drama League Series of Plays

1. The Clod. By Lewis Beach
2. Eugenically Speaking. By Edward Goodman
3. Overtones. By Alice Gerstenberg
4. Helena's Husband. By Philip Moeller

With An Introduction By Walter Prichard Eaton

Preface By Edward Goodman Director of the Washington Square Players

Garden City New York
Doubleday, Page & Company
1925

Copyright, 1916, By
Doubleday, Page & Company

The Clod. Copyright, 1914, By Emmet Lewis Beach
Eugenically Speaking. Copyright, 1914, By Edward Goodman
Overtones. Copyright, 1913, By Alice Gerstenberg
Helena's Husband. Copyright, 1915, By Philip Moeller

In its present form these plays are dedicated to the reading public
only, and no performance of them may be given.

Printed In The United States At The Country Life Press, Garden City, N.
Y.

INTRODUCTION

The rigid conventionality of the theatre has been frequently remarked
upon. Why the world should ever fear a radical, indeed, is hard to see,
since he has against him the whole dead weight of society; but least of
all need the radical be dreaded in the theatre. When the average person
pays money for his amusements, he is little inclined to be pleased with
something which doesn't amuse him: and what amuses him, nine times out
of ten, is what has amused him. That is why changes in the theatre are
relatively slow, and customs long prevail, even till it seems they may
corrupt the theatrical world.

For many generations in our playhouse it was the custom to follow the
long play of the evening with an "afterpiece," generally in one act, but
always brief, and almost always gay, if not farcical. Audiences, which