JITNEY PLAYERS INCLUDE HARVARD MEN IN PLANS FOR THEATRICAL VAGABONDAGE

The renaissance of the travelling theatre has come, come with the assistance of the automobile, and the foster parents of the travelling theatre the Jitney Players, enter upon their third season. The organization is peculiarly interesting to Harvard men because the originator. Bushnell Cheney, Yale '21, last summer enlisted the aid of a number of Harvard graduates and undergraduates. This summer the Jitney Players again number among their company several graduates of the University.

The itinerary this summer will lead up the Connecticut Valley to the White Mountains, then across to Portland and down the coast, including the North Shore, South Shore, Cape Cod and Long Island. This is a very ambitious circuit in comparison with that of the first year which confined itself to southern New England.

Harvard Dramatic Club Lends Hand

Richard S. Aldrich '25, former President of the Harvard Dramatic Club, is serving for the second time as Business Manager. Ross Wilkins '26 who was Head Electrician last summer is to be Stage Manager this summer. A. Rogers Weed '25 is to be Property Manager, R. H. L. Skinner '22, who was with John Barrymore in "Hamlet", is again to be with the Players. Randal S. Burrell '24, another former President of the Harvard Dramatic Club, is to be Advance Agent.

Director Invents Travelling Stage

For use on the trips a collapsible stage, which is nothing more than a specially constructed body on a Ford chassis, has been designed by Mr. Cheney. A second truck is equipped with a lighting plant, so that the theatre is a completely self-sustaining unit and may be set up anywhere, where there is sufficient space and an audience.

Two Ford trucks and a touring car make up the caravan which carries actors, stage hands, business staff, stage scenery, and all the equipment of the Jitney Players. In the main truck, which is the stage when unfolded and set up, are the hangings, which variously arranged and lighted, serve for all the productions. There are also in this truck the costumes, the three tents which serve for dressing rooms and sleeping quarters, 500 feet of canvas fence which surrounds the audience during the performance, all the electrical equipment, properties, and a variety of miscellaneous articles.

The smaller truck carries the personal baggage of the troupe, one suitcase only per person being allowed, army cots, blanket rolls, and the Delco engine. When the Jitney Players arrive on location, the stage manager selects the site for placing the truck. In a few minutes the big car is unloaded, and the unfolding process which is to end in a complete stage gets under way. The picture above shows the stage during the course of the play.

Repertory Confined to One-Act Plays

Thus far the Jitney Players have produced one-act plays only. Whether they will give longer productions has not been determined. But their success in short works has been unequivocal. A group of three plays generally makes a bill, with the play weightiest in dramatic content in the middle, and a comedy at the end.

Although Bushnell Cheney, a Yale man, is owner and Director in whose hands the project has taken shape, many Harvard men, members of the Dramatic Club and, most of them, affiliated with the late 47 Workshop, have been intimately connected with the Jitney Players. Last summer there were seven graduates and undergraduates of the University in the company, with three Yale men.

Jupiter Pluvius Demanded a Role

The experiences on such a tour of vagabondage are many and varied. Most of them are as entertaining to the troupe as the playing itself. Occasional showers provide the most dramatic of these. Although a cautious management always secured an optional indoor hall to which actors and audience could retreat in case of necessity, it was usual to try to withstand the elements as long as possible.

These followers of the great Moliere, who was himself once a vagabond, have on occasion received the treatment of vagabonds. At one point the entire troupe was nearly thrown into the lockup when State police mistook the truck and its variegated riders for gypsy bootleggers. On another occasion, when the Players were mistaken for gypsies, they were escorted out of the state.