Art and Commerce: Chicago Theatre 1900 - 1920.

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between the Chicago commercial and Art theatres on three basic levels: first, the prevailing commercial conditions, how these fit into a national context, and the reasons for the inception of an Art theatre in Chicago; second, how the two differing theatrical styles co-existed and what, if any, effect they had on each other; and third, how the major Chicago Art theatres operated and compared, the reasons for their decline, and how much effect they had on local as well as national theatrical trends. Between the years 1900 and 1920, the Chicago commercial theatre was a flourishing and successful entertainment business. The st and ard commercial fare was often criticized, however, as catering only to the tastes of amusement seekers, presenting material which was mildly diverting at its best, uncreative and often immoral at its worst. A Chicago alternative theatre devoted to creative energy and imagination began with the New Theatre in 1906 and progressed through the Hull House Players, the various companies of Donald Robertson and culminated with the Chicago Little Theatre. The New Theatre, Hull House, and Robertson provided a groundwork upon which the Little Theatre, and subsequent groups affected by it, would build and succeed. Ironically, except for the Little Theatre, direct local or national impact by these groups toward any national trends was negligible. Cross influence between art and commerce in Chicago centered on passive rhetorical reaction rather than active recognition or change. Separation between the two forms was fostered and sustained by both sides and in the end, the general populace preferred the professional and commercial to the exclusion of the elite, dilettante suppoted art. The Chicago theatre public remained under the influence of New York for some time and the eventual acceptance of such companies as the Theatre Guild stemmed to a large extent from their status as New York professionals rather than their presenting anything substantially different from what Robertson, Hull House or the Little Theatre offered. The Art theatres of Chicago were essentially incubators; they signified the initiation of a progression which would lead to the gradual acceptance of the Art theatre philosophy and the new stagecraft as the theatrical st and ard for the nation.