Download Oedipus at Crawfordsville: Early Productions of

Oedipus at Crawfordsville:
Early Productions of
Greek Tragedies in Indiana
James Fisher”
For three decades the presentation of classical plays has been a great factor in
the effort to show the value of the “humanities” in our educational scheme. And we
are compelled to prove this in this day and generation. . . . I would urge especially
the presentation of Greek plays: their appeal is so universal that they bridge the
chasm of the centuries and arouse interest, not merely as spectacles of past grandeur, but as living works of art, which move to sympathy and to tears as strongly
as the work of the latest dramatist of the twentieth century.’
Daniel Dickey Hains
Shortly after the beginning of the twentieth century, widespread interest in the classical dramas of ancient Greece emerged
in college and universities throughout the United States. In Indiana, on a spot near what is now the front patio of Martindale Hall
at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, production of a series of the
plays of Sophocles and Euripides commenced with an outdoor performance of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrunnus at 4:OO p. m. on June 16,
1908. Under the direction of Daniel Dickey Hains (1873-1937),
Wabash College class of 1895 and head of its Department of Greek,
this extraordinary series of productions were probably the first
stagings of classical dramas in the twentieth century in the state
of Indiana, and among the earliest on American campuses. Hains’s
pioneering productions inspired an appreciation for the classics,
along with an interest in producing them, throughout Indiana col*James Fisher is associate professor of theater, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana. He was recently named Six-Month Fellow (1992-1993) at The Newberry Library (Chicago) and Research Fellow (1992-1993) at the Theatre Museum
(London) by The Society for Theatre Research. His most recent publication is The
Theatre of Yesterday and Tomorrow: Commedia dell’arte on the Modern Stage
(1992). Fisher wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Johanna Herring, Wabash
College archivist, for her assistance in researching the article and Douglas P Calisch, associate professor of art, Wabash College, for making photographic prints of
the illustrations accompanying the article.
Daniel Dickey Hains, “The Presentation of Classical Plays: Part I,” Classical
Journal, IX (February, 1914), 189-90.
INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY, LXXXIX (March, 1993). 1993, Trustees of Indiana University.
2
Indiana Magazine of History
leges, high schools, and dramatic clubs during the early twentieth
century.
In English-speaking professional theaters this enthusiastic revival of the classics aided modernist theatrical artists as they
sought alternatives t o t h e overwhelming predominance of
“kitchen-sink” realism on turn-of-the-century stages. Celebrated
English actor/director Harley Granville-Barker (1877-1946) began a series of productions of the plays of Euripides, in translations
by Gilbert Murray (1866-19571, with a staging of Hippolytus at the
Lyric Theatre in London in 1903. His elaborate productions of the
classics, presented with particular attention to the highly symbolic
and ritualized performance traditions of ancient drama, were admired in England and, later, in presentations on several American
college campuses where they ignited enthusiasm for the plays.2
Interest in the study of classical drama had always been at the
center of classical studies on college and university campuses
throughout the United States, but few actual productions of ancient Greek plays occurred in the nineteenth century. Oedipus Tyrannus, produced at Sanders Theatre at Harvard University on May
17, 1881, is generally considered to be the first classical play produced on an American ~ a m p u sThat
. ~ same year Daniel Frohman’s
production of the same play on the New York stage was the first
known professional presentation of a classical play in A m e r i ~ aAs
.~
early as 1906 productions of Greek dramas were presented outdoors in the Harvard S t a d i ~ m and,
, ~ beginning in 1910 actress
Margaret Anglin (1876-1958) produced a season of classical dramas during the summer months in the University of California at
Berkeley’s impressive Greek Theatre, completed and opened in
1903 with funds supplied by William Randolph Hearst.6
2 Harley Granville-Barker presented Zphigenia Among the Taurians at the Yale
Bowl on May 15, 1915. It was also performed a t Harvard Stadium (May 18, 1915),
the Piping Rock Country Club (May 25, 1915), the College of the City of New York
(May 31 and June 5, 1915), the University of Pennsylvania (June 8, 1915), and
Princeton University (June 11, 1915). Granville-Barker also staged The Trojan
Women a t Harvard Stadium on May 19, 1915. It was also performed at the College
of the City of New York (May 29 and June 2, 1915), the University of Pennsylvania
(June 9, 1915), and Princeton University (June 12, 1915). Dennis Kennedy, Granville Barker and the Dream of Theatre (Cambridge, England, 1985).
3 Among the spectators a t Harvard were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and William Dean Howells. The earliest
known production of a n ancient comedy, Aristophanes’ Acharnians, was produced
a t the University of Pennsylvania in 1886. Hains was also impressed with a 1903
University of Pennsylvania production of Zphigenia Among the Taurians. Productions of classical dramas became prevalent in Europe during this same era. Daniel
Dickey Hains, “Greek Plays in America,” Classical Journal, VI (October, 1910), 2628.
Zbid., 27.
5 Aeschylus’ Agamemnon was presented that year. Zbid.
6 The Greek Theatre, which seats in excess of eight thousand, presented Margaret Anglin’s versions of Sophocles’ Antigone and Electra, and Euripides’ Medea
and Zphigenia in Aulis. Anglin also produced some of Shakespeare’s plays there.
Zbid., 30, 36.
Oedipus at Crawfordsville
3
All of these energies were felt on the campuses of Indiana’s
colleges. Greek and Latin professors monitored the revivals of
Greek drama with fascination, but none took the next step that
would lead to an actual production until 1908. Despite the fact that
the institution had been slow to make room for the arts, Wabash
College was perhaps the first Indiana school to attempt production
of the classics. Although some dramatic readings by college literary societies had been popular after the Civil War, little drama
was seen at Wabash until after the turn of the century. In fact, the
first reference to the theater at Wabash dates back to 1836, four
years after the founding of the college, when the faculty passed a
resolution banning “Thespian amusement^."^ Resistance to theatrical activity slowly eroded during the last decades of the century,
paving the way for the productions that were the dream of young
Professor Hains. He had noticed that student energies were divided
at this time as new disciplines were introduced into the curriculum
and a variety of extracurricular activities burgeoned. Hains became concerned about waning interest in the study of Greek and
the classics in general, and he began to work aggressively to generate new interest in the study of the classics. He determined that
an effective way of inspiring interest on the campus, and in the
greater Indiana community, was to attempt to produce the finest
of the Greek tragedies in a manner that closely approximated the
staging traditions employed by the ancient Greeks themselves.
Hains was also influenced by Anglin’s productions, which he felt
were “magnificently staged and splendidly a ~ t e d , and
” ~ the productions at Harvard and the University of California. In fact, surviving photographic evidence suggests t h a t the reusable setting
constructed at Wabash for the plays was modeled on the University of California’s Greek Theatre as much as on the surviving archaeological evidence of the actual ancient theaters. This setting
appears to have been used for most of the productions Hains
mounted, with slight modifications made depending on the needs
of a particular play.
The “Greek Plays,” as they became known at Wabash, insinuated themselves as an annual event through Hains’s remaining
years at the college. All of them were produced under Hains’s supervision, and they included Oedipus Tyrannus (Sophocles)in 1908
James Insley Osborne and Theodore Gregory Gronert, Wubush College: The
First Hundred Years (Crawfordsville, Ind., 1932), 74. Student John B. Powers was
actually suspended from classes on January 16, 1837, for violating the rule. It
seems Powers was committed to perform in a theatrical exhibition of the local
“Thespian Society” in December, 1836, before the rule was passed. Later, the faculty decided that the penalty was perhaps too severe in light of the offender’s previous obligation to perform and his ignorance of the rule, so they were content to
settle for a reading before the college of an admission of violation of college law.
Hains, “The Presentation of Classical Plays: Part I,” 196.
4
Indiana Magazine of History
and 1914, Antigone (Sophocles) in 1909, Alcestis (Euripides) in
1910, Iphigenia Among the Taurians (Euripides) in 1911, Electra
(Sophocles) in 1912, Medea (Euripides) in 1913, and Hippolytus
(Euripides) in 1915. The Wabash College Archives contain many
impressive photographs of the productions along with contemporary newspaper accounts, letters, programs, and other materials
that make it possible to reconstruct the performance^.^
By any standards the “Greek Plays” featured elaborate settings, costumes, and programs and were ably performed by the students of Wabash and some Crawfordsville citizens. Although Hains
had initially considered presenting the plays in the original Greek,
he finally opted for English translation: “I do not believe,” he
wrote, “that the results would compensate for the additional labor
involved, and I am sure that the spectators would not be moved so
deeply by the power of the tragedy, were they compelled to follow
the action by means of a libretto.”1° In reflecting on the productions, Hains stressed the difficulty of producing classical plays with
amateurs. He faced the added problem of an all-male student body
at Wabash, which meant that men would play women’s roles as
had been done in the ancient productions although it was an unfamiliar convention to modern audiences. He felt this was appropriate, however, and in the casting of the women’s roles he noted,
“in this case it is not merely a question of dramatic ability but also
of face and figure-complexion makes no difference: the ‘make-up’
box will remedy deficiencies along that line-but it is essential
that the actor who plays a feminine part shall have delicate features.”ll At Wabash competition for the roles intensified each year,
and Hains noticed that students were taking classics courses, in
part as a way of preparing themselves for the productions.
Hain’s instinctive commonsense approach to preparing the
plays would ultimately serve as a model for many Indiana schools
and groups who would borrow his costumes, props, and, most importantly, his ideas. Rehearsals for each play began as much as
four months before the actual performances with some aspect of
the play dealt with everyday during that period. Hains worked
with the leading actors first since they were burdened with the
9 Accounts of the performances of the “Greek Plays” at Wabash College appear
in various college publications, especially the Bachelor, the Wabash College Record,
the Wabush Bulletin, and the Wabash. Programs of the productions, including a
pamphlet, “Why Study Greek?” produced by the Department of Classics during the
era of the play performances, and photographs of productions of the plays, along
with correspondence, notes, research materials belonging to Hains, and a notebook
containing information on statewide and nationwide productions of classical plays
are in the Wabash College Archives (Lilly Library, Wabash College, Crawfordsville,
Indiana).
lo Hains, “Greek Plays in America,” 31.
Daniel Dickey Hains, “The Presentation of Classical Plays: Part 111,” Classical Journal, IX (May, 1914), 344.
PROGRAM FOR WABASH COLLEGE PRODUCTION
OF &CESTZS, 1910
Courtesy Ramsay Archival Center,
Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana.
Courtesy Ramsay Archival Center,Wabash College, Crawfordaville,Indiana.
ANTIGONE,
1909
C H O R U S OF W A B A S H C O L L E G E
PRODUCTION
OF SOPHOCLES’
TAURIANS,
1911
Courtesy Ramsay Archival Center, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana.
CAST OF WABASH COLLEGE PRODUCTION OF IPHIGENIA
AMONG THE
8
Indiana Magazine of History
longest roles. Particular attention was paid to the work of the chorus members, many recruited from the Glee Club, who faced the
most difficult task of performing in unison the complicated choral
odes and having to project their voices over long distances outdoors
(weather permitting, Hains held rehearsals outdoors as often as
possible). Music composed for the Harvard and University of California productions accompanied the choral passages with piano,
flute, clarinet, violin, cornet, and harp being used at various times
as Hains experimented with the most effective combination. He
found that in these days before microphones the cornet was “particularly valuable in carrying the air in the open; the piano can be
heard but a short distance if there is any breeze stirring, and there
is need of a strong lead to keep the singers together.”12
Although Hains had virtually no professional training as a
theatrical director, he wisely endeavored to keep the staging simple and austere, carefully plotting entrances, exits, and “picturesque” stage compositions. He emphasized a close study of the text
but felt that “almost as much can be done by the hands, face, and
To this end he worked with the acbody as by vocal ex~ression.”’~
tors on their movements, beginning with the “use of the hands, not
in set gestures, but to aid in the interpretation of the part. ‘To talk
with the hands’ is quite an art and it can be mastered only after
long practice, but it is very essential.’’ The goal for Hains was “to
secure as accurate an interpretation as possible of each phrase,
line, and scene.” Elaborately choreographed dances were often employed for the choral scenes in classical productions of the era, but
Hains made “no attempt to introduce dancing; there are no girls at
Wabash; we do not have a dancing master for the boys; and, besides, the choral music has taken so well that it has not seemed
nece~sary.”’~
Hains was assisted in the mounting of these productions by his
wife, Lulu Britton Hains (1873-1945), who, with minimal assistance from faculty wives and local women and modest financial
support, designed and constructed the appropriate period costumes.
For the costumes Hains advocated the use of “unbleached muslin,
which costs about as much as the cheesecloth used in many places
and drapes far better.”15 Under the guidance of a professional scenic artist, students constructed and painted the scenic elements,
which were made of “regular ‘flats”’ fastened to a two-by-four
framework. It all cost “seventy or eighty dollars, including material, labor, and the bill of a professional scene painter.”16 Hains
l2
Ibid.,347.
1s Ibid.,345.
I*
Is
I6
Zbid.,346.
Ibid.,347.
Ibid.. 351.
1911.
Courtesy Ramsay Archival Center, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana.
CAST OF IPHIGENIA
AMONG THE TAURZANS
REHEARSES
IN THE WABASH COLLEGE &F3ORETUM,
Indiana Magazine of History
10
vigorously supported the idea of giving the plays outdoors, feeling
that
Such a setting has many possibilities. When Alcestis, dying of her own free will to
save her husband’s life, comes slowly from the palace, her words: “0 sun, 0 light
of day, 0 eddying clouds that fly across the vaulted sky!” are far more impressive
than they could be within the walls of a theatre; and Antigone’s last farewell to the
sun and to her native land as she is led away to the vaulted tomb is peculiarly
significant from the contrast between the brilliant sunlight and the gloomy chamber in which she is soon to end her life.”
Critical reaction to all of the productions was uniformly positive, especially for Oedipus Tyrannus, which was produced by popular demand a second time in 1914. Audiences for the plays
extended far beyond the Wabash campus and Crawfordsville community; college professors and high school teachers with groups of
their students (for the 1908 Oedipus the Crawfordsville Journal
reported that faculty from Earlham and Butler colleges were in
attendanceis); and members of statewide drama clubs attended as
evidenced by notes of congratulation to Hains and his cast in the
Wabash College Archives. Of the first production of Oedipus Tyrannus in 1908 the Crawfordsville Journal reported that
The day was a n ideal one for a n outdoor performance. Promptly at 4 o’clock the
suppliants entered, clad in white robes, marching to the solemn strains of Greek
music, . . . The scenery, the costumes, the altars, everything was according to the
ancient Greek patterns. . . . As to the performers, where all did so well it seems
difficult to mention particulars. The achievement of Mr. S. E. Fleming, who committed perfectly and recited with clearness and force nearly seven hundred lines of
blank verse of Oedipus, was noGworthy, both as a feat of memory and as a n exhibition of dramatic power. . . . A large crowd witnessed the performance and Prof.
Hains reports over $300 resulted from the sale of tickets, which amount will cover
all expenses, with a very slight ba1an~e.I~
Of that first performance Hains himself later wrote of the emotional impact of the play’s final scene “when the audience sat in
tense silence, every eye fixed on the stage, as the blind king,
weighed down by the burden of the terrible revelation that had just
come to him, bade a tender farewell to his two little daughters.”20
Hains also recalled that the young cast was excited by the audience’s reaction, as demonstrated by the the student playing Creon,
who, upon exiting from the stage “danced up and down, and waved
17
I*
Zbid.
“Greek Play ‘Oedipus Tyrannus,’ ” Crawfordsville Journal, June 17, 1908,
p. 4.
19Zbid.,1, 4.
Hains, “The Presentation of Classical Plays: Part I,” 191.
AUDIENCE
AWAITS
1911 PRODUCTION OF IPHZGENZA
AMONG
THE
Courtesy Ramsay Archival Center, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana,
TAURZANS
ON EASTSIDE OF WABASH COLLEGE CAMPUS.
12
Indiana Magazine of History
his scarlet robes in ecstasy about him, crying: ‘The whole gang’s
weepin’! the whole gang’s weepin’!’ ”21
Although the same setting was revamped for subsequent
plays, each production featured unique elements. A startling array
of skulls adorned the top of the set for Zphigeniu Among the Tuurians, and an elaborate chariot was mounted on top of the setting
for the deus ex machina of Medea. Local youngsters appeared as
children of various characters in both productions of Oedipus Tyrannus as well as in Alcestis and Medea. The cast of the 1914 production of Oedipus Tyrunnus included Hains’s own young son,
Daniel B., in the role of the Attendant to Teiresias.
The performances enjoyed, in the words of the Wubush, an “almost country-wide reputation . . . pronounced by competent judges
to be the equal of any of the Greek dramas ever presented at Harvard.”22At least two of the productions toured Indiana, playing a t
high schools in South Bend and Muncie. Oedipus Tyrannus was
presented a t Indiana Normal in Terre Haute, and additional performances were given in chautauqua tents. In 1912 two evening
performances and one matinee of Sophocles’Electru were given in
a chautauqua tent at Winona Lake. As Hains recalled:
A chautauqua audience is a mixed one and is very fickle; if the entertainment does
not please, the spectators leave the auditorium and sometimes there are only a few
seats occupied at the end. Our audiences numbered from two to four thousand at
each presentation. There was absolute quiet, even on the part of the children,
throughout the hour and three quarters the play took, and the whole body, almost
without exception, remained to the close.=
Hains published four articles in the Classical Journal, a prestigious academic publication, during the years of the play produc21 Hains, “Greek Plays in America,” 25. This first production included among
its cast two particularly distinguished Wabash men: Robert K. Winter (18861986), who played the Priest of Zeus, and J. Kenyon Nicholson (1894-1986), as one
of the suppliants. Winter studied under Ezra Pound during Pound’s brief Wabash
career and subsequently developed the first full-fledged English program in China
at Qinghua University. He was one of the few scholars to remain in China after the
start of the 1937 war with Japan. Shortly before his death at the age of one hundred, Winter received a n honorary degree from Wabash. He must have been particularly impressive as the priest, since he was cast in similar roles in Antigone (1909),
Alcestis (19101, and Zphigeniu Among the Taurians (1911). Nicholson, Wabash class
of 1917 and a Crawfordsville native, began a career in playwriting and teaching
drama following service in World War I. After the production of several one-act
plays Nicholson had a Broadway success with The Barker, starring Claudette Colbert in 1927. His other popular plays included Sailor, Beware! (1933), Apple of His
Eye (1946), and Out West of Eighth (1951), along with collaborations with S. N.
Behrman, John Golden, and Charles Robinson. He also authored books on drama
while teaching playwriting at Columbia University (where, undoubtedly inspired
by Hains, he encouraged production of the classics), and he contributed some screenplays to Columbia Pictures.
aa Joseph J. Daniels, Jr., “The Great Drama in Wabash College,” Wabash, June,
1910, p. 259.
23 Hains, “The Presentation of Classical Plays:
Part 111,” 352-53.
Courtesy Ramsay Archival Center, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indians.
ALCESTZS,
1910
THE PRIEST OF Z E U S I N THE
WABASH COLLEGE PRODUCTION OF
ROBERTK. WINTER(CENTER)AS
Courtesy Ramsay Archival Center, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana.
SCENESHOWING
THE D E U S E X
M A C H I N AI N U S E I N W A B A S H
C O L L E G E PRODUCTION O F MEDEA,
1913
Oedipus at Crawfordsville
15
ti on^.^^ In these essays he outlined the techniques he used in
staging the tragedies and applauded other colleges and universities similarly attempting to revive the classics. He also raised several significant issues about the problems of staging ancient drama
in the modern era. In a lecture he presented at the Sixth Annual
Meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South
in Chicago on April 30, 1910, Hains wrote that his desire to produce the classic dramas stemmed from a “belief in the dramatic
power” of the works and to “show a modern audience the masterpieces of a civilization which, though it passed from the stage long
ago, has still a mighty influence on the life of the present.”25
Hains had carefully tracked productions of the classical plays
throughout the United States, listing them in a small notebook
that covered professional, college, and even high school productions. Sophocles’ Antigone was, by far, the most produced, with
nearly two dozen productions listed between 1910 and 1915. In Indiana, Hains noted productions at Notre Dame University and
Earlham College along with several high schools and little theater
groups. Some groups, perhaps feeling overwhelmed by the complexity of the ancient dramas, produced smaller-scale Grecian pageants
based on classical myths; these included titles such as Galatea (presented at Frankfort High School in 1914) and The Feast of Dido
(staged at Terre Haute’s Wiley High School in 1908), among othMany of these Indiana productions profited directly from
Hains’s experience; properties and costumes were borrowed repeatedly by many groups. The Wabash College Archives’ files on
Hains’s work include a considerable collection of correspondence
requesting advice as well as practical support. Samuel A. Eliot, Jr.,
director of the Indianapolis Little Theatre, wrote to Hains seeking
advice about a production of Euripides’ Hecuba at the suggestion
of Oliver Sayler, an Indianapolis reporter who later wrote several
books on the modern
Lena M. Foote, Latin instructor at
LaGrange High School, also wrote several letters to Hains after
reading his “very interesting and helpful article in the 1914 Classical Journal.” Foote borrowed costumes, armor and spears, san24 These articles are “Greek Plays in America,” VI (October, 1910), 24-39; “The
Presentation of Classical Plays: Part I,” IX (February, 1914), 189-98; “The Presentation of Classical Plays: Part 11,” IX (March, 1914), 251-60; and “The Presentation of Classical Plays: Part 111,” IX (May, 1914), 344-53.
25 Hains, “Greek Plays in America,” 25.
26 Hains reported that by 1914 forty-nine colleges and universities, six secondary schools, and eight clubs had given performances of Greek plays (total number
of play performances was 193). Latin plays had been given by twenty-nine colleges
and universities and four secondary schools, with a total of forty-eight performances. He also noted that fifty-two institutions had presented dramatizations based
on Greek and Latin sources. Hains notebook, collection of materials on the “Greek
Plays,” Wabash College Archives.
27 Samuel A. Eliot, Jr., to Daniel Dickey Hains, October 2, [n.d], ibzd.
16
Indiana Magazine of History
dals, and other props for a production of an original dramatization,
Dido, The Phoenician
For a 1915 pageant at the Indianapolis Young Women’s Christian Association, Hains loaned costumes for a Greek scene. Responding for the group, Jessica Brown,
wife of Professor of Greek Demarchus Brown of Butler College,
thanked Hains, noting “the richness of color” in the costumes and,
realizing “the enormous amount of work that had gone into the
conception and completion of those costumes . . . it came over me
with a pang what a great thing I had asked you to do.”29Brown
described their presentation in some detail, finding only the scene
of “our wonderful Greece” to be an “artistic success”; the rest of the
YWCA program, she felt, “resembled a Coney Island show far too
much.”30The YWCA’s amateur cast members were, in the eyes of
Brown,
exquisite-those girls were simply inspired-it was charming to me to see how they
threw themselves into it-they made beautiful pictures. . . . Our Hermes was a
laundry girl-Niobe was a worker at a n overall factory-Our golden Caryatide was
a department store girl-etc.-all of them utter strangers to Greek art or Greek
thought-but they were so moved by it that they regretted it when they had to
remove those lovely robes. . . . I said, “Girls, how would you like to go with me to
Wabash in June to see the Greek play?”-and they were most enthusiastic about
it.3I
Hains’s influence was also directly felt in numerous productions outside of Indiana, including, among many others, a 1910
staging of Sophocles’Antigone at the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee; a 1914 production of Euripides’ Alcestis at Marshall College in West Virginia; a 1915 production of Antigone by the newly
formed Classical Club of Jacksonville, Illinois, staged on the campus of Illinois Woman’s College; a 1915 production of Euripides’
Hippolytus at the Columbia College of Expression in Oak Park,
Illinois; and a 1910 Antigone and some productions of Plautus’ ancient Roman comedies at Ottawa University in Kansas.32The reputation of the Wabash productions, and Hains’s work, reached as
far as the professional theater in New York. On July 1, 1914,
Hains received a wire from producer Charles Emerson Cook inviting him to work on an “outdoor production here of Antigone late in
August with best available professional cast on receipt of your wire
M. Foote to Hains, October 2, 1915,ibid.
Jessica Brown to Hains, 1915,ibid.
30 Ibid.
31 Zbid.
32 Hains also reported on productions at Randolph-Macon College for Women,
the University of Iowa, the University of Cincinnati, Swarthmore, Marshall College, Bradley Polytechnic, Lawrence College, Syracuse University, Western College
for Women, the University of Nebraska, Rochester University, St. Lawrence University, Iowa State University, Vassar, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Drury, Washington
University, and Smith. Hains notebook, ibid.
zR Lena
29
Oedipus at Crawfordsuille
17
stating whether you can consider proposition. I shall write you all
details and shall go west for personal interview. Please reply immediately care Lambs
Hains declined the offer, but it was
clear that he had exceeded his own expectations in contributing to
a heightened interest in the classics.
Hains resigned from the faculty of Wabash College in 1916 for
a career in business (although he served as a member of the Wabash Board of Trustees from 1919 to 1924), but not before directing
two more productions unrelated to the series of “Greek Plays.”
These were John Galsworthy’s Pigeon and Shakespeare’s Taming
of the Shrew for the Wabash College Dramatic Society, started by
Professor Lucian Cary (1886-1971) of the Department of English.
The society was dedicated to complementing Hains’s work by producing significant contemporary dramas (their first production was
George Bernard Shaw’s comedy Arms and the Man, performed in
the spring of 1909).34No classical play was produced at Wabash in
1916 (or for many years thereafter); instead, an elaborate all-college pageant was presented in celebration of the anniversary of
Indiana statehood. In eight short years, however, Hains had far
exceeded his professed goals. As early as 1910 he had written that
performances of the Greek plays “have been given at forty-seven
institutions and to the number of a hundred and one. . . . The
increasing number of such performances augurs happily for the future of the classics in our schools and colleges.”35
Hains himself had contributed mightily to the bright future
for the classics that he envisioned; certainly in Indiana he was responsible for an intensified interest in classical studies. Closer to
home, he had established a permanent niche for drama, classical
and contemporary, at Wabash College and undoubtedly throughout
the state. In responding to a letter praising the emotional power of
a chautauqua performance of one of the “Greek Plays,” Hains
asked, “Can we not hope that this will be repeated many times in
the future upon many audiences and that by this means many who
now think of Greek as a ‘dead language’ may find their ideas decidedly in need of revision?”36
Charles Emerson Cook to Hains, July 1, 1914, telegram, ibid.
34Information about Hains and about the Dramatic Society can be found in
various Wabash College publications, including the Bachelor and the Wubash, as
well as from the Crawfordsville Journal.
35 Hains, “Greek Plays in America,” 39.
36 Hains, “The Presentation of Classical Plays: Part 111,” 353.
33