Representative American Plays/Hazel Kirke

by Steele MacKaye

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HAZEL KIRKE
A PLAY IN FOUR ACTS
BY
Steele MacKaye

Copyright, 1880, by J. S. MacKaye

Copyright, 1908, by M. M. MacKaye

[In Renewal]

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Copyright in Great Britain and Ireland, and in all Countries Subscribing to the Bern Convention.

Published, 1916.

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Special Notice.

This play in its printed form is designed for the reading public only. All dramatic rights in it are fully protected by copyright, both in the United States and in Great Britain, and no public or private performance—professional or amateur—may be given without the written permission of the owner of the copyright and the payment of royalty. As the courts have also ruled that the public reading of a play, for pay or where tickets are sold, constitutes a "performance," no such reading may be given except under conditions as above stated. Anyone disregarding the author's rights renders himself liable to prosecution. For permission to perform or read in public this play, communication should he sent to Mrs. Steele MacKaye, in care of the publishers.

 

HAZEL KIRKE

Hazel Kirke represents the domestic drama of the late seventies, and the work of a singularly interesting pioneer in the dramatic and theatrical history of this country. (James) Steele MacKaye was born June 6, 1842, at Fort Porter, in Buffalo, New York. His father. Colonel James M. MacKaye, a prominent lawyer and art connoisseur, was an abolitionist and a friend of Garrison, Emerson, and Lincoln. As a lad, Steele MacKaye studied art first at Newport under William Hunt in 1858 and 1859 and later in Paris in the Ecole des Beaux Arts and under Gérome, Coûture, and others. The Civil War brought him back to this country and he served for eighteen months, in the Seventh Regiment of New York and then in Colonel Burney's regiment, where he had the rank of Major. Illness compelling his retirement, he went again to Paris, and here, while executing commissions as an expert buyer of paintings, he became interested in photo-sculpture and afterwards introduced it into this country. On his return to Paris in 1869 he met Francois Delsarte and became his disciple in his classes in expression. The war of 1870 broke up this occupation and he returned to America where by lecturing on the principles of Delsarte, he secured funds with which he aided his master who had been ruined by the war. His initial lecture given in Boston, March 21, 1871, marks an epoch in our theatrical history, since his gospel was that of quiet natural force in expression as opposed to the artificial, over-emphatic style of the day. To express these ideas further he appeared on the stage in New York at the St. James Theatre, January 8, 1872, in his adaptation of Washington Allston's novel Monaldi, in which Francis Durivage was his collaborator. His success was real in all but financial return, and worn out with his first efforts as a manager he returned to Paris, studying and acting in French at the Conservatoire, under Regnier, where he played "Hamlet" among other parts and then going to England, where he became acquainted with Charles Reade and Tom Taylor. Under the latter's management, he acted "Hamlet" from May 3, 1873, to August of the same year in London and the provinces. After that, except for occasional benefits he acted only in his own plays, his most important parts being "Dunsfan Kirke," "Arthur Carringford" and "Aaron Rodney" in Hazel Kirke, "Paul Kauvar" and "Duroc" in Paul Kauvar, and "John Fleming" in Won at Last.

Steele MacKaye's work as a teacher was of great significance. He founded and conducted four schools of expression, the most important being the Lyceum Theatre School in New York which began in 1884, This school, through MacKaye's association with the Frohmans and Mr. David Belasco, had a strong influence on the future of the stage, while his direct influence on his many pupils is hard properly to estimate. As an organizer and stage manager he had to his credit two theatres, numerous theatrical companies, and the Spectatorium at Chicago in 1893. He built the Madison Square Theatre and the Lyceum Theatre in New York, modeling the former on the Theatre Francais, and hoping to bring together a permanent company of artists. He planned also to pay properly the dramatists who were to write plays for his company. Yet, so careless was he in financial dealings, that his contract with the capitalists who controlled the theatre gave him but a salary of $5,000 yearly and he shared in none of the profits of Hazel Kirke, which amounted to $200,000 in two years. His final achievement as an organizer and director was the Spectatorium in Chicago in connection with the "World's Fair in 1893, a great project which failed owing to the financial crisis of that summer. In this immense auditorium he was planning to produce The World Finder, a "Spectatorio" based on the Columbus story. He died February 25, 1894, having lived to see some of his ideas vindicated on a smaller scale in the production of a working model of the original plan, known as the Scenitorium, on February 5, 1894.

As a dramatist, Steele MacKaye represents the transition from the older theatrical tradition to the newer realism. His work was not by any means free from the older devices, but there is a decided advance in the naturalness of the characters and in the quietude of expression. His acted plays were as follows:

Monaldi, with Francis Durivage, first produced at the St. James Theatre, New York, January 8, 1872; Marriage, adapted from the French of Octave Feuillet's Julie, first produced at the St. James Theatre, New York, February 12, 1872; Arkwright's Wife, with Tom Taylor, first produced at the Theatre Royal, Leeds, England, July 7, 1873; Rose Michel, based on the French of Ernest Blum, produced for the first time at the Union Square Theatre, New York, November 23, 1875; Queen and Woman, with J. V. Pritchard, first produced at the Brooklyn Theatre, Brooklyn, New York, February 14, 1876; Twins, with A. C. Wheeler, produced for the first time at Wallack's Theatre, New York, April 12, 1876; Won at Last, produced at Wallack's Theatre, New York, December 10, 1877; Through the Dark, produced for the first time at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York, March 10, 1879; An Iron Will, produced for the first time at Low's Opera House, Providence, Rhode Island, October 27, 1879; its revision. Hazel Kirke, produced for the first time at the Madison Square Theatre, New York, February 4, 1880; A Fool's Errand, a dramatization of Judge Tourgee's novel, first produced at the Arch Street Theatre, Philadelphia, October 26, 1881; Dakolar, based on Georges Ohnet's Le Maître de Forges, first produced at the Lyceum Theatre, New York, April 6, 1885; In Spite of All, a play based on Sardou's Andrea, first produced at the Lyceum Theatre, New York, September 15, 1885; Blenzi, based on Bulwer Lytton's novel of the same name, first performed at Albaugh's Opera House, Washington, December 13, 1886; The Drama of Civilization, a pageant from W. F. Cody's "Wild West," first performed at the Madison Square Garden, New York, November 27, 1887; Anarchy, first performed at the Academy of Music, Buffalo, New York, May 30, 1887, and afterward revised as Paul Kauvar, at the Standard Theatre, New York, December 24, 1887; A Noble Rogue, first performed at the Chicago Opera House, Chicago, Illinois, July 3, 1888; An Arrant Knave, first produced at the Chicago Opera House, Chicago, Illinois, September 30, 1889; Colonel Tom, first produced at the Tremont Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts, January 20, 1890; Money Mad, first produced at the Standard Theatre, New York, April 7, 1890.

Of these nineteen plays, none was an utter failure, nearly all were successes in their day, and three, Hazel Kirke, Won at Last, and Paul Kauvar, were played for years in stock. Hazel Kirke was written in the town of Dublin, New Hampshire, where Steele MacKaye spent the summers of 1878 and 1879. The heroine's name was suggested by the sprigs of hazel boughs nearby. It was first played under the title of An Iron Will. It had been the intention of its author to present it at the Madison Square Theatre, but owing to delay in the completion of that theatre it was first produced in Providence, Rhode Island, October 27, 1879, and taken on tour through Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and other cities. On February 4, 1880, the play was put on at the Madison Square Theatre under the present name, and ran consecutively for about two years. It has continued on the stage for thirty years and in America has been acted at the same time by ten companies. It has been produced in England, Australia, Japan, Hawaii, and elsewhere. Its success has been due to its human quality, and to the fact that it appeals to the primary instincts. It was noteworthy in the absence of "the stage villain"—the incidents were developed naturally, and it points forward in our stage technique.

Hazel Kirke has so far been the only play of Steele MacKaye's to be published. It was privately printed in New York in 1880 and has been reprinted in the Samuel French series. For permission to reprint the play, the editor is indebted to the courtesy of Mrs. Steele MacKaye who, with her son, Mr. Percy MacKaye, has carefully collated the two editions, and prepared a definitive text and furnished valuable biographical and critical information. The present editor also acknowledges his indebtedness to the article on "Steele MacKaye, Dynamic Artist of the American Theatre," by Percy MacKaye, The Drama, Nos. 4 and 5, November, 1911, and February, 1912.

Mr. MacKaye has in preparation a memorial volume dealing with the work of his father and in this volume Hazel Kirke and Paul Kauvar are to be included.