N the famous Forest Theatre at Carmel-by-the-Sea was recently given the seventh annual play of the Forest Theatre Society. Out of two hundred manuscripts submitted in the contest, the committee chose "Yolanda of Cyprus," by Cale Young Rice. He is the husband of Alice Hegan Rice, author of "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch." The children's play, "The Piper," by Josephine Preston Peabody, followed in production.

When, in 1910, the Forest Theatre staged its first annual drama, it was almost the only natural, open-air thea

tre in America. Here, in this "Florence of America," is a theatre on the hillside at the edge of town, its wooden benches ranged along the hill's own curving slope, its back curtain, wings and walls formed by pines, cypresses and eucalypti that have been many decades attaining their lofty stature. It it such a theatre as housed the tragedies and comedies of the golden age of Athenian drama. Since then, there have sprung up many other similar theatres, but this retains its unique character and importance.

The Forest Theatre was fitted up for

the express purpose of giving the people of Carmel an opportunity to "try out" their histrionic and dramatic abilities. In order that it might never fall into the control of a clique or special group, the control of the Forest Theatre was vested in a Board of Trustees.

The question then arose as to when, how and what should be staged. Any of Carmel's people may put on a play, whether of those who live there all the year, or of those who come only when the rush of business makes it possible. This, however, made no provision for the financial support of the adequate presentation of any play. Accordingly, arrangements were made with the Carmel Development Company for the financing of one play a

year.

It was decided to give this annual play somewhere near the fourth of July, a time when the many who loved Carmel, but during a greater part of the year, were kept away by business, might be there to enjoy it.

Knowing that the children of to-day are the playwrights and actors of tomorrow, they determined to stage at the same time a children's play which would give the little folks an opportunity of seeing and showing what histrionic ability they possessed. In staging these children's plays, the Arts and Crafts Club has assisted.

A committee was appointed to pass on the plays for the annual production. Many manuscripts are submitted each year, candidates for the honor having found favor in the eyes of this American art center.

"David," a Biblical play by Constance Skinner, was the first production.

Twice during the six year since then an annual play has been taken away and produced elsewhere. In 1912 "The Toad," by Bertha Newberry, was given in the Greek Theatre at Berkeley. The crowded amphitheatre was sufficient proof of the importance which had already attached to this new institution, the Forest Theatre Annual Play.

In 1915, "Junipero Serra," a pageant of the life of that great pioneer founder of the California Missions, by Perry Newberry, was given at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco. The performance attracted world wide notice, and was made the subject of favorable comment by dramatic critics from all over the country.

Of the seven annual plays produced by the Forest Theatre Society, only one had ever been previously produced elsewhere. Their second play was "Twelfth Night." Since then they have stuck strictly to their purpose of putting on only new plays, dramas by amateur authors. Thus Carmel has the distinction of being the only place in the world to-day where there is a real, organized society having a theatre and financial backing to make it possible for young playwrights to "try out" the children of their pens.

Unlike their former productions, "Yolanda of Cyprus" was not written especially for the Forest Theatre, but for an indoor theatre. Several years ago it was submitted by Mr. Rice to Julia Marlowe. Just as she was completing plans for starring in it, Mr. Frohman finished arrangements for her tour with E. K. Sothern in a Shakespearean repertoire, and "Yoland of Cyprus" was laid aside.

"Thus," said the author in his curtain speech on the opening night, "I found myself in the position of a man. who, having long been accustomed to look for the sun to rise in the east, suddenly finds it rising in the west."

"Yolanda of Cyprus" is a dramatization of Robert Browning's poem of the same name. Its plot closely follows that of the poem. The lesson brought out in the whole play is put into the mouth of Yolanda in Act 3: "Pity we owe to sin, not blame."

We have long been accustomed to speak of Browning as a dramatic poet, but the deep philosophical tendency of many of his poems repels the average reader. To such, the intense humanness of the appeal of both "Yolanda of Cyprus" and "The Piper" was a

real revelation. With all the thrill and vividness of a present day "problem play," "Yolanda of Cyprus" combines the mystery and glamour of sixteenth century Italy, the land of sunshine and

romance.

It is the story of Yolanda, an orphan, who, to save her foster mother, Berengere Lusignon, from the shame of her guilty love for Camarin, Baron of Papos, takes the blame upon herself. She is betrothed to Berengere's only son, Amaury, and is actuated in her sacrifice by love of him as well as of his mother. Driven by the scheming of Vittia Pisani, a Lady of Venice, who wishes to win Amaury, Yolanda finally consents to marry Camarin. last words of the marriage ceremony are pronounced, a scream makes them all pause. From a gateway, Alessa, Yolanda's lady in waiting, tells them: "Lady Berengere is dead."

As the

Thus seems to have vanished Yolanda's last hope of establishing her innocence. In the last act, Berengere's

own words: "Though I were dead, this sinning would awake me," are fulfilled. The dead lips open and proclaim to a startled household her own guilt and Yolanda's innocence. To complete the poetic justice, Camarin is killed by Amaury. The lovers are at last united, but even their bliss is clouded by the shadow of Berengere's sinning.

Some idea of the importance which attaches to these plays may be gathered from the fact that all the San Francisco dailies sent their dramatic critics to view them, and thither came many professional actors of repute, such as Mr. J. Gribner, who recently. played the lead in "Omar the Tentmaker."

Up to now, the dream of the Forest Theatre Society to develop a truly great dramatist who would produce a California drama which might justly take its place among the great dramas of the world, has not been realized. This year's play, written as it was by an author who had never before been

in Carmel, seems to mark a departure from that purpose.

Whether this widening of the field of their activities so as to give all amateurs from Carmel to Carolina, a chance to take advantage of the Forest Theatre is a step ahead or backwards, is an open question. Perhaps, like "Twelfth Night," "Yolanda of Cyprus," written by a New Yorker for an indoor Theatre, is an experiment that will not be repeated.

At any rate, regardless of the nativity of the author, this play goes to prove that, after all, there is not such an essential difference between dramas for outdoor and indoor theatres. A really good one, where plot and characters are sufficiently strong, will, with the help of a skillful producer such as Paul Newberry proved to be, fit in either place, and still make good. In this day, when many of the dramas depend for ninety per cent of their interest on the scenery and costuming, this production of "Yolanda of Cyprus" in the Forest Theatre at Carmel teaches a much needed lesson. Plot and characters are worth more, in the final anaylsis, than all the costumes and scenery ever designed.

In the children's plays no attempt has been made to secure originality. Their purpose is principally to give the children an opportunity to find and develop their histrionic ability.

Yet the children's plays attract quite as much attention as the annual plays. The sweet, clean simplicity of their plots and characters and the compelling charm of the spontaneous enthusiasm of the little actors and actresses offer a most refreshing change from the drama of to-day.

Such plays are chosen as "Alice in Wonderland," in 1912; "Strewel Peter" in 1914, and this year "The Piper." This was the prize play out of thousands of manuscripts submitted in the contest held in Stratford on Avon for the opening of the Shakespeare Theatre in 1910.

It takes up the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin just as the Piper returns to claim his reward for freeing

the town of their plague of rats and mice. Jacobus, the Burgomeister, and Kurt, the Syndic, refuse. So, to teach a lesson to the people of Hamelin, with its "narrow cobbled streets and little peeping windows that dream of what the neighbors say and the neighbors say," the Piper pipes the children of Hamelin away.

One of the women, Veronika, a foreigner, Kurt's second wife, comes, with her herd bell, to the "devil haunted wood" seeking Jan, her crippled son. The Piper has come to love this "little shipwrecked star" who pipes almost as well as he. Yet, after Veronika's pleadings have failed, the face of the Lonely Man on the wayside crucifix wins the Piper's promise to bring back the children.

He had hoped and dreamed of keeping them always with him since Hamelin did not appreciate them. "For who, says he, "appreciates a treasure while it is his?" "What do you know of children? 'some one to work for me when I am old, some one to follow me to the grave.' There's not one huddler by the fire who would shift his seat to a cold corner if it would bring back— all the children of Hamelin."

But, by the time he does bring them back, we feel that the people of Hamelin are, as they claim, "all altered men," and if the Piper has not let them out of the cage of Hamelin's narrowness, he has at least made the cage much less irksome to their young souls.

Such was The Piper who "Lived to let things out of cages."

Have the Annual Plays accomplished the purpose for which they were inaugurated? Thus far, no second Euripides or Aristophanes, no 20th century Shakespeare, has burst onto the dramatic horizon. But, some of those who have written for the Forest Theatre stage have made good professionally.

In the cast of the "Piper" were two examples of those whose histrionic abilities had been born and nurtured there. Ludovic Bremner, the Piper, began his career as an actor in Carmel, taking the part of Padre Palou in Ju

nipero Serra last year. Since then he has made a success touring the Northwest with a stock company in which he has often played leads. He is now planning to go on to the Orpheum stage.

Little Phyllis Overstreet, who played the part of Jan, has shown such ability in this and former productions that her parents are seriously considering the stage as a profession for her.

Frederick Preston Search, who composed much of the music for both plays and directed the orchestra, found at Carmel the beginning of his musical

successes.

Lord Renier in "Yolanda of Cyprus," was played by Winter Watts. His music is being sung and sought after by many of the prominent singers and players of the day. There is a simple dignity about his compositions which. makes them distinctive and promises a

really great future. The dirge in the last act of "Yolanda of Cyprus" was his work.

Then there is William Greer Harrison, who wrote "Runnymede," the annual play for 1913; Mrs. Heron, who is now a moving picture actress; Jeanette Hoagland, who gives promise of some day taking her place among the great dancers; and many others, all of whom have "found themselves" in the romantic Forest Theatre at Carmel by the Sea.

Thus, aside from the pleasure they give those who see and who take part, this unique institution of the Annual Play and the Children's Play has justified its existence in the "Athens of America." We may reasonably hope some day to see here the birth of a drama such as was born beside the blue waters of the Mediterranean two thousand years ago.