Theatre Design & Technology - May 1969 - 16

In 1932, Robert Edmond Jones was invited to
Central City, Colorado, a "ghost mining tovvn,"
of the boom days of nineteenth- century Colorado, to reopen the Central City Opera House
and to creale there an annual summer festival
program that would be a significant theatrical
event in America_ Jones fell in love with the
old opera which he called "the most beautiful
opera house in the world," and he produced in
it the summers of 1932, '33, '34, '35, and
1941_ The press releases he sent back to the
New York Tinles each summer to announce the
new season are more than just press releases;
they are rhapsodic and ecstatic word pictures of
the kind of Central City productions Jones
hoped to create. In these releases, Jones expresses as clearly as in any of his writings,
the romanticism and the high oPtimism he always held for the complete theatrical experience. Jones could not write, not even a press
release about the theatre with anything less
than the fervor of an evangelist.

Henrv VIII: Execution (Buckingham's Farewell): Detail of Steps
"Note: This drawing shows how steps fit over
permanent platforms. Make steps to look rough
and worn. Pad: Cover with duck."
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From time 10 time, Robert Edmond Jones recorded his experiences with great personalities
of the theatre that he had been associated
with, reminiscences that reveal as much about
Jones as they do about his subjects. Late rn
his life, he planned a book about ijinsky.
Isadora Duncan, Sarah Bernhardt, and John
Barrymore. Unfortunately, the essays on Bernhardt and Barrymore were never completed.

"Nijinsky and Til Eulenspiegel," Dance Index I,
April. 1945, 44-54. In 1916 Jones was invited to
create the setting and costumes for Til Eulenspiegel,
a ballet Nijinsky had created to the music of Richard
Strauss, to be produced by the Metropolitan Opera
Company. Jones records this experience with the
iamous personality uf ballet in fa~cinating detail.
Jones' setting and costumes contributed as much to
the success of the production as any other elements.
The Gloves of Isadore," Theatre Arts Monthly
XXX, October, 1947, 17-22. Jones recalis the impact Isadora Duncan had several times during his life.
Jones worked with Duncan on several occasions and
his memories reveal facets oi this personality heretofore undisclosed. The romantic poet in Jones shimmers throughout this essay.
"Curious and Profitable," Privately printed and circulated by Jones. no date. Stimulated by an idea of
Walt Whitman, Jones describes the reactions of "an
ideal spectator, intelligent and sensitive yet totally
ignorant of the theatre," to the modern theatre_

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Robert Edmond Jones lectured frequently on
the art of the theatre, especially after he put
himself in the hands of a lecture bureau in
1941. He visited many college and universities
where he spoke to students. In 1952 Frederick
C. Packard of Harvard University invited Jones
to Cambridge to record several. Four were
recorded under the general title of Toward a
New Theatre, and edited and released by Mr.
Packard under the label of Vocariurn Records.

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"Glamour Revised." New York Times, June 3D,
1935, X, 1. Jones arranged a musical he called
Central City Nights for the summer of 1935. made
up of excerpts of various entertainments that had appeared in the Central City Opera house during its
nineteenth-century heyday.

"The Moor of Venice," The Stage XIV, December,
1936, 70-1. Although an announcement, in intent,
of the Max Gordon production of Othello in New York
WIth Walter Huston (a considerably revised version of
the 1934 Central City production), Jones reminisces
about the Waller Huston of the past; his abilities as
an actor and especially his creation of the role of
Ephraim Cabot in Eugene 0' eill's Desire Under the
Elms, which Jones directed at the Greenwich Village
Theatre in 1924.

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"The Bard in Central City's Opera House," New
York Times, June 24, 1934, X, 1. An announcement that for the 1934 season Jones was revivrng
Shakespeare's tragedy, Othello with Walter Huston
as the Moor and Nan Sunderland as Desdmona.

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Central City's Ghosts Again Eye The Future," New
York Times, June lB, 1933, X, 1. A resume of the
opening season (1932). in which Jones revived
Camille with Lillian Gish, and the announcement of
the new production of The Merry Widow for the
summer of 1933.

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Towards a New Theatre. No_ 1. Vocarium Records,
Boston, 1955. In May of 1947, Jones delivered this
I ecture for the first time to the drama students of
Yale University and it has become known as the Yale
lecture (It has never been published). although he
used it frequently at subsequent lectures. It was one
of Jones most popular lectures. In it he criticizes the
contemporary theatre, calling it the 'pitti-pat' theatre.
Toward a New Theatre. No_ 2. Vocarium Records,
Boston, 1959_ This lecture is, for the most part, an
extension of the material Jones used in his essay.
"The Theatre As It Has Been and As It Is."
Toward a New Theatre. No.3. Vocariurn Records,
Boston, 1965. Much of the material for this recording, Jones adapted from his essay, "The Artist's
Approach to the Theatre."

Henry VIII: Buckingham's Farewell

Toward a New Theatre. No.4. Vocarium Records,
Boston, 1965. A reading of the privately printed
pamphlet, "Curious and Profitable." Lectures No. 1
and
o. 2 are available on individual discs, No. 3
and roo 4 are available on a single reel (tape). All
four recordings available through Fredrick C. Packard,
RFD. No.2, New BrunswiCk, 1aine.

II.

Interviews, Biographical Accounts. and Personal Reminiscences

(Anonymous), "The Gentlemen of Decoration," New
York Times, February 14, 1915, VII, 4. An unsigned
interview with Jones shortly after the opening of
The Man Who Married A Dumb Wife. Jones called
an innovator because of setting and coStumes for
Dumb Wife. He recalls his European tflP and reminisces about his experiences observing Reinhardt in
lunich.
Gottholdt, Ru h. 'The New Scenic An of the Theatre,
Theatre Magazine XXI, \Olay, 1915. 24B 'f
Another interview a ter the success a DUlnb Wife.
A.mid all the evangeliZing about the ar thea re mo ement in America that IS \\ntten and discussed at this
Ime, it is interes mg to note that in this imervie\\
Jones declares that he \\ ants to work and is satisfied
to work on Broad\~·ay, not in any art theatre_ He also
dIsclaims the painter and the decorator III the theatre
at a lime when palf1ter-designers such as Bakst.
Benols. and the other RUSSian designers were being
extolled for their ballet backdrops.

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