  In the original production of this masque, referred to in the Foreword, the sanctuary stage was devised by Mr. Joseph Lindon Smith in two planes—the natural and the supernatural, harmoniously blended. The natural plane, in the foreground, was a leaf-strewn plot of earth; the supernatural, in the background, was a constructed stage some eighteen inches higher, sloping slightly upward toward the back, covered with smooth canvas, practical for dancing, so painted as to suggest a weathered outcropping of rock, overgrown in places by moss and greensward. This constructed stage was divided from the foreground earth by the trunk of a felled maple tree, straight in line and inconspicuous in color. In front of this dividing line, SHY and Alwyn remained always in the natural plane; behind it, Ornis and Tacita remained always in the supernatural. Their scenes In the scene of his conversion, Stark was lured into the higher plane by Tacita; while Quercus alone among the characters skipped back and forth from one plane to the other. As audience, the non-participating spectators sat in dominoes of brown, flanked on either side by the bird-participants in their pied bird costumes. These latter watched the performance until, at the finale, they were summoned by Quercus upon the constructed stage. There, when all had been marshalled, entered the Cardinal Bird [enacted by Mr. Herbert Adams, the sculptor], accompanied by two small scarlet-tanager acolytes [boys], bearing great candles, to light a crimson cushion held by the Cardinal. On the cushion lay an open scroll. This scroll, itself a sheet of parchment-like paper from the original press of Benjamin Franklin, had been inscribed by Mr. Stephen Parrish with a Sonnet-Epilogue, Cardinal Bird and Hummingbird Moving slowly forward to music till he stood before President and Mrs. Wilson, where they sat near the centre of the first row of the audience, the Cardinal Bird, with simple dignity, read from the scroll this EPILOGUEAddressed to Mrs. Woodrow Wilson: Lady, WHEREAS your gentle patronage And presence have to-night so favored us In this our ritual, that you have thus Lent to our earnest cause a double gage: One gracious daughter to make glad our stage And one to make its theme harmonious With song—whose sire now makes illustrious The larger theatre of our living age: Therefore, ere yet the privilege be spent Which grants our thoughts the spell of human words, Our loyal love to him—the President, Whose heart has heard the call of the wild birds, And sign ourselves Your Servants, with gratitude. Having thus presented the scroll, the Cardinal Bird with his Acolytes retired to the stage, where the final dance and procession of the bird-participants then took place. The Programme of the performance [omitting that part of the Prelude already printed on pages xix and xx] was as follows: UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF MRS. WOODROW WILSON AND THE FOLLOWING COMMITTEE MRS. HERBERT ADAMS MRS. C. C. BEAMAN ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES KENYON COX PERCY MACKAYE MAXFIELD PARRISH CHARLES A. PLATT MRS. GEORGE RUBLEE LOUIS EVAN SHIPMAN JOSEPH LINDON SMITH MRS. AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS MEMBERS OF THE MERIDEN BIRD CLUB JOIN WITH RESIDENTS OF CORNISH, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND THEIR FRIENDS, TO PRESENT A MASQUE IN THE INTEREST OF AMERICAN WILD BIRD PROTECTION SONG “THE HERMIT THRUSH” SUNG BY MISS MARGARET WILSON THE SONG COMPOSED BY FREDERICK S. CONVERSE TO WORDS BY ARVIA MACKAYE, WHO ENACTS THE PART OF THE LITTLE GIRL MERIDEN, NEW HAMPSHIRE: SEPTEMBER 12, 1913 SANCTUARY A BIRD MASQUE BY PERCY MACKAYE PERFORMED UNDER THE FOLLOWING DIRECTION STAGE PRODUCTION BY JOSEPH LINDON SMITH DANCING BY JULIET BARRETT RUBLEE ORIGINAL MUSIC BY FREDERICK S. CONVERSE PROPERTIES BY WILLIAM HOWARD HART PROGRAMME DESIGN BY KENYON COX PERSONS IN THE MASQUE IN THE ORDER OF THEIR APPEARANCE
BIRD PARTICIPANTS IN PANTOMIME
OFFICERS OF THE MERIDEN BIRD CLUB PRESIDENT, DR. ERNEST L. HUSE VICE PRESIDENTS MRS. E. E. WHEELER MR. NEIL CRONIN PROF. FRANK M. HOWE PROF. CHESTER H. SEARS SECRETARY, MR. JOHN FARNUM CANN TREASURER, MR. ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES GENERAL MANAGER, MISS MARY L. CHELLIS MASQUE COMMITTEE FOR THE MERIDEN BIRD CLUB MR. ROBERT BARRETT MRS. ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES MR. JOHN FARNUM CANN MISS ANNIE H. DUNCAN MISS MARY A. FREEMAN MR. ALBION E. LANG MR. CHARLES ALDEN TRACY MRS. E. E. WHEELER COSTUMES MRS. HERBERT ADAMS MISS ELLEN SHIPMAN MR. JOSEPH LINDON SMITH PHOTOGRAPHS, DR. ARNOLD GENTHE BIRD-NOTES, MISS KATHERINE MINAHAN INVITATIONS, MISS ANNIE H. DUNCAN AUTOMOBILES, MR. GRISWOLD HAYWOOD STAGING AND SEATS MR. WILLIAM HOWARD HART MR. JOHN FARNUM CANN The Canterbury Pilgrims. A Comedy. Jeanne d’Arc. A Tragedy. Sappho and Phaon. A Tragedy. Fenris the Wolf. A Tragedy. A Garland to Sylvia. A Dramatic Reverie. The Scarecrow. A Tragedy of the Ludicrous. Yankee Fantasies. Five One-Act Plays. Mater. An American Study in Comedy. Anti-Matrimony. A Satirical Comedy. To-morrow. A Play in Three Acts. Sanctuary. A Bird Masque. A Thousand Years Ago. A Romance of the Orient. Poems. Uriel, and Other Poems. Lincoln: A Centenary Ode. The Playhouse and the Play. Essays. The Civic Theatre. Essays. At all booksellers |
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