Most of our great cities supply, in addition,
municipal picture galleries, in which the citizens take pride, and to
which in their corporate capacity they contribute large sums of money.
The municipal theatre is the natural complement of the municipal
library, the municipal musical entertainment, and the municipal art
gallery.
V
Of the practicability of a municipal theatre ample evidence is at
hand. Foreign experience convincingly justifies the municipal mode of
theatrical enterprise. Every great town in France, Germany, Austria,
and Switzerland has its municipal theatre. In Paris there are three,
in addition to four theatres which are subsidised by the State. It is
estimated that there are seventy municipal theatres in the
German-speaking countries of Europe, apart from twenty-seven State
theatres. At the same time, it should be noted that in the French and
German capitals there are, at the side of the State and municipal
playhouses, numerous theatres which are run on ordinary commercial
lines. The prosperity of these houses is in no way checked by the
contiguity of theatrical enterprise of State or municipality.
All municipal theatres on the continent of Europe pursue the same
aims.
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