They strive to supply the citizens with true artistic drama
continuously, and to reduce the cost of admission to the playhouse to
the lowest possible terms. But the working details of the foreign
municipal theatres differ widely in individual cases, and a
municipality which contemplates a first theatrical experiment is
offered a large choice of method. In some places the municipality acts
with regal munificence, and directly assumes the largest possible
responsibilities. It provides the site, erects the theatre, and allots
a substantial subsidy to its maintenance. The manager is a municipal
officer, and the municipal theatre fills in the social life of the
town as imposing a place as the town-hall, cathedral, or university.
Elsewhere the municipality sets narrower limits to its sphere of
operations. It merely provides the site and the building, and then
lets the playhouse out at a moderate rental to directors of proved
efficiency and public spirit, on assured conditions that they honestly
serve the true interests of art, uphold a high standard of production,
avoid the frivolity and spectacle of the market, and fix the price of
seats on a very low scale. Here no public funds are seriously
involved.
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