The municipality pays no subsidy. The rent of the theatre
supplies the municipality with normal interest on the capital that is
invested in site and building. It is public credit of a moral rather
than of a material kind which is pledged to the cause of dramatic art.
In a third class of municipal theatre the public body confines its
material aid to the gratuitous provision of a site. Upon that site
private enterprise is invited to erect a theatre under adequate
guarantee that it shall exclusively respect the purposes of art, and
spare to the utmost the pockets of the playgoer. To render dramatic
art accessible to the rank and file of mankind, with the smallest
possible pressure on the individual citizen's private resources, is of
the essence of every form of municipal theatrical enterprise.
The net result of the municipal theatre, especially in German-speaking
countries, is that the literary drama, both of the past and present,
maintains a grip on the playgoing public which is outside English
experience. There is in Germany a very flourishing modern German drama
of literary merit. Sudermann and Hauptmann hold the ears of men of
letters throughout Europe.
Pages:
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195