The Poly Play Workshop
Professor Tucker
To understand how The Poly Play Workshop started, we must first know who one person is.
Professor Samuel Marion Tucker.
Emeritus Samuel Marion Tucker was born in 1876 and was an English Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. He was head of the English Department from 1911 to 1945 (Changing the world citation). While there isn’t a whole lot of information about his personal life, he is a name that is very important to not just the Poly Play Workshop, but for Drama at Poly.
The story of the Poly Play Workshop starts in 1913, when Tucker started teaching Drama classes in the english department as electives. There were 3 classes that he taught off and on. The first class was “Studies in the Drama”, which aimed to “quicken the students’ appreciation of human life and character as interpreted by great dramatists”. The second class was “Modern Drama”, which aimed to “aid in the education of an intelligent playgoing public through a knowledge of what constitutes a good play” and “awaken the possibilities of the drama in its representation of character in action and treatment of vital issues”. The third class was “Studies and Excercises in Dramatic Technique” which was a continuation of Modern Drama, but from a “somewhat different point of view”.
Tucker also was known for taking students to theater productions. The first time I could find an outing like this was in the 1921 student newspaper, although it is very possible that he was taking students on outings well before this since he had been at Poly for a little over 10 years by this time. What was really interesting about this outings, was that not only did he take students to see the shows, they also often got backstage tours after the show to learn about what goes into the technical aspect of putting on a production.
Something that is really important to all of this is that Poly did already have a drama club. They were called the Dramatic Play Association (P.D.A.), I will talk more in-depth about it later, but what you need to know now is that the P.D.A. had quite a specific goal of only focusing on the acting and performing aspect of performance. They were a fairly well established club, so why did we need another Drama club?
The simple answer is the scope of the P.D.A. was too small for a school of engineers. Sure, acting is fun, but what about the production aspect of it? The lighting? The sound? The set? The real technical aspects of it. Professor Tucker saw that this was what the P.D.A. was missing, and based on his successful outings, it was also an aspect that the students were genuinely interested in. Thus, the idea of the Poly Play Workshop is born.
(Not the official Poly Play Workshop quite yet though :) )
Talks of a New Club
The talks of a drama club that would be different than any other drama club Poly has ever seen before was in the works. In the 1922 Polytechnic Reporter Article, titled, “Modern Drama Course Nucleus of Tucker Dramatic League at Poly”, the talks of the “formation of a Dramatic League or Work-Shop similar to that at Yale and at other Universities” was mentioned. (It is hard to find specific information about the scope of the Yale Dramatic Association, but it is worth noting that it was founded in 1901 and is still running, thus making it the “second oldest college theater company in the United States”. The first being The Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society of Georgetown University)
“The Discussion was a direct outgrowth of the purpose of the meeting which concerned the practicality of building a stage in the English Library in concerned the practicability of building a stage in the English Library in connection with the course given by Dr. Tucker in Modern Drama… It has opened up vast possibilities toward that establishment of a Dramatic League to possibly broaden the scope of what is now the Polytechnic Dramatic Association”
The talks for the Play Workshop went on for about 2 months, with much of the deliberation about the funding of the club itself, who would be allowed in the club, and about the feasibility of building a stage in the English Library. This stage would be quite small and would be installed with a full lighting system. The Department of Electrical Engineering became very interested this project and offered their assistance in the installation of the lights. The group found out that they could create the stage for $1,800 with the full lighting setup. They had also found out that they could get $600 in funding from Student Council, so it was just up to them to get the rest of the money.
“The work on the development of the “Play Workshop” and its organization has begun in earnest and should not be delayed or superceded in the mind of any student by anything else of less importance. It is indeed the greatest activity into which the student body has entered in many years and will certainly prove to be on the the most influential assets of the Alma Mater after the period of the organization has passed”
A constitutional and organizing meeting was held with the Seniors in Professor Tuckers Modern Drama course, which all voted to support the workshop. They also had the support of the student body, staff members, and most importantly, the president of Poly at the time, President Atkinson, who was “most enthusiastic and promised his hearty support”.
On November 10th, 1922, the Student Council had an official vote on whether or not to recognize The Play Workshop as an official club.
“The petition asking for recognition of the Play Workshop organization was unanimously accepted. Its organization and officers were officially recognized, and they were now a part of the extra-curriculum activity of the college”
The Poly Play Workshop was now an official club.
We Have a Club, Now What?
The Poly Play Workshop covered all the different aspects of theater, including acting, directing, designing scenery and lighting. The beauty in it was that there were no limitations. Students were also encouraged to write their own plays! There really was something for everyone.
The Poly Play Workshop were scheduled to have executive meetings on the first Thursday of every month. These meetings could only be voted on by the executive committee which was composed of the president, the vice-presidents, the secretary-treasurer, the director, the chairman of the stage committee and the chairman of the casting committee.
Membership was granted immediately to Seniors who expressed interest in the Workshop. Anyone else who wanted to get in were to write an application to the secretary of the executive committee. This system for starting out did have some drawbacks, with the main one being that the Play Workshop Body was a majority upperclassmen with very little underclassmen representation. The Poly Reporter defended the Play Workshop saying that, “It is not the intention, however, that any one division of the student body shall be preferred as members nor that membership will be closed to all but those who display a certain amount of talent in the dramatic field; the objects and code of the organization are essentially democratic and as such will prove a great accelerator to the inculcating of enthusiasm in the underclassmen for the drama and its development”
The First Show!
Their first ever show of the Poly Play Workshop was put on in the English Library on January 31st, 1923. They put on “Free Speech” a One-Act farce written by William L. Prosser that portrays a travesty in Bolshevik Russia. “As a matter of fact, speech was so free that anyone within the least 500 feet of the library received an excessive amount without any extra charge”
Their first show went terribly. There were many awkward pauses, and actors did not know their lines.
“Several times, after working up to a heated climax, the entire action came to a complete halt until one of the actors took his part out of his pocket then continued to read his lines”
This show did not have a set, costumes, or any fancy lighting due to budget constraints and of course becaus they had just started their club. It was just the actors playing their characters on stage, well except for Perillo who “thought he would look more like a Bolshevik if he used his necktie like a belt”. They did have makeshift props aswell, “The sweepers were also slightly inconvenienced… because of the scarcity of yard-sticks, the handles were removed from their brushes in order to provide the Bolshevik army with rifles”
It set the tone for the Play Workshop as a group that was willing to take risks in theater, and use the resources they had available. There was much room for improvement for the Poly Play Workshop, but hey, we all have to start somewhere.
The Next 10 Years
The first 8 years of The Play Workshop are talked about very highly in all Polywogs. Here is a recount of their first 10 years using their Polywog club entries.
1923
In 1923, they had 80 total members, they were quite popular, and if we are using the number of members as a metric, I would also argue that they were quite successful.
1924
In 1924, they had 60 total members and had their full little theater completed in the English Library. They also put on their first public performances in the Chapel, which were “highly successful from all points of view”. Their shows prior to this had only been open to other students. They also entered the Little Theatre Tournament of the New York Drama League. They were growing fast and making sure Poly knew just how serious they were
1925
In 1925, They continued to give regular weekly shows on their stage in the English Library, and gave more public performances in the Chapel. The 1925 Polywog reads, “It is unnecessary to add, of course, that every performance was a profound success. The Future of the Workshop is among the brightest of all organizations at Poly”
1926
In 1926, the Workshop made great progress by having a small studio theater opened in the college Chapel that they could now use. This provided much more room for set building and lighting. They continued their weekly productions at the chapel. They had their largest public audience to date, “The public production last fall was attended by the largest audience ever assembled for any event of this kind at the Institute”. They had 60 members this year.
1927
In 1927, there was no written entry for the Play Workshop, just a list of all board members.
1928
In 1928, there are not any specific milestones mentioned, but the Polywog speaks very highly of them and writes that, “The six years of the Play Workshop's existence have been years of consistent progress and enlarging capacity”.
1929
In 1929, there are also no specific milestones mentioned, and the usual high praise of their shows is missing. There are however 2 long paragraphs about using Asbestos to build stage scenery.
1930-1932
In 1930-1932, there was also no written entry, however there are a couple things worth noting. The first and most important thing is that Professor Tucker is no longer mentioned as the Faculty Advisor for the Play Workshop. The last evidence of him being involved is him pictured in the 1930 Play Workshop group photo. After this year, he is no longer in the board member credits for the club and not in any other group photos. Another thing worth noting is that the group member photos for these years are quite large, with over 40 members pictured at a time, which leads me to believe that there is high involvement in the club at this time based on the visual record. Finding out why Tucker is no longer the faculty advisor after 8 years will involve further research.
The End
The Poly Play Worksop had a wonderful 28 year long run, but officially ended in 1950. In all honesty it is somewhat unclear to me why the Play Workshop ended. They slowly stopped being written about in the Polytechnic Reporter and their last Polywog entry had no indication that they were ending. However, there are a couple things that I do know that I think could have contributed to the end. For starters, Professor Tucker retired from Poly in 1945, which could have been a very significant contribution. He was a major player in keeping the drama scene alive in Poly, and it’s possible that the love for theater on campus left with him. However, Tucker stepped down as the academic advisor of the Play Workshop sometime in the 1930’s, so it is hard to say whether his retirement had any direct involvement with the end of the Workshop.
Another possible reason for the Workshop’s end could simply be because of a lack of interest from students. There are a couple of articles in the years from 1937-1950 that briefly mention a hard time casting people, however this is maybe 3 articles in a span of 13 years, so it definitely could have been something that was more of an issue in the year.
In their last Polywog entry of 1950, it reads,
“You see,” pontificated the caterpillar, “an engineer can produce a play, but a theatrical man can’t produce a bridge.”
“I have a riddle,” said the Mad Hatter, “Why is an engineer’s play like a theatrical man’s bridge?”
“Because neither will stand up in the long run,” said Alice.