Treasure Island is a play in four acts and ten scenes by Jules Eckert Goodman that is based on Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel of the same name.[1] It was first published in 1915 by Samuel French, Inc.,[2] and was later included in the children's play anthology Another Treasury of Plays for Children (1926, Little, Brown and Company) which was edited by Montrose Jonas Moses.[3] While not the first stage adaptation of Stevenson's novel, it was the first adaptation to achieve critical and commercial success;[4] bringing both "fame and fortune" to its author.[5]
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Production history
editTreasure Island premiered in Albany, New York at Hermanus Bleecker Hall on November 8, 1915.[6] The production moved to Broadway where it debuted at the Punch and Judy Theatre on December 1, 1915.[1] A hit, the play continued to run at that theater until May 27, 1916.[7] The play was produced by the owner of the Punch and Judy Theatre,[8] Charles Hopkins,[9] and co-directed by Hopkins and Edward Emery.[10] Maurice Rumsey, the show's musical director, contributed some original music, but mainly adapted, arranged, and conducted pre-existing music by other other composers for the show such as Camille Saint-Saëns's Danse macabre.[11] The costumes were designed by Ruth Vivian, and the wigs were designed by Coyle and Deutschmann.[12]
The original cast of Treasure Island was led by Mrs. Charles Hopkins (1886-1960), the wife of the director and producer, who played the role of Jim Hawkins.[8] Charles also appeared in the play in the role of Ben Gunn. The show's other director, Edward Emery, played the lead villain, the pirate Long John Silver. Other original cast members included Leonard Willey as Captain Alexander Smollett, David Glassford as Dr. Livesey, Edmund Gurney as Squire Trelawney, and Tim Murphy as Billy Bones among others.[1]
After the Broadway production closed, the play was performed regionally in the United States in stock theatre.[13] It later became a work used by junior high and high school drama programs in the United States after its publication in Another Treasury of Plays for Children in 1926.[14] It was also very popular with amateur community theatre.[8] It was revived at the New York Hippodrome in 1938 in a production directed by William Rathburn.[15] The play was mounted at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in London in December 1950 through January 1951 with Michael Logan as Long John Silver and Anna Wing as Mrs. Hawkins.[16]
References
editCitations
edit- ^ a b c "' TREASURE ISLAND' IS NO END OF FUN; Goodman's Dramatization Is Rich with the Color and Spirit of the Story. AT THE PUNCH AND JUDY With Edward Emery and Frank Sylvester Excelling in a Needlessly Fragmentary Stage Version". The New York Times. December 2, 1915. p. 11.
- ^ Jules Eckert Goodman (1915). Treasure Island: A Play in Four Acts and Ten Scenes. Samuel French, Inc.
- ^ Shell 2009, p. 260.
- ^ Hamilton, Clayton (January 1916). "Stevenson on the Stage". The Bookman: 530.
- ^ Constance D'Arcy MacKay (April 1927). "Writing and Placing the Children's Play". The Writer. Vol. 39, no. 4. p. 130.
- ^ Carson 1915, p. 170.
- ^ Matthew White, Jr. (July 1916). "The Stage: Review of the 1915-16 Season". Munsey's Magazine. LVIII (11): 323.
- ^ a b c Bordman 1995, p. 35.
- ^ Wheeler, Edward J., ed. (February 1916). "Transferring the Atmosphere of "Treasure Island" to the Theater". Current Opinion. LX (2): 102.
- ^ Fisher & Londré 2009, p. 488.
- ^ Channing Pollock (February 1916). "Sugar and Spice; "Treasure Island"". The Green Book Magazine: 313-315.
- ^ Davis 1958, p. 100.
- ^ "Treasuure Island". The Dramatic Mirror. June 2, 1917.
- ^ Ethel Robinson (November 1928). Rachel Markley (ed.). "Treasure Island!". Theatre and School. 7 (2). Drama Teachers' Association of California.
- ^ Bedard & Tolch 1989, p. 112.
- ^ Wearing 2014, p. 69.
Bibliography
edit- Bedard, Roger L.; Tolch, C. John (1989). Spotlight on the Child: Studies in the History of American Children's Theatre. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313368325.
- Bordman, Gerald (1995). "Treasure Island". American theatre : a Chronicle of Comedy and Drama, 1914-1930. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195090789.
- Carson, Lionel, ed. (1915). "The Stage" Year Book: 1915. London: The Stage.
- Davis, Jed Horace (1958). The Art of Scenic Design and Staging for Children's Theatre (Ph.D). University of Minnesota.
- Fisher, James; Londré, Felicia Hardison (2009). "Treasure Island". The A to Z of American Theater: Modernism. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810870475.
- Hamilton, Clayton Meeker (1917). Problems of the Playwright. Henry Holt and Company.
- Shell, Marc (2009). Stutter. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674043534.
- Wearing, J. P. (2014). The London Stage 1950-1959: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9780810893085.
External links
edit- Treasure Island at the Internet Broadway Database
- Heywood Broun (May 13, 1916). "The Season's Plays". Collier's: 23.
- "Stevenson's Pirates Lit Up By Footlights". The Literary Digest. LII (1). January 1, 1916.