United Automobile Worker

He built a fence around twelve thousand acres,
Built a fence and set watchmen at the gates and said, "this is mine."
Twelve thousand acres of green grass and trees and a brook,
With soft, cooling shade in the summer,
The rustle of multi-colored leaves in the autumn,
While in winter the drifting snow fashions fairy castles among the branches.
Around all this he built a fence and said,"keep out."
He is an old man and busy,
From his window he can see his twelve thousand acres,
But he never goes there,
Inside that fence no man ever enters,
No children dream in the shade, nor romp among the multi-colored leaves,
Nor shout, nor play on a winter day,
There is a fence around twelve thousand acres,
And one third of a nation is without a home.

The Federal Theatre carries on "--with one third of a nation-" at the Lafayette Theatre and the other evening I watched the production from back stage, visited the players in their dressing rooms and whispered to them behind the scenes. After twelve years of working with theatres in Detroit I find my experience at the Federal Theatre refreshing and promising. Some of us have dreamed of a National Theatre that would glorify our country's traditions and culture and now, perhaps, the Federal Theatre is the beginning of what will eventually materialize into the fulfillment of that dream.

Mr. Haldene is the director of the Federal Theatre. He comes to Detroit from the Federal Theatre in Alabama. The director of "-one third of a nation-" made his first professional appearance in Des Moines, Iowa at the age of twelve. He later attended Drake University and Carnegie Tech when that school was noted for its course in drama and stage-craft. The next few years found Mr. Haldene acting in vaudeville and stock. He turned to directing and directed stock companies in Youngstown, spent a profitable summer in group theatre production at Steamboat Springs, Colorado and was in Birmingham, Alabama when the Federal Theatre was inaugurated.

"The one hope of a National Theatre," said Haldene "lies in a successful Federal Theatre."

Back in the days when Jesse Bonstelle brought a troup each year to the old Garrick in Detroit, local theatre goers used to go especially to see Marie Curtis. I called her an old timer and she smiled at me and told me that she was an old timer: that her lifetime had been spent in the theatre, playing thousands of parts. She told me of glorious days on Broadway and in Chicago and Boston and San Francisco and Podunk. And then we talked of the Federal Theatre and this old timer's eyes lighted up and she threw back her head and became enthusiastic about the future of American drama.

, "The new theatre," she called it. The theatre that would give us a chance to produce great plays where all the actors work together for the glorification of the theatre and the idea and where the old struggle for stardom is seen no more.

I talked to Edith Segal and Peggy Fenn, young in years, ripe in experience. There were the old troupers, great names of the past, Oxley Taylor, Courtney White, a Broadway star of yesteryear; Miss Von Buelow. Mrs. William Faversham, wife of the great producer, and Ruth Whitworth, Dave Carnes, who trouped for years in burlesque and vaudeville: Francis Clark, Eleanor Knight, Mary L'Herminier, who was leading lady when the Woodward Players held forth. Then there was my first director, J. Richard Gamble, whom Detroiters have applauded for many years. And then there are the youngsters, Charles Bell of the Contemporary Theatre, and Michael Switzer, and on and on Troupers, giving all they have to the building of something great and fine. Putting their strength and hopes and dreams into creating a theatre that will give joy and satisfaction to poor mortals like you and me.

That is the Federal Theatre. A living monument to foresight, courage and the will to bring beauty and art to the masses. There is one part of the Federal Theatre I haven't been able to meet. The part that will keep it going, the part that will insure a permanent acting company for Detroit. You, the audience. A troup of brave-hearted people are doing their part; I implore you to do yours. You, the audience; you, the people, take your place among those who are building a National Theatre for America.

RALPH H. MARLATT.