RURAL DRAMA 239 



Several original plays have been presented to large crowds. 

 Three of these, "For the Cause," "A New Liberator" and 

 "Bridging the Chasm," made an unusually fine impression 

 upon the audiences. They were written under the direction of 

 Abbie Simmons, writer of plays and a splendid student of the 

 drama. 



Perhaps the most interesting incidents which have occurred 

 in connection with the work of the Little Country Theater were 

 the presentation of "A Farm Home Scene in Iceland Thirty 

 Years Ago," "The Prairie Wolf," "Back to the Farm" and "A 

 Bee in a Drone's Hive." All of these productions have come 

 out of the country people themselves. Standing room was at a 

 premium. The Little Country Theater could not hold the 

 crowds, 80 per cent, of the people being farmers who were eager 

 to see the drama of their creation. 



"A Farm! Home Scene in Iceland Thirty Years Ago" was 

 staged by twenty young men and women of Icelandic descent 

 whose homes are in the country districts of North Dakota. The 

 tableau was very effective. The scene represented an interior 

 sitting-room of an Icelandic home. The walls were whitewashed ; 

 in the rear of the room was a fireplace ; the old grandfather was 

 seated in an arm-chair near the fireplace reading a story in the 

 Icelandic language. About the room were several young ladies 

 in native costumes, busily engaged in spinning yarn and knit- 

 ting, a favorite pastime of an Icelandic home. On a chair at 

 the right was a young man with a violin playing selections from 

 an Icelandic composer. Through the small window rays of light 

 were thrown, representing the midnight sun and the northern 

 lights. Just before the curtain fell, twenty young people, all 

 Icelanders, joined in singing their national song, which has the 

 same tune as "America." The effect of the tableau was far- 

 reaching. The two hundred people who saw it will never for- 

 get it. 



"The Prairie AVolf," a play written by a young man named 

 John Lange, was staged in the Little Country Theater before an 

 audience representing more than thirty rural communities in the 

 State. The play was not only written by a young farmer, but it 

 was staged and rehearsed by country people. It was a tre- 



