THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE GARDEN FOR DRAMATIC PERFORMANCES— 
THE REQUIREMENTS AND CONSTRUCTION OF A GARDEN THEATRE 
by Grace Tabor 
Editor’s Note: The plans of the theatre of the Villa Collodi are drawn by Professor H. V. Hubbard and are furnished by courtesy of Landscape Architecture, where 
they appeared in connection with an article by Professor Hubbard. The two remaining plans are rendered by IV. H. Butterfield. The picture at the head of this article 
shows a scene in the garden of Mrs. Clara Hinton Gould, Santa Barbara, California, the scenic possibilities of which were utilized by the American Film Company in pro¬ 
ducing a picture drama. 
W HILE it is not within my 
province just here and 
now to go into the merits of dra¬ 
matic impersonation as an educa¬ 
tional factor in child life, as well 
as a stimulating and delightful 
form of recreation for all ages, I 
feel that I must make some refer¬ 
ence to this in presenting for se¬ 
rious consideration so new a gar¬ 
den feature as the garden theatre 
—new at least to us here in 
America. For it is as a great deal 
more than mere garden novelty— 
more even than inviting play 
space—that I would ask to have 
it considered, although its claims 
to consideration on these grounds 
are the highest and most urgent. 
V ery wonderful discoveries 
have been made, however, within 
just a very few years about the 
function of this instinct of play— 
of make-believe—that man shares 
only with the higher animals; and 
very wonderful things they are 
telling us—those whose lives are 
devoted to the study of these 
things—about the potentialities of 
this instinct for character build¬ 
ing ; for modeling, indeed, the en¬ 
tire being as growth advances. 
As these claims come more and more to be demonstrated—as 
seems bound to be, for they are undoubtedly sound and scien¬ 
tifically true and demonstrable—dramatic performance must 
come more and more to be accorded tbe high place in the life of 
the child, particularly that its importance demands. Hence the 
garden theatre comes at once to fill a real need where there are 
children. 
But the possibilities of such a feature in any garden, anywhere, 
can hardly be exaggerated, opening up as it does an entire field 
of entertainment commonly limited to indoors, for one thing; to 
the winter season because of being limited to indoors, for an¬ 
other ; and to the exceptional house, finally and most positively. 
Moreover, the arrangement of such space as may be given up to 
it may very easily present itself as an attractive garden motif, 
apart from its entertainment purpose. So there is absolutely 
nothing to be lost and a very great deal that may be gained in 
the adoption of tbe idea. 
The garden theatre need not be large, and it may be small— 
quite small, indeed. As a matter of fact, it may be just a bit of a 
great gardeh, or it may be all that there is of a tiny one—for it is 
as elastic a motif almost as any other, and as adaptable to cir- 
Garden ornaments are often appro¬ 
priate for stage fittings. Here a 
vine-clad wall has been used as a 
background 
cumstances and sites. In Italy, where they 
first came into existence in company with 
the many other garden features and con¬ 
ceits which the people of this warm land 
delighted in, they seem to range in size 
from 60 by 75 feet, approximately, to about 
100 bv 150, one-half of this space, or a 
trifle less, usually being “stage,” and the 
other half auditorium or “pit.” And, of 
course, they show the exquisite precision of 
line and design that distinguishes Italian 
garden work generally; which means that 
it is only the exceptional estate here to 
which the Italian type of garden theatre, 
unaltered, is suited. Generally speaking, a 
treatment a little less artificial will meet our 
Such architectural features as the pergola may readily be utilized as a basis for the 
design of a garden theatre 
