Collection of materials relating to a dispute over payments and scenery materials for the Shoreham Village Players' first production A Midsummer Night's Dream [manuscript].
1925
Items
Details
Title
Collection of materials relating to a dispute over payments and scenery materials for the Shoreham Village Players' first production A Midsummer Night's Dream [manuscript].
Created/published
1925.
Description
12 items, letters, typed drafts, receipts
Associated name
Barbor, H. R. (Herbert Reginald), 1893-1933, artist.
White, Franklin, 1892-1975, artist.
Copping, Harold, active 1881-1904, artist.
White, Franklin, 1892-1975, artist.
Copping, Harold, active 1881-1904, artist.
Language Note
Text in English.
Note
Twelve manuscript items from White's papers and archive relating to the Players' first production, including a strained correspondence with H. R. Barbor regarding a dispute over payment and materials for White's scenery. White's letters from The Reedbeds, Shoreham, Nr. Sevenoaks, Kent. All items from 1925. In the 1920s Shoreham – previously the home of William Blake's disciple Samuel Palmer – had become something of an artistic enclave, along the lines of St Ives. The Shoreham Village Players was the idea of the journalist and playwright Herbert Reginald Barbor (1893-1933), and the material here relates to its first production in 1925, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. The artist Harold Copping (1863-1932) designed the costumes and played the part of Bottom. The play was repeated later in the year in the grounds of Dunstall Priory, home of the Shoreham Players' first president Lord Dunsany. The material chronicles the deepening rift between another resident, the Australian artist Franklin White (1892-1975), and the Players. As is clear from the correspondence, White's scenery for the production was much admired, but a dispute subsequently arose over payment and materials.
Item descriptions from bookseller. ONE: Autograph Copy Signed ('Franklin White') of letter from White to Copping, on his letterhead, The Reedbeds, Shoreham, Nr. Sevenoaks, Kent, 25 February 1925. 1p., 12mo. 'I find the back cloth for the Woodland Scene of the Midnight Summer's Dream” [sic] has been removed from the Village Hall. Might I say that you are welcome to all my ideas but I cannot see my way clear to allow my actual work to be made use of, therefore I must have my design removed from the cloth'. TWO: Autograph Copy Signed ('Franklin White') of letter from White to 'Fitzgerald' (described by White as the production's 'business manager'). 2pp., 4to. Dated 28 February 1925. 'As you will see by my reply to Mr. Barbor I am absolutely astonished. It is quite beyond me to understand the policy of stroking one cheek and smacking the other. But perhaps a line from Mr. William Shakespeare will help us to understand one another a little more confusedly. Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask not what: for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I will tell you everything, right as it fell out.' THREE to FIVE: Autograph Letter Signed (1p., 4to) and Two Typed Letters Signed (both 2pp., 4to) to White from Herbert Reginald Barbor (1893-1933), journalist and playwright who founded the Shoreham Village Players. In the autograph letter (dated 'Sunday | “Friars”) Barbor takes a conciliatory line, suggesting that they 'foregather over a glass of nut-brown & drink confusion to the demon of dissension', rather than allow 'amicable working' to be 'marred during the performances of the “Dream”'. By the first typed letter (26 February 1925), written in response to one from White, matters have taken a turn for the worse, with Barbour dealing point-by-point with the details of a disagreement over payment and the removal of work. 'I understand that you have sold the scenery, and am sure the committee will place nothing in your way to complete your arrangements successfully, since we all appreciated the picturesque quality of your design. […] The original rough model which I prepared was an extremely economical and simple and at the same time adequate one. You chose to make a much more elaborate and of course much more beautiful setting. But when I pointed out that this was both expensive to make and difficult to manipulate, you specifically replied that you were presenting the whole scenery to the Players as your contribution to the success of our first show, so that the expense was your own affair [White has written 'No' against this] – […] I had never expected you to undertake the arduous duties of stage manager in addition to those of scenic artist, but as you insisted on putting the scenery up yourself and organising your own assistance, I think you have only yourself to blame for any trouble you have had in this direction.' Barbor continues by deprecating 'this one exception' to 'a business' which has been 'carried through from beginning to end in a spirit of amicable and highly-successful co-operation on all sides'. He concludes, with more than a hint of sarcasm: 'May I add that personally I was very pleased with your design and am sure that my pleasure was shared by nearly all who saw it[,] and it gave me very great pleasure to learn that you had made a very profitable deal on your excellent little model.' (Two typed copies of this letter are also present.) Two days later (28 February 1925) Barbor writes again in even frostier terms, again repeating that it was White's choice to make 'a much more elaborate model which required at least three times as much material. I categorically insist that this model was only approved by me after your repeated statements that you intended to present the material for it […] You not only told me but other people in the village that you were presenting the scenery, and now that you suggest withdrawing this offer, it is of course a matter for the committee and not for me to decide what payments are to be made. […] To make my point clear once and for all, your creative effort as an artist and your time, like Mr. Copping's, my own, and everyone else's connected with the Players, is of course purely a free and voluntary gift, and there can be no question of payment to anybody on this score.' SIX: Autograph Copy (1p., 4to) of rough draft of letter from White to Barbor, 25 February 1925. 'Please find enclosed note from Mr. Edwards. Naturally I returned him the account. It strikes me very humerously [sic] to be now treated as the Treasurer for the “Village Players” especially, as I was so clearly shown after I had erected the Scenery, that I was no longer wanted by those who generally over charge for the dirty work were making the show work of course the exception of Mr. Fitzgerald'. SEVEN: Typed Copy (2pp., 4to) of White's reply to Barbor's letter of 26 February 1925, dated from The Reedbeds, Shoreham, 27 February 1925. 'As you are well aware after very great persuasion from you I undertook to do the scenery (altho' I was very much against taking any interest in any village concern) I clearly gave you to understand that if I undertook to do the scenery that I should have no interference from any one after you and the Stage Manager had agreed to the model, and that every piece of scenery that I executed should be kept under my control, kept in my studio and not used without my consent, that I should not be let in for any village arguments and that I should have instructions from you to order what was necessary for the scenery […] Your argument concerning your own model contradicts its self, [sic] for if you had designed the scenery you wanted, why come and bother me to do a thing I most certainly would have refused to do? To do the manual labour of building another mans design. I am an artist not a workman. It seems a silly argument to persuade an artist to do manual labour on some one elses design against the artists will and to be unpaid for it. | Naturally having lost over 2 months of my own work to help you I have no further intention of incurring further pecuniary loss.' He concludes with a set of conditions, dealt with by Barbor in his letter of 28 February. EIGHT: Autograph Receipt by White (1p., 4to), headed: 'Received from “Village Players” Five Pounds (£5)' Lists seven items, including 'Tempera paid by cheque £1. 14. 1', 'Parafin for heating Studio [16s]' and 'Knife for cutting Scenery [3s 6d]'. NINE: Typed Draft (2pp., 4to), virtually-identical to Item Seven, but addressed to 'H. R. Barlow [sic] Esq.' With two carbon copies. TEN to TWELVE: Earlier Autograph Draft (3pp., 8vo) of Item Seven, with rough drafts (both 1p., 8vo) of parts of two other letters, one of them, replying to Barbor's of 28 February, in which White again insists on all his work 'being removed from the material'.
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Item descriptions from bookseller. ONE: Autograph Copy Signed ('Franklin White') of letter from White to Copping, on his letterhead, The Reedbeds, Shoreham, Nr. Sevenoaks, Kent, 25 February 1925. 1p., 12mo. 'I find the back cloth for the Woodland Scene of the Midnight Summer's Dream” [sic] has been removed from the Village Hall. Might I say that you are welcome to all my ideas but I cannot see my way clear to allow my actual work to be made use of, therefore I must have my design removed from the cloth'. TWO: Autograph Copy Signed ('Franklin White') of letter from White to 'Fitzgerald' (described by White as the production's 'business manager'). 2pp., 4to. Dated 28 February 1925. 'As you will see by my reply to Mr. Barbor I am absolutely astonished. It is quite beyond me to understand the policy of stroking one cheek and smacking the other. But perhaps a line from Mr. William Shakespeare will help us to understand one another a little more confusedly. Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask not what: for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I will tell you everything, right as it fell out.' THREE to FIVE: Autograph Letter Signed (1p., 4to) and Two Typed Letters Signed (both 2pp., 4to) to White from Herbert Reginald Barbor (1893-1933), journalist and playwright who founded the Shoreham Village Players. In the autograph letter (dated 'Sunday | “Friars”) Barbor takes a conciliatory line, suggesting that they 'foregather over a glass of nut-brown & drink confusion to the demon of dissension', rather than allow 'amicable working' to be 'marred during the performances of the “Dream”'. By the first typed letter (26 February 1925), written in response to one from White, matters have taken a turn for the worse, with Barbour dealing point-by-point with the details of a disagreement over payment and the removal of work. 'I understand that you have sold the scenery, and am sure the committee will place nothing in your way to complete your arrangements successfully, since we all appreciated the picturesque quality of your design. […] The original rough model which I prepared was an extremely economical and simple and at the same time adequate one. You chose to make a much more elaborate and of course much more beautiful setting. But when I pointed out that this was both expensive to make and difficult to manipulate, you specifically replied that you were presenting the whole scenery to the Players as your contribution to the success of our first show, so that the expense was your own affair [White has written 'No' against this] – […] I had never expected you to undertake the arduous duties of stage manager in addition to those of scenic artist, but as you insisted on putting the scenery up yourself and organising your own assistance, I think you have only yourself to blame for any trouble you have had in this direction.' Barbor continues by deprecating 'this one exception' to 'a business' which has been 'carried through from beginning to end in a spirit of amicable and highly-successful co-operation on all sides'. He concludes, with more than a hint of sarcasm: 'May I add that personally I was very pleased with your design and am sure that my pleasure was shared by nearly all who saw it[,] and it gave me very great pleasure to learn that you had made a very profitable deal on your excellent little model.' (Two typed copies of this letter are also present.) Two days later (28 February 1925) Barbor writes again in even frostier terms, again repeating that it was White's choice to make 'a much more elaborate model which required at least three times as much material. I categorically insist that this model was only approved by me after your repeated statements that you intended to present the material for it […] You not only told me but other people in the village that you were presenting the scenery, and now that you suggest withdrawing this offer, it is of course a matter for the committee and not for me to decide what payments are to be made. […] To make my point clear once and for all, your creative effort as an artist and your time, like Mr. Copping's, my own, and everyone else's connected with the Players, is of course purely a free and voluntary gift, and there can be no question of payment to anybody on this score.' SIX: Autograph Copy (1p., 4to) of rough draft of letter from White to Barbor, 25 February 1925. 'Please find enclosed note from Mr. Edwards. Naturally I returned him the account. It strikes me very humerously [sic] to be now treated as the Treasurer for the “Village Players” especially, as I was so clearly shown after I had erected the Scenery, that I was no longer wanted by those who generally over charge for the dirty work were making the show work of course the exception of Mr. Fitzgerald'. SEVEN: Typed Copy (2pp., 4to) of White's reply to Barbor's letter of 26 February 1925, dated from The Reedbeds, Shoreham, 27 February 1925. 'As you are well aware after very great persuasion from you I undertook to do the scenery (altho' I was very much against taking any interest in any village concern) I clearly gave you to understand that if I undertook to do the scenery that I should have no interference from any one after you and the Stage Manager had agreed to the model, and that every piece of scenery that I executed should be kept under my control, kept in my studio and not used without my consent, that I should not be let in for any village arguments and that I should have instructions from you to order what was necessary for the scenery […] Your argument concerning your own model contradicts its self, [sic] for if you had designed the scenery you wanted, why come and bother me to do a thing I most certainly would have refused to do? To do the manual labour of building another mans design. I am an artist not a workman. It seems a silly argument to persuade an artist to do manual labour on some one elses design against the artists will and to be unpaid for it. | Naturally having lost over 2 months of my own work to help you I have no further intention of incurring further pecuniary loss.' He concludes with a set of conditions, dealt with by Barbor in his letter of 28 February. EIGHT: Autograph Receipt by White (1p., 4to), headed: 'Received from “Village Players” Five Pounds (£5)' Lists seven items, including 'Tempera paid by cheque £1. 14. 1', 'Parafin for heating Studio [16s]' and 'Knife for cutting Scenery [3s 6d]'. NINE: Typed Draft (2pp., 4to), virtually-identical to Item Seven, but addressed to 'H. R. Barlow [sic] Esq.' With two carbon copies. TEN to TWELVE: Earlier Autograph Draft (3pp., 8vo) of Item Seven, with rough drafts (both 1p., 8vo) of parts of two other letters, one of them, replying to Barbor's of 28 February, in which White again insists on all his work 'being removed from the material'.
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England.
Item Details
Call number
FAST ACC 271881 (flat)