Old
Sturbridge

Festival
presents...

Old Sturbridge Village, Mass

 
is a non-profit educational organization
established for the production of music
and drama interpretative of the heritage
of New England. It is sponsored jointly
by a group of trustees representative of
the Sturbridge-Southbridge community
as well as patrons of regional drama and
music, and by Old Sturbridge Village. The
Village, non-profit also, is an educational
corporation, chartered under the laws of
Massachusetts for the purpose of pre-
senting, in the three dimensions of a
“living museum’’, a significant picture of
pre-industrial New England life.

The Festival, in a sense, adds a new
dimension to the program of Old Stur-
bridge Village. It is possible to show
many aspects of Yankee life through a re-
creation of its art and architecture, its
crafts and industry, its home and com-
munity life, and to bring such a recon-
structed Village alive by populating it
with working craftsmen and functioning
mills, stores, taverns and meetinghouses.
But the rich folk-heritage of New England
does not emerge from such a museum as
fully as it does from the art forms which
express the hopes, the dreams, in fact the
fundamental character of a sturdy people.

In a new Tavern Gallery of Yankee
primitive painting and decorative arts,
for instance, we can see the kind of
artistic impulses expressed by these vil-
lagers and countrymen so long accused —
and wrongly — of having none. And now,
in the equally rich art forms of music and
drama we can, through the Festival, dis-

 

 

Old Sturbridge Festival

cover a new realm of understanding of
those rugged, independent yet commu-
nity-minded, God-fearing but indomitable
Yankees who poured out of their rocky
hills and valleys westward and so greatly
influenced the course of American history.

“The Devil and Daniel Webster” is the
first presentation undertaken by the Fes-
tival in its new outdoor amphitheatre. It
is the hope of its trustees and of the
Village that out of its program will come
encouragement for dramatists and com-
posers to undertake new collaborations —
like that of Stephen Vincent Benét and
Douglas Moore — resulting in works
which will express dramatically and mu-
sically New England themes capable of
being introduced at Old Sturbridge. If its
first season is successful, among the hopes
for 1954 are a summer school where stu-
dents may experiment in the problems of
blending drama with music, and perhaps
also a series of grants-in-aid to teams of
dramatists and composers to work in this
medium. It is the belief of the Festival
that it has only begun to explore the po-
tentialities of the marriage of music and
drama. Grand opera — and much light
opera — frequently sacrifices dramatic
qualities to magnificent music; many a
modern music drama or musical has sub-
ordinated music to the development of a
dramatic plot. The modern American folk
opera, or music play, has only just begun
to realize the potentialities in this field.

Earte W. Newron, Director
Old Sturbridge Village

 
OLD STURBRIDGE FESTIVAL

Sturbridge, Massachusetts

presents a music play

— Devil and
Daniel Webster

in the new Outdoor Amphitheatre

Words by ;
STEPHEN VINCENT BENET

Music by
DOUGLAS MOORE

 

WITH
Clifford Harvuot . Josh Wheeler . Adelaide Bishop . Luigi Vellucci

and a cast of over fifty people

Stage Director, ELEMER NAGY = Musical Director, MOSHE PARANOV
Choreographer, ALWIN NIKOLAIS

Production Designed by Elemer Nagy

JULY 18 through AUGUST 30, 1953

 
 

In the event that the performance is interrupted by
rain, please take shelter in the rain sheds at the rear
and the sides of the amphitheatre and wait for instruc-
tions over the public address system.

The action of the play takes place at the home of Jabez
Stone, Cross Corners, New Hampshire, in the 1840's.

Prologue
Ballet: Farm Fournal Music by Douglas Moore
Choreography by Alwin Nikolais
1. Up Early 3. Lamplight
2. Sunday Clothes 4. Harvest Song

No Intermission

Ac I
Prologue: The Devil and Daniel Webster Legend.

Scene 1: The evening of Jabez’ and Mary’s wedding.

15 Minute Intermission

Aad
Later that night.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

haiti the te Re aoe Ces Se ota = Sy ee Benjamin Thomas
SoS CRS RRB nR ere Ser tie, Soke Lote eRe RM eD sone eer Gladys Bailin, Phyllis Lamhut,
Beverly Schmidt, Dorothy Vislocky,

Murray Louis Fuchs, Stephan Vendola,

Harry Bernstein, William Dissler

Paper Seons, aNew. Haripahave farmer isis cos :.dnjncsscoepsdesopsois oneal cues Fosh Wheeler
Reese MECN FiRe WTEC SSP aR stoi os hci rid acachsPnaannncioncen Meds Adelaide Bishop
RR oo ie a Soe hae aa abe apes coca ea Clifford Harvuot
PODER siti cigs oti sivons vba ins Geoecnigph aghbomas existe tarnsingl REED. LIORMORT OF Tent aramranne
DROPS LG ti. Cy POSEOR: AW MEE ihe. scecbnisccatog heen vei clodie seas a Luigi Vellucci
AOD mR NON i Stak ae hat dun vay wins endure ccsenamnnupeomee George Vince
erie ece tH OTne, | ae ee Fe cee Sees Vie Se sy ce ates James Mattingly
ROR Ricca einen iene Sais eater ian asta ea, Philip Bogucki
Pier MARC RNE 0000S 2) a eee erate Cae tie ON Aaa don Richard Rovinelli
ANCE NN 6 otk als oath EH Dy ln Ke ees wt ciagax oh ean aes Benjamin Thomas
|B a | SRR ade Yee ne) PR GINS PRES RS Sa Sr Richard Park
RNS NOE i is Na i hs es Gs Alea Se che EE Susi bo eG ieee a Fohn Ferrante

Furymen and Chorus: Ann Amenta, Philip Bogucki, Georgette Crochiere, John Ferrante, Rita
Golden, Barbara Grassi, Amelia Haas, Raymond Hibbard, Kenneth Holton, Maria Kalliches,
James Mattingly, Alice Michalaros, Frank Miele, Antonio Montanari, Jr., Tanya Paranov, Richard
Park, Genaro Pisano, Richard Rovinelli, Frances Roberto, Lena Sinagulia, Carolyn Smith, Ben-
jamin Thomas, Louis Venora, George Vince, Joyce Willens.

Neighbors and Friends of the Stones: Mary Athanas, Real Benoit, Bernard Brodeur, Sylvia Chese-
brough, Margaret Connolly, Alfred Desrosiers, Raymond Galipeau, Alvin Green, Jeanne Guertin,
Joyce Jones, Hedwiga Kochanowski, Gale Maass, Joseph Miller.

Special credit to the Hartt Opera Guild for its help in the production; and to the
staff of the Hartt Musical Foundation for consultation and stage equipment.

 

 

Copies of Stephen Vincent Benét’s story The Devil
and Daniel Webster are on sale at the refreshment stand.
Refreshments are on sale at the refreshment stand
before the performance and during the intermission.
Stephen Vincent
Benet

TEPHEN VINCENT BENET, one of America’s most

brilliant and well-loved authors, was born in

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, July 22, 1898. At the
age of thirteen he won his first literary prize — three
dollars from the St. Nicholas League, for a poem.

He spent the first summer after graduation from Yale
writing his first novel, ‘““The Beginning of Wisdom”
and then lived in Paris for some time. He married
Rosemary Carr in 1921. The following year, Benét
wrote his second novel, “Young People’s Pride” and
sold it to Harper's Bazaar as a serial.

The serial money enabled the couple to return to
Paris where, after a prodigious amount of research,
he wrote “John Brown’s Body” which became a best
seller and brought him the Pulitzer Prize and financial
success. The dramatic version is now having a bril-
liantly successful tour throughout the country.

In subsequent years he wrote a great many short
stories and poems, among them his most famous short
story “The Devil and Daniel Webster.”” Benét received
numerous awards, including the O. Henry Story Prize
and The Roosevelt Medal.

Douglas Moore, Benét’s close friend and collaborator,
writes of him:

“When he arrived back in America after having won
the Pulitzer Prize (for ‘John Brown’s Body’) he was a
national hero to be met by reporters at the ship. I went
to meet him with some trepidation. I should never
have worried about Steve. As the years went on he
became a national institution but there was never
evidence of change in his friendships. The old warmth
and generosity and gaiety never varied.

“During the years that I knew him, Steve changed
very little. Perhaps the slender figure stooped with
arthritis, the gait became less assured, but the other
things were always there, the somewhat owlish face with
warm brown eyes behind thick lenses, the high fore-
head, prominent ears, drawling somewhat nasal voice,
the quick understanding, the characteristic slouch in

the chair, even the delight in penny candy and detective
story fiction.”

“T had hoped that Steve could be encouraged to do
another opera libretto because he was pleased -with
‘The Devil and Daniel Webster’, but the coming of
the war involved him so deeply in patriotic work that
he never got around to it.

“His death came crushingly and unexpectedly to us
all in the spring of 1943. It was some comfort to dis-
cover that he had completed the first part of his second
planned epic, ‘Western Star’ which was published the
year after his death. He had been so generous of his
time to others and to his country that the hours to work
on this cherished project must have been hardly won.

“The two things which were rooted in the core of his
nature were the one, his love of his wife, so deeply
satisfying to him that the wonder is that there was
room in his affections for the rest of us, and the other
his intense love of his country. Whatever he has written
in poetry, prose, or drama, is all of it colored by these
two great passions. His work will live as an expression
of all that is most beautiful in the human spirit.”

 

 
 

oucLas Moore was born in Cutchogue, Long
Island, and grew up in a well-to-do household
in Brooklyn. As a child, he took such a dis-
like to practicing the scales and five-finger exercises
demanded of him by his “practise teacher” that he

very nearly turned his back on music. His mother
finally agreed to let him stop his music studies at thir-
teen, but that year he discovered what fun it was to
improvise and make up tunes. One of his classmates
at school was Archibald MacLeish, already a poet of
great promise. Moore set some of the poems to
music and their collaboration continued through years
to come and long after both became famous.

Moore was graduated from Yale, where he was active
in the school’s musical and dramatic associations. He
began composing serious music in 1922. One of his first
compositions, “Four Museum Pieces” won him a
Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship in 1926.

Several of Moore’s literary associates have been in-
fluential in his work, among them Archibald MacLeish,
Stephen Vincent Benét and Vachel Lindsay. Moore
believes that through his friendship with Lindsay, he
gained a new understanding of his own country. Lind-

say opened the young composer’s eyes to the richness
of the American scene — to the true beauty and flavor
of American life. It was this new viewpoint that
influenced Moore to write his first work on a typically
American theme, “The Pageant of P. T. Barnum.”
Critics said of it that it might have been written by
some musical Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn.

Dr. Moore has composed two symphonies, the second
of which received honorable mention by the New York
Critics’ Circle in 1946-47. He is the composer of nu-
merous chamber music works, including “The Ballade
of William Sycamore” and “Down East Suite.’’ Most
famous are Moore’s operas: ‘‘White Wings’, “The
Headless Horseman’’, ““The Devil and Daniel Webster”
and “Giants in the Earth’ which was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1951.

Dr. Moore studied at the Schola Cantorum in Paris
and with Ernest Bloch in Cleveland. He spent four
years as Curator of Music at the Cleveland Museum
of Art. In 1926 Moore joined Columbia University’s
Department of Music and attained full professorship in
1940. He rose to the Chairmanship of the Department
of Music at Columbia, a position which he now holds.

In recognition of his contributions to serious music,
Moore was elected President of the National Institute
of Arts and Letters in 1946, and held that honored
position for several years.

Dr. Moore has said of “The Devil and Daniel
Webster”: “Mr. Benét and I have classified ‘The
Devil and Daniel Webster’ as a folk opera because it
is legendary in its subject matter and simple in its
musical expression . . . We have tried to make an
opera in which the union of speech, song and instru-
mental music will communicate the essence of the
dramatic story, enhanced but not distorted.”

Otto Luening says of Moore: “A review of Moore’s
work leads to the conclusion that here is a man who has
expressed his American heritage and his own ideals.”
The Story of the

(Collaboration

By Stephen Vincent Benét and Douglas Moore

“The Devil and Daniel Webster” first appeared as a
short story by Stephen Vincent Benet, in The Saturday
Evening Post, in 1936. Douglas Moore and Benet col-
laborated, during 1937 and 1938, on a musical version
of the story. The music-play that resulted from their
collaboration expresses the simple gaiety of the country
square dance, the lusty qualities of early New England,
and the spirited and eloquent patriotism of young
America.

Produced by the American Lyric Theatre in 1939,
the music-play ran very successfully at the Martin
Beck Theatre in New York City. The critics received
it with high praise.

“Altogether it is one of the brightest and most
natural of contemporary operas,’ wrote Otto Luening
in an article for Modern Music. Alfred Frankenstein
called it: “As artful, eloquent, and effective a state-
ment of the principles of American democracy as has
ever been written.” The Saturday Review: “First of
all, it is a good show. It goes. Successful in story-
telling, it is equally noteworthy in characterization .. .
The music is vigorous, organic, and intelligible . . . it
is unfailingly appropriate to its subject matter; and
unlike many other American compositions, it does not,
in whole or in part, remind us of any European com-
poser.”

For the Old Sturbridge version, Mr. Moore has added
new music to the ballet sequences at the beginning of
the play, and the dramatic effectiveness of the ending
has been strengthened by additional chorus music.

Benét and Moore both graduated from Yale at about
the same time, but knew each other only by reputa-
tion. A few years after graduation, they met in Paris
and became fast friends. They worked together and
continued their close friendship through the years, until
Benét’s death in 1943. Mr. Moore paints an affec-

tionate picture of their relationship in the following
anecdote: “One summer we shared the same studio. I
liked to work mornings and Steve afternoons. We
generally met at the changeover. There was one day
when we were both invited to an all day tennis match.
Steve firmly declined because of pressure of work but
I went along. The next morning when I arrived at the
studio every piece of furniture was decorated with type-
written quotations, all of them admonitions as to the
value of industry and the perils of sloth. I am sure he
enjoyed the afternoon much more than a tennis match.”

 

The following is a combination of the writings of
Stephen Vincent Benét and Douglas Moore on the sub-
ject of their thoughts about the collaboration that
resulted in the now-famous music-drama. Mr. Benet’s
opinions are taken from his article “Words and Music”
which appeared in The Saturday Review of May 20,
1939; Mr. Moore’s remarks are from a CBC radio talk
of June, 1953:
Moore: Although Steve Benet had written poems
about music, praising it highly, I never felt he was
greatly attracted to it. I had set some of his verse to
music and he was always pleased and encouraging. My
dream however was to persuade him to do the libretto
for an opera. I finally managed to interest him in doing
a piece for high school, ‘The Headless Horseman”
which was well received. as
Benét: As all composers know, a librettist is the man
whose words get in the way of the music. But all the
same, it is a curious and fascinating business, trying to
write words that must be sung instead of read or
spoken, and trying to devise some sort of story that
can be developed musically as well as in speech. You
may write what seems to you a very pleasant line and

 
 

discover, to your horror, that it is almost completely
unsingable. Or you may barely sketch a mood that the
music completely fulfills. In any case, for an author it
is work in a new medium, not quite like anything else.
Moore: It was during a trip to Boston that Steve
suggested the possibility of making a musical version
of “The Devil and Daniel Webster”. He said that the
story had been dramatized by others in several versions
and he wanted to do one of his own but felt that the
story needed musical treatment. I was a little worried
as to this particular story for fear it might be said to
resemble “Faust” but I realized that if I was going to
have an opera from him, this would have to be it.
Benét: We were both interested in the same kind of
American folk-material. Well, why not try and do
something about it — something without the preten-
sions of grand opera but something which, if we were
lucky, could use American speech and American folk-
music and do it with sincerity? So we decided that
“The Devil and Daniel Webster” might serve as a
basis.

Moore: We started at once to discuss how to treat the
story. Steve had no idea how to go about writing a
libretto and I only made matters worse by giving him
the opera version of “Othello” to read as a sample.
Finally we agreed to block it out together and then for
him to write exactly what he wanted and I would try
to work it out. There was no love interest in the story
and this had, of course, to be inserted into any right-
thinking opera.

Benéi: Mr. Moore then went to the country and left
me looking at the short story. I found that I had taken
on more than I’d bargained for. The plot covered a
good many years that had to be compressed into hours.
The hero, Jabez Stone, was a middle-aged farmer. And
there wasn’t the slightest suggestion of a woman’s part
except in a few casual references to the fact that Jabez
Stone had a wife. However, there is just one advantage
in adapting your own work. The original author can
neither complain or sue. I wiped out Jabez Stone’s
entire brood of children and began the opera with his
wedding.

Moore: We were working separately and each few days
a fresh batch of the manuscript arrived. Everything
went beautifully.

Bené: Our collaborations followed a perfectly dis-
tinct and recognizable curve. Mr. Moore asks me if I
wouldn’t be interested in such and such an idea. I tell
him I wouldn’t. I then suggest another idea. He tells
me it is a very nice idea but musically quite impossible.
We finally settle upon a third one. I then write the
book and lyrics and show them to him. He compliments
them highly and says they will be extremely difficult
to set. He then goes ahead and sets them. At some

point during the composition of the music, he asks me
to change something. I tell him I won’t, and do. And,
after it’s all over, we have a drink.

Moore: When we came to Webster’s speech which
persuades the diabolical jury to release Jabez, we both
had trouble.

Benet: In the story, I had carefully avoided. writing
Webster’s speech to the Jury of the Damned. I had
done so deliberately and even, it seemed to me, with
some ingenuity. But I couldn’t possibly avoid it, in a
trial scene to be played on the stage. There would have
to be words for an actor to say or sing.

Moore: He succeeded magnificently. I shall never
forget the excitement of first reading it but then I found
myself in an even worse dilemma. Webster after all
was an orator and this was an oration. Oratory is close
to singing, so close in fact that it would have seemed
absurd to turn Webster into a baritone soloist. And
yet this was the climax of the opera. After prayerful
thought I decided to have it spoken against a back-
ground of music, interjections by the jury in chorus,
and instrumental music which would heighten as the
oratory became more fervid.

Benét: There remained one further problem and a
major one. We wanted to keep away from the hifalutin’
as much as possible and use a good deal of casual,
everyday speech. We didn’t want the heroine singing
lyrically ““Won’t you sit down?” or the hero chanting
“T spent five dollars last Tuesday”’ as if it were “Ave
Maria.”’ So we tried, without set numbers, to work out
a scheme of things whereby music and verse would be
employed in moments of heightened emotion, but a
great deal of the plot would be carried in prose. We
employ a good deal of chorus, both in the opening and
the finale, but the chorus has a reason for its existence
and we have tried not to have them just a group of
merrymakers, clinking pasteboard glasses and singing
the praises of Old Heidelberg. In other words, while
recognizing the limits of a tradition, we have tried to
make certain experiments within those limits. For it
is only by experimentation that a new thing can grow.
For the librettist, there is something very fascinating
in watching what music can do to words — to heighten
or soften them, to amplify or develop them, sometimes
in ways that one has not expected at all. When you
write a line of verse it has its own music to you. But a
composer may find a very different sort of music in it,
and that is exciting. And then, sometimes, you both
seem to have found the same music. It is a process of
give and take. And from it, finally, something emerges,
something a little different from what either party
visualized at first, but with a possible life of its own.
A possible life — that is all one can say till the curtain
rings up.
ELEMER NAGY

k jLEMER Nacy was born in Hungary and educated at
the School of Cinematic Art in Budapest and the Rein-

hardt Seminary in Vienna. He began his theatrical career in
1926 as an actor and stage director in Budapest and taught
dramatic technique 1926-1930 in the Budapest School of
Cinematic Art. He exhibited scene designs and stage models
in Budapest and Vienna, and in Canada, New York and
New England from 1931 to 1941.

In 1939 Nagy joined the Yale University Department of
Drama as director and scene designer for Yale Music Associ-
ation operas. In 1942 he was appointed head of the Drama
Department of the Julius Hartt Musical Foundation in Hart-
ford, Conn. He has been Stage Director and Designer for
opera productions in the Hartt Opera Guild since joining
the staff. '

Nagy has worked intensively, through lectures and articles,
for the establishment of opera productions in musical centers
and for the establishment of experimental stations for modern
opera reform.

In 1949, Nagy was appointed Scenery and Costume De-
signer of the world famous Central City Opera Association
in Colorado and in 1950 he was appointed Director of the
Central City Summer Opera Festival, a position which he
has held each summer since that time.

Nagy is responsible for the development of the “spherical
perspective system” for modern settings and is given credit
for the introduction of many of the innovations in relation
to opera adopted in this country in recent years. ;

Dr. Nagy has been, since 1946, Director of the Columbia
University Summer School Opera Workshop; Director of
Opera Workshop, Manhattan School of Music, New York;
and Lecturer, History of the Theatre, Department of Theatre,
Smith College.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
 

We’

SS

oe

\ 4 _— :
AE

Nagy has been one of the consultants, from the first plan-
ning stages, for the Old Sturbridge Village production of “The

Devil and Daniel Webster,” and the: scenery was designed
by him.

 

MOSHE PARANOV

M OSHE Paranov was born in Hartford, Conn. As a
boy, he studied the violin but turned to the piano as

he approached his teens, and at an early age came under the
tutelage of the noted, pianist and instructor, Julius Hartt.

After serving in World War I, Paranov returned to Hart-
ford where he joined Mr. Hartt in 1920 in the founding of the
Julius Hartt School of Music, of which he is now Director.

Besides his hundreds of solo appearances as a pianist,
Paranov has served as guest conductor of the Young Men’s
Symphony Society of New York and the former Hartford
Philharmonic Orchestra, in addition to his regular duties as
co-conductor of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Con-
ductor of the Hartt Orchestra, the Hartt Opera Productions
and many prominent choral groups. Under the leadership
of Dr. Paranov, the Julius Hartt School of Music has become
one of the outstanding musical institutions in the country.
He was given the honorary degree of Doctor of Music this
past June by the Philadelphia Musical Academy.

Paranov is a dynamic and volatile person, and a perfec-
tionist. He is inspirational and a master at discovering a
pupil’s natural bent and then building a playing mechanism
around it. His enthusiasm and energy are legendary among
his pupils and his spirit and enthusiasin are so contagious
that his students almost invariably catch fire from him.

Dr. Paranov believes that: “An understanding of the great
arts helps to counteract the tendency toward becoming crass
and cold and that a balance of religion, art, business and
science must be struck in our educational scheme if we are
to become well-rounded and wholesome beings with clear
heads and warm hearts attuned to the needs of our world.”

 
 

CACTI

Opening Chorus. Neighbors and friends are at the wed-
ding reception of Jabez and Mary Stone. There is
dancing as the fiddler picks up his bow. One man asks
how Jabez built up his fine herd of cattle, since the
Stones were always poor. A few of the guests take up
the refrain of “wonder where he got it?” This is lost
in the refrain by the full chorus, of fine weather for a
wedding, and the number ends in lively dancing.

Dialogue. Jabez returns the good wishes and announces
that Daniel Webster will join them later.

Duet: Mary and Jabez, and entrance of Webster. In a
beautiful love duet Jabez and Mary reaffirm their love.
When Jabez asks if she is happy, she answers yes, but
she is afraid. Marriage is welcome, but as strange as
a dream. Jabez declares that mountain and pine shall
be a sign of their love divine. Her dreamy thoughts,
she sings, have changed to wonder and unrest. Every
year, Jabez answers, shall find their love more true.
The chorus gaily joins with promises to dance the night
away. Daniel Webster enters to shouts by the chorus

of “Black Dan’l, three cheers for the greatest man in
the U. Sv”

Dialogue. Webster kisses the bride and asks the fiddler
for music, but the poor man declares that the very
Devil’s got into his fiddle. Jabez’ gaiety is halted by
the appearance of an uninvited guest — Mr. Scratch.
With embarrassment, Jabez introduces Scratch as a
Boston lawyer.

Scratch’s Song and Chorus. Scratch sneeringly declares
he will play a song of young love. Mary hysterically
asks Webster to stop him. Undaunted, Scratch begins
his mocking song of Young William, a ballad punctuated
by the satanic repetition of “listen to my doleful tale.”
The song tells of how Mary Clark, young William’s joy,
watched him fall into the devil’s power as he played
the cards and the dice. Neighbors are aghast, and
Webster, in a fury, wrenches the fiddle from Scratch and
orders him out of the house.

Ensemble and Melodrama. From Scratch’s strange col-
lection box a white moth escapes. The chorus sings

The Synopsis of

The Devil and Daniel Webster

that it’s just a common moth, but the fiddler suddenly
shouts that it has a death’s head on it. From the moth
comes a voice pleading for help. It is the voice of Miser
Stevens. He can’t be dead, says Jabez. But listen to
the church bell — the bell, sings Mary, that rang for
her wedding. A funeral bell, cries Jabez. It is Miser
Stevens and he wails that he has sold his soul to the
devil. “Help me, Help Fabez Stone!” At the mention
of Stone’s name all turn suspiciously toward Jabez.
Answer us, they sing ‘menacingly, who is the friend in
black and how did you get your money? Mary pleads
for Jabez to answer them, to tell them he is good and
brave and innocent. Desperately he asks for help —
tacit admission that he has sold his soul to the devil.
The chorus repeats the accusation, ‘“He’s sold his soul
to the Devil.’’ He must burn in flame till the Judgment

Day; “God help you, neighbor Stone.” Everyone rushes
off.

ACT II

The accusations are true, says Jabez, and tells Mary
she too must flee from him for he has only until mid-
night.

Duet, Mary and Fabez. Mary loyally reaffirms her wed-
ding vows. They had made promises, she sings, and it
was for better or worse, sickness or health. “For thy
people shall be my people.’ But why did he do it.
Jabez explains in song the story of his downfall. He
sings of his desires for fine clothes, for a big white house
with a big front door. But stones boiled up in his fields
and the woodchucks ruined the garden, until he could
think only of bugs and blight. His love for Mary in-
tensified his desperation. “It makes a man talk wild.”

If you had only said, sings Mary, I would have kept
your house in the mire and cold, fed the chickens and
asked no more. Jabez continues his story. It was an
average day, with a mean east wind. When he stubbed
his toe he said and said it quick “I'd sell my soul for
about two cents.” When Scratch came that night,
Jabez pricked his finger with a silver pin and in full
knowledge of his mortal sin, signed the paper. Now
desperately, he asks ““God Almighty, what shall I do?”
There is no place to hide. He cannot pray, and there

isn’t a lawyer, known to man, who can face the devil
and face him down.

Dialogue with Music. Webster, re-enters. He has never
deserted a neighbor in trouble and time is short. The
mortgage is due tonight. “Can you save him, Mr.

Webster,” Mary beseaches. ‘I shall do my best,
Madam.”

Webster's Song. He sings of his Marshfield farm and
of his ram Goliath, who butts like a railroad train; of
his bull, King Stephen, a bull with a rolling eye. I’m
“the pride of the Granite State” sings Webster, and he
always stands for the free. He cites his widespread

fame and says he would fight ten thousand devils to
save a New Hampshire man.

Dialogue. How can Mary help, she asks, You can
help us, says Dan’l, with prayers. She goes inside the
house and we hear her plaintive prayer.

Mary’s Prayer. She asks for blessing and light between
herself and Jabez. ‘‘As Ruth unto Naomi so do I
cleave unto thee.” Floods cannot drown their love and
the Lord watches when they are absent from one
another. Amen, Webster adds solemnly.

Dialogue. Jabez and Webster have but a short time to
wait. At the stroke of twelve Scratch enters. Webster
admits to Scratch that his client’s contract is in order,
but asks for settlement out of court. Scratch wants
only the execution of his contract — Jabez’ soul. But,
retorts Webster, a contract with a foreign prince is not
valid. “Foreign?” queries Scratch. Indeed, he is an
American of long standing. Webster demands a jury
trial — an American judge and American jury, be it the
quick or the dead. “You have said it,” says Scratch.
Amid thunder and lightning, in a weird incantation
Scratch invokes the Jury of the Damned from their
graves.

Scratch’s Invocation. From brimstone pit and burning
gulf, he summons them: Simon Girty, the renegade
with pioneers’ blood upon his shirt; Walter Butler, the
loyalist; King Philip, the Indian, who terrorized the
land; Blackbeard Teach, the pirate; Smeet, the stran-
gler; Governor Dale, who broke men upon the wheel;
Morton, of the tarnished steel. “I summon them, I sum-

mon them, from their tormented flame.” True Ameri-
cans all, but outcasts of eternity. “Appear, Appear!”

Dialogue against music. Justice Hathorne of the Salem
witch trials enters. It is the World, the Flesh, and the
Devil versus Jabez Stone. All of Webster’s legal de-
laying tactics are denied. Scratch presents his case —
a simple case of the transference of the soul of Jabez
Stone, and he submits the deed as Exhibit A. The jury
sings that it doesn’t need to see the deed for “‘it’s a
losing case.” “He'll fry like a batter cake once we get
him where we want him.” Webster’s objection to a
biased jury is overruled. “His motion’s always denied”
chants the jury. They repeat Hathorne’s words “‘rrele-
vant, incompetent and immaterial . .. . We have our
own justice, Oh ho, Daniel Webster.’ Hathorne does
permit Webster to speak briefly. “Be brief,” cries the
jury, “We're weary of earth.”

From off stage Mary’s voice is heard “Set me as a
seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm, for love
is strong as death.” The jury in mockery answers

“Death is stronger than love.” With a gesture Webster
silences the jury.

Webster's Speech.

In a stirring and dramatic speech to the jury, Daniel
Webster reminds the damned of the things they loved
in life, and of the pleasure they took in living. His
moving plea persuades them to give Jabez another
chance, and in spite of Scratch’s objections, he is freed
from the contract.

With the coming of dawn Mary is at Jabez’ side, and
they sing of their love to last ‘“‘forever, forever, for the
winters and the summers.”

Jabez, Mary, and Webster call in the neighbors for
an Old New England shivaree. They “are on to the
devil and all his ways,” and they drive him out of
New Hampshire. This is followed by a song about a
New England breakfast with pie. Webster sings of
Marshfield, Jabez of his farm, and Mary of her loyalty
to Jabez.

For an ending the whole ensemble sings of

“pie for breakfast” and with a rousing cheer for “New
England’s pride.”

 
cM

 

 

Josh Wheeler was born on a Texas
ranch. After high school, he studied
music at Southern Methodist, and at
Louisiana State.

Coming from a family of music lov-
ers of the sort who simply got together
and sang whenever possible, Wheeler

was always able to satisfy his musical
interests.

 

Luigi Vellucci was born in Providence,
R.I., of Italian parentage. He studied
piano at the Settlement School in
Providence and began serious voice
study when he was 19 years old.

In 1949, Vellucci won the Rhode
Island Young Artist’s Contest spon-
sored by the American Federation of
Music Clubs. After World War II,
Mr. Vellucci began seriously to study
opera and joined the New England
Opera Theatre under Boris Godolvsky.

Baritone Clifford Harvuot was born in
Cincinnati, Ohio. He became seriously
interested in singing in his teens and
turned from pre-medical courses to
voice study in Cincinnati.

Harvuot spent four years at the

Juilliard School of Music, after which,

in 1942, he joined the Army. He was

honorably discharged in 1946.
Harvuot is familiar with his present

role, since he played the part of Daniel

Webster at Chautauqua in the summer
of 1946.

Clifford Harvuot

Josh Wheeler

A former oilfield worker and football
player, he spent four years in the Air
Force during World War II and pro-
gressed from Private to Captain over
a 23-month period. After the war he
attended Columbia University.

During two seasons of tour through-
out the country, Wheeler did 78 re-
citals. He played in the premiere per-
formance of “Giants in the Earth.”

Baritone Josh Wheeler was most
recently seen in the Broadway hit,
“Paint Your Wagon” and he will ap-
pear in the forthcoming film version.

In 1947, Harvuot joined the Metro-
politan Opera Company and has been
a member since. He has sung some
fifty roles with the Met. In 1948, he
sang in “Carmen” and “La Traviata”
in Mexico City’s Fine Arts Institute.

He has appeared in leading roles in
the Central City, Colo., Summer Opera
Festival for the past four years. He re-
cently starred on the Bell Telephone
Hour.

 

Adelaide Bishop is a native of New
York City. She went directly from
baby-talk to big time entertainment
when she started singing profession-
ally at five years.

Miss Bishop studied voice under
Louis Polanski, now a member of the
Hartt Musical Foundation, and at fif-
teen was a star of the St. Louis Munic-
ipal Opera Company. She was featured
in light operas during the next two
years in this country and in Canada.

She made a successful debut at

Adelaide Bishop

Luigi Vellucci

Vellucci, a tenor, made his debut
with the new York City Center Opera
Company in 1948 and since that time
has been a regular member.

He has sung with the Montreal
Opera Guild and the Havana Opera
Association. He has appeared in fifty
roles on tour throughout the country.

Vellucci is a lively and witty person,
whose long operatic experience well
qualifies him for the difficult role of
Mr. Scratch.

seventeen, with the American Opera
Company in Philadelphia. She scored
a triumph two years later with the
same company when she sang a leading
role in “The Old Maid and the Thief.”

In 1946, Miss Bishop joined the
New York City Opera Company as a
lyric coloratura soprano. She has been
a regular member ever since.

Miss Bishop appeared in the Cen-
tral City, Colo., Summer Opera Fes-
tival in 1949, 1950, and 1951.

 
Alwin Nikolas

twin Nixo ats, choreographer, is nationally

known in the modern dance field. He has

taught at City College, N. Y.; Sarah Lawrence
College; Colorado College; the Hartt Musical Founda-
tion and Temple University. His students are appear-
ing in almost every musical show on Broadway and he
has taught stars of the dance concert world, as well as
famous actors and television artists.

Nikolais was choreographer. for several operas pro-
duced by the Hartt Opera Guild and he directed the
choreography for the Central City, Colo., Opera Assn.
production of “Romeo and Juliet”. He is Director and
Choreographer of the Playhouse Dance Company
(Henry Street Playhouse) which performs in New York
Dance theatres, and has appeared at numerous mu-
seums throughout northeastern United States.

Nikolais has received international recognition for
his authorship of the “Choroscript” method of analyz-
ing and recording movement.

THE BALLET

Eight members of the Playhouse Dance Company
of the Henry Street Playhouse will form the ballet unit
for “The Devil and Daniel Webster.” The ballet
prologue was created by Alwin Nikolais to the music
of Douglas Moore.

Two major members of the ballet group are Gladys
Bailin and Murray Louis, both of whom were recently
seen in their own duo-concert in New ‘York City and
who received high praise from critics. Miss Bailin has
had the further distinction this year of having two of
her dances selected as outstanding new ballet works,
by a board made up of leaders and critics in the dance

field.

 

INDICPAURE DIC MIN DCI!

THE ORCHESTRA

The 30-piece orchestra is made up principally of
members of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra with
additions of former members of the Boston and New
Orleans Symphony Orchestras.

IPCICNICIONICOION!

 

 
oe

 

 

Earle W. Newton, Vermont historian and
editor, is Director of Old Sturbridge Vil-
lage and of the Old Sturbridge Festival.
Under his leadership both these enter-
prises have attained their present posi-
tion as centers for a renaissance of New
England creative art and workmanship.

Mr. Newton is a native of Cortland,
N. Y. He was graduated from Amherst
College and took post-graduate courses
at Columbia.

Mr. Newton was Director of the Ver-
mont Historical Society from 1942 to
1950. He is founder and former Editor
of Vermont Life. At present he is Editor
of the magazine American Heritage.

William T.
Schneider

 

William T. Schneider, Theatre Manager,
is a native of New York City. He is a
graduate of Williams College where he
was active in all branches of theatre,
specializing in Stage Management and
Lighting. He was stage manager of the
Williams’ production of “The Devil and
Daniel Webster.”

Mr. Schneider served his professional
apprenticeship at Bucks County Play-
house in New Hope, Penna., where he
later became a technician and assistant
electrician.

He plans to attend the Yale Drama
School in the fall to study directing.

Construction Supervisor. ...........ccceceees

Assistant to the Stage Manager.......

Assistants to the Lighting Supervisor...

Wardrobe IVEISERESS sic, cssy es nanyscrvtrmarsrinchtereat
MakentipvArtistqiacattastassidssiseuhs-scities

Scenery painted by Margaret Scott; )
designed by Elemer Nagy; executed by Pauline Hartt
Paranov; Dresses for the chorus made under the direction

ea George Watson

 

..Francis E. O’Brien

GP scal June Meinhardt
alo Ae Joseph Marra

 

Staff for Old Sturbridge Festival

Richard K.
Showman

Richard K. Showman, Associate Pro-
ducer, was born in Broken Arrow, Okla-
homa. Upon graduation from the
University of Wisconsin, he taught for
three years as an assistant in History
and took his Masters in History in 1940.

From 1947 to 1952 Mr. Showman was
Director of Exhibition Buildings at Colo-
nial Williamsburg, Virginia. Since Janu-
ary, 1953, he has been Director of
Education and Public Relations at Old
Sturbridge Village.

 

James D. Karr, Stage Manager, was
born in Chicago. He is a graduate of
Beloit College, Beloit, Wis., where he
majored in Drama, and is currently
studying directing at the Yale Drama
School. As an actor, Mr. Karr has ap-
peared in over 70 different roles in all
types of plays. He has directed several
plays and is now at work on a thesis pro-
duction of “The Knight of the Burning
Pestle” for his degree at Yale. Mr. Karr
has spent four seasons in summer stock
with the Court Theatre, Beloit, Wis.

....Margaret Scott

John Kelsey

Miss Bishop’s gown

Box Office Staff........
Traffic Supervisor....

Theatre Consultants.

 

Anna J. Weeks is Director of Theatre
Publicity for the Old Sturbridge Festi-
val. Born in Boston, she moved to New
York, after finishing school, to enter the
magazine field. Throughout World War
II, she was a member of the staff of
Yank, The Army Weekly.

Since the war’s end, she worked for
Mademoiselle, Liberty, Collier’s and
Parent's Magazine.

Mrs. Weeks was a member of the staff
of the Eisenhower for President Com-
mittee in New York City and at the
Chicago Convention.

Richard G.
Lawson

 

Richard G. Lawson is in charge of the
extremely complicated lighting system
for Old Sturbridge Festival. He is a na-
tive of Mount Vernon, Washington.
From high school on, Mr. Lawson has
studied and worked in the theatre as an
actor, director, business manager and

technician.

After graduation from State College in
Washington he entered Yale as a student
of Technical Production, Design and
Lighting. He has just completed his
third year at Yale and next year will be
on the staff as a Technical Assistant in
the Drama Department.

pape aeeed pasion} Ms ésiiet tekaaertiesh oo Oats LaGey:

Ronald Estabrooks

Ss vapochage teed Mickie RC Thomas Turner

pies, Edward C. Cole, William J. Martin

Samuel Selden, William H. Hardy

of Catherine Fennelly and Mary F. Showman; Rehearsal
accompanists and coaches; Irene Kahn and Elizabeth
Warner; Electrical installation by Rosaire J. Pariseau.

Frank H. Berend and Jack De Simone, Public Relations Consultants

 

 
 

HE OUTDOOR AMPHITHEATRE, built
especially for this summer’s pro-
duction and as the site of future
plays and art festivals, with a seating
capacity of 2,000 persons, is the result
of a happy combination of natural ad-
vantages and architectural skill.

Old Sturbridge Village was favored, in
the first place, with terrain ideally suited
for open-air drama. A short walk from
the main parking lot near the Toll
House, the wooded ground rises gently
at exactly the grade of normal theatre
aisles. The ground chosen was shaped
roughly like a horse-shoe. When the
brush had been cleared it was apparent
to the builders that they would achieve
the desired effect. A man standing in
the theatre had the feeling of being in
Scratch’s place, coming out of the woods
and looking down on Jabez Stone’s pros-
perous homestead and gloating over the
evidence that Stone’s soul was ripe for
plucking. Looking toward either side or
the rear he would see the pines and oaks
standing on the rim of the ridges in a
graceful palisade.

Everything possible was done to avoid
felling trees and to preserve the wood-
land atmosphere. Trees were left stand-
ing in the wide aisles where they would
not block the view and the porches of
the dressing room building were built in
such a way that trees seem to have
grown up through them. Wild flowers
and shrubs were planted in the area.

Once the bowl itself was smoothed and
topped with a hard surface, the set was
constructed at the foot of the slope. The
design and construction of the amphi-

The Amphitheatre

theatre was accomplished through a
painstaking, step-by-step collaboration
between Earle W. Newton, Director,
and George Watson, Old Sturbridge
Village Superintendent of Construction.
The scenery was designed by Elemer
Nagy, erected by Mr. Watson, and
painted by Margaret Scott.

Following the basic design, and acting
in consultation with Edward Cole of the
Yale University Drama Department,
Mr. Watson and his crew of about 50
workmen, erected a set which is not
made of drops but is permanently built,
in three dimensions. By employing the
third dimension, the builders contrived
to create the appearance of a rather
grand New England home in the 1840
style with a wing at the rear of an earlier
vintage, while using only a quarter of the
space that would have been needed for

George Watson

 

a flat set.

One side of the house wing is open,
revealing Jabez Stone’s kitchen. Beyond
the dwelling a grist mill, a barn and a
village church spire can be seen. The
mill house does extra duty as a dressing
room and a dormitory for members of
the cast, and also contains concession
stands, public rest rooms and rain sheds,
all situated outside the audience’s line
of vision.

The effect of the period is enhanced by
the use of native fieldstone for retaining
walls and foundations, and hand-hewn
beams and other lumber reclaimed from
fine old buildings in the Sturbridge area.
Altogether, hundreds of feet of dry stone
walls had to be built. Woodbine is being
brought in to blanket them.

Offstage, on the hillside, is the ceme-
tery from which the Jury of the Damned
rises and moves down ominously, through
the trees, to hear the argument between
Daniel Webster and the Devil and
render the verdict by which Jabez Stone
must abide through eternity.

Ground was broken in March of 1953
and the project was completed, on sched-
ule, shortly before the opening of the
play, July 18th. Its growth was a fas-
cinating experience for Mr. Watson and
the others who helped in the building.
In the spring it was a wild hillside. By
mid-summer it had become a finished,
fully-equipped outdoor theatre, and the
set at the foot of the slope a colorful
view of a piece of New England as it
looked when Daniel Webster stood up
and battled for the Union and the im-
mortal soul of the individual.

 
Lhe Devil

The Devil in New England

O CHARACTER in New England — legendary

or otherwise —is better known than the

Devil. Indeed, since the Pilgrims landed in
1620 he has been a most formidable and ubiquitous
enemy of every inhabitant. “New Englanders,” wrote
Cotton Mather two and a half centuries ago, “are a
People of God settled in those, which were once the
Devil’s Territories; and it may easily be supposed that
the Devil was exceedingly disturbed, when he perceived
such a People here accomplishing the Promise of old
made unto our Blessed Jesus, That He should have the
Utmost parts of the Earth for his Possession.” This was
the New Englander’s explanation of why the Devil was
so persistent in his efforts among the most God fearing
men who ever settled a strange land.

That the Devil was “exceedingly disturbed” by the
Christian intrusion seems to have been one of Mather’s
more famous understatements. Judging from the testi-
mony of early colonists, no adversary could have been
more ceaseless or resourceful in his efforts to defend his
kingdom than the Prince of Evil. Not only did he
discourage them with a stubborn, rocky soil and a harsh
climate, but he visited upon them starvation, Indian
massacres, storms at sea, droughts and blights, the
small pox and the plague. The sight of each new con-
gregation, of every resolute convert, of each new steeple
rising into the sky must have been gall and wormwood
in Lucifer’s cup.

Catastrophe after catastrophe was laid at the Devil’s
doorstep. If he were suppressed or overwhelmed one
place, he would pop up in another. He appeared not
only in violent natural phenomena, but might assume
the shape of a frog or toad, an insect or bird, a dog or
horse, or even of a man, woman, or child.

 

Against such a background there flamed up the Salem
witch delusion of the 1690’s. The hysteria set off by a
few teen-age girls ended with neighbor accusing neigh-
bor, husband testifying against wife, and with the
gallows as the reward for those who maintained their
innocence. Some of New England’s finest minds suc-
cumbed to the mass hysteria; and while many re-
canted, a few, like Justice Hathorne and the illustrious
Cotton Mather, went to their graves convinced of their
stand. Never had the Devil had such a field day in
New England. And yet by some strange perversity the
episode was looked upon as God’s visitation. Why,
asked the Reverend Baxter, is it any wonder that Satan
should visit witchcraft upon a place of such serious
Piety. “I think, ’tis no wonder: Where will the Devil
show most Malice, but where he is hated, and hateth
most?” It was, presumably, God’s ordeal of fire de-
signed to strengthen the elect.

The Age of Enlightenment closed the chapter on
witch hunting. As new sects arose and old ones quar-
relled, the old Theocracy was broken up. Puritanism
gave way to Congregationalism of a lighter vein and
even to Unitarianism and to Free Thinking. Yet in the
New England mind the Calvinist symbol of evil could
not be erased. By 1840 there were those who looked
upon the Devil as a puckish character, a prankster of
less than Satanic grandeur. They referred to him as
“Old Scratch” and the use of such epithets as “the very
Devil’s in it” or “what the Devil” were not considered
profanity. Still, among the strait-laced, Satan was a
wily and devious enemy, ever ready to ensnare a man.

The Faustian story of a man selling his soul to the
Devil was Germanic, but the germ of the legend is
found throughout New England. The wealthy mer-
chants felt no taint upon their wealth, and they con-
sidered themselves, as did the ministers in their parish
or congregation, as among the chosen. But among the
poor, a man who rose rapidly to wealth or profited at
another’s expense, was whispered about as being in
league with the Devil. The frugal Yankee thoroughly
approved of hard work and the accumulation of worldly
goods; he did not approve of worldly goods alone. It

was in this vein that Benet found the ore for his classic
tale.
antel Webster

n 1782, seven years before the ratification of that

Constitution which he was to defend so brilliantly,

Daniel Webster was born of rugged Yankee stock
in the little town of Salisbury, N. H. In‘later life, he
remarked: “It did not happen to me, gentlemen, to be
born in a log cabin; but my elder brothers and sisters
were born in a log-cabin, raised amid the snow-drifts
of New Hampshire, at a period so early that, when the
smoke first rose from its rude chimney and curled over
the frozen hills, there was no similar evidence of a white
man’s habitation between it and the settlements on the
rivers of Canada.” From the time he left home for
Phillips Academy, Exeter, through his years at Dart-
mouth and all during his public life, Webster never
forgot that he was a Yankee and thus his roots were
firmly fixed in New England soil.

A natural flair for oratory manifested itself early in
Webster’s career and led directly to the choice of law
as his personal vocation. He was admitted to the Bar
in 1805 and immediately established himself as one of
the most promising lawyers in the country. An avid
reader from childhood, Webster had a knowledge of
history, literature, and law that well suited him for a
place in the House of Representatives to which he was
elected at the age of 30. From that time on, Daniel
Webster devoted himself to politics and law, dis-
tinguishing himself in both.

As a politician, Webster believed in two things: the
Constitution and the Union. He once said to a friend
that there was not an article, a section, a clause, a
phrase, a word, a syllable, or even a comma, of that
Constitution which he had not studied and pondered in
every relation and every construction of which it was
possible. Webster was more than a theoretical politi-
cian, however. He was an intensely practical and
effective party leader. Though he was ambitious for
the Presidency, he was constantly passed over in favor
of lesser men. Yet, as a Congressman, Senator, and
Secretary of State, his record of achievement was high.

The outstanding achievement of Webster’s career,
the single event in which his abilities as a lawyer, a
politician, and a man came together, was his great
speech of March 7, 1850, which resulted in the passage
of the Compromise of 1850 and thus postponed the

Civil War for a decade. Tragically, in defending the
Compromise, which very possibly saved the Union,
Webster incurred the wrath of his native New Eng-
landers who claimed that he was selfishly trying to win
votes for the 1852 election. As a result of these un-
founded charges, Webster’s health was broken and he
died an unhappy man several days before the election.

Today the unjust contemporary verdict has been
reversed and Webster stands as one of the striking and
vital forces of the period preceding the Civil War. His
fight for the preservation of the Constitution and the
Union was a fitting prelude to that of Abraham Lincoln.
In a rhetoric that has seldom been equalled in the his-
tory of oratory, Webster proclaimed the necessity for
the solidarity of the Union and celebrated that Yankee
heritage which he considered so vital a part of the
American tradition.

The Marshfield, Mass., Homestead of Daniel Webster

at Shas a

   

His spirit is best expressed in a letter he wrote shortly
before his death to John Taylor, a fellow Yankee: “You
and I are farmers, we never talk politics; our talk is

of oxen; but remember this: that any man who at-
tempts to excite one part of this country against
another is just as wicked as he would be who should
attempt to get up a quarrel between John Taylor and
his neighbor, Old John Sanborn . . . John Taylor!
Thank God morning and evening that you were born in

such a country. John Taylor! Never write me another
word upon politics.”

 
View of the tree-shaded
Village Green

The blacksmith forges a
horseshoe on his ancient
anvil

 

“ = Oy WH Old Sturbridge is a typical
‘ : century-old Yankee village re-
created on a 200-acre tract of
meadow, woodland and river
shore. Thirty of its buildings
are open to visitors. Wherever
you stroll, the village comes
alive, whether at the farm —
with its animals—, the old
gristmill or blacksmith shop, or
on the Green with its homes,
working craftshops, meeting
house, tavern, school and store.

   

és

The skilled hands of the
potter shape a vase

The Meetinghouse from the
doorway of Mashapaug House

Old S turbridge Village

 

 
 
 
 
 
    

At the Wight Grist Mill
grain is ground

 

 

Power was furnished by hand
for colonial lathes