Kaye association with the Frohmans and Mr. David Belasco, had a strong influence on the future of the stage, while his direct influence on his many pupils is hard properly to estimate. As an organizer and stage manager he had to his credit two theatres, numerous theatrical companies, and the Spectatorium at Chicago in 1893. He built the Madison Square Theatre and the Lyceum Theatre in New York, modeling the former on the Theatre Francais, and hoping to bring together a permanent company of artists. He planned also to pay properly the dramatists who were to write plays for his company. Yet, so careless was he in financial dealings, that his contract with the capitalists who controlled the theatre gave him but a salary of $5,000 yearly and he shared in none of the profits of Hazel Kirke, which amounted to $200,000 in two years. His final achievement as an organizer and director was the Spectatorium in Chicago in connection with the "World's Fair in 1893, a great project which failed owing to the financial crisis of that summer. In this immense auditorium he was planning to produce The World Finder, a "Spectatorio" based on the Columbus story. He died February 25, 1894, having lived to see some of his ideas vindicated on a smaller scale in the production of a working model of the original plan, known as the Scenitorium, on February 5, 1894.
As a dramatist, Steele MacKaye represents the transition from the older theatrical tradition to the newer realism. His work was not by any means free from the older devices, but there is a decided advance in the naturalness of the characters and in the quietude of expression. His acted plays were as follows:
Monaldi, with Francis Durivage, first produced at the St. James Theatre, New York, January 8, 1872; Marriage, adapted from the French of Octave Feuillet's Julie, first produced at the St. James Theatre, New York, February 12, 1872; Arkwright's Wife, with Tom Taylor, first produced at the Theatre Royal, Leeds, England, July 7, 1873; Rose Michel, based on the French of Ernest Blum, produced for the first time at the Union Square Theatre, New York, November 23, 1875; Queen and Woman, with J. V. Pritchard, first produced at the Brooklyn Theatre, Brooklyn, New York, February 14, 1876; Twins, with A. C. Wheeler, produced for the first time at Wallack's Theatre, New York, April 12, 1876; Won at Last, produced at Wallack's Theatre, New York, December 10, 1877; Through the Dark, produced for the first time at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York, March 10, 1879; An Iron Will, produced for the first time at Low's Opera House, Providence, Rhode Island, October 27, 1879; its revision. Hazel Kirke, produced for the first time at the Madison Square Theatre, New York, February 4, 1880; A Fool's Errand, a dramatization of Judge Tourgee's novel, first produced at the Arch Street Theatre, Philadelphia, October 26, 1881; Dakolar, based on Georges Ohnet's Le Maître de Forges, first produced at the Lyceum Theatre, New York, April 6, 1885; In Spite of All, a play based on Sardou's Andrea, first produced at the Lyceum Theatre, New York, September 15, 1885; Blenzi, based
