on Bulwer Lytton's novel of the same name, first performed at Albaugh's Opera House, Washington, December 13, 1886; The Drama of Civilization, a pageant from W. F. Cody's "Wild West," first performed at the Madison Square Garden, New York, November 27, 1887; Anarchy, first performed at the Academy of Music, Buffalo, New York, May 30, 1887, and afterward revised as Paul Kauvar, at the Standard Theatre, New York, December 24, 1887; A Noble Rogue, first performed at the Chicago Opera House, Chicago, Illinois, July 3, 1888; An Arrant Knave, first produced at the Chicago Opera House, Chicago, Illinois, September 30, 1889; Colonel Tom, first produced at the Tremont Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts, January 20, 1890; Money Mad, first produced at the Standard Theatre, New York, April 7, 1890.
Of these nineteen plays, none was an utter failure, nearly all were successes in their day, and three, Hazel Kirke, Won at Last, and Paul Kauvar, were played for years in stock. Hazel Kirke was written in the town of Dublin, New Hampshire, where Steele MacKaye spent the summers of 1878 and 1879. The heroine's name was suggested by the sprigs of hazel boughs nearby. It was first played under the title of An Iron Will. It had been the intention of its author to present it at the Madison Square Theatre, but owing to delay in the completion of that theatre it was first produced in Providence, Rhode Island, October 27, 1879, and taken on tour through Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and other cities. On February 4, 1880, the play was put on at the Madison Square Theatre under the present name, and ran consecutively for about two years. It has continued on the stage for thirty years and in America has been acted at the same time by ten companies. It has been produced in England, Australia, Japan, Hawaii, and elsewhere. Its success has been due to its human quality, and to the fact that it appeals to the primary instincts. It was noteworthy in the absence of "the stage villain"—the incidents were developed naturally, and it points forward in our stage technique.
Hazel Kirke has so far been the only play of Steele MacKaye's to be published. It was privately printed in New York in 1880 and has been reprinted in the Samuel French series. For permission to reprint the play, the editor is indebted to the courtesy of Mrs. Steele MacKaye who, with her son, Mr. Percy MacKaye, has carefully collated the two editions, and prepared a definitive text and furnished valuable biographical and critical information. The present editor also acknowledges his indebtedness to the article on "Steele MacKaye, Dynamic Artist of the American Theatre," by Percy MacKaye, The Drama, Nos. 4 and 5, November, 1911, and February, 1912.
Mr. MacKaye has in preparation a memorial volume dealing with the work of his father and in this volume Hazel Kirke and Paul Kauvar are to be included.
