June 6, 20, 1948
Here in China the world lies a-dream,
like A Thousand Years Ago,
and the place of our dreams is eternal.
Players and audience were transported into a Chinese fantasy in A Thousand Years Ago, written by Percy MacKaye and directed by Lois Sandall. It’s the story of Turandot, Princess of Pekin (Peking or Beijing), whose suitors had to solve three enigmas, or die.
“The audience will be whisked away (in spirit) to China, where five vagabond players from Italy amuse the Emperor and Princess of Pekin with their wit.
“The cast: Turandot, Princess of Pekin (Dorothy Petrich), makes her father, Altoun, the Emperor (Ronald Todd), promise that for a year and a day all suitors for her hand in marriage must first guess three riddles. ‘To him who answers right she shall be wed. But all who answer wrong shall straightway die and their dissevered heads be spiked in scorn high on the city’s gate.’ Thus far none have answered right...
“Clear warm sunshine greeted the audience of more than 800 at first-curtain time on Sunday, June 6. . . . Came June 13! After a gloomy huddle under the dripping eaves of Kitsap Cabin the cast voted to postpone the play until the following Sunday and possible clearing skies. But the luck we had enjoyed in the formation of such a fine production had left us and on June 20, amid a steadily falling rain, we gave our second performance before a valiant band of 200 spectators who stuck it out to the final curtain.”
Bob Neupert, The Mountaineer, 1948
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