June 4, 11, 1933
The Reluctant Dragon was adapted by Emma Gelders Sterne a famous children's author and suffragette, from a story by Kenneth Grahame. Evelyn Sczuck arranged and directed the music. Elsie Cooper played the flute, and Bill Darling created the costumes in this children's show about a family of dragons 1300 years ago.
"The play depicts the rescue of a fair maiden, Alceon (Ola Tweedy), the daughter of a king. Charles Gilliland played the rescuer, St. George. He slew the greedy dragon Golgol (A.H. Hudson)... Ronald Todd was Alexander Augustus, the reluctant dragon." [newspaper clipping]
"Bill Darling met a new problem of costuming with his convincing family of dragons. And once again in spite of hard times and the long distance people had to travel to see these productions, The Forest Theatre was filled with older folks and children, held in rapt attention by the story of St. George and the Dragon, and by the more modern second half of the story, in which a little boy and girl, a circus man, and an amiable dragon all play their parts."[Wilmer Froistad, The Mountaineer, 1933]
To view the program, click here.
The University of Washington has made available through their digital collection some film snippets from this production. They are in three parts and you view them by clicking on the following links:
The Mountaineers Players, The Reluctant Dragon Part 1, 1933
The Mountaineers Players, The Reluctant Dragon Part 2, 1933
The Mountaineers Players, The Reluctant Dragon Part 3, 1933
