The Buffalo Players were a community theater group operating in Buffalo, New York, from 1922 to 1926. Although only in operation for four years, they were connected with several prominent theater and film professionals, such as C. Pascal Franchot (later known as film actor Franchot Tone); Marian de Forest, founder of Zonta International and Buffalo civic leader; and Broadway and Hollywood actor Jerome Collamore.

They were also in part the inspiration for two other community theater groups: the Niagara Falls Little Theater (Now Niagara Regional Theatre Guild), which was founded in 1924, and the Rochester Community Players, continuously operating since 1925. Founding members also assisted in the launch of the Studio Theater School, predecessor of Buffalo's Studio Arena Theater.

Organization Marian de Forest was the president of the organization. She continued as a theater critic for the Buffalo Express even while serving as the head of the Buffalo Players.See, e.g. her column, "As Go the Play", Buffalo Express, June 22, 1924 At a speech before the newly forming Niagara Falls Players Association on November 6, 1924, she described how, in the early days of the Buffalo organization, they only had 'hope and faith', and 'depended on charity.'Niagara Falls Gazette, February 7, 1924, pg. 1 She said they started looking for a suitable place two years earlier, examining barns, a brewery and churches, before coming on what she described as a "forlorn" Allendale theater, with aisle too narrow, seats too close together and decorations in very poor condition, and that by 1924 the theater was in 'fine style'.

The offices and rehearsal space of the Players was in an historic house at 334 Delaware Avenue, built in the 1860s and leased from the owner, Dr. Charles Cary."Players Housed in One of City's Storied Abodes"; Buffalo Morning Express, August 16, 1925Buffalo Morning Express March 25, 1924 The house was located between the Cary home at 340 Delaware, and the home of Lawrence D. Rumsey at 330 Delaware.Buffalo Express, December 15, 19221920 United States Census

Lars S. Potter was vice president of the organizationBuffalo Morning Express June 24, 1925 and Pascal Franchot was secretary and speaker of the new organization.Buffalo Morning Press, October 7, 1924

The organization was publicly launched at a meeting at the Iroquois Hotel, Buffalo November 23, 1922, with Walter Hampden as the guest speaker and Buffalo Players President de Forest presiding.Buffalo Express, November 21, 1922

The Players leased the Allendale Theater, starting January 1923 with an 18-month lease.Buffalo Express, December 26, 1922

The Buffalo Players had reached membership of 2,560 by the opening of the 1924–25 season, according to Pascal Franchot.Buffalo Morning Express, Nov. 24, 1924 Going into the 1925–26 season, the Buffalo Players had a membership of nearly 2,600.Buffalo Express, July 24, 1925 In the summer of 1925, the Buffalo Players started putting out a newsletter called The Cue, and adopted a 'seal' or logo designed by Urquhart Wilcox: the skull of a buffalo inside a triangle.

Productions

From available records, the following is a partial list of productions staged by the Buffalo Players:

1922-23 Season The first production presented by the organization was A Curious Mishap by Carlo Goldoni, opening January 24, 1923.Buffalo Express January 4, 1923Buffalo Express, January 5, 1923

Second production: Three one act plays: The Dear Departed, by Stanley Houghton, Finders, Keepers by George Kelly, and Sham by Frank G. Compton; opening January 30, 1923.Buffalo Express, January 1, 1923Buffalo Express, January 26, 1923

Mrs. Bumpstead Leigh, by Harry J. SmithBuffalo Arts Journal, May 1925, pg. 11

Three one-act plays: Ile, by Eugene O'Neill, Behind the Beyond by Stephen Leacock, and Michael Angelo's Choice, by K. Parker Lewis

Three One act plays by Lord Dunsany: The Lost Silk Hat, The Tents of the Arabs, and The Queen's Enemies

The Torch Bearers by George Kelly

1923-24 Season

Captain Applejack, by Walter Hackett

Truth About Blayds by A. R. Milne

The Missing Man, by Cosmo Hamilton, with sets designed by Urquhart Wilcox, February 7–16, 1924;Buffalo Express February 8, 1924Buffalo Express, February 10, 1924Buffalo Express, February 16, 1924

R.U.R., by Karel Capek; Pascal Franchot and Lars Potter were in the leading roles, March 14–27, 1924;Buffalo Express, March 2, 1924Buffalo Express March 9, 1924Buffalo Sunday Express, March 23, 1924

Seven Keys to Baldpate by George M. Cohan, April 24, 1924;Buffalo Sunday Express, April 27, 1924Buffalo Morning Express April 25, 1924

La Chave Sourls, in cooperation with the Junior League, May 12-??, 1924;

Adam and Eva, by George Middleton and Guy Bolton, with Eric Snowden in the lead and Lars Potter also in the cast, June 1924Buffalo Morning Express, June 17, 1924Buffalo Express, June 22, 1924

1924-25 Season

Dulcy, by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly, October 1924;Buffalo Sunday Express, October 5, 1924

Fashion, written in 1844 by Anna Cora Mowatt December 1924Buffalo Morning Express, November 22, 1924

Anna Christie, Opening April 22, 1925Buffalo Sunday Express, April 26, 1925

Outward Bound, with Lars Potter as Tom Pryor (Potter went on to Dallas to play this same role in a Dallas Players production of this play, after which the Buffalo Players hosted a guest production of No Count Boy by the Dallas organization on May 15 and 16, 1925)Buffalo Sunday Express, January 17, 1926Buffalo Arts Journal, June 1925, Vol. VII, No. 3, pg. 20

Expressing Willie, by Rachel Crothers

H.M.S. Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan

Last production of the 1924–25 season: Three Live Ghosts by Frederic Isham in June 1925Buffalo Arts Journal, July–August 1925, Vol. VII, NO. 4 & 5, pg. 22

1925-26 Season

Manna, by Olga Printzlau Buffalo Arts Journal, Vol. VIII, No. 6-8, June–August 1926, pg, 47

Which One?, by Edwin Mack

Sherlock Holmes by William Gillette and Arthur Conan Doyle December 1925Buffalo Sunday Express November 25, 1925

Androcles and the Lion, by George Bernard Shaw, opening January 25, 1926, with Lars S. Potter as Androcles

The Mikado, by Gilbert and Sullivan, opening February 15, 1926Buffalo Morning Express, February 24, 1926

The Climax, by Edward Lock, April 8–17, 1926Buffalo Sunday Express, April 11, 1926

The final regular production of the Buffalo Players at the Allentown Playhouse was The Thief, by Henri Bernstein performed April 22 – May 7, 1926.Buffalo Morning Express, April 26, 1925Buffalo Sunday Express April 25, 1926 According to a newspaper report, the production played to "standing room only" at the Playhouse, and traveled to East Aurora, NY.Buffalo Morning Express, May 16, 1926

1926-27 Season

The remaining productions of the Buffalo Players were staged at an 'experimental playhouse' on the second floor of 545 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo.Buffalo Arts Journal, Vol. IX, No. 1, January 1927, pg. 37Buffalo Courier-Express Dec. 17, 1926, pg. 23 The space has been operated most recently as "TheaterLoft" by the Ujima Company

"Wappin' Wharf" by Charles S. Brooks, opening at the Elmwood Avenue space December 16, 1926

A one-act children's play, Puck Plkays Christmas by Ethel C. Wilcox of Buffalo. The production intended for the Christmas Season, but opened January 18, 1927 due to the remodeling of the Elmwood Avenue space.Buffalo Evening News, Jan. 12, 1927

Three one-act plays: The Constant Lover by St. John Hankin; The Wonder Hat by Kenneth Sawyer Goodman and Ben Hecht, and Dnger, by Richard Hughes.Buffalo Arts Journal March 1927, pg. 164Buffalo Evening News, Feb. 18, 1927, pg. 24

Dear Brutus by J. M. Barrie, opening March 28, 1927Buffalo Arts Journal, April 1927, pg. 251Buffalo Currier Express March 20, 1920, pg. 8 This was the last production staged by the Buffalo Players.

Managing Directors

Frederick Kitson Cowley was the first 'Art Director' (artistic or managing director) of the Buffalo Players. Cowley had attended the Art Institute of Chicago. He was an illustrator who had taught at the University of Illinois, the University of Minnesota and the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He had fifteen years of experience prior to coming to the Buffalo Players, and had directed soldoers' plays in France and Italy as part of the World War I American Expeditionary Force.Buffalo Express, November 24, 1924 At the organization's first public meeting, Crowley stated that the theater was at its highest development in the age of William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, and Edward Alleyn, and that contemporary theater was over-commercialized and controlled by people not primarily interested in theater as an art. The purpose of groups like the Buffalo Players was to foster a love for theater of artistic value. "Our community theater will be to all intents in the hands of the actors. It is better to have freedom of motion in the theaters with amateurs thaan to have ever-so-capable actors dominated by those who know little and care less for the art of the stage."

Eric Seton Snowden, of California, was engaged as the director of the Buffalo Players in July, 1923.Annual Address of Henry W, Hill, President of the Buffalo Historical Society. January 8, 1924 Snowden believed in popular entertainment. "I am extremely weary of uplifting drama. It simply isn't being done anymore, either. Out in Pasadina [the Pasadena Playhouse, California], where I spent part of the summer, the Community theater there had achieved a howling success with such offerings as Potash and Perlmutter. The little theaterite is finding out that he can't take himself too seriously, or he will be laughed out of court. The community theater, if it is to continue to function.. . must take off its high heeled boots and tread like folks. The high brow ideal that use to be obtained doesn't mix with box office receipts, and for an unsubsidized theater such as we have here at the present time, the latter has just got to be considered. The primary objective of any theater, for that matter, is to entertain; and nothing that is deadly dull, as uplift productions mostly are, can either function or endure."Buffalo Morning Express, September 14, 1924, pg 8, "Strolling on the Avenue" column

Broadway and Hollywood actor Jerome Collamore was named to succeed Mr. Snowden in August 1925.Buffalo Morning Express August 13, 1925 In a newspaper interview, he stated that "the drama is the greatest force of good there is. . . it is better than the pulpet, since the play is that medium of education which appeals to the emotions." In speaking of the Buffalo Players, and community theater in general, "Yours is a splendid spirit, since you are feeling out constantly for new talent, new material. Therein lies your opportunity. You can do the unusual. You are not limited to the things to which the commercial theater is limited. The true spirit in a community theater is that which allows for growth, which visualizes the future of American drama." Mr. Collamore was released at the end of the 1925–26 season."Players Group Launches New Theater Guild", newspaper clipping (unknown newspaper) 1924–1927 Scrapbook of the Rochester Community Players, in the Local History department of the Rochester Public Library