Mark Twain, the celebrated humorist, was so taken with the quaint charm of L.M.  Montgomery’s tremendously popular novel that upon reading it for the first time he said:  “In ‘Anne of Green Gables’ you will find the dearest and most moving and delightful girl since the immortal Alice.” [Anne is played by a girl in her middle teens.] And for years this fascinating book has headed the list of best sellers.  It has been made twice as a movie, once a silent picture and only recently as a talkie, but it has remained for the distinguished dramatist, Alice Chadwicke, to make the first and only dramatization of this magically beautiful story.  Green Gables is the home of lovable Matthew Cuthbert and his stern sister, Marilla Cuthbert.  Nobody suspects that beneath her hard exterior there lurks a soft and tender heart.  When Matthew, after a great deal of reflection, finally decides to adopt an orphan boy to help with his farm work, Marilla grudgingly consents.  Through a rattlebrained friend of theirs, one Nancy Spencer, they agree to take a boy from the Hopeton Orphanage.  Marilla makes ready to receive the boy and Matthew drives to the station to get him.  Fancy his consternation when he finds little Anne Shirley waiting for him!  There has been a mistake and Anne has been sent to Green Gables in lieu of a boy whom the Cuthberts plan to adopt.  From the instant Anne and Matthew meet a strong attachment grows up between the little orphan and the man who has been starving for affection without realizing it.  Anne, with her vivid imagination, her charitable viewpoint, her refreshing simplicity, touches the old bachelor’s heart.  But not so with Marilla.  She determines to send Anne back to the orphanage the following day.  But she reckons without Anne who is so enchanted by everything at Green Gables and who cries and begs and pleads so hard to remain that even Marilla finally gives in and consents.  Anne is the sort of part that every young girl will adore playing, and the other parts offer splendid opportunities to the various members of the cast.  The play breathes of youth, is thoroughly modern in spirit, very simple to prepare and present and Miss Chadwicke has written into it such an abundance of warmth, wit, and motion that it becomes an endless delight.

(Royalty, $25.00.) Price, 75 cents.

GROWING PAINS

Comedy. 3 acts.  By Aurania Rouverol. 7 males, 8 females, 1 set (patio).  Modern costumes.

Produced originally at the Ambassador Theatre in New York.  George and Terry are the son and daughter of Professor and Mrs. McIntyre who struggle valiantly to lead their children through the difficult phases of adolescence, so familiar to us all.  Terry is shown outgrowing the tomboy stage, and unable to play with the boys on an equal status.  She finds herself thrown back on her feminine resources; and how she tries out her “resources,” makes this play an illuminating study of feminine psychology.