A State-supported Theatre
C.E.M.A. (the Council for the Encouragement of Music and Arts) has ventured yet a stage further in its enterprising campai in the interests of drama, music and art by re-opening the Thea Royal, Bristol, as a centre for the production of plays on the repel tory principle ; and this city can now make the claim to have th first theatre in Britain to be run by State enterprise. It has tak' a war to remove from this country the reproach that the Stat (albeit a democratic one) has done nothing whatever to suppo the art of the drama. C.E.M.A., conducted both with enthusia and discretion, has introduced the thin end of the wedge. Starti with comparatively small funds, supplied in the first place by th Pilgrim -Trust and the Treasury through the Board of Educati' it sent out a few excellent companies to tour industrial districts some of which serious plays had never before been produced and its successes astounded the pessimists. A little money went long way, for in many cases the box-office receipts covered or near covered the expenses. It has now been demonstrated once and all that even the most unlikely provinces will appreciate a g play when they get a chance to see it. After the war there will no excuse for ignoring national drama at the centre.
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