W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory and the Abbey Theatre's Irish Players Perform in Western Mass in November, 1911

In fall, 2011, esteemed Irish poet William Butler Years and fellow writer Lady Gregory came to the United States to promote Ireland's new theater movement with the Irish Players of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, where they performed in 30 venues from September through November.  

As part of its tour, the Irish Players performed at the Court Square Theater in Springfield, MA on Thursday, November 9, 1911.  The plays included "Kathleen Ni Houlihan,' by William Butler Keats, "The Building Fund" by William Boyle and "The Rising of the Moon' by Lady Gregory.

On the previous day, November 8, the Irish Players performed two shows at the Northampton Academy of Music, a matinee and evening performance. 

"The company has been in the United States for the past six weeks, five of them in Boston, where crities and public were fascinated by the art of the dramatists, but more by the singularly simple and effective acting of the players," wrote the Springfield Republican.  The Irish Players are "considered one of the most gifted companies of ensemble players ever seen in this country. Their great acting has inspired a number of prominent Irishmen to write for them, and in this way has fostered a new school of Irish dramatic literature."

In addition to promoting Ireland's new theater movement, the trip was also meant to defend the troupe against opponents who rioted in Dublin when the Playboy of the Western World by Synge was first performed. Critics assailed the play as a slight upon the Irish character.

Speaking at Harvard University, Yeats explained the Irish theater movement this way, "In Ireland, we are putting upon the stage a real life where men talk picturesque and musical words and where men have often picturesque and strange characters, that is to say, the life of far away villages where an old leisurely habit of life still exists. The country life has for us the further fascination that it is the only thoroughly Irish life that is left. All our patriotic movements go back to the peasant. We try to recreate Ireland in an Irish way by mastering what he knows and by using it to understanding what the old manuscripts contain."