Percy MacKaye's Masque of Caliban (1916)

Just as the widely-heralded American Pageant Movement began to show a decline in both artistry and general interest, Percy MacKaye, the already well-known playwright and poet, staged the gigantic spectacle Caliban on May 25, 1916 at New York City's Lewisohn Stadium. Although not the largest production of the pre-World War I period—MacKaye's collaboration with Thomas Wood Stevens, St. Louis, a Civic Masque (1914) utilized the participation of more than 7,000 St. Louis citizen-actors and was seen by nearly 500,000 spectators during its five-day run—MacKaye's Caliban was thought to be the most lavish and grandiose, as well as best documented, pageant of its time

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