their plays, the singing and dancing, and sparkles.


I had always wanted a pony, and one summer Papa said he’d found one. He said he’d buy that pony for me, but I would have to choose between the pony and floating theatre. Well. I couldn’t see giving up the floating theatre. So I didn’t get the pony.” “Each night in the week, they repeat the same type of play,” John Stafford Efford recalls. “…high comedy, tragedy, melodramas, “Madame Butterfly,” “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” that sort of thing. Sometimes you were sitting on the edge of your seat. Beulah Adams would be tied to a railroad track and the hero would save her. Most everybody would stay for the concert, a vaudeville sort of thing. In the interim between the play and the concert, they had people hawking candy and stuff in the aisles. The actors, the musicians and the stagehands were all part of the whole business. Everybody did three things. You know, there is a lot of difference between live theatre and the movies. There’s nothing like the stage. The only way that live acting was available was from the drama groups of the communities. There’s much less live theatre in the communities now. We would see three or four live presentations every winter in the schools. The state never spent a dollar on the schools, the communities did it. They’d serve a supper and have a drama to raise money for the schools and drama groups would take their plays to other areas. But the Floating Theatre was on a higher level, they were the only guide the drama groups had of how it should be done.” Yes, it is very true that there is nothing that compares to experiencing a live performance. All too often today we come home and plop down in front of the television, or log onto our computers. Whether for work or fun, these are poor substitutes for getting out, being with others from your community, and sharing your lives and experiences. So get out and support organizations like the Westmoreland Players1


, the Lancaster


Players, Tidewater Shakespeare Company, etc. Supporting the arts in your area will


1 All of the Italicized quotes were collected by the Westmoreland Players and included in the program for their 1993 spring production. The Westmoreland Players provided “A Nostalgic View of The Floating Theatre Through Photos, Interviews and a Re-creation of it’s Most Popular Play SMILIN’ THROUGH”


The House & Home Magazine 17


not only lift your spirits and/or make you think, but it’s good for the local economy. Supporting the effort to return the Floating Theatre to entertaining coastal communities is an excellent way to help your local economy. This was even true in the early 1900s.


Deborah Bramble Conklin tells us, “I was always glad to hear the theatre was coming. That was a fun time when they came in. Everybody was excited. Most people around here went by boat, not too many had cars. My daddy, Lewin Bramble, did a lot of work for them when they would come.


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