At the "Washington Square Bookshop" owned by the Boni brothers and the adjacent building housing the Liberal Club, an eclectic group of locals used to gather and criticize the state of American theatre.

According to a "manifesto" that was given out to the press,[fn 1] the company's goal was to present works of artistic merit, regardless of provenance though giving weight to American dramatists, that might not otherwise be performed in commercial theatres.

[19] An interesting feature of the tenancy of the WSP at the Bandbox (and later at the Comedy Theatre) was a small "bookshop" off the main lobby where copies of the plays presented could be purchased.

They also announced some policy changes: the better seats would now cost $1 in order to provide some compensation for the artistic and production staff (just $20 per week to begin with, regardless of position, which rose considerably in later seasons),[5] and performances would now be every evening plus a Saturday matinee.

Boston drama critic Hiram Kelly Moderwell wrote an essay called Art and Buttered Bread which explained why the policy changes were beneficial.

[22] Joining the company were Beverly Sitgreaves, who set up a small workshop in the Bandbox on dramatics and stagecraft for the WSP only, Grace Griswold as house manager, Lydia Lopokova, Frank Conroy, Glenn Hunter, and Roland Young.

[26] Cleveland Rodgers, critic for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, agreed and noted the program ran overly long with unexplained delays and poor settings.

[27] However, Hiram Kelly Moderwell was familiar with the Italian verismo style of Bracco, recognized that Roeder did an excellent job portraying a pretentious and disagreeable character, but acknowledged that American audiences were not yet ready for this sort of drama.

[fn 5][29] Finally, Aleck Woollcott in his column Second Thoughts on First Nights pronounced three of the playlets a success and expressed hope that the WSP would stick to one-act plays.

The whimsical playlet The Roadhouse of Arden by Philip Moeller and the pantomime The Red Cloak by Josephine A. Meyer and Lawrence Langner were both original works, and proved the most successful for this bill.

[36][37] A dissenting view came from Heywood Broun, who thought Andre Tridon's translation of The Tenor by Frank Wedekind the best work, but noted the audience responded most to The Clod by Lewis Beach.

[41] Pierre Patelin, an anonymous medieval work translated and adapted by Maurice Relonde, was judged an excellent presentation for its historicity as well for the sets by Lee Simonson.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle praised the production, particularly the acting of the leads, Roland Young (Constantine Treplieff) and Helen Westley (Irina Arkadina), but also mentioned Mary Morris, Ralph Roeder, and Florence Enright favorably.

Playing at a real Broadway theatre for the first time[fn 6] before a full house that included Diamond Jim Brady, the Washington Square Players proved their productions could please an audience more than twice the size of the Bandbox.

Reviving the short-lived drama workshop idea from the second season, the WSP sponsored Clare Tree Major in setting up the "School for Players" in the building across the street from the Comedy Theatre.

[65] The school opened October 2, 1916, drawing upon members of the WSP for general instruction, but also employing expert teachers for fencing, dancing, physical training, diction, and make up.

Within the same building as the School for Players the WSP, drawing on its artistic membership, set up a soon thriving business in creating stage scenery for other professional productions.

Rechofer; Lover's Luck by Georges de Porto-Riche, translated from the French by Ralph Roeder; The Sugar House by Alice Brown; and Sisters of Susanna by Philip Moeller.

[74] The New York Herald thought all four playlets good, with French actor José Ruben in A Private Account being called "the greatest find the Washington Square Players have made this season".

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle was less charitable, dismissing The Last Straw and The Hero of Santa Maria as obvious, The Death of Tintagiles as of appeal only to morbid adolescents, while noting A Private Account had already been performed at another theatre that year.

[76] Two plays from the third bill were retained, The Hero of Santa Maria and The Death of Tintagiles, while two encore presentations, Trifles and Lover's Luck were added for the fund raising drive.

[77] Massey's work, a satire on how commercial theater warps real stories, drew the most attention from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reviewer, who also thought Philip Moeller's translation of Sganarelle into rhyming couplets was "mostly foolish".

[87] For this month, the WSP temporarily become what it originally set out to counter, a commercial enterprise mounting a popular low-brow work purely for revenue to keep going.

The program of four one-act plays which finally opened on October 31, 1917, had Eugene O'Neill's In the Zone, The Avenue by Fenimore Merrill, Blind Alleys by Grace Latimer Wright, and His Widow's Husband by Jacinto Benavente.

Critics Charles Darnton and Cleveland Rodgers and The Times reviewer all singled out the Dreiser play, with its subtext of death from a botched abortion[fn 11] as the best work on the program.

[107] The play was a revival in New York, though its previous productions there had been brief, as recounted by the Times Union reviewer:[108] In 1905 the police put an end to what might have been a long run the day after the premiere.

[110] Heywood Broun thought the acting in Lonesome Like the best on the bill, but gave a devastating review of Salome and its lead, Madame Yorska, whom he likened to the little sister Jane in Seventeen.

[114] While Lonesome Like and The Home of the Free continued running, Close the Book by Susan Glaspell and The Rope by Eugene O'Neill were added on May 13, 1918, both from the repertory of the Provincetown Players.

[2] An unsigned article in the New York Tribune summed up the failure of their experiment: "The Washington Square Players sold their amateur birthright for the chance of Broadway".

[118] However, three of the WSP original founding members, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley, and Lawrence Langner would join with Theresa Helburn to carry forward the experiment with the foundation of the Theatre Guild later in 1918.