David Belasco’s 1912 Broadway production of The Governors Lady created a sensation with a scene set in a Childs cafeteria, a chain restaurant that was an innovator in food standardization and emblematic of modern everyday life. While Belasco’s meticulously

detailed reproduction of an immediately recognizable setting impressed the public, it was derided by progressive theater critics who championed the New Stagecraft theories of European artists like Max Reinhardt. The New Stagecraft rejected theatrical literalism; it drew inspiration from the subjectivity and minimalism of modern painters, advocating simplified sets designed to express a dramatic texts central ideas. Such critics considered Belasco a craftsman who merely captured surface realities: a true artist eliminated the inessential to create more meaningful, expressive stage images.