The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 26, 1903, Page 46

46 k3 | FTER all, we eat only the ster,” thus “Ben” Greet director of the Elizabethi Stage Society of Tondon and favoring me here with an argument for Shakes- he was originally played. Mr. d before: “I find the public absorbed in Shakes- than in Shakespeare We get the lobster with ittle things stuck after all—" and int close. n, and advanced for trimmings are - Lo peare as Greet had much more deeply curious - kn then the foregoing qu les But the atifal e interested in the » ® w, but ye I was there tc the other side metimes mamey b I find people m bster,” Mr. Greet siyly put it. - But perhaps “Ben” Greet—even Froh- presents him (as director of yman without the punctilious —needs introduction here. In Amer- the present moment we are chiefly Greet's existence as di- ryman,” the morality play have made so profound Eastern audiences last eye also to a significant As You Like It,” in which an 2 Soclety—Mr. a new notch in open But besides being this, the m , Other things that in- is & conoscente among con- Elizabethen drama. He is f accompiishment and aiso the trifie of twelve theatrical land. He is, above all, eeply artistic instinct, i commanding judgment. 1 learned that Mr. Greet hastened to “nail” him gnigant of Mr. hat seems t m ger of te granted my request 1 the Elizabethan drami gdon’s “operating room, . Mr. Greet met us. We and the manager, iness of genius, be- ang up his hat on the - chair. It Zell off, v augh that jowed we became At least 1 AL ¢ t ression one gets of Mr. ullar and pervading square- en squarely built, with over a square brow. 1are jaw, and lcvel n eves whose His neither up nor straight lines, toed with anxious, ss. For the rest, his typical fresh, florid, of a blue too tinate hair—paint- His broad should- f the burden of twelve them, but to remind of these, almost the leisurely , the gentle about re € bster” and its ere to learn. Why, Here ¢ everything \ y picking out t of the Burhing m. Most extraordin- of course is the usual y like the apitally done, is a very, very thing h stronger interest in with us. In Harvard, e is even a professor— who concerns himself literature. They tons_of all kinds anish, and is difficult to find have not done. I elf now because I e one was going to bring here, and I thought it st e going to have ‘Every- eagerly, for the morality 1 have blackly envied e season next 1 am hoping,” the if not, then in the fol- the play at the Univer- California I hear?” any other places as we can,” are very desirous of Berkeley. We have many of the Eastern now. proud of their theater I add. 1 went over to see it the other Fascinating idea that large am- President Wheeler is very en- bout f1—would have me go t. And truly, it is magnifi- California is surely going to bave its own drama, soon,” he unex- pectedly concluded *“J hope and believe s0,” 1 replied. “We are o far off from the base of supplies, that we have to be self-supporting, or suffer. We've suffered up to now. Still, we get the crumbs from New York's table in the summer, and there have been more than usual this year. Let us be thankful. * * * But what do you think the chances are for the American na- tional drama, whether from the West or the East?” “] am a visitor—here practically on suf- ferance,” Mr. Greet hesitated, "I hardly ke— “But that is precisely what we need, honest and able criticism,” I insisted. “I should say then that the practice of writing for stars is impeding the progress of the drama more than any other one thing,” our English critic squarely avowed. “It cribs, cabins and confines the writer. In the end, aiso, it limits the actors. And certainly dramatic art suf- fers from the imposing of the idea of a personality as the central interest of a play. Can you imagine Shakespeare guity of writing for a star? Can you fancy ‘Hamlet' written to fit? Or ‘Cleopatra’ cut to any one’s measure? You may call Hamlet a star part, perhaps, yet there are several almost as good in the play. But you are fond of the ‘star’ suggestion here ~—even to the national flag. You have star politicians, star clergymen, star prize- fighters—why not the star actor? But that is not the way 1o get the best out of the drama,” all this in the mildly ironic tone, the sweet English drawl, with which Mr. Greet at once soothes and hypnotizes the attention. He went on again, throwing back his Lead with a square, characteristic fling: “This play of ours, ‘Everyman,’ was “0t written for a sjar. We even omit the names of the players from the programme an old custom of the Blizabethan Stage Society.” 1 choked over the attempt to see a — programme without his large-typed name; # programme of Miss — —— without her agreeable cognomen in fat letters, and then sald: “That seems 10 me ap unnecessary elim. inntion of personality.” Mr. Greet’s *“perhaps” was doubtful, and he added: “They thought so in New York. There was an absolute rush to the Lox office after the performances to find out the players’ names.” “ “Everyman’ is tremendously old, isn't #t?" 1 veered. “As old as the hills,” Mr. Greet put it, and comfortably flung his arm over the back of his chair. “Columbus was just discovering America when ‘Everymah’ THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JULY 26, 1903. = was at the height of its popularity. was the “Hamlet' of the day.” “It reminds very much of Bunyan's ‘Pilgrim’s Progress'?” “There s no doubt that Bunyan got his inspiration from ‘Everyman,’ " Mr. Greet assented. “It is very reasonably conjec- tured, too, that Holbein's ‘Dance of Death’ was inspired by the play. Oh, its history goes back to the eleventh century, as for as it can be traced.” “The play seems to have made a ro- markable impression in_the twentieth cen- tury,” 1 suggest. “f% ie veally a heart-searching, moving affair,” the play’s director testified, as to a creed. “Archbishop Ryan of Philadel- phia sald of it—I had this from a friend of his, and think I have it correctly—'I have preached many sermons, heard many, but never one to equai this.’ ” While I was wondering about art for a sermon’s sake Mr. Greet went on: “The play is naturally more Catholic in atmos- phere than anything clse, but it has so much real bumanity, so much of the ab- solute teachings of the gospel, that it has won admirers of all sects.” “You represent God himself in the play, do you not?” “Not always, but generally,” the direct- or replied. Then: “Which way would California like ‘the play best?” 1 gave it up, remembering how James O'Neill—truly, some years ago—was ar- rested every night after the performance at Morosco’s for impersonating the Christ in Henry de Mille’s “Passion Play.” “You see we have a person called a cen- It sor in England,” Mr. Greet, gently satiric, explained., “Mr. Abingdon says he is all right,” I quoted. “80 he is—for the English,” the manager smiled. “But there is a ice over there against representing the Deity on the stage.” “Ag to the censor's other functions, do you think him at all useful?” moral owned. ve ‘Zaza' every side, wondering largely how Ciem- ent Scott could it up for vears as a ‘moral’ play. I nothing but an odious tissue of abominations. The go-called ““Then you don’t llke Ibsen?" “‘Oh, yes; I do,” Mr. Greet contrndlw. “Ibsen is a brilliant writer, knows ho say things and makes actors—a great art —and, above all, actresses.” “Then does it stand that only the bad in art is immoral?” “Sometimes it seems that way,” Mr. Greet mused. ‘“When Rejane, for exam- ple, plays 'Zaza' it seems sometimes to approach art—" “There is your condemned ‘personal- ity,” " 1 interrupt. “But the bad in art {s immoral,” the manager went on unheeding. -Then he gently thundered: *““When I see an ugly woman wearing a pink hat, & red ‘walst and a magenta skirt that's an immoral woman to me.” 1 laughed dissentingly: “Of all others I should judge her morals least open to question. But your censor again—he ob- jects to Bernard S8haw. You do not?” “'Shaw’s a deliclous person,” the man- ager smiled. “Have you ever heard him lecture on Shakespeare? It's impossibly funny. No, I think Shaw has achieved all but a masterpiece in his ‘Candida.’ Any national theater we may have would be bound to include at least one of his plays in its repertoire.” making that way,” Mr. Greet put it. “We got away from our American dra- 0 matic sins a while ago; may we go back?"” I then asked. “You must permit me to praise also,” the manager insisted. ‘‘Your stock com- panies are a truly admirable feature of dramatic development here. You have so many, and they do sych amazingly good work. They are of the most hopeful signs of the times. I went in the other night to see ‘The Highwayman,' an exceptional performance of especlally good stuff of the kind.” T @id not agree as to the material, but was pleased when the manager testified as to the superior comfort and conven- ience of our theaters as compared with the English ones. “'One thing,”, and Mr. Greet lifted an appalled hand? “you have in America a deplorable, abominable set of supers. Their behavior is Iimpossibly bad, their indifference to surroundings, their ges- tures, looks, costumes, even to the little matter of cleanliness,” ‘I love best the man with the spear,” I smile. “I'm bound to say the soldiers strike me as being the worst,” Mr. Greet said. Then continued: “They all look as if they ““We are to have ‘The Devil's Disciple’” wish they were not there, as if they here this season,” I inform Mr. Greet with some pride. ““Of course you are. You have every- thing here,” he retorted. There is some- thing of the amusement, wonder, jealousy, doubt, tenderness of the father who finds his child free of leading-strings, in the Englishman’s attitude to the American stage. Then, seriously, “There is nothing more like London—or, rather, Londoners— than San Franciscans, it appears to me. I have seen more men in one club here with mustaches’ —"‘moustahshes, Mr. Greet calls them—"than fn any other whole city, I belleve. Only clergymen and actors wear shaven faces with us.” “Does the resemblance stop 4t the mus- tache?” 1 inquire. “‘Olj, no. But perhaps they would resent the ? No? You are like English peo- ple in bulla, accent, coloring. you Mnow,” the manager tnen catalogued. “Aren’'t moot point. “1 think not. Our court women are all wanted to be in bed. You ought to have here’ a set of people with the artistic in- stinct, willing to acquire their first ex- perience among the mobs and crowds, and from which could be recruited the actors of tne future. Our worst supers—we call them Adelphis—are absolute Irvings to most of yours,” but~the tolerant, genial tone and fic voice stole most of the Greet thunder. “iou must like our fashion of taking .otx our hats in the theater here?” I hum- bly inquire. “Yes,” Mr. Greet assented, “but not your fashion of putting t on again ‘before the final curtain. Frankly, I think ‘it a hideous practice to get up and fidget during the final ecenes—don’t you?” “I'm_ seldom there,” I shy, then ask: “pid George Alexander succeed In getting his audience in on time to his theater— you remember he announcéd that no one the women taller here?’'—a \would be admitted after the curtain went up until the first act was over?” “It was a perfect success. Everybody e SESEL TSy ¢ i Ben Greet, Director of the Elizabethan Stage Society, Promises Us Rare Productions of “Everyfnan” and ‘‘As You Like It.” SR was there. Critics, too. But that was only a first night experiment.” s there any likelihood,” I irrelevantly, “of your giving Like It' here?’ ‘“We may,” the manager replied. “We have a repertoire of about twenty plays besides.” “I see you cleared $10.00 by your open air performance of ‘As You Like It' In New York.” “Yes,” Mr, Greet sald simply. “And we have given altogether more than 2000 open air performances in England. We have given ‘As You Like It' at Wilton, Lord Pembroke’s place, where the comedy was first performed—with Shakespeare acting Adam.” ““We are to have an open alr production of "As You Like It, next Saturday,” I remarked, “with Nance O'Nell.” “Of course you are,” the Englishman laughed, “the first thing T saw here was the ‘Romeo and Juliet, with Miss O'Neil —then the Chinese Theater. Wonderfully similar conditions these to the Elizabeth- an stage.” Then as I stood up to take reluctant leave, he concluded, *'I have just discover- ed that Ban Francisco has anticipated me Z‘tm matter of the open air play by ht by thirteen years. I have given them for seventeen, the Bohemian Club has glven them for thiséy years. One certainly does not come here to teach!" P s Plays and the_Players. Charles Dalton will be & Walsh’ ! leading man in ‘.'Ru.urr:ctlon ¢ inquire ‘As You Daniel McAvoy expects to sign Shuberts for nel.t season. i .o o Willlam Seymour will s “py Courageous” tor.omn‘ Johnhnm ks . Paul Gilmour will use John Drew’s play of last season, “The Mummy ‘Humming Bird.” e . Anna Held will be seen in the Blchmmlflimml’:: — ter the latter part of December. $ eob Virginia Harned's new play for the com- ing season will be a modern comedy by Haddon Chambers called “The Golden Silence.” R Henry W. Savage has engaged Flora Zabelle for one of the leading roles in “The Yankee Consul,” a new comic opera by Henry M. Blossom Jr. and Alfred G. Robyn. st 37 Klaw & FErlanger are making exten- sive preparations for N. C. Goodwin's production of “A Midsummer Night's Dream,” which will open at the Knicker- bocker Theater October 12. b Julius Steger, James E. Sallivan, Fred Titus (Bdna May’s husband), and Louis F. Gottschalk, the musical director, have been engaged by F. Ziegfeld Jr. for De Koven & Klein’s new opera, “The Red Feather,” In which Grace Van Studdiford is to star. L 3a, Daniel Frohman, who has just returned from Europe, announces that his new theater, the Lygeum, will be opened about September 1. E. H. Sothern will open the new house with Justin Huntly McCar- thy's new play, “The Proud Prince,” - . . - Practically all the able people seen with James and Warde last season have been re-engaged by Wagenhals & Kemper for “Alexander the Great,” in which play these famous stars will appear on their forthcoming tour. The ensemble scenes calling for soldiers, courtiers, dancing girls and slaves will necessitate carrying a company of nf-rl! M}y people, The added fame acquired by Blanche Walsh through her brilliant work of Jast season In “Resurrection” is now bej reflected in the attention paid to her opinfons on public matters. Her recent in behalf of lue proposed Nationa] Art Theater has been taken up and com- mented upon by all the important papers and magazines both in America and Eu. rope. When a successful star such as Blanche Walsh js courageous enough to deplore the “‘star” system as a menace to dramatic art there seems to be hope for HE Tivoli management now definitely announces a grand opera season for this year, to begin September 1. in the new Tivoli—the union willing! Af- fairs have been so unsettled for the last few months at our little opera-house that there has been a gen- eral fear that we should have to g0 without our customary grand opera this year, with Herr Conried and his Metro- politan Opera-house people alse a pal- pable impossibility. But we are to have the season after all, a month late, it i8 true, and for twelve weeks only, as the signors and signorinas have to be back in Italy on December 10, in time to re- hearse for the grand opening of all the Itallan opera-houses on the day after Christm: The new theater in itself will be a con- siderable attraction. It will secat some- thing like 2500 people, and according to Mr. Leahy's enthusiastic accounts will be everything that a theater should be. The most distant seat from the stags, owing to the ex@reme width of the bulld- ing, will be nearer the stage by twenty- five feet than a similar seat at the Tivoll, and hearing should be equally good from all parts of the house. There are two balconies and a top floor, and the exits afe to be of the most approved plan. On the top fipor a cafe conducted in Iuropean fashion, will be arranged and there will be an elevator for the hungry and smoky —for smoking will be allowed only on the top floor. For all this and a seat of com- fortablest sort we shall pay only the classic Tivoll prices, ranging, as we all know, from $1 down to “two-bits.” Among the list of coming artists that T here subjoin will be seen only three fa- miliar names, all of which will be warm- ly welcomed—Dado, Agostini and Ds Spada. There is some talk, in the alr as yet, of bringing out that admirable old artist, Salassa, with the view of a pro- duction of “Falstaff.” It is devoutly to bs hoped that we may have him, for though it is two years since Salassa was heére, there 13 surely sufficient of his noble volcs left to make it worth while. His art has never been approached at the Tivell. Im Adamo Gregoretti, Mr. Leahy belleves he has found a volce like the young Sal- assa's, also a talent of equaily fine tex- ture. It is much to be hoped. The new opera, “Zaza,” by Leoncavallo, will be the principal novelty of the sea son, the name part, a lyric soprano, to be done by Adaleni Tromben. Then there will be ““Adriana Lecouvreur,” by Chelia —a new contestant for operatic honors, and, of course, “Falstaff,"” if Signot Salas€a comes. Otherwise the repertoire will be like that of last year, with “Tosca” and “Andre Chenler” as one yvear old noveltles. And here are the people who are to come, names to us yet, but soon to be friends: Adaleni Tromben, lyric soprano: Tina de Spada, lyric soprano; Lina de Bene- detto. dramatic soprano; Cloe Marchesini, contraito; Guiseppe Agostini, tenor: Emanuele Ischierdo, tenor: Alfredo Te- deschi, tenor; Adamo Gregoretti, bary- tone; Guiseppe Zanini, barytone; Agosto Dado, basso; Baldo Travaglini, basso. @ bl bl @ the improvement of the drama in Amer- fea. Miss Walsh will begin her coming tour in “Resurrection” at Pittsbu*s on September 7. e W8 Nat M. Wills, who will star in “ A Son of Rest” next season, direction of Broad- hurst & Currie, s the proud possessor of a pretty dlamond and pearl scarpin. It ‘was presented to the comedian by Captain Marks of St. James, L. I, as a token of appreciation, Wills having pulled the Captain’s small son John out of the bay at St. James recently, after the boy had been seized with a cramp, and was in a fair way to quit this joyous sphere by the water route. \ e R Jameson Lee Finney is an American— a native of one of the Western States. He'is thoroughly and enthuslastically American {n all his tastes and habite. Yet it must be chronicled as a remarkable fact that in all his stage experience Mr. Finney has never played an American until he essayed the part of Perey Merrill in “A Fool and His Money” at the Madi- son Square Theater. At the Empire The- ater Mr. Finney appeared in the follow- ing roles: Captain La Rolles in “Under the Red Robe” (French):; Lieutenant Schneider in “The Conquerors” (German); a Frenchman in “Bohemia,” an English- man in “John A'Dreams.” At Daly's in Huntworth's Experiment” (En- Lord Cyril Garston in “Frocks and (English); Modus in “The Hunch- ;: Gringoire in “Notre Dame’; an Englishman in “The New Clown,” and a Frenchman in “The Two Schools.” Mr. Finney is proud of the fact that his great- est hit was made in the part of the debon- alre young New Yorker in Mr. Broad- hurst’s cléever American comedy. . . . The importance of the approaching visit of the two brilliant stars, Henry Miller and Margaret Anglin, in conjunction un- der the direction of Charles B. Dilling- ham, cannot be gainsaid, in view of their great personal and artistic popularity. San Francisans have come to regard Hen- ry Miller and Margaret Anglin with a sentiment somewhat removed from the mere cursory appreclation of their re- spective brilliant talents, and now that their names are announced jointly on the same Dbill their innumerable admirers have caust for double rejoicing. The opening date of the attraction at the Co- lumbia Theater is set for Monday, August 17, and their stay will continue over sev- eral weeks. ‘While it has not yet been decided which is to be the opening play of the engage- ment, advices are to hand concerning the repertoire of the organization together with some particulars of the personnel of the supporting ny. The plays to be presented are George Bernard Shaw’s brilllant comedy, “The Devil's Disciple”; Richard Harding Davis' comedy, “The Taming of Helen'; a new play from the French, “The Lady of Lyons,” and an important production of “Camille,” in which it may be remem- bered Miss Anglin scored so great a tri- umph here last summer. It will thus be conceived that with a generous repertoire, and so varied, a great artistic treat is in store. Among the company supporting the stars are Miss Martha Waldron, Miss Kate Patterson Selten, Miss Mary Wright, Herbert Titheredge, Morton Sel- ten, R. Lewis and Frank Hitchcock. —_— A Household Jewel. A family in the southern part of the city employed what they believed to be = “household jewel.” For a few days she proved to be all that they had anticipated, and everything went smoothly. One day, however, the husband came down to breakfast and made the announcement that they must get rid of the new girl. “Why, John, you must be cragzy,” said his wife with amazement. “She’s the best girl I ever had, so respectful, and a fine cook.” “That makes no difference. She Isn't honest.” “Oh, well. we'll never miss a loaf of bread once in a while; her folks may need it more than we do.” “That isn't it. Early this morning i saw her creep into our room, go to my lpocko', take my pocketbook and empty nabit: you Know She's seen marked-h ; you 's been married.—N. Times. Mr. Finney played Lord Huntworth “Lady