The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-05-03
THEATRICAL WARS.
THE SIGNS OF A COMPLETE REV.
OLUTlON IN The PROFESSION
Bad SeaSon--Tbe Prices of the Future.
Amateurs Claiming Public Notice
and Buying their Way.
Sitting Out the Bad.
Special Correspondence

perienced theatrical manager said lately to
the writer: ave are now nearing the close
of a season that, to the purveyors of amuse-
ments has been the most disastrous since the
one just prior to the war-and bad as it has
been, the next season will be even worse"
''How can that ber' asked. "Was not
the depression in theatrical matters this sea-
son only owing to the presidential election
and the long contest following itg'
''The presidential election years are always
bad ones at the beginning for our business.
But the election once over a reaction takes
place People rush to the theatres to obtain
recreation after the great political strain is
relaxed, and business is so good in the latter
portion of the season that we are enabled to
recoup our losses of the earlier. But this
year no such after-boom has set us on our
feet again. One reason is the prevalence of
hard times all over the country. For others,
that may pass away and next year be
prosperous one for all kinds Of business, ex-
cept ours"
''And why should notthat resume prosper
ity along with the rest of business pursuitsp
For the reason that the theatrical profes-
sion is undergoing a complete revolution,
and in the financial shipwreck that is com
ing more will be lost than rescued. The
causes date far back to when the sudden and
sometimes almost fabulous fortunes made
during the war created love of luxury and
a desire for splendor until then almost I'M
known in the simple annals of the American
stage. Up to that period playgoers had
been content with artistic acting-the scenic
surroundings being of little value-but the
nOuueduc riches were hardly cultured
enough to enjoy good acting merely for its
own sake; the ignorant eye had to be pleased
and dazzled by sumptuous upholstery, mag
niicent costuming and splendid Unseen
scene. This naturally led the managers into
great expense, salaries of performers went
up with other war prices, and the price of
admission had to be raised. This love of and
absolute demand for splendor in all the
minutie of the stage have obliged managers
to keep their prices ever since up to the war
standard. But the people have been growing
poorer and poorer as their tastes have been
more and more cultivated, until now there
has come a great financial crisis, which has
forced general demand for greatly reduced
prices of admission to first-class theatres.
With this demand managers cannot comply
and still pay the old-time exorbitant salaries
to their artists and furnish the same magniti'
cent stage appointments which now alone
please and attract the public. What, then,
remains for the managers to dol Few man
ayers have made sufficient money in the past
to enable them to cater to the public gratuit-
ously-for that is about what reduced prices
mean-and they must do that or close their
doors The managers of the Union Square
theatre, both of them moneyed men, after
vainly struggling to swim against the current,
at length concluded to go with it, and lowered
the admission to fifty cents, at the same time
producing a play, "A Prisoner for Life, "
with as fine and costly scenic effects and
stage appointments as was ever placed upon
those boards. But even these awaited little,
and they relinquiShed the theatre. Evidently
the manifest destiny of this honored temple
of art is to revert to what it was originally
variety show theatre. The closing of the
Union Square as a regular theatre leaves but
two in the whole city of New York with
stock companies, Wallack's and the Madison
Square. 1t is to be hoped that there will
always be enough wealthy people left in the
metropolis to patronize these and prevent
| their cIumbling to pieces in the general
! crash; but even this is to be doubted, for the
world of society, once so prejudiced against
! and malevolent towards the theatre, has
now become universally stagestruck, and
! private theatricals have contributed in some
degree to the ruin of the, regular theatre.
Society people think they can act so much
better than trained artists that they prefer
! to see each other perform in the parlor to
witnessing finished renditions on the stage
proper. And this is a growing evil, for anna
teur acting has become so much the rage
that their performances are chronicled in the
| dramatic papers as regularly and almost as
fully as those of the professionals themselves.
And, to go little more closely into this
seemingly unimportant item of society per
formers, they have helped along at furious
rate the trouble that has been brewing ever
since the war"
Glow is thatl Society people claim that
their adoption or the stage has elevated II. "
"Nonsensel No elevation was required
Before their advent we were simply u COM
munity that lived by ourselves, caring little
for the prejudice against our profession; but
their intense and remorseless love of pub
licity has been the means of tearing every
shred of privacy away from our lives, has
deprived us of that mystery and romance
which threw a glamcr over all connected
with the art Of acting For twenty years
past every woman with much or little money
who has been seized with desire to show
herself in public has bought her way into
theatres"
"Boughtr
eyes, bought; not perhaps in TIA strict
sense Of paying to be permitted &c sqg ear
though that is oftener done than fox sbame's
sake / care to state-but bought Ie. way
into theatre by acting for next 70 nothing