The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-10-06
SICK OF THE STAGE.
MAUD GREGORY ABANDONs HER
AMBITION TO BE AN ACTRESS.
She Makes Some Revelations that Will
Cause a Misunderstanding Re-
alistic Description of Life Behind the
BceQee.
from the 81. LOUIS RepubI,e.

-@-N $50
Scenes.
from the 81. Louis Republic.
Miss Maud Gregory. a cultured society
young lady of this city, who has long
evinoed a warm admiration and decided
talent for the stage, has returned home
after thres months experience with New
York theatrical life, which has had the
effect OF thoroughly dissipating her histri-
onic ambition. The young lady was called
upon by Republic reporter yesterday and
talked freely on the subject of her ex-
| perience.
"How did like the stage?" she said, in
answer to that inquiry. well. to tell you
the truth. didn't like it a bit. 1t was 50
\ different to anything | had imagined 1t to
be that the awakening was great deal of a
shock TO Ine. | had beheld the stage, as
every young girl no doubt does, through
the Claude Lorraine glass. | had seen its
people in the bazs OF the footlights, sur
rounded by the products of the painters
genius and the stagewrights craft. made
grand and heroic by the eloquence
of the author and chivalrops aud
noble by their own delineative skill.
II had seen them in their approximations
when the lights burned low, and their
words of love, of longing and despair came
strings. l had laughed with them, suffered
with them, exulted in their triumphs and
wept over their miseries, and in my sim
plicity of heart and innocence of knowledge
l fondly imagined them what they seemed.
l was not long in learning, however, that
the golden estimate had formed of actors
personally and of the life they seemed to be
required to lead was erroneous in more than
one particular.
HOW SHE MET HILL.
"How came to make the start upon the
highway of the drama is easily told have
had the best instruction in elocution that
St Louis could supply, and my reading in
public here has been very favorably COM
mented upon. Ny intense admiration for
the stage, and the talent in that direction
which my friends assured me l possessed,
naturally inclined me to contem olation
of the life, and the more saw of the stage
the more its glamour affected me.
was stopping at Long Branch last sum
mer, and meeting J. NJ. Hill upon the
street one day and plucked up courage to
speak to him on the subject of my aulhi-
ton In the course of our conversation
that morning l told Mr.. Hill that | would
like to come and read for him, and in re-
| ceiving his permission to do 50 l went. He
expressed himself as quite delighted with
my reading and stated that he had a nice
part in Money Mad'-that of Grace Chan
| ning-which would fit me perfectly. He
offered to engage me for the part, and /, de.
| lighted at the unexpected success of my
| first attempt at securing entree upon the
| stage, gladly consented. My golden repre-
| sensations of the success wished to win in
my new sphere, coupled with the potent
alchemy of the name of j. NJ
Hill, secured my mothers CON
sent, and ! entered upon the
study of my part. never played it, for
the night on which the company left on a
tour left for st. Louis, perfectly satisfied
with what had seen of theatrical life aud
fully content to leave the culhng of the
laurels of the drama to other hands. When
l entered upon the rehearsal of my part
| imagined actors and actresses ideals of
humanity, and managers such blending of
benevolence and courtesy as their many
| kind acts in bringing out obscure talent had
| led me to suppose them. finished by won
| dering if the abuse and indignity suffered
| by the former left them wholly human, and
| if the domineering cruelty and savage
| abusiveness Of the latter did not entitle him
to some other name than that of man.
BRUTAL TREATMENT.
The treatment accorded by managers to
the members of their companies, particu-
larly to the female members, would hardly
be believed by those who patronize their
productions. They are simply driven about
like cattle mo other expression will describe
their treatment, and any exhibition of
constituencies seems only to encourage the
brutality they are made to endure. They
are in an absolute sense the creatures of the
managers, who leaves nothing undone to
make them aware of their dependency and
render their work as unpleasant as possible
For three months | saw nothing
but the inward side of dramatic life and
in all that l saw cannot remember single
incident of experience that would go to
| mitigate the unpleasant impression &C
quired in my first week. / used to go fire.
| quently to attend the rehearsals of other
companies, and found the abuse of mem
J bers prevailing in. my own company to be
| operating everywhere and gener ally in
multiplied degree. A rehearsal of Mans
| fields company in Beau BrummeP gave
me the impression that the versatile Rich
| ard WIS trying to play Brummel, Mr..
| Hyde and Richard III. all at once, but
learned afterward that he was only storm
| ing at some of his actors. Puck stated
| not long since that stage directors first
| course in profanity from captain of
| roustabouts before being considered
| qualified TO enter upon their professional
| work, but from my experience | should say
| that many managers must have enjoyed the
| advau ages of course in some snch per-
| IeCClDR SC0OOI. Inc NerOdI COMMISSIONS OF
the stage director and his superior during
rehearsal would make anyone shudder, and
when you consider that had just gradu-
ateed from a convent their effect upon me
may be imagined.
1.-THE treatment to which actors are SUBJ
| jected naturally makes them callous and
heartless, or if it does not, it drives them
from the field. As consequence, but few
remain whose natural delicacy has not been
blunted, and real fellow feeling and good
will among them is hard to find. Theirs is
a profession in which the first law of sur
vival is self-assertion and the last law of
success is defiance, and that those WAC re-
main in il should be very considerable of the
| feelings of others it would be more than
reasonable to expect
| AFFECTION AND ODDITY.
Zone thing which will attract the atten-
| ton Of the tyro as being both peculiar and
| amusing is the manner in which the aver
| age woman Of the stage draws attention to
| the fact that she is an actress. She affects
| pronounced oddity in dress, wears pecu-
liar hats, goes upon the street all made up,
and talks with a peculiar drawl and accent,
| generally in imitation of some admired star.
In short she seems to think that ex-
| cept she acts upon the street
as well as upon the stage the true temper of
her artistic metal may become known. She
is generally as artificial off the stage as she
1 =