Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-02

published.
1 One New York manager eonfesses to
having read and rejected 1000 manu-
scripts. II is impossible to believe that all
| the 1000 were worse than some of the
pieces which have run hundreds of nights,
and still retain ones respect for the hu.
man intellect. That condition of mind
in which writer can get below the level
Of Natural Cas- or "We, Us & Coz would
offer curious opportunity for pathologi
cal investigation. l do not know how
many new plays are produced at English
and American theaters in year. Two
facts, however, will help US to make a
rough estimate. The most important of
these is that the theatrical business has
grown to enormous proportions-in the
United States alone there are probably
something like three hundred travelling
companies. The other fact is that the
majority of these companies give employ
ment to modern playwrights.
1t might naturally be imagined that
under such conditions as these the drama
would be in state of growth rather than
in state of decay. But few of the plays
which are thus written and produced have
any serious value. They are pot-boilers,
| pure and simple, and they smell vilely of
the pot. Moreover, such of them as may
have been intelligently conceived and
deity constructed in the first place have
| been sacrificed to the exigencies of the
moment There may be suspension
bridge, or a steam engine, or yacht, or
ether mechanical device, about which
some scene must be written; there may be
an actor whose personal eccentricities must
be taken into consideration. All this is
merely writing to order, and is more a
commercial than an artistic matter. This
inferiority in our modern English plays
does not necessarily imply an inferiority
in natural ability on the part of play
wrights. In originality, in freshness of
treatment, in literary skill, and, above all,
in stage technique, they are, it is true, i'm
mensely inferior to French writers, and
even to some of the German writers: but
yet in those who show the least amount of
training there are flashes of genuine power.
| Our drama, indeed, affords in the main a
painful example of wasted energy, of
talent in the rough, so to speak, which the
fortunate possessor does not know how
rightly to cultivate.
The lack of training of which l have
spoken is one reason for this. But more
important lin my mind and overshadow-
ing) consideration is the state of the pub
| lie taste. Water cannot rise higher than its
source, and the drama cannot be sustained
above the heads of those to whom il makes
appeal. We Americans like slang and
yulgarity and horseplay; and this is what
we get on the stage. We sympathize with
tawdry sentiment and cheap pathos; and
so we have it served to us, with native
or foreign label. l. do not know that
our playwrights are altogether to blame.
| 1t is well enough to remember the de-
mands of art; but the demands of bread
and butter-such is our human weakness
have the first claim. Only the fortu-
nate few can live to write; others must
write to live. Thus it is that literature
in any form is IN the main a reflection of
the public taste. If, then, our dramatic lit
erature be poor and bad-and many per-
sons thinks it is so poor and so bad that it
does not deserve to be considered as liter
ature at all-the primary explanation is
found in the Intellectual apathy of theatri-
cal audiences.
STAGE NOTES.
Fred. Bryton has made hit in his new
| play, Jim"
Sunday has become the greatest showgo.
ing night in Chicago.
Miss Leonora Bradley has left the
Raglan's Way" company"
Stuart Robson is rehear2ing his new
comedy, " Is Marriage a Failure"
Myron Goodwin plays the part formerly
played by Katie Hart in Natural Gas"
Cleveland's Minstrels will be in Sacra-
mento on the 7th, Sth and 9th of this
month.
R. E. Graham, the grotesque and grace
full comedian is the great favorite wherever
"The Sea King is seen.
McCarthy's Mishaps," under the man.
agement of Major Charles E. Rice, is max
ing wonderful success in the West.
"a Pair of Jacks" wasn't strong
enough hand to hold, and when the chips
gave out at Louisville (Ky.) the owner
quit.
Charles Frohman has secured the Amer
lean rights of Sardou's latest play, Their
midor," which is to be done at the Come
die Francaise December 1st.
Leander Richardson's "The Nominee
has made very decided hit at Hooley's
Chicago Theater, and Nat Goodwin has
made the hit of his life in it.
A collection of John Ernest McCaun's
dainty poems has been published by Brer-
tano. Mr.. McCann may well be called
the poet laureate of the dramatic pro-
fession.
Tough-"Do you pass der perfesh ?''
Doorkeeper-" Guess SO; but don't know
you." Tough-"Haint my looks huff?
Pm one O der new pugilistic stars" Door
keeper" Pass right in."
Miss Kenward, who has made such a
success in DR.. Bill" at the Garden Thea
ter, New York, has been recalled to her
place at the London Avenue Theater, and
leaves America November 8th.
Sydney Price, an Eglish actor, who had
the honor of accidentally scalping Richard
ard Ill.," at the Globe Theater, London,
has arrived in New York. Mr.. Price is
six feet six inches tall, of very distin-
guished appearance, and looks like the
Archbishop of Canterbury.
Miss Florence Ashbrooke seems to have
made quite a success in comedy. Says the
Omaha Bee: Miss Florence Ashbrooke,
who plays the role Of Mrs. Ryan lin Nc
Kenna's Flirtation') is a much stronger
woman than you usually see in farces. A
handsome figure, well modulated voice,
and an art which shows a most excellent
school, she quite divided the honors with
the stars.
The Curtain raiser" to be produced at
the opening of the Madison Square Thea
| ter, October 30th, is one-act piece by
Miss Fannie Aymar Matthews, the young
lady who claims to have written the origi-
nal of "The Wife," The title of the new
piece is "The Coincidence" Miss.Agnes
Booth plays the principal part 1t will be
the first piece to be produced under ar
rangement with the Dramatic Develop
ment Company, though not the first piece
sold by it. This company has another
"curtain raiser" by Miss Mathews entitled
"The Grandmother" immensely funny
and charming.
The Oldest and Youngest signers.
The oldest of those who signed the
Declaration of Independence on August 2,
1866, was Benjamin Franklin, then II /;
Al n ~