Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-08

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GRAND OPERA HOUSE. X. Emmet
6I1oo 1HEATER.. line w White slave
| DUQuEsNE THEATER... .........T The Bostonians
| ALVIN THEATER.. .McKenna's Filtration
| DAVIS 'MUsEUM-THEArER.. Curiosities etc,
| WORLDS MUsEuM-THEATER 90. .Curiosities etc.
| WILLIAMS ACADEMY. Rose Hills Folly &c.
| HARRIS TEEATER..... Fabio Romani
The above are the theatrical attractions
for this week.
The Pitou Stock Company has made q
name for itself already in Pittsburg, and it
can command from henceforth hearty sup
port here. Of course a new company, with
out tho prestige OF long establishment in
New York. such as the few stock companies
IN existence have. could not expect to at
| tract the attention of the theater-going
| public till performance had borne out the
| promises of its managers. It must be ac-
knowledged thatthe Pitou Stock Company is
all that Mr.. Pitou promised it should be, an
| organization Of artists Of the first class.
Such finished and complete productions
as ga Modern Match" and "Geoffrey
Middleton. Gentleman" as presented at
this company's hands. are very rarely
seen here, or indeed anywhere outside of q
very few Of the frst-class theaters in New
YORK. For this opportunity to see really
| tne pest acting under most favorable condi-
| Ilons the public certainly owes Mr.. Pitou q
large debt of gratitude. The risk of such an
Undertaking. both in money and reputation,
;a Is as great = as the he possible lei reward, but hap
| In Miss Minnie Seligman the American
stage undoubtedly has an actress of unusual
| talent and culture. After seeing her
in the difficult and very unpleasant role Of
Tiolet Hunt in "a Modern Match" and the
very different character of Margaret Merritt
| in "Geoffrev Middleton" it is impossible to
deny that Miss Selgman is clean head and
| shoulders above her contemporaries OF the
| emotional school She possesses the in
tutive genius of the born actress. and to
| this is added a cultivated intelligence and
| earnest ambition that should place her in
| few years at the very top of the theatrical
| ladder. 1t is gratifying to know that Pitts
mans work in an unwontedly hearty man
ner.
Miss seIigman is young woman, whose
duration, and she has in that time risen
with extraordinary rapidity. Her person
ality has u distinct and peculiar charm, and
the gods have been generous to her in the
matter of physical beauty. OF course, her
voice is melodious anG powerful-no actress
can expect to be great without that-and
| she appears to have been taught elocution
and indeed, all the acquired art she pos
sesses in the best schools. Talking of elocu-
tion, it is a curious little fact that a number
of years ago professor of el"cution in New
York took both Miss Seligman and Miss
Jane Stuart, the brilliant young COM
edienne, who was then a school girl
of Is. to recite before the great Augustin
poohed their pretentions loftily, and It is
Somewhat singular coincidence that both
young women are now together again, but
this time in the front rank Of accepted pop
ular favorites.
Miss Seligman objects to playing the ex-
tremely offensive heroine of "a Modern
Match" because, as she says, the public is
too apt to conclude that it is not so much
art as nature that enables her to make such
a truthful picture of fallen womanhood. To
put it inssf snky tSaP PeoRs espseaIy
acquired her knowledge Of this phase
of human nature through her own
experience, This, Of course, is not
to the artist but hardly to the woman. If
Miss Seligman's identity Is revealed in her
work at all it is more in the warm-hearted,
noble woman whom Miss Morton has made
the heroine Of "Geoffrey Middleton" Still
we should have only learned a small part OF
Miss Seligman's abilities if she had been con-
fined to this heroic role, and while we may
of the character which dominates it is un-
deniable, as is the wonderful mastery
Of al emotions Nv which Miss seligman
Miss Seligman belongs to the new cult
which seeks to mirror nature as she is;
whose cardinal rule is be natural, and whose
The cult say is new, but it isn't-every
really great actor has practiced its pre-
cepts, and has scored the gran dest triumphs !
when he has succeeded in approaching near
est to nature.
A curious contrast to the performance of
the Pirou Company was that of another
band of actors under Mr.. Pitou's manage
ment two weeks ago in 1.-THE Power of the
Press" couldn't say much for the actors in
this melodrama, but they satisfied the
management and the public to some extent
whereas when the play was first produced
in New York with such people as Miss Selig-
man and Wilton Lackaye in the cast it |
the play. being woefully untrue to nature,
actually lost strength when interpreted by |
actors who believed in being natural. The |
awful and absurd thing called modern melo-
drama must be ranted ana roared or the |
public won't have it. That is what the man.
ayers tell me. don't believe this is all the |
truth, but there is oquestion that it is worse |
than cruel, it is absolutely useless, to |
put good actors into cheap melodrama, |
vintage 1890. But the public has shown time |
and again that it does want and can appre-
ciate nature upon the stage, If the play and |
the performers combine to reproduce life as
it really is. The managers might study this
phase of the matter, and, perhaps, way to
Sc We the cause of true art, to elevate popu-
lar taste and theatrical standards, and to fill |
their own pockets at the same time, might
become clear to them. 1t is an insult to the |
great mass of theater-goers to say that they
exaggeratlon and burlesque. The farce,
in its various forms, is we'll enough
but there is great demand only half.
satisfied nowadays for closer copies Of con-
temporary life and of human nature of all
ages in dramatic form. and to satisfy this
craving, which is akin to that which has
produced a school of novelists to-day. such
companies as Mr. Pitou's, and such plays as
Miss Morton's have arrived in good time
At the Grand Opera House next week. J.
of the same name, will make his first ap-
pearance in Pittsburg, in his fathers most
notable play: "Fritz in Ireland" Young
Emmett is particularly desirous in coming
before the public not to be understood as
comparison with his father. An
extract from an interview with the SON is a
fitting quotation here:
"My idea of succeeding my father and
taking up the thread of his stage life where
he left it off is not new one. 1t was nv in
tention, long years before his death, and
my many years IN his management were
also years of rehearsal under his Immediate
direction. He believed, and ! think the
world conceded it, that his creation or tho
Dutch character in the lines attempted was
en- tirely original. He meant to portray the
with a heart as vast as space, the good
butt of every joke, who
met sorrow with a song and raillery with
nins the hearts Of children, whether riskins .n W
his life to save Others, singing them lullabys
or carrying them on his broad shoulders He