Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-07-04
pdence Of The Evening Star.

Nrw York. July 4, 1891.
STAGE TALK IS MOSTLY OFF THE
~ stage here just now, and some of it is
characteristic.
well. here's to the speedy death Of the stage
manager" exclaimed young actor who AFRO
gates to himself the title Of singing comedian"
as he sat with q number Of kindred spirits in a
favorite rendezvous for the resting Thespian
The toast was drunk standing and with evident
enthssisam.r A bystander who overheard the
strange toast inquired Of well-known actor
who, was with him what it meant.
well, said the latter with laugh, "those
chaps look on a stage manager as their natural
enemy. You see, if stage manager really
fills his position, and Is allowed by the pro-
prietor Of 3 show to run it. he rehearses it ac-
cording to his own ideas The leading comedian
usually introduces whatever business he sees
fit, and If he 10 an important man the stage
manager takes care to agree with him as to what
goes WELL But the secondary funny men are sat
on completely. They invariably want to do a
lot Of funny business that the stage manager
unpleasantness arises. Nearly every stage
manager is hated strongly by the company he
directs. / used to feel like numbering one of
them myself whenever 1 was coldly told to
drop some good bit that would chance to work
In to a show. And it really is a fact that
stage manager does object to lot Of
clever things merely because he doesn't
invent them. / remember once when
made funny fall in part at a certain per-
Torrance. 1t was an inspiration of the moment
and it got an immense laugh. When went off
the stage the manager told me not to do the
fall again. / demonstrated with him and re-
minded him that it went with the audience
He said it made no difference if it did 60 with
the audience. 1t didn't 60 with him and was
to cut it out. Well, l hsd it in for him after
that. you can bet. What did do2 Oh cut
him out with his girl. didn't care for her.
but / queered him. and don't you for
get it. Do stage managers allow the girls
more chance than the boys? Well l have found
think that prima donhas and stage managers
get on well together though. have seer. a
number Of chaps try to interpose an objection
to something Lillian Russell did to displease
them. My boy. the result was lovely. Imagine
a stage manager informing Miss Russell that
she did not walk or dance to his satisfac ton.
One OF two have had the temerity to do So
They will never do it again."
SHE WANTED PART.
Here is voice from the lower levels Of thedra-
matte art.
I've left the stage fur good. I'm disguised
wild it,"
This remark came with great deal Of feel
ing from a decidedly pretty girl who formed
one Of Bohemian gathering in q West Side
boarding house.
.'What yer do that for?" asked a Young man
who dances jig for whatever he can Get a
week.
.'well, was a actriss fur tree years." went
on the fair maid, AN q faithful one, too
Everybody said l was too good fur the chorus
didn't get no part? Nav. 1 just went right on
dom the marches, an l made more'n one
mash. worked tree years, an never would
they give me line. The other day made me
first kick. l told the manager wasn't in the
perfesh for nothin', an l wanted a chance to
speak line. Wot does he do? He says can't
speak English. but offers to raise me two a week
on account Of me shape. says, No; either
have a line or don't go on He thinks it over
and says l can have the line. It's beaut.
Here comes the sogers' rehearsed the line
fur a week an then the duner backs down an
says he was goin' to take it away frum me-
'Whyg says i. Because yer can't say 1t wild
out gettin' a laugh says he. An then throws
down the part an leaves the stage forever
Can't speak English! Amt American Think
O. me on the stage all these years an then can't
say, Tree cheers fur the flag. Here comes the
sogers.' The perfesh is rotten an it can't have
me. II yer amt got a pull, yer nobody. I'm
goin' back ter the factory"
THE REALISTIC IN ART AND THE PAIR SCI.
The manager Of a popular stock theater was
talking to some friends.
II shall never quite understand" said he,
'the women of this generation. am in a
position to meet the strangest of them. and day
after day am impressed by the nervous, over
wrought and hysterical conditions into which
| the feminine nature is apparently prone to
| drift. There is a recent mania that has taken
| hold Of some Of the bright women of New York,
and it is this that has reminded me to speak
now Of the excitable tendency in the sex.
| refer to the somewhat morbid women
who have. in the last few years,
become saturated with the depressing. pessi-
mistic and revolutionary literature that has
come to us from the northern parts of Europe,
and who hope to initiate the men who have
started the frightful PHILOSOPHERS by putting
them into dramatic form. At first there were
some early worshipers of Ibsen who wanted
to translate his plays for my theater. At the
same time most Of this fresh brood OF drama
lists wanted to act the abnormal hero
ines Of those plays. Then when they
found l was not anxious for transla-
tions they went to work to write original
dramas following closely the Norwegian s
methods and manner, and arriving at a moral
In the same dissecting room fashion l have
| now been pestered for year by a drove Of
Americanized and feminized Ibsens with such
q collection Of plays as has turned what little
hair have left to most embarrassing gray.
Among these authoresses are young and beau
! tilul SlTIS, WIZ bCciu particularly OrlXut and
sensible until they get on the subject of stage
| literature and the ethics of art Then they
grow excited. declare that the stage as it is is
| hackneyed and humdrum and that until it is
emancipated from the sugar and pap drama by
the new school Of art it will continue to descend
into the slough Of worthlessness and finally be
totally obliterated.
NOT EASILY DISCOURAGED.
81 have escaped fairly successfully from most
Of these wild ladies, but one Of them proved
almost too much for me. She was sweet
thing Of not over eighteen and the most In
tense enthusiast over the realistic form of art,
as inculcated by Ibsen, that I have come in
contact with u. ! was introduced to her ut q
friends hodse, 50 when she started in to pro-
| nohrte heF tkebfiss to me and demand that
should produnS play she had written could
not dismiss her as I would strange applicant
at my office. WE'LL she deluged me with her
ideas and plans, all the time looking straight at
! me with big brown eyes that half made me for
from dreamy contemplation Of her beauty by
hearing her say:
land have studied the complete character
| istics Of asthma from life so that l can give a
perfect representation Of an attack. with its
respiratory agony and its gradual cessation
| Il asked her what she had done this for, and
she replied: Why, haven't you heard me tell
you that the heroine OF my play Is q victim OF
| asthma inherited from her father, and that she
hates him 80 for bequeathing the disease to
her that she murders HIM?
n started up at this, shook OF the spell that