The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-05-01
What Gotham Sees and Hears
in Many Playhouses.
A GREAT GERMAN wOMAN'S ART.
granlein sandrock Hss Captured New
York Teutons-The Actors Fund Fair.
Drew Deserts Daiy-ModjeskA, Pitou's
Players and Other Miscellany of til.
Stage.
Especial Correspondence.I


I with her beauty or her grace, but ii was
not long before her art began TO tell with
| the observers. / have on many occasions
/ given it as my opinion that the German
/ actors are the best artists that are now fur
nished to US / remember when Ristori
and JanRuschek were playing simulta-
neously in this city and giving Us pretty
much the same classical repertory, how
/ surely the German actress rose in the gen
\ eral critical estimate above her Italian con-
temporary, who had all the advantage Of
prestige and advertising. ! remember
| Sonnenthal, and-well, who can forget
( Possart's magnificent Interpretation Of
| Shylock after Mr.. Henry hving's pictorial
representation
/ | think the best German actors have
more conscience than either the French
or the Italian They do their work with =
| deeper sense of obligation TO an art. Sand
/ rock appeared the other night in Dumas
/ "Clemenceau Case" one OF the most pow
| erful of dramas with a distinctly ethical
basis, and was pleased TO see that when
she played the piece the ethical spirit of it
was made apparent.
| This play was done here in English at
| the Standard theatre a year ago, The
sensation in il. The scheme calls for an
artists studio with a live model hall
| draped, and upon that feature they built
| all their hopes of success. A woman WAS
engaged to exhibit herself The press fell
upon the play, the vulgar public exulted
and the scheme was pushed into feverish
| and unwholesome vogue. From that day
| TO this the public verdict has been ayerss
h prsN D.
| Sandrock played it the other night there
was nothing Objectionable, and the moral
which Dumas endeavored to paint was
made obvious to all.
| These performances in German are not
patronized by the American theater goers
| to any great extent. The audiences are al
most entirely German, and are quite IN
like any other in their patience, their in
sight and their intolerance of mere sensa-
ton. They do not care for gaudy scenery.
| | have witnessed some Of the finest and
noblest interpretations of Schiller, Goethe
and Shakespeare at Amberg's theater
without thinking of the setting, and have
/ gone from that house TO Irving's perform
aDces to see Shakespeare buried in mana
gerial splendors. You viii doubtless re-
member that when Ristori and Salvini
|
with them, painted on thin paper, and very
! shabby it was. They deliberately kept the
mise en- scene down to low tone and put
/ their dependence on the acting.
The German colony in New York is a
large one-quite as large as the population
| Of several German cities-and it has its
own theatrical ideas, one OF which is an
/ .ngrained dislike for 'hoompug."
| Agi1jIatanO - h. . ..
/ play written by Martha Morton and pro-
| duced by Mr.. Pitou's company at the
| Union Square. II came very near being a
| brilliant success, but, falling in that, it
| failed in all There is great deal Of
/ thoughtfully good work in what Martha
/ Morton does, but IL scarcely reaches the
| point Of novelty. Ii is always more or less
1 familiar The deciding merit of any play
with an audience is not goodness abstract
/ IT, but interest concretely.
The manager always asks, viii they
| come again." and not, "Will they speak
| well Of it," That will always be so until
| theatrical success ceases TO depend on a
| popular vote
| found myself commenting this play.
f! 1t was ingenious and clever, but had no
| fresh depths. So | do not find myself 60
! ing back 10 get a second good look at some
| thing that was new. Miss Seligman was
| largely in it, in just the same cyelonic de
gree that she is in anything else, with sup
pressed anxiety waiting for her opportunity
TO spring, tigresslike, at climax and bite
&c in the neck. She is always explosive.
and when she il she wakes the echoes, all
the jungles OF the gallery answer her.
Twenty years ago Miss Selignzn would
have been what they called scene chew
err" In our time she Is suppressed little
by the material and by the Pitou- She re-
minds me somewhat Of a man who has
been crying "Old clothesP on one note, and
when be takes to lecturing betrays that
note. IL she could take course in Am
berg's tbester for year, what an admir-
able equalization nigh; be brought about
II she were 70 ask my advice should say.
Go and see SsDdruck, who. without your
sensuous voice and rich southern blood,
manages to DO great deal more with her
material"
Miss Jane Stuart. who is really the CON-
ing woman Of Mr.. Pitou's company. made
another bit in the role of a strong minded
girl. This promising young actress has
already attracted attention, and ! really do
not know q another youthful aspsraut"
who has kept pace with her
The opponents Of the Actors Fund fair,
which is 20 BE- held az the Madison Square
garden. have shown their hand Their
real animus is Xr. A NJ Palmer. ard
ought 10 explain here tia. there are two
theatrical sets in New York-tbe Palmer
and the anti-Painer Each Of them mas
a theatrical organ IL Is generally under
stood that Mr.. DAILY and Mr.. J. II HUI are
anti Palmer, and IL IL declared Dy tie ant
Palmer sheet that the fair l. Palmer
move 20 celebrate Palmer. You will oo-
serve TIA. Nj Days company u not IL
the fair and that Mr. Palnez's -
The scheme however. has gOs TOO much
momentum now 20 De seriously imp-6sd
By inside leaiOusisz-
Two q the fsv0Tlte n1etroDollt2o isA6-
ing zen threaten usKt sesS1sn 70 20 ITO
ihe starring business. Mr.. MAersee Barry
more leaves Nr. PAlrner's ear yauF % ~
tura 70 Nine MOI 5eska'S That vii brlng
him once more 70 TIE sT;ert5oa q OttzS2
and P4sezcx sad -Iumpsdale- he TA&
The fAvo-lts oDee Ia Lh8E lzdys company
when she ~zs younger AID not 70 isscaisni
ard wbsa sse sDoxs vita sTea lsss accent
thza ste cor Ezzs ! Egn1er y SEs *
poets 20 revive tie Ycl;a q Der company.
ssetnz thzz So e4asos revive her owas
LED ss1za zas ~ zr7l s-fEl - rsssstzEals1
~ coanzszs EEz3 EesBgzs q ~ Pfeglnes-s.
Here 1e have FfscgseafEsfl a.,NsEs a.a@9aiE4
and AIatszns and D~srest secegt her -
eEesssoasnz.z EoE Eez l4.x $4,000 SAKE. sd