Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-11-28

match was runaway one. I wa:
married before l was eighteen years O
age, and you will see my choice OF tbs
stage as a proIession was pretty ma
ture one, when l say l was the mother
of Two children before l was twenty
At one time my tastes strongly I'M
PEELED me TO the choice of music as {
profession, for | have been devoted tc
music all my life-a taste inherited,
believe, from my mother, who Is OF
Italian birth, though my father is al
Englishman."
Mrs. Campbell's first appearance on
the stage dates back to 1888, when she
essayed small roles at the Alexander
theater, Liverpool.
1t is said that awhen Mr.. George
Alexander, London's first leading man
had the reading Of Pinero's new play
The Second Mrs. Tanqueray," he ac-
knowledged the play to be great.
But where said he in despair, can
we get Mrs. TanQueray? Miss Willard
cannot play it, in fact, 1 know of no
London actress who can"
The situation seemed desperate.
Just at this time it happened that
Mrs. Alexander went one night to wit
ness the melodrama at the Adelphi,
and at once, upon the appearance of
Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Alexander said to
herself, Here is Mrs. Tanqueray!"
Such confidence does Mr.. Alexander
repose in the opinion of his wife-for
she is acknowledged to be his help
mate in eve.y sense of the word, that
a summons was sent the next day to
Mrs. Campbell to come to him. In
turn she was brought before Mr. Pin
ero, who said, when he saw her:
Eyes, this is the woman I had in
mind. Now, if she can actr'
That she could act almost the first
rehearsal, and, of a certainty, the
first night" of Mrs. Tanqueray proved.
This creation has been further sup
plemented by her mastery rendering
of the unpleasant truisms and lines of
the unfortunately-envi and mis-
understood Mrs Ebbsmith Such a
powerful rendering as has hardly left
room for the very intelligent, but OPP
posed, Interpretation of the gifted Miss
Nethersole, who has followed her in
this part.
Of the difficult social problems set by
the lines along which Mr.. Pinero' S
later plays are cast, and of her opin-
ion of the class of parts with which
she has been lately identified, Mrs.
says:
81 scarcely think it fair to me my
opinion. 1t is sufficient for me that
the parts have afforded me great OPP
portunities, and I certainly have no
desire to be drawn into any contro-
versy on the matter. I may tell you
that l have received hundreds and
hundreds of letters dealing with Mr..
Pinero's play, and my share in them
as an interpreter. I gather from these
not only that I have made many very
kind and sincere friends, whom [ have
never SEEN but also that Mr. Pinero's
handling of certain problems has ex-
cited the admiration OF hosts of peo-
pie of the most divergent caLlings and
stations of life. Mr.. Pinero has him
self. I believe, been inundated with
such letters
Mrs Campbell's conceptions of her
late unusual roles, while apparently
simple, are daringly original, and she
is free to confess that she had no par
ticu1ar model in actual existence from
which to build such conceptions. Fav-
ing become letter perfect in her part,
she then frames in her own mind, and
often very quickly, distinct notion OF
the woman she wishes to present.
Many details are added at rehearsal,
and sometimes in an actual perfor-
nance.
Mrs. Campbell, who is possibly a
woman of thirty, is strikingly tall,
1.-the and slender; has mobile mouth
and forceful chin, set in a face of un-
usual pallor, which is, in turn,
framed in masses of dark hair worn in
an artistically disheveled manner,
marvelously striking and becoming
gowns have we'll earned her the title
of "Past Grand Mistress Of the Art of
Gowning' She is strongly of the
opinion that beautiful frocks are cal
culated to aid an actress and assist
the picture represented, when they are
appropriate to the situation; but that,
on the other hand, they accentuate
rather than assist, an inferior perfOr-
nance.