The herald., 1895-03-23
THE AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHT
Barrett Eastman's Paper to the
Friday Morning Club
SOME PALACES PUNCTURED
A Witty and Logical Discussion OF
Affairs of the Stage
What the American Dramatist Should Do
and What He Has
Not Done.

The programme of the Friday Morning
Club was changed at the last moment
yesterday. and in place of the lecture by
Miss Monks crisply brilliant, yet
thoughtful paper on the Drama in Amer
ica, written in Chicago by Barrett East
man, was read most delightfully."- by his
mother, Mrs. Gertrude Barrett Eastman.
The assembly room was filed to overflow
ing, and from the first word to the last
unhagging attention was givn to the paper,
which will be found in full below.
At its conclusion Frederick Warde was
introduced to the club by Mrs. Osgood.
A COPY of Mrs. Marga Collier Graham $
extremely clever stories was presented to
him by the author as being the first liter
ary srandchild of the club, and in a few
wel-chosen words Mr. Warde expressed
his appreciation OF and thanks for it and
all the courtesies he had received every
where here. He said he was particularly
in sympathy with all grandmotherS now
since last Sunday he had become grand
father.
With few other happily expressed re-
marks Mr. Warde Withdrew to fill Il
previous engagement. \ little informal
discussion on the paper followed, and
Mrs Wright OF Santa Barbara sang a de-
scriptive song.
or the drama in America Mrs. East
man says:
Ii man sat down to write review of
the drama in America he would need at
least two dozen bottles OF the Elixir OF
Life to enable him 20 I'm Sh his task.
The drama in America is like our own
vlrtues-impossb ble to desert be within the
limits of birth and death.
On the other hand, ii the man sat down
to write IA review of the American drama
l,o Z ,rnl,+. .ie
The American drama Is like the virtues
OF our friends-it can be disposed OF while
the breakfast eggs are boiling.
This is rather curious, when one con-
siderS it, In no other country is there so
general and so keen an interest in the en-
tertainments of the stage as there is in
the United States. New York and Chica-
go produce more publications devoted to
the theater than all the European CAPT
tails together. There are more theaters
and so-cal led opera houses in America
than in all the rest of the world. Nowhere
else is the actors calling so remunera-
tive. A young woman who dances and
smiles no better than hundreds of Ameri-
can young women, but happens to be
British and to have the advantage OF be-
ing known as Cissy Fitzgerald, came to
New York from London on contract
that gave her $50 week. Within very
short time an American manager offered
her $500 week. a salary received by few
foreign actors of the greatest powers, and
she is now appearing in Chicago fer near
ly fifteen minutes every evening. No
where else s theatrical management as
profitable. Charles Frohman made nearly
$500, 900 last year. Nowhere else does dra-
matte authorship obtain rewards so enor-
nous. Charles II. Hoyt has received
nearly $1,0J0, 0OO for his absurd farces.
Shenandoah alone has earned more than
$100, 600 for Bronson Howard.
Yet the American plays of any merit
whatever are very few IN comparison with
foreign plays of merit, and though the
theatrical managers proclaim that they
are hungry for American dramas-and
also, by the way, for American dramatists
American plays by American authors
have always been scarce and seem now to
be Scarcer than ever.
Just now. for example. in New York
plays by foreign playwrights are occupy
ing all the stages but Harrigan's. On
Harrigan's stage alone is there an Amer
lean play: but this play, like all the other
works OF the fertile and ingenious Harri-
gan. is less play than collection OF
character types bound together by gar
lands-Halmin Garlands-of retrousse
realism. There is an American opera,
so called, at the Herald Square The
ater; but its subject, Rob Roy,
is Scotch and of It's authors, one,
Reginald de koven, was educated
at Oxford university, wears monocle
and speaks-not English, it is true but
"a dialect not American.
In Chicago the state of affairs is no
less lamentable when viewed from the
standpoint of intellectual patriotism.
One sol diSant American play now on eX-
hibition here is called Friends. 1t has
proved very popular but it is distinctly
inferior to the recent productions of such
foreign playwrights as Jones, Pinero,
Grundy, Jerome and Sardou Besides
though the scene is laid in New York it
hcnl tto1, lnon ..,,I,, la.
events may rs well have occurred in Lon
don or Melbourne. Then, too it was con-
struc ted in the most conventional of con-
ventional ways. There is in 1T none of
the oeast of new world originality. OF
the other theatrical attractions, ''l492' is
not play but Behemoth of burlesque
and though its theme purports to he
native, its Jokes, which are it's principal
part, were all imported from Europe about
the time of Columbus. The plays Rich
ard Mansfield is presenting are all foreign
in subject, and all but two, Beau Brum-
nell and Napoleon, are the work of for
eigners. Oliver Twist of course is English.
The Grand Duchess is an opera based on
a foreign subject by a foreign composer,
Often bach.
The only truly American play by an
American author now in Chicago is James |
A. Hearne's Shore Acres and that, while |
1t must be allowed IT, be work OF art is |
hardly work of dramatic art. 1t is of |
the class OF which The Old Homestead !
has hitherto been the most notable eX-
ample--the play OF pumps and pans. 1t I
is related by the always veracious press |
agent that when Denman Thompson pre-
sented the Old Homestead in Keene, New /
Hampshire. not very far from Swanzey, |
his audience wanted their money back ON I
the ground that they got nothing for it (
but what they saw free Of charge, all I
around them every day. 1T wan L no |
actin, jest lot o felers goin' round |
and dom things" The anecdote would |
serve as well and is probably just as true
in the case Of Shore Acres. II is merely /
a lot OF people going around and doing /
things. The people are New Eng flanders [
and the things they do are interesting |
enough. But plays lashcd to locale cannot /
long withstand the sweeping waters of oh
iivlon, for ii is true in America, as it is |
true everywhere else, that works Of art |
II they are to be enrolled among the great, |
must be neither personal nor temporal in |
theme and treatment. 1t matters not /
what clothes the actor wears so his speech !
be the speech OF ali time and OF all places. .
Lear the king was an early Briton but |
Lear the father Is our contemporary. !
Cthello was a Moor Shylock was a Jew /
of Italy Of centuries ago, but jealousy .
and avaricc abide with us The dramatist
may deliver his message through the |
most varied perSonaEes; but he must |
have message to deliver ii he have I
no message To the sons Of mcu. all the .