The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-02-20


New York city, and its successor at the
Empire theater, "A Woman's Reason
while not partaking of that excessively
low temperature, is nevertheless not suff-
ciontly. successful to warrant its being
kept on for a run. Mr.. Charles Frohman
informs me that his plan is to fill out the
stock company's season at the Empire
with several plays, each of which will be
given for three weeks or SO. 1 hear from
another source that most of these are of
foreign origin. 1t was generally under
stood at the opening of the season that
new American plays by Bronson Howard
and Charles T. Darcy would be produced,
but they have not materaliZed. The How
ard piece did not suit Mr.. Frohman after
it had been completed, and it is stated
that it also failed to please even the au-
thor. With reference to the Darcy play
the strictest silence has been maintained
So now the English market has to be
drawn upon once more. If Mr.. Frohman's
experience with English productions this
season had been more profitable, it would
be easy to understand this, but one would
naturally suppose that he would steer clear
of the Henry Arthur Joneses and others of
that ilk, for some time at least.
Two American Successes.
Another fact which would seem to indi-
cate that that would have been the safer
course is the enormous success of 1.-THE
Heart of Maryland, - the only play which
has enjoyed long and genuine run ON
broadway this season. This is an Amer
lean play, by an American author, played
by American actors, in a theater owned
and conducted by Americans. The other
big Broadway success is ''The Governor of
Kentucky" at the Fifth Avenue, with w.
H. Crane in the title role. This play is
also by an American author, and, as its
name indicates, deals with an American
Gil Is in oaf Of \
that franklin Fyles, the fortunate creator
of the play, has, as a result, been commits
stoned by the American Theatrical syndi-
cate to write native drama.
With these two big successes staring
them in the face-both by New York writ
ers, and really tho only two exceptional
strikes of the season among the myriads
of foreign inanities-the conviction is fore
ed upon one that our managers know full
well that the native dramatists are capable
of doing as good work as those abroad,
and that, despite that knowledge, they
persist in using imported works simply
because they foolishly and mistakenly i'm
agine that Americans are hankering for
plays conoooted by foreigners and will sup
port then. in preference to the home prod
uct. The disastrous experience of the
present season ought to go far toward dis
polling that absurd delusion.
: Generalization In Theatricals.
A good deal is being printed nowadays
about the alleged tendency toward central
ization in the theatrical business. This
statement is vehemently denied by those
most interested in corraling everything in
sight, while their accusers declare that
This policy is having the effect of throttling
the e-too-robust American drama.
That such a tendency does exist it were
idiotic to deny. 1t is as clear as daylight
to the most casual observer, but it is also
equally absurd to assert that it can have
an injurious effect upon the business. 1t
is alleged that these large operators buy all
the new plays of probable worth and be-
speak in advance those to be written by
authors of note. OF course they do. 1t
is good business to do SO, but that is
positive benefit to the American dramatist
who has not yet won his spurs. The
more famous writers having thoir work
pre.empted, so to speak, the field is left
comparatively clear to the beginners and
those who, having succeeded in getting
hearing, have failed to score on the first
attempt. Capitalization is necessary in
every business nowadays if success is to
be won. This is as true of the theatrical
world as of any other. A production
which is commonplace cannot now man
age to make salt where a few years ago
fortune might be picked up in a single
season. Opposition has become so fierce
that a community of interests which do
not conflict is now a necessity.
Courtaine and Stoddart.
Arthur Brisbane tells the following
story, which serves to illustrate the ups
and downs of the actors career:
IAN old man, over 40, struggled past
the Academy of Music the other night
about the hour when the great theater was
full to the DOORS and even the stage was
packed with the hundreds of actors who
had come to do honor to the veteran Stod-
dart. The mans clothing vas shabby and
his w&I1z unsteady. Zc&-= ago, on the
Union Square stage, he, too, had made
successes and ranked with Charles r.
Thorne aud George Clarke, even If his