The Wichita daily eagle., 1897-12-28
Happy Stage Talk.

fPy ~
An audience sits in theatre at the pro-
duction Of new play. Before the first act
| is half over people are saying to them
selves: What rubbish, couid have told
| this manager at the first rehearsal that this
play would produce a frost"
The manager probably knew before the
| first act was one-fourth over that the play
! was a failure, but there was never mo-
| nlent before the curtain went up on the 1rst
\ performance that he could have foretoid
with any degree of certainty the fate OF the
| play.
| The man who really knows IL all before
| hand is unknown in theatrical circles. 1t Is
one of the most remarkable features Of the
atricaI life that the fate of a play. no mat
| ter TO what class of production it belongs
| nor how experienced the manager may be.
can never be foretold before the curtain has
risen on the first performance, says the
New York Herald. If there is anywhere iG
| the world a man who San tell from the
rehearsals Of a play whether It is going to
| be success or not he had better walk into
| any large New York theatre and offer his
services. He could find permanent en-
gagement at at least $4,000 year, for ne
would certainly be worth that much to any
manager.
Why" said Joseph jefferson. "before
produced Rip Van Wrinkle 1 hadn't the
faintest idea how it would go. 1t has been
a remarkable success, but 1t might have
been an utter failure for all I could tell be-
fore hand.'
Lester Wallack, after twenty years man
agement, said he had concluded that no
living man could judge whether or not any
play would please the public; there was
ndohng TO do but "try it on"
Talking the other day with Mr.. Mansfield
of unexpected and purely accidental hits. ne
told that they were delightful, but unex-
pected hits could be matched with uneS>
pected failures. He had expected TO make
great success with Nero, which he
brought out on a LAVISH scale but the pub
lie refused X. He said: '.It was not that Z
made no effect on the audience, but that ii
practically drew no audience to speak Of
even on the first night They simply would
not come near it. Somehow or other, even
the subject didn't seem to attract, and upon
those few who were there the grim humor
of the character made no impression at all.
On the other hand / made a hit in the
most unexpected way in Castle Sombras.'
We rehearsed that play as melodrama, 1
playing the part of deep, dark villain. My
first remark as 1 came upon the stage, in
tended TO be seriously taken, was greeted
with laughter. 1 was almost dumfounded,
but 1 at once adapted myself to the s1tua-
ton. 1 knew il would be fatal to attempt
TO act that play seriously, and, taking my
cue from the audience, 1 instantly changed
my whole conception of the character and
played il on the lines of comedy.
I'm the blindfolded duel scene. in which
the heroine lures one of the duel:sts out of
tba lfSt ont of
other, we had renearsed what we supposed
would be finely impressive situation. The
audience greeted it with roars of laughter.
Mrs. Mansfield was simply in tears. sup
posing that the whole production was a
failure But l said to her, oh, no, it's all
right. A silent audience is fatal So long
as they laugh we're success
And 90 you know, at that moment of
transition, when at a hint from the audi
ence l changed my whole conception of the
character, 1 was really immensely tickied.
OF course, an actor could never make
change like that on the spur of the moment,
or have the presence of mind to do it, IL
he were not absolutely perfect in his lines.
And It is in order to take advantage of
sudden emergency that an actor should
learn his roles so perfectly that he could
almost repeat them verbatim in his sleep"
Mr.. Burnham of Wallacks says that
when he had ]. K. Emmett in Europe he
was playing the Dutch emigrant version of
Fritz in Dublin" "It had gone well
everywhere else, but the first act had
nearly passed. Emmet had run out all the
lines which he held in reserve for emer-
gencies. and he hadn't got smile. Finally
a man in the pit turned to his neighbor
and said: Pat, what the devil is ne try
ing to get through with himself, anyhow"
Without losing his presence of mind, En-
met looked at the man and said: That's
just it. Pat, what's the use of it all, any,
how?' That simple remark, for some mex
plicable reason, created a perfect roar
throughout the house. and from that mo-
ment Emmett had the audience with him
and became Dublin favor.te''
Accidental hits" exclaimed Charles z.
Hoyt yesterday. why, it's to get those
that we take piece TO a dog town before
we try it on New York. / had a most
curious experience with A Hole in the
Ground In the dog town performance the
end of the second act, which l had sup
posed would be all right and cause the cur
tain to fall amid shr.eks of laughter, passed
off in dead silence, Before we left the dog
down had written and tired half a dozen
endings, and not one of them went well
until, by some unexplained impulse, /
changed the entrance of one Of the char
acters, who comes on at that moment,
from one side OF the stage TO the other. The
curtain went down amid shrieks of laugh
ter. But it would be impossible for men
TO explain to you why that simple change
should have had that effect, for, according
10 my notions, theother entrance was the