The herald., 1897-07-25

IOTh WIZ COulu UT WOulu write SuSu
plays" In view of the fact that writers
contributing are not to be subject to
geographical limita tons, the assumption
that If New York should fail to produce
dramatists with the required qualifica~
lions. it will be utterly useless to look
| elsewhere, is quite amusing, and shows
at the same time to what lengths of con-
ceit a New York writer may go.
| Another of the reasons given for
prophesying failure is, that New York
audiences are too unaesthetic, too crit
| ically poverty stricken, too unlearned
for that sort of thing" reason that
may have more truth than poetry in it,
The chief difficulty in conducting an
independent theater wih be not the Sc
curing of funds for making the expert
| ment, but in securing manager or COM
mittee of directors who will know enough
to run the plan so as to give satisfaction
to its promoters, and at the same time
satisfy the demands of the aesthetic and
other culturists who will be praying,
and perhaps bowling, before the sacred
portals. Paris Is regarded as the center
of all this movement for the relief of OPP
pressed dramatists and matters there
| have come to point of excitement if one
may judge by a paragraph like the fol-
lowing which says:
Paris is enjoying mild literary SEN
sation. M. Lugne- Poe, manager of the
Theater de POeuvre, which, after NJ
Antoine's secession to the Odeon had
taken the place of the Theater Libre has
turned and declares that he is tired of
producing impossible plays by French
young men with absurd theories of art
and literature, and that next season he
will bring out only plays by foreigners
unless French authors present him with
works that are really fit to act on their
own merits. There is woe and gnashing
of teeth in consequence among the SYM
bolists, mys ticists, realists, naturists and
other decadents. M. Lugne-Poe is ac-
cused of being a traitor to art and to
France, and hysterical abuse is poured
on him on all sides by 1.-The little reviews
that preach the new gospels of art and
letters, each according to it's own pet
recipe.
The facts, however, seem to support
the recalcitrant managers position.
While the little independent" theaters
have, in the last ten years, turned out
some good actors and excellent stage
managers, as we'll as useful novelties in
stage effects, and while they have sue
cessfully produced before enthusiastic
one-night audiences acceptable plays by
Scandinavian, German, Belgian and Ital-
ian authors, the illusions of the various
French schools of poetasters with a
pseudo-artistic purpose have been re-
ceived coldly by the Partisan spectators,
where they have not been booted down.
+ + =
The coming week will be without any
travelling attraction at the Los Angeles
theater and the next show announced
by Manager Wyatt will be 1.-THE Twelve
Temptations" a spectacular production
of which much is promised. The piece
will be presented Thursday, August 5.
! The Burbank theater is announced to re-
open Monday, August 9, and in the mean
| time the Orpheum will have the monop
| oily in the line of amusements. Mr.. Bray,
| the new assistant manager of the Or
| pheum, has already made himself quite
popular with the patrons of the house on
account of his urbanity and courteous
| demeanor.
Y +
| A bilious New York critic says: "The
| taste of the uneducated person is for
/ Church's pictures. Tosti's songs Cor
Sweet Marie), for Sardou's plays, green
cigars. overdone ducks and women who
wear diamonds at the breakfast table.
G. A. DICKINSON.