Semi=weekly graphic., 1897-11-10
HAPPENED IN FRONT.
PLAYERS TELL of FUNNY ExpEHt
 ENcEs THEY HAVE HAD.

May Irwin and "lhe 6iuoN ooAtss
 Wanted Burr Mcintosh to soak Kim Players are affected almost as deeply by happenings in the audience as IS the audience by happenings on the stage Sometimes they are moved to wrath, bni moro frequently to laughter. Occasion ally they are frightened ont of theil lines.
 A man sat in an aisle seat three rows from the front, at q performance of " El Capitan" the other night. He was a fat man, and he gave a sneeze suddenly-s terrific sneeze. It was followed by an other that shook the plumes on the big hats of the women around and made the lights flicker. The audience suspended attention and looked at the .sneezer, and the players paused just as he snorted out q third sneeze that ended in a higD note such as seldom had been heard in those parts, though the Metropolitan Opera House is near by Fl CapitaD stretched out his long arms toward thS man, relied his Jig eyes heaveuward and said in seYsloizal ve!ce:
 Heaven bless you, sir. ''
 This brought tha ag:3ience bsrx to shs stage with roar. and # seoo:1 the performance was running on at high pressure, while the fat man chuck3ed over the fact that for a brief space he had been the star of the evening. 4 few minutes later q Sun reporter asked MT. Hopper how he was affected by the funny things that happen in the audi' ence. After getting grip on II Caci' tan's nose and throwing down q cup ot hot coffee, as he does between acts. he answered:
 American audiences are not de1pon- strative, and as q rule things don t hap pen in front. Of course the man who sleezed tonight couldn't help it, but he made such d blasting success of it that it affected the whole house and there fore tine players. If an actor is playing pait where he can say something, il is tl,e best thing to do, for it makes them all laugh and keeps them from noticing a pause.
 May Irwin is an actress with whom even metropolitan audiences take Hber. ties. People have habit of calling te ne from the audience when they want me to sing a special song or to recits something, J she said the other evening. "One night d man in the body of ths house called out to me to reeite 'Hia. watha He took me off my feet for 2 minute 1 coulda t remember q line ot it, bat I called back: I will if you I give ne my cue I've forgotten how il starts He gave me the first line, aud shouted it for him.
 When l was playing the Widow Jones one night, during the kissing scene between Rice and myself man shouted, I'd like to be in your place, MT Rice. 1 would. Rice and l wer both conyulsed, and the audience foared. When the piece is funny, 1t often addt 10 the humorous situation for some one in front to do something unusual.
 I never shall forget all experience ] had while playing the Widow in Gin. cinnati, though of course it isn't art fo an actor to see anything that goes on il front or to recognize anybody in the au dience, and never dol don't think One night, as 1 was saying, in the eitg of cinders and beer, l noticed the queer. est looking old woman down in front She looSed like farmer wife, and she kept peering up at me over her glasses. She didn't laugh once, and in all my life l never saw q human being take q play so seriously. Sine was with another woman who was equally serious Final ly the cid woman jumped up and, peer. ing at me over her glasses and shaking her finger in my face, said, with rasp ing, western twang:
 " We'll, you don't look one bit like her.
 T was fustered, but l managed te gasp:
 Like whomg
 Like the Widow Jones, she ar, swered.
 Well, am, said I
 " I don't believe word you re say. in,' said she, fer l know'd the Widow Jones and her hueban nigh on to 20 years ago. l stood up with em when they was hitehed, and you don look like her. She went off from these parts, and heerd she was widow and that Jones was dead, and then l heerd she was at this the-ater, and cum to see. You ain t the Widow Jones, and just want to say one thing more-I don't see how you dare to take other peoples names and use em.
 Witb that she flounced out, but the next day when Iappeared at a rehearsal she was on hand 10 give me another blast. l explained to her how it was She d never seen q play before and had come 20 miles to see her old friend, the Widow Jones, There was time whet such things frightened the life out of me, but I've learped to turn them to good account. ''
 Perhaps there IS not another man en the stage so phlegnatic as Burr McIn tosh during unusual occurrences in front He lays his co0luess all to the training he got on the football field when he was at Princeton.
 I find more unexpected things hap. pen on the stage than in the auaience > said Mir Mcintosh However Ele tiyst night we opened in At Piuey Ridge l got piece of advice from the flout. l said to the villain, You lef' the colo. ..1 1fs- |.