The San Francisco call., 1898-06-05

ways EauntS the young actor
 dream were to come true now sud-
 denly as in a theatrical fairy tale;
 if he were to make his appearance and dutter the dramatic doves with hope that at last r >gnition and ap- preciation were on the way, what would he find of interest in San Francisco?
 Apart from Clay Clement, who's his own managerial fairy godfather, and so independent of the stray miracle-a visiting manager-there's not much theatrical talent to be coveted here. Perhaps it's just as well Lat the fairy tale remains unrealized and that the actor, who regards his talent as wasted upon the desert air of inappreciation, should never know the "curse of granted wishes, for as things are he, at least, retains his good opinion of himself-a soothing strain in the ever lasting eegy he sings over his unful- filled hopes. And if he had his longed for opportunity he might lose even that.
 However-in the unlikely event Of his coming as far as San Francisco in his search for the meritorious-the Haroun Al Rasehid of the dramatic profession could find evidence of talent even now, when two of the best theaters in town are closed.
 At the Alcazar little character part which holds the stage for few minutes and only in the first of four acts of The | Master of Ceremonies" has been lifted | out of the domain of the commonp!aa ae | by an excellent bit of acting. Mrs | Adele Clarks Lady Teigne is clever spirited; it shows thought and it shows ! intelligence. Her cough is natural and | short lahOred cough. but the hearty, physical affair | of a full -chested old woman; and her | damn" is as vigorous, as natural and | as new. She swears as though she en- joyed it, and altogether she makes of the tyrannical old invalid whose part she plays sketch that Thackeray would have enjoyed and recognized.
 There's a repose about Florence Rob erts that makes one wonder why she isn't nearer the top of the theatrical tree than she is. She lacks utterly that self-conscious, irritating vanity that actresses in smart comedy particularly are afflicted with noWadays-or at least she does not S, ow it if she does possess il, which is art and very restful. She has a very sweet voice, pretty lace and figure. She moves about the stage as If she were at home, not on eXhibi- tion She does not OVer-act. It is pos sible that she does under-act, but 1t will take a more extended view of her work to be sure of that. She surprises you by her charmingly natural tone and gesture. One braces one S sell to meet the disillusion of mawldsh melo- dramatic sentimentality only to become gratefully aware of a delicacy of per ception and a quiet natural method that put true sentiment into the situa- ton. She isn't conscious of her clothes. When she leaves the stage she does not
 4l,.-A I,.,.a x~r,lf alg.H. exit, which is the mark of the theatrical copyist and which should be used so sparingly, and her every entrance is welcome one.
 At the Columbia the unknown quan- ti1Y is Gertrude O'Malley. who plays Martha" " in a way to awaken interest in any other role that she may take. She reminds one-and the resemblance B is not all in the Southern accent-of that Eleanor Moretti whose RoXey was the pulse of Pudd'n Head Wilson, and wfio, though she ranked next to Mayo himself in that production, never did : anything else that was noteworthy; so ideally fitted was she for that one char acter which displayed her beauty and her talents, as though she had been created to play that one part. If Ger trude OMalley develops ability, it, will not be on the conventional lines; it will
  which should make her success an un usual one
 :' At the Orpheum there's four-footed :C9Quelin, who plays the clown with Professor Leonidas wonderfully train ed eats and dogs, with a humorous ap- preciatiOn of his own stiffness that is very funny. Nature gave him an id iotic pinkness of eye, a sheep-like, white lace, and long ears that testify to his donkeyfied mentality. And then art finished him with the most ridiculous of make-ups, shearng the hind portion of him, in a way which Laurence Hut ton, that dog idealist, would certainly consider cruelty to animals. To add a. sense of and suffering from ridicule to all the long list of virtues with which he canOnizes ye dogge would not be sur prising in a man who expects to meet dead and gone before Whiskey, Punch and Mop on the other side.
 Ezra Kendall is the Orpheum's repre- sentative of that most difficult of the atrical attainments-the art of mono logue, which, dispensing with the host of theatrical helps, aims to be whole theater in itself. The kind of theater Mr. Kendall would be is not Come die Francaise, but to judge of it's ef- fectiveness, all you need to do is to glance at the faces that fill the Or pheum. They all bear the same rela- tion to the speaker-ttat of amused in-