The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-02-05

EEING Peaceful Valley" at the
Alcazar reminds me that the
Y american play Of today is look
written in a day when those
unique native comedians, Nat Goodwin.
William H. Crane and Sol Smith Rus
SELL had each evolved around his own
personality and comedic speciality a dis
tinct type of comedy drama. We had
the Goodwin play of youthful comedy
and heroic sentiment, the Crane plav
OF marked Americanism and CONNER
cial intrigue. the Russell play of &c
centric habit and rural character.
These actors pandered TO their person
ahtles; their authors We're their slaves.
:. their tailors; the pubic mad accepted
them IN certain characters, and so it
d. seemed, they would stick to those char
acters FOR the balance of their profess
.sional lives. But happily the public
tired OF this continuous business. and
the comedians, as all comedians will.
commenced to yearn for seriousness.
Mr.. Goodwin branched out with the
sheriff in In Mizzoura," and gave one
Of the strongest character impersona-
tions in the history of the American
theater; he played David Garrick with
less success. and Bob Acres in The
Rivals" with as much; and then he
went back to the old game with An
American Citizen" and now he is at
real work again in Nathan Hale" a
play that is said to be or really tragic
power Mr.. Crane essayed "A Fool of
Fortune in whose character of the
broken-down stock operator he exc
cuted a death scene in the last act: and
after that he appeared In "A Virginia
Courtship," a costume play of consid
cradle pretension. Mr.. Russell was the
last to break away from himself. which
he did in "A Bachelors Romance"
a serious piece that San Francisco
has yet to know. From all accounts
these actors have gained by their in
novations. Nat Goodwin is now recog-
nized as one of the greatest of Ameri-
can actors. He and Mansfield and
Joseph jefferson represent the tippest
top of their craft. Crane too, is reck-
oned big man, and where thousands
of butchers, bakers and candlestick
makers used to travel miles to see him
heroize a middle-aged tradesman, he
now finds as many admirers of another
seen since his authors have quit
humoring his personal eccentricities;
but it is a matter of record that in a
new style of play he scored his first
successful season in New York 1t used
. TO be said of him that he made a for
tune in the small towns every year,
only to lose it in New York. And the
author has profited as well as the actor.
Augustus Thomas clinched the reputa-
ton that had come TO him through AL
ALBANIA by writing In Mizzoura." No
matter how many potboilers he turns
g out, we must always reckon him as one
of the first to write a beautiful. definite
American play. In MizzOura" is as fine
a play of character and local manners
as Secret Service" is of action. Clyde
Fitch's Nathan Hale" is said to rank
with the cameo he cut for Richard
Mansfeld-"Beau Brummen." These
actors whom I have mentioned, the
best patrons of American plays,
have done lot to emancipate the ma
tive play-writer and it is only natural
that many of the old tailor made pieces
should now appear tame and silly in
the light of modern DIRE matte compo-
sition which is not written in fragrant
giorlhcatlon of the humors and bland
ishments Of the actor purchaser Wag-
ner wrote operas that taught a
new and less ridiculous method of
opera singing. In fact he made a new
breed of singers. Until recently the
American actor, with countably few
exceptions, has made his name and
fame in foreign plays-in plays to
which he had to fit his acting, not the
other way round. 1t is a pleasant thing
now to think of the American author
and actor working hand in hand, so to
speak, with the actor IN his proper
place of appreciation and interpreter;
for the drama that is rigidly modelled
on the personal whims and graces of
its actors has very small association
with literature. And from all tokens
it would appear that to-day the Amer