The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1900-02-22
THEATRICAL TOPICS.
SAYINGS AND poINos OF THE
PLAYERFoLK.
Tie Ideal Theater-Tt Cannot Exist
when Managed for individual Pront
Norman HapgOod on the Alleged
Theatrical trust

In a recent address before the Play
goers' club OF London one OF tho mem
bers explained that his ideal theater
was not any existing playhouse;
tt was not a theater which ever did
exist, and he might add Il never would
exist II would never, except In iso-
lated instances, quite realize the dreams
OF It's lovers, because each realization
would inspire another dream. And the
theater was an exceedingly complex in
strumeLt, depending not on the genius
and intellect OF one man, but the genius
and Intellect, and he would say. high
moral qualities OF a large numbei Of
men and women. BY a hsipy accident
f0e saw now. and agar an ideal per-
formance Of a play but perfection was
on the whole rnattalnahle. Tonight
you might have an ideal Romeo and
Juliet; tomorrow Romeo would have
th ghost OF his tailor's bill at his ell
how, and Juliet would have received
bad news about her youngest grand
daughter. The ideal theater was rot
fact, but en- inspiration, but II was,
nevertheless. a beautiful and fasclnat-
ing vision always worth while trying
TO realize. Tho trouble was that here
the ideal theater could hardly be said
to exist even as a vision because the
actual theater was so very remote
from tho ideal They must clear their
minds OF the theater as II was before
they conld conceive the theater as 1t
ought TO be. There were those who re-
garded the theater as the handmaiden
OF friyolity. II not Of vice. AS the
theater was now constituted in Great
Britain he thought the Puritan point
OF view had a good deal to say for It.
self. The British theater-and he
would include the colonies and Amer
lea als6-waa absolutely unworthy
OF the Engllsh-speaking race. There
were. OF course, exceptions, but he said
deliberately that the people who con-
demned The existing theater were In
the right-at best II was very far from
what II should be- at worst, It was all
that 1t should not be-
THE Theatrical Syndicate" is the
subject OF an essay by Norman Hap
good, the New York critic, which ap-
pears in the drst number OF the new
international Monthly. Mr.. Hapgood
probes deeply into the so-called thea
rical trust. and his deductions have
caused something akin 70 a sensation
IN the world OF players and managers.
Mr.. Hapgood makes the declaration
that no force plays so distinct and
strong a part today in the develop
ment OF the drama as the theatrical
trust He prefaces his story OF It's In
ceptlon and scope with this statement;
''Its growth has been rapid; It's power
Is immense, aud the history of its rise,
II intimately known, sounds like
melodrama or sat;rical romance. Tho
first three acts Of its story are to bo
here given. The remaining two, the
decline and fall. may be narrated
few years later. Average human ma
ture among actors and managers has
many constant features. The trust 10
supported by the love Of money II 10
wholly commercial. How many out
side OF II are Influenced wholly by un-
selfish considerations? There Is sons
truth in talk about art, but more cant.
Most OF the trouble between the actors
and the syndicate has been over terms
and In most cases when the players
who talked most about intelligence
anG freedom were offered more money
they became silent"
Felix Norris who died in New York
recently, was one OF the best known
Of character actors, He was born ff-
~ years ago in England, spent HIS
youth in the West Indies and as a