The Washington times., 1901-09-08

she has won a wide repute Harry Dav-
enport win play the part of Jack Ever
leigh, the Annapolis cadet and ,,2nn Slav7
In will be Yale junior. The well known
| actor J. C. Marlowe, has the part or an
old sea captain of the Captain Cutie
type.
Amelia Binghams production of Clyde
Fitch's brilliant play of social life, The
| Climbers" which comes to the National
| Theatre on October q. direct from the
| Bijou Theatre, New York where it ran
for 200 nights. will present in addition
to the actress manager, Robert Edeson,
| Frank Worthinc, Ferdinand Gottschalk,
Minnie Dupree, Ethel Winthrop. Madge
| Carr Cooke, Bijou Fernandez, James
/ Carew, Alfred Fisher. James b. Sturgis.
Florence Lloyd. Marian Gardiner, Hen
ry Warwick. F. c. Moreland. Harry
/ Wright, jr. Maude Ream Stover. Lillian
| Wright, William Moore.
Several years ago theatregoers re-
| ceived the welcome news of Effis Ellis
/ lers return to the stage. She had orig
/ mated the chief role in Hazel kirke"
many years before, and had proved her
/ self an intelligent emotional actress.
whose methods bore analysis and whose
good taste and discretion in regard to
/ her work were beyond question. When
/ Miss Ellsler decided to return to the
boards Viola Allen was starring in The
/ Christian" and the demand for the play
was more than Miss Allen could satisfy,
| so Liebler & Co. organized a special COM
pany, with Effie EllSler as the star. to
| appear in the territory Miss Allen could
not cover. Miss Ellsler was eminently
! successful in the role of Glory Quayle,
and last year she succeeded Julia Mar
lowe in the title part of Clyde Fitch's
( play. Barbara Frietchie." When Nat
Goodwin was making up the company
for his revival of "The Merchant OF Ven
ice" he engaged Miss Eilsler for the role
of Jessica, and her work was one of the
conspicuous features of the production.
: This season Miss Ellser will be the star
7 of THE Wooing of Priscilla Stanislaus
STANCES play, which was produced last
spring in Boston and accounted a sue
cess The former Hazel kirke should
make a dainty and picturesque Puritan
maid.
The chief role in Augustus Thomas
play Champagne Charlie" in which
Frank Mckee will present Peter F.
Daley this month, will be that of
society man who acts as agent for a
wine house, and, after much speculation
on the part of those who have been per-
mitted to read the manuscript, Charles"
identity has been definitely fixed. The
role is nothing else than broadly con-
ceived stage picture of Harry Lehr, the
wen-known clnbman, who for many
seasons has been the pet of society at
Newport and in New York and who a
few months ago caused many a silent tear
to flow by wedding Mrs. Dahlgren.
Another character in Champagne
Charlie" whose model will be easily rec
ognized is that of a matinee girl, which
part Will serve to bring Ada Lewis, the
original tough girl back to the stage.
The character is said to have been sug-
gestod by and drawn from a prominent
New York society woman who is a con-
stant attendant at afternoon perform
ances in the metropolis. Indeed, nearly
all of the characters in "Champa gne
Charlie" are studies from life.
Walter Fessler. whose melodrama, THE
Great White Diamond. was witnessed by
series of delighted houses at the Acad-
emy of Music last week, is modest
dramatist. He says he may not be
good playwright, properly speaking, but he
believes he understands :he wants of the
people who attend the popular-priced the
atres pretty well. In substantiation of
this assertion, in explaining his ideas of
how popular meiodrama should be con-
structed to a Times interviewer at the
Academy one night during the week. Mr..
Fessler said:
You must be sure and have a liberal
allowance of heart interest; without hav-
ing this necessary love story your work
is valueless. Then bring in your comedy
element and finally after you have made
your audience first cry bit give them
few hearty laughs and then proceed to
properly thrill them by the Introduction
of scenes calculated to arouse even the
most confirmed theatregoer-the person
who believes he is sensation-proof This
may be accomplished by various methods.
/ have attained the result very happily in
several of my plays by the bringing on of
a locomotive, as / did in one of my earlier
melodramas, The Ride for Life / use
makes In The Great White Diamond,
but / rely more upon the swing for life
for the success of the play, from SEN
sational point of view"
Your supply of heroines would soon be-
come exhausted if the wire supports
should get into the habit of breaking"
suggested the interviewer.
''Of course; but we guard against such
accidents by having rather heavy cable,
which we paint black, so the audience
may get the full benefit of the idea of the
girl swinging over the chasm, to be
caught by her rescuer, much after the
style of work of some of the more accom-
plished circus acrobats. The deception Is
very good think; at least not many per
sons in the audience seem to be aware
that the heroine is really taking no
chances at all; that If she were not
promptly rescued nothing more exciting
would happen than to leave her dangling
In mid-air until the curtain could be low
The Great White Diamond introduces
a new character to the stage" said the
newspaper man.
in a story over twenty years ago, and
when | looked about for material for
new melodrama / recalled the very curl
Gus freak of nature whereby some per
sons are denied sight when in the light.
but are in possession of perfect vision in
the dark. 1 thought it would be good
plan to introduce such a parsonage into
the play, and the manner in which my
villain has been received has proved the
correctness of my idea Rarely has there
been a more generally detested stage
villain than the strange man who causes
all the trouble for the other people in
The Great White Diamond. In my
new play ! have another novel char
acter."
You are working on something new,
them" interrupted the questioner.
Something 1 have merely thought out,
but haven't yet put on paper don
arrange my plays into scenes and aots
before | write them out, like most
dramatists. l decide upon the number of
characters / want to use and get good
idea of what they are to be, and then l
give them a free rein. Sometimes ] start
in with very subsidiary bit and develop
1t until 1t is really the chief part in the
play / find that things work out about
as well In playwriting as in real meat
least this has been my experience"
Morris S. Schlesinger, the new manager
of the Bijou, is in the city making exten-
sive preparations Tor the opening Of that
theatre a week from tomorrow. The first
attraction will be the Howard 81 Emerson
Company heralded as one of the best or
ganizations of its kind that has been seen
in Washington for long time. The regu-
lar season at the BiJou will commence Sep
tember l6, when the stock company VIII
take possession of the stage and remain,
it is expected, until the close of the sea-
go