The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-02-08
CHINESE DRAMA COMING
THEATER Is TO BE OPENED NEXT
WEEK.
Company Of Twenty-eight Performers
Has Already Been Engaged-New
Plays and Actors Promised.

Histrionic China is to shine. with
the advent of the New Year the thea
trical clans of the Celestial Empire Will
gather and offer entertainment to the
public. This will be the first Chinese
theatrical performance since the Old
theater was destroyed by the fire last
year. Twenty-eight actors will com
pose the troupe, or gather company as
the profession prefers in the states to
call it,
After the company saw their prop
erty destroyed and their play house a
mass of smOulderng ruins a year ago
dismay seized their souls and the ac-
tors were scattered to the four winds.
Some went east, some went west and
a few might have gone to jail although
no record to this effect, is at hand
Like many of their haule brethren of
the profession the members of the
company were driven to seek imme-
date means of livelihood in new fields.
| Now as the standard of a theatrical
gentleman is high, especially when it
| becomes necessary for him to seek work
| outside of his profession, the company
! experienced many trials. But the
pangs of hunger smothered the whis-
perings of pride and from demanding
plantation managerships many of the
actors were willing to take any position
| from scare crows in a rice field to meek
and lowly Founders of poi.
But an Oriental Oscar HammeTstein
arose and determined to build a new
! theater. He interested capital and sue
ceeded i'm getting enough money with
which to build a play house on the
Eva side of Liliha street, on Captain
| Trips property. He hunted up the
various lost, strayed or stolen mem
bers of the old troupe and got them
to accept engagements of indefinite
length. Two female impersOnators who
arrived from China during the plague
time but were unable to appear on the
local boards, We're also engaged to sup
port the rest of the company. The out
fit will he further reinforced shortly
after the new year by the advent of a
warrior, an acrobat and a female i'm
personatOr from the Colonies.
A variety of plays will be produced.
Several new pieces have been written
during the last year and it is reported
that the scenes of some have been
laid in Honolulu. Inasmuch as con-
siderable red fire has been ordered by
the management it is thought that
perhaps a scene dealing with the great
fire is to be given. Certainly such a
presentation by Chinese would be novel
and perhaps realistic as all of the ac-
tors probably took a more or less pro-
minent part in the scenes of those stir
ring times.
~ NillhtSt A'N' SUI y - hh'NhNi VI
the plays contemplated and it will
probably be among the first produced.
Several new plays from China have
been ordered These are awaited with
anxiety as the opportunity for some
good old melodrama is ripe. The bowls
of the savage Boxers and ear splitting
shrieks of the fleeing missionaries will
it is hoped. drown the noise of the
cymbals and other Chinese musical in
struments That the show will be pat
ronized by many white people and Ha-
waiians IS certain. It was hoped thai
the theater could open tomorrow might
but owing TO delays in the construction
of the building the opening will not b.
held before a week from Saturday.