Omaha daily bee., 1903-06-07
= ABOUT PLAYS PLAYERS GHD PLGYHOUSES

no ANU TLAIHuUOEO
or adaptable. It is turned to the uses Of
the tiieater, and the public gets this benefit
Of It. Thus. for example. in New York and
Pittsburg next fall will be opened theaters
In which there will be Installed on the
stage huge sounding boards connected by
electric wires to properly adjusted receivers
in the front OF the house so that they
will act as resonators or -megaphones, to
increase the carrying effect OF the human
voice and make the speeches on the stage
distinctly audible in every part Of audi
forums so vast that without the meohanl-
cal assistance the task Of making the or
binary actors voice MI the house would
be beyond possibility. In one of these
theaters the orchestra is so located that
between acts it's music will be carried by
a telephone arrangement into a rathskeller
connected with. the theater but separated
by a heavy wall. BY this means the peo-
pie who are taking their refreshments in
the rathskeller will be as agreeably enter
tained. and by the same music. as those
who remain quietly in their seats. In both
these arrangements. the stage is completely
insulated, and the mere turning of a switch
connects or d%isconnects the electric cur
rent. With such innovations being adopted,
It liz quite beyond reason to undertake to
exactly state what IL and what is not "old
school, I'm the matter Of theatrical meth
DDS.
"Tempora mutantur," etc. Manner, Gus
toms, speech, dress. methods, everything
that might enter into the art Of the actor,
is subject to this immutable law, and its
dlctum must be followed. The penalty is
first to be olassed as belonging to the
old school," and a little farther along to
be referred to as a back number The
only way in which this fate can be avoided
is to keep up with the procession" To
do this one needs not ABANDON any ideal,
or change any fixed plan. but one must
be alive to all the progress that is going on
steadily all the time; imperceptibly almost,
but never by fits and starts. II isn't
necessary to be a leader to do this. nor to
adopt changes until their advisability has
been established. II liz necessary to be
alive to the trend of thought and taste,
and to keep fully in touch with the spirit
OF the times. One can do this and still
be conservative In all regards; but the
ultra conservative is likely to be ultimately
catalocued with the "old SCHOOL,
" HlADAAANA BoAiAN u > hAu "
is not all unlikely that herein lies the real
line of demarcation between the old and
the new. Our theater, like our literature
and our art in every essential regard was
borrowed in the first place. Until long after
l. the discovery of America the English
speaking people had neither literature nor
art OF their own. Such feeble limitations as
were extant were not of the sort to satisfy.
Chaucer chine almost solely for the fact
that IL is to him that what is now called
English literature traces its beginning;
it Is. that fact alone that gives him
any prominence. It was almost two CEN
turtles after Chaucer that the Elizabethan
writer's burst on the world with their won
derfnl e~ffulgence; yet for many centuries
prior to that the arts and literature had
been fostered and thrived among the people
OF the continent, and the English wers
looked upon as rude and uncultfvated be-
cause they had not progressed in those es-
~sentials of national culture. From the time
of Elizabeth the era OF English letters and
English art really dates. With the Restora-
ton came another change m literature, and
for more than two centuries again Che Eng
lish drama at least was modelled on the
French, so far ms tragedy is concerned. AS
to comedy, the elegant writer's of the Ad-
disonian school did not think 1t worth while
to give that branch Of the drama serious
consideration, and IT was allowed to slip
into The easy prose we know so well. IT is
worth while to note In passing that 1t is the
comedies of this period that survive. The
tragedies are only looked up by the student.
While the Georgian epoch marks a distinct
advance IN the progress of English letters,
it shows little for the drama. and even in
the earlier days OF the Victorian period, in
which we find such great lights as Dickens,
Thackeray, Bryon and Tennyson blazing
forth, we get almost nothing for the drama.
Lytton furnishes the best known of the
plays of this period, Lady OF Lyons and
"Richelieu," although there are a number
Of others acted with more or less fire.
quency. such as "'VlFginlus." THE Gladia-
tor "Ingomar.' and the like. 1t is doubt
full If either Of these will survive. The
Victorian epoch is noteworthy for one
thing-it brought to a termination, hnal and
blessed, the domination OF the Journalism
Of the Restoration style and a return to the
truly poetical and s~atTsfyingly natual
style OF Shakespeare. Shakespeare is
now universally recognized as the
standard, and as such must re-
main. This may sound dogmatic, but the
experience Of more than three centuries
Warrants the expression. Within the last
fifty years not more than two notable ef-
forts have been put forth by English writ
ers IN the way of dramati poetry. Boxer
contributed his beautiful Francesca di
RimEnis" ana Phillips his Ulysses" Other
efforts have been failures. The modern
English writers ave confined themselves
to prose. and the accepted school to topics
more or less ephemeral in this nature. Our
best writer's have not undertaken anything
that can be really looked upon as destined
10 live. Wilde, Pinero, Hope. Jones, Mar
shall. Howard, Fitch. and all the ilk may
be looked up by students In a future time,
ana their plays may be referred to in sup
port of some of the queer notions held by
people of the later days Of the nineteenth
and the earlier of the twentieth centuries,
but no one will be rash enough 10 claim for
them immortality. That this Is true Is due
solely to the fact that the theater reflects
the dominant thought of the people, and
as often as that thought changes so does
the theater change. The actor Is called
upon solely to give life to the character
drawn FOR him by the writer, and thus to
become for the time the embodiment Of
public sentiment. Under these conditions
which have always existed, II is quite be-
yond possibility to determine Just where to
draw the mark between old and new other
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