The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-04-03
WILL LONDON GET
ENDOWED THEATER?
Henry Arthur Jones Offer to
Donate Comedy Has Re-
neWed Discussion.
From a Staff Correspondent.

From q Staff Correspondent.
LONDON, March 25.-Henry Arthur
Jones' recent offer-in the event of
state aided theater being founded here
to write a comedy for it gratis has
resulted in renewed discussion as to
what chance there is that such play
house ever will be an accomplished
fact. An English national theater-
the establishment OF which probably
would be followed promptly by the
opening of one in the United States
would, of course, be managed on the
lines of the Coincide Franchise in Paris
and the other state aided theaterS which
abound in every country of Europe.
There would be no stars" and no long
runs" which SO many authorities con-
slider the bane of English and Ameri-
can theatricals, but instead a stock
company, which would present a differ
ent piece almost every night; classic
and modern plays, comedies and TRACE
dies being on terms of equality in it's
repertoire. Moreover, at the state play
house ordinary theatrical prices would
be cut in half.
1t may be said at once that the Eng
lish government shows not the slight
49, NASEjSoANAOAA " CAlQON q lldllOudI
theater. But, considering the inf1u-
ence of the folk who are intent on get
ting such a playhouse started, it is
rather odd that the comparatively small
money guarantee-Henry Arthur Jones
says $4,000 a year-necessary to
launch a repertoire theater has not
been donated already in a private way.
Archer Espouses 1t.
William Archer, perhaps the foremost
of English dramatic critics has been
writing and speaking for several years
in favor of a British Coincide Franchise
and has behind him practically every
prominent friend of the drama in the
country-including Mr.. Pinero, Mrs.
Craigie and w. L. Courtney, editor of
the FOrtnightly Review, who recently
devoted much space in that influential
quarterly to a discussion as to ways
and means Of getting either a state or
privately endowed theater. Jerome K.
Jerome recently espOused the same
cause, and now comes Mr.. Jones with
his ideas on the subject and his offer
to write a comedy for a national thea
ter without money and without price.
The author Of Mrs. Danes Defense"
is regretful over the manner in which
the British playgOing public spends
its money at present.
Judging from some reports that
have appeared" he says, lat a rough
estimate English theatergoers must
have spent in musical comedy in town
and provinces something like five or
six millions of pounds during the last
ten years. That is to say, on this par
ticular form of popular entertainment
the English public has in a few years
spent a sum sufficient to buy an entire
fleet, sum which, capitalized, would
bring in about 6 10000 a year, or ex-
actly~ fifteen times the sum that we
need to start a sane, intellectual
drama!" And what, he asks, have we
to show for these five or six millions ?"
Gilbert's Play a Secret.
Interested as playgoers here are in
the new piece by W. S. Gilbert, which
Arthur Bourchier is going to produce,
not single hint as to it's nature has
yet been vOuchsafed. There is a sus-
picion, however, that the play has
something to do with pantomime as
given at Drury Lane, it having been
discovered that the famous Iibrettist
visits to this theater, where the Christ
mas attraction, "Humpty-Dumpty,'
still holds the boards.
Mention was made in these letters
last week of the run of bad luck which
SignOr Gabrielle D'AnnUnzio has been
having in connection with his new play
THE Daughter of JariO," but recent
reports from Italy indicate that the
dramatist may console himself with
the hiStriOnic achievements of his
small son. This lad, who is only
twelve, is evidently born actor Some
time ago his work in amateur theat-
ricals aroused the enthusiasm of those
who saw it, and when, recently, he
made his public debut in the part of a
page in Giacosa'S Game of Chess"
critics did not hesitate to describe the
youthful actors ability as altogether
uncommon.
American Plays in London.
1t is being realized more and more
in London that the fact of a plays
having scored in America is little or no