Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1907-11-21
WOMAN AND STAGE WORK.
Center Sex Changed Character OF
the Ancient Play Halls.

OEnIicF OC@
the Ancient Play Halls.
Woman has done more for the the
ater than any other single force de-
clares Archie Bell in the Theater
magazine. The theater has done
more for woman than any other in
stitution.
| These are broad statements; but
glance at the facts in the case may
prove them sound. Womankind re-
joices in the advance that her sex mas
made in politics. Apparently she for
gets that four centuries ago woman
had no connection with the theater,
on the stage or in the audience; tCday
after a short period as time moves,
she is the predominant factor in the
playhou-e, and without her the lnstl-
tuition would suddenly crumble to de-
cay.
/ Woman found the theater a house
for coarse testing and a rendezvous
for men who today go to the bar
room for a similar purpose. she
lifted it to its rightful place and es-
tablished or re-established acting as
an art beyond painting, sculpture and
poesy. She cleansed and purged III
of its filth, and unwilling to let it go
its own way, thereafter she cast her
own fortune with it and became the;
chief factor in its evolution.
1t is but a little time since Shakes
peare lived and wrote his immortal
dramas, yet the bard never saw one
of his female characters enacted by a
woman. The Portals, Juliets, Des~
demonas and Ophelias of his time
were boys-some Of them 40 years of
age-and one jolly chronicler tells us.
that real kings were sometimes kept
waiting for the performance to begin
because the stage queens we're de-
layed in shaving. Shakespeare wrote
for an audience of men, hence the
Shyloek and Hamlet were conceived
and first executed as characters of
broad comedy, quite bereft of all the
philosophical and psychological gran
passed them.
The role of Juliet, for instance, is:
full of coarse retorts and vulgarities
that might have been highly diverting
- the wine-flushed crowd that heard
rer (him) talking from the balcony.
Woman became Juliet and the world
saw reflected in her character all the
beautiful and sacred traits of femi-
nine grace and modesty. This evolu
tion of the Italian maiden is fairly
typical of what has resulted from the
appearance of woman on the stage
and her keener perceptions at work
in the audience.
There has been a full compensation
for her mission, however, and if she
has raised the status Of the playhouse
OF its present high plane she has de-
rived equal benefit from her labors
Today the author (if he chance to be
a mani thinks first of the woman in
his audience and aims to please her.
His second thought is to the female
characters in his play. The produc-
ing manager and the house manager
think of the woman. If the play suits
the woman and if the actors please
her it is a success. Tie men will
go because she is there or to act as
her escort.
On the stage the question of "wo-
mans rights" is passed and seldom
mentioned. 1t is generally conceded
that she has attained a full sway and
crusade for mems rights" in the
plays of the day would DC as apropos
as the cusades that are now con-
Quoted with vigor by the opposite sex
in other channels of life The reign
: ing favorites of the day could be
counted on the ten fingers if only
male actors were to be named. Wo-
man is predominant in influence and
far in the majority in numbers.