Los Angeles herald., 1907-12-15

her awakening, has been nothing but
sham.
If you bake bread the kind mother
couldn't make, but that grandma could
| you probably will be able to attend a
Ferris performance at the Auditorium
| free of charge. You may even be able to
take party of your friends and occupy
box without its costing you a cent.
But you've got to bake the bread first,
and 1t must be good bread.
| It's cold day when Dick Ferris doesn't
hit upon some new scheme of publicity,
but this time he has outdone himself.
He not only proposes to hold bread
| baking contest, the result of which will
be determined by a committee of pro-
fessional bread bakers but he promises
to give the bread entered In the contest
to the Salvation army and to two hos
pitfalls, after its merits have been passed
upon. Therefore. while you bake for a
prize you also bake for charity.
There are thirty-seven prizes In all,
and any woman In the city Is eligible to
compete for them. All she has to do is to
| bake loaf Of bread, take or send 1t to
Mr. Ferris at the Auditorium theater and
] await the award. II she doesn't win she
will at least have the consolation of
| knowing that the bread will be put to
good use.
Manager Morosco Is to try an interest
| ing experiment of the Burbank De-
| cember ", when the stage of the
| theater will be given over to the presen-
tation of four one-act plays. the several
roles being taken by members of the
Burbank company. One Of the playlets,
''The Great Interrogation" by Jack Lon
| don and Lee Bascom, had It's first presen-
| tation on any stage at the Burbank two
years ago. 1t is story of the early gold
| excitement in Alaska, and in 1t Miss
Phosa McAllister, absent from the stage
for two years, will return to play the
part Of an old Indian woman.
| Her Husbands Friend" by David Ed
win, and which Mr.. Edwin will present,
was used, by him for two seasons in
vaudeville. 1t has but one character, yet
1t cannot properly be termed a mono
logue, as 1t requires acting of no mean
order for its proper Interpretation.
The remaining two playlets are w. s.
Gilbert's "Sweethearts' and 1.-THE lit
tlest Girl" a dramatization of one of
Richard Harding Davis ivan Bibber''
stories, originally presented by Robert
| Hilliard
! OF recent years the one act play has
practically disappeared from the So
called legitimate houses in America,
though In England the curtain raiser, as
1t is termed, Is the rule rather than the
exception. Many years ago Rosina Vokes
made the playlet both popular and
profitable. She had no successor how
ever, and though there have been DC
casional modern successes, notably John
Luther Longs poetic Madame Butter
n.y. now done into an opera of regula-
ton length, the playlet for the most
part has degenerated into the vaudeville
sketch.
There is, of course. a reason for the
British survival. Fashionable London
audiences ordinarily do not reach the
theaters much before nine o'clock.
Meantime the "plt" must be amused
Hence the curtain-raiser, to which So
cfety pays scant attention and which
really is not designed for the enter
tainment of occupants in the more ex-
pensive stalls at ALL
Arrangements have been made for the
return of the San Francisco Opera com
for season of five weeks This solves
pany to the Los Angeles theater, January
the difficulty of open dates which con-
fronted the house management and
solves 1t most happily. The San Fran
ciscans made many friends on their last
visit here who will be glad to welcom.
them upon their return, particularly aa
Manager Frank Healy Is reported to
have secured several operas new to Los
course of his season.
The interim between the Roberts en-
gagement and the opening of the opera
company will be filled in by Way Down
East" and the opera season will be In
terrupted one week to make way for
"The Gingerbread Man." a light musical
comedy which has had considerable sue
cess in the east. After that the house
is booked solidly into April.
If an answer to the old query: docs
Shakespeare pay?" had been based upon
the attendance at the Belasco during ,he
past week the reply must have been in
the negative. The attendance at several
of the performances was pitifully small,
Notwithstanding the fact that the com
pany gave really meritorious presenta-
tion OF mat great political tragedy, Julius
Caesar There were errors, of course,
but the excellences far outnumbered
them. Someone, however blundercd
badly in staging the fourth act. This
Is the act in which occurs the great
funeral Grafton over Caesars dead body,
pronounced, perhaps, with lese majeste,
to be the greatest stump speech In The
English language. Antony's Grafton is
delivered from a pulpit far back on The
stage which is crowded with "supe-s,
representing the Roman commons"
Now the scene was so arranged that
Antony was invisible from the front
seats and could be seen from farther
back only over the heads of the mob.
The speech was given finely. but by a
concealed orator, which naturally de-
tracted largely from the effect of MI.
Glazier's admirable reading.
The time for the presentation of "The
Society Pilot" has been advanced one
month and it is now the expectation thar
the new Morosco-Bachman drama Will
have it's first production on any Nstage
at the Burbank some time in February.
DR.. Bachman has completed the writing
of the first act and is at work on the
second, while Mr.. Morosco has about
finished the scenario. The play is de-
scribed as an American society drama,
which is something neither Mr.. lIorosco
nor DIR. Bachman have attempted hereto
FORE This will be their first play in
collaboration, though each has written
several plays individually. and Morosco
has collaborated with Harry ID. Cottrell,
Murray and Mack, who come to the
N-ood tbic Of ffarnoon for fyUO we 3fS'