Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-02-08
Nonsense again! SUCH .things- tio -ttot

Nonsense again! Such things do not
happen in these days. Very well. But
at the western end of the scene-p paint
er's gallery there is a room. or rather
there once was a room, In il once
sat gray-bearded men in solemn con-
clave. From that room the exercising
was done that put TO rest the restless
spirits which made night unbearable
to the first watchers in the salt Lake
Theater
/ At least, so it was said.
The theater is the hcme Of the UNI
real, of the make-believe. And vet it
is something more The old Greeks
knew the power of the theater. and so
have the practical English 10 live
in theater for any length of time
mas peculiar effect upon the mind.
Everything around is sham, but one
learns the power OF ideas over facts
how facts may become ideas Wander
through theater by daylight-there
you shall see the sham scenes, shorn
OF their glamor. In the property
room what an accumulation of
snams! Shams OF every kind. There
are the sham thrones. set with glass
jewels. There are the sham crowns
and sceptres Of make believe kings and
queens. There Is the great sword
which Rlchlieu shall try i'm vain to
WELD There are the sham coffin fnd
the ilowers for poor Ophelia. And
yet an this make-believe moves to-
ward the making of a real effect
For thousand years the stage has
been teacher for good or for bad,
A HAPPY FAMILY.
In the early days the actors and ao-
trcsses, (of the Deseret Dramatic as
ISOLATION, / mean,) and the attaches
of the theater, the stage carpenters,
property men, scene painters, ETC.,
formed one family. Never in the
worlds history, l may repeat, was
there such another theater. That Is,
one existing under like conditions A
Puritan playhouse, ii that combine
ton be possible, and conducted unier
religious censorship What would
Shakespeare, Massinger, Ben Jonson,
Beaumont and Fletcher, and all the
other old dramatists, whose plays wera
presented on the boards. have thought
of it? what Jolly times! The writ
er lives them over again as he pens
these lines. There was the fun OF rh5
rehearsals, the benefit nights: there
was the wit and repartec of the Green
Room and the barber shop, the proper
ty room and the paint gallery Then
came the lighting up, the warning cry
of the bell-boy--the half hourl The
half hour. The half hour! The ov-
orture, and lastly, the fun in the side.
wings as the play progressed. Every
did not play second part in our temple
OF the drama IN those days.
Druda. the Ice Witch, Under the
Gas Light, the Lost ship After pprk,
Cherry and Fair Star, Lottery of Lie,
No Thoroughfare, Bee and the Orange
rree--theae were among the plays.
Yes, money WAS scarce then. When
the writer was first employed IN The
theater, all actors and actresses and
attaches received one-third Of their
pay ia tithlng scrip. one-third in
store pay and the remaining one
third in cash The scene paint
er was quite proud for he
was then boy TO send home the
FIRST hundred weight Of flour that ne
had earned. Laugh, II you viii, but
| be WAS very, very proud, when he
| knew that there We're ! o sacks OF -four
| IN the cellar,--thc grasshopper war
| had taught one what easily could be,
But these things have been told be-
| fore, and / wish now 10 tell some sbe
| cial little "reminiscences about The
salt Lake theater,
SOME "REMINISCENCES.
I once had the tomerlty to collect,
| I'm person, a small bill which was due
me from the great .lanausehek II
| was before the rise OF tho curtain, and,
horrorsl Could one bolieyo it,
| there was poor house. For Val
| IS dls9lll" Never did the terrible
/ tragedienne append her name TO any
stage document with more tragic re-
! ton, with what fuil she dashed hei
wonderful and masculine autograph "a
| that bill OF mine. Yet in the action
there was wonder, too, ana pathof
| and virtuous indignation How mean
II seemed OF me TO have collected that
| mOnevi IL WAS rightly mine. ypl