Los Angeles herald., 1908-11-08

MT o theatrical experiment in the his
~ tory of America has been watched
~ more eagerly than the project for
the New theater in New York city.
The interest is various. On the one
hand the established managers and
producers are inclined to look askance.
drama from purely literary and ar
tistic viewpoint await the outcome with
much hope. There Is apparently no
common middle ground, says Malcolm
Macdonald in the Cleveland Plain
Dealer.
H. Winthrop Ames the recently ap-
pointed director of the New theater,
has brought to his work not only a
great deal of enthusiasm and hope but
considerable experience as well.
He is a Harvard man of the class Of
1895. While In college he limited his
dramatic aspirations to membership
in the famous Hasty Pudding. AFTER
leaving Harvard he connected himself
with the Castle Square Theater COM
pany of Boston for the sole purpose, as
he dramatically expressed it in pure
Bostonese, Of getting on to his JOB,
which in his case meant thorough
working knowledge of the intricacies of
the theater from the box office to the
cosmetic corner.
"I want to know said Mr.. Ames,
"the price OF stage carpet and the his
trionic capabilities of every member OF
the cast. We had stock company
there and played everything from
Shakespeare to Hoyt-yes, and good
many plays that were worse, much
worse, than the Hoyt plays. l served
an apprenticeship of four years, pune
tuating it with a good many trips to
Europe, where I studied the theater
system, and got all the practical ex-
perience 1 expected"
So interested did Mr.. Ames become
in the stock company idea that he
had just purchased a plot of ground
in Boston with the purpose of build
ing a theater according to his own
ideas and putting in it a stock COM
pany of his own selection to produce
plays that he believed the public
wanted to see presented in that way
when the summons came to hang
UP his plan for the present and in
lieu of it take over the dictatorship
of the New theater in collaboration
with Lee Shubert and John Corbin.
1.-THE founders of the New theater,"
Mr. Ames went on, ARE active mana
gers in the sense that they have out
lined the plan and scope of the New
theater while they have tactfully
eliminated themselves in regard to the
thousand and one details of the project.
"There is an impression quite preva-
lent, 1 find, that these gentlemen have
banded themselves together to engage
In a sort of wildcat scheme without
really knowing what 1t is all about,
that they were merely rich men seek
ing to do something philanthropic
| a. n
they wanted or what they could co.
The contrary is the truth.
"Before the public knew anything
at all about the New theater enter
prise the founders had very distinct
Impressions of what they intended to
have and what they could accomplish.
They did have a splendid purpose and
were actuated by philanthropic senu-
ment and municipal pride. They saw
no reason why New York should not
have a theater that would be repre-
sentative of il in every sense of the
word and they went to work in the
most businessllke way to organize
1.-THE New theater may turn out to
be as good as they hope and expect
prophesy, but their part in it cannot
be too highly appreciated. They are
willing to put their money in without
exacting interest so that the enter
prise might be relieved Of the bug
bear that has handicapped art in this
direction always-the necessity of
making profits. If 1t had not been for
their unexampled generosity we would
not have got TO the point of expert
menting, let alone anything else.
I'm line with this public misappre-
hension is that which regards the New
theater as a subsidized theater of
which there are so many in Europe,
notably the Coincide Franchise in Paris
and the Hofburg in Vienna. There Is
a. xery material difference.
"a subsidized theater has no fear OF
unpaid bills. We will have such a
fear. for we are expected to make good,
and If we do not the New theater en-
terurise will have been proved fail
ure. We are relieved of the necessity
of making profits, but we must pay our
way.
'eThe directors of subsidized thea
ter have a comparatively easy path.
If they make mistakes, which is very
human method of passing time, there rs
no special apprehension In regard to
the consequences; but am quite sure