The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-03-01

sdy. singing. dancing and musical spe- cfalties. and are certain to find great savor with the people of Montgomery vho are known to be appreciative of hat which ia clever.
 Harry Niles and Janet Hart follow n their refined comedy sketch entitled The Poor Mir. Rich" which is one of the laughing vaudeville successes of The season. and has received repeated encores wherever presented.
 Moving pictures. which are always a feature here, follow and close the per- formance which is undoubtedly one of the best vaudeville performances ever seen In Montgomery. and one that those who enjoy that which is lively and clever should not miss.
 Ebert Hubbard Saturday Night. Perhaps the most, notable lecture of \ the season will be that of Ebert Hub bard on Saturday night, March [, at The Grand. Whether as regards his personality. which is almost bizarre
 ia its unusual qualities of quaintness and fancy and its strength of appeal and conviction, or as regards the mem
 tai attachments which have made him. \ as essayist. moraiist, philosopher and \ orator. he is among the notable men of America, one who is eminent among
 both the thoughtful and the active. The lecture Mir. Hubbard is to give at The Grand is entitled fIIeaith,
 Wealth and Happiness." It Is re- tions and is said to i'll the soul with. awe and delight.
 Mrs. Fislxe on Ibsen.
 Mrs. Fiske seldom talks on the sub
 ject of her art. but the other day said, with reference to Ibsen. N. Tt Is true that I have been called an 'Ibsenite' said Mrs. Fiske. Out I hardly understand the meaning of
 the term. If 1t means devotion and ad- 1 miration for the greatest plays of the age. then I am an "Ibsenite. : Ibsen's plays are the most interesting of all
 modern, dramas. The most interesting. the most valuable plays written by others are almost without exception
 products which display the influence of
 the Norseman's work. 1t would be an
 lmpertinence to say that Sudermann,
 Fulda, Pinero D'Annunzlo. and the
 spanish playwright, Echegary do not
 write interesting plays They, do. but
 after all their works are merely those
 of devoted discipes--not those of the
 master. obviouHy 1t Is Of more inter-
 est to present the plays of the master
 than the best of the most gifted of his
 followers.
 Not all of Ibsen Is inteIligihle to me. That Is the reason why 1t Is so abso- iutely necessary to study each char acter long and thoroughly. Resides, I the role one plays is not all that is necessary to be mastered. An inter. preter of Ibsen must surmount the fn- tricacies of the characters which sur round one. for each has significant bearing on all the other characters. Each lends some Invaluable bit of light to the interpretation. His influence has proved to be banefu1 among less able writers. Unintelligent playwriehts have initiated his conceptions. Some who write plays believe that in offer- ing merely disagreeable. immoral and depressing drama they have written after the manner of the Norwegian poet. But. apart from this inevitable misfortune, his influence in the theatre has been of such stimulation as to change the character of dramatic It, erature in every country. Even those authors who neither admire nor study the plays of the Norsemen unconscious. spirit.
 'Ibsen makes an appeal to the act or's tmagination--to his brain. to his soul. He Is a constant mental stimu- lus to the pIayer. The author of what we call a story-book play makes no such demand on the actor and affords no stimulus. The plays of such a writer are exhausted after a few per- formanees. They mean stagnation. TO be compelled to appear continually in one of these plays would I think. make one insane.
 T believe that Ibsen has been de- scribsd as depressing. but can dIs- cover neither depression nor melan- choly in him. Certainly one finds trag- | edy. as one finds 1t in Shakespeare, but l tragedy is not of necessity depressing, l ts it? Indeed, 1t Is often a sublime uplift Rosmershoim' is a tragedy. yet | I see nothing depressing in it's final l moments. They are to me full of i'm | aginative beauty and of exaltation. If | the sensitive and intelligent auditor | does not discover these qualities in the | because the acting has failed to reach | the possibilities of the authors concep- tion.
 sIbsen is of interest to the actor be- cause properly to understand a role you i must study the character from its ear- Hest childhood. Most fbsen men and | women have lived their lives before the | curtain rises. Shakespeare has often | been pronounced tedious by actors be- cause his characters require a great | deal of study. But even Shakespeare seems easy when compared with the | thought which must be bestowed on | Tbsen. The beautiful verse. the won- derful character drawing Of Shake speare furnish solutions of perpIexing | problems, but Ibsen is elusive. H6 by his aloofness. He Is the |