The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-12-25
Christmas Eve Among
Chinatown PIaygoers
Harvey
Leola Harvey-Elder.

! ing more eomlcal than an American
! comedy written and played a Ia Chi
/ nese would be. just imagine attend
/ ing performance where there was no
| curtain used and where there was no
F.! scenery and just few Of the absolute
! ly essential props Where the orches-
/ ira sat on the stage with the actors
| and the property man and the stage
| hands walked out on the stage and
| stood Or walked up and down as they
| pleased. Where all the female parts
| were played by men and where the or
| chestra blared forth with brass band
crashes right IN the middle Of the dra-
matte scenes and completely drowned
| out the actors.
All Of these things happened in the
| Chinese drama. After the man who had
called US down had strutted around for
few moments the orchestra struck up
what was supposed to be a pretty en-
| trance tune and in tripped two lovely
! maidens. Now these female imperson-
alters can give cards and spades to some
of the best of the American imper-
senators and then win out with their
wonderfully clever, trueto feminine
, gestures and voice tones. After the
girls had talked for about an hour
and apparently said nothing except to
pass the time of day, they took their
leave by making pretty bows and hand
hing their fans with a little hand oes-
ture for all the world like that stick
finger teadrinking poise of
the Five O'Clock devotees.
Following short scene between the
leading man and his mother. one of the
M a.
she was supposed to meet the hero on
the banks of river, the property man
had to make his appearance to render
some assistance.
When IS a chair not a chair?
When it is river bank
The same two chairs which in their
natural positions had served the two
girls in. the former scene in the house
were carried down and placed on the
stage on their sides and over them was
placed a couple of small mats. After
waiting until the made-to-order bank
was ready, the girl came oveR and sat
down and went on with what seemed
to be a love scene. Imagine an Amer
lean stage hero making love under such
conditions.
After arriving in the gallery and
getting a view of the position of the
stage, | knew that the entrance which
had faced me to my right after I had
entered the outer door led to the stage,
and acting on q sudden impulse and
a desire to see if the back of the Chi
nese stage was as much of a novelty
as the front, I went quietly down the
stairs, determined to sneak by the
doorkeeper and explore the passage to
the right.
I found when I reached the foot Of
the stairs that the doorkeeper was
doing on bench just outside the
door, so I stole softly by him and went
down the passage to the right. It was
rather dark, and I was beginning to
believe that I must have been mis-
taken about the passage leading to
the stage door, when | tripped against
the lower of a short fight of stairs |
assembled these, and taking sudden |
turn to the left I walked directly on
to the back of the stage, and there |
were all of the hangers-on of China |
town.
They evidently nave no rules bar
ring the actors numerous friends and |
innumerable cousins from entering the |
stage door, possibly thinking stage
door rule unnecessary where there are |
no girls in the show, these rules being |
usually made for the Johnnies.
For the same reason, the non-use of |
girls, no dressing rooms are provided, |
and the actors make up and dress for .
the most part in different little cor
ners of the back half of the stage, in |
full view of their admiring friends and |
relatives. The costumes and wigs |
were, however, hung up in a very
methodieal fashion. On one rack I
saw the different head dresses used for
royalty, soldiers, gods and kings, and |
on another hung row of boards of |
different eolors, one Of which was a
bright eerise.
A young boy who could speak Eng
fish explained the clown like makeup |
of two of the actors standing nearby
by saying that they were the bad men.
but whether he meant they were sup
posed TO be playing the villain parts
or the part of the devil l could not
ascertain.
Ny informant showed a sense of
/