The Washington herald., 1911-06-18
THREE NEW yAGABoNDs SCENE AT COLUMBIA
~HE success that he's marked the

lishment of g. firSt-claSs winter STOCK or
ganization, playing to popular prices.
That such a company would receive the
support of the thousands of play lovers
to whom the regular winter prices are
prohibitive of more than occasional visits
to the theater is beyond question. Fur
ther than that, If the company were
composed of players as capable as those
now appearing in this city the patrons Of
the regular season would soon become
weekly visitors at the stock house anc
the enterprise would be one Of the most
profitable in the city's theatrical history.
Under the existing alliances between
the local managements Of the three prin-
cipal thesters and the two great theatre
cal factions of New York there is no
possibility OF the installation of a winter
stock company in one Of these houses.
But rumor has II that a number OF WASH
ington business men of prominence are
considering a plan for the erection OF q
large office and theater building in a
convenient downtown neighborhood, in
which the permanent stock experiment is
= to be tried.
There seems no reason to doubt the
success ofsuch an enterprise, ard WASH
intons theatergoers should do everything
in their power to promote the plan.
One Of the most difficult things faced
by a stock actor is the rehearsing Of
one part during the day and the per-
formance of a totally different sort of
role in the evening. Everett Butterfield,
Of the Columbia Players, was put
through this test in it's most trying form
last week. In Before and After he
played the part Of a Frenchman, with
a decided accent. During Sthe day he
rehearsed a Jewish character part in
THE Melting Pot Try as he might,
the two dialects were constantly clash
ing, and on a number Of occasions during
the week Butterfieid, as the Frenchman,
spoke and gesticulated in an unmistak-
able Hebraic manner. At rehearsal the
accent of his French part insistently
crept in, to the amusement of his fellow
players and his own despair, and it
was not until he chopped the role Of the
excitable Partisan last night that the
young actor finally was able to enter
fully into the spirit of his Semitic char
acter in the ZangwiIl drama.
One John MacMahon, the popular and
prepossessing publicity promoter of a
prominent pleasure park, pridefully pro-
culiarly prodigal pen:
"Perpetually packed with pleased pat
rons, Glen Echo, prominently situated on
the palisades Of the Potomac has proved
its popularity with the public since its
hrst presentation, and is already putting
forth new records of prosperity for an
outdoor playground, the present season
promising TO be the most profitable
period in its history A place prolific OF
positive pleasure was the promise made
by the proprietors, whose particular DUR
pose was TO provide a pastine palace on
more progressive lines than had hith-
erto been planned il this vicinity, and the
successful performance of the project has
been proclaimed by the throngs of pleas
ure seekers who now visit the resort
with periodical regularity
Blanche Bates, whom David Belasco will
present in this city during the forth
coming road tour Of that phenomenaIIy
successful New York production, No
body's Widow" is a keen student of hu-
man nature and an expert PSYCHOLOGIST.
1t is to Miss Bates gifts in the latter
province of learning that both she and
her manager, Mr.. Belasco, attribute much
Of her success in the portrayal and de-
Hneation of character. Indeed, Miss
Bates could scarcely help being well
grounded in psychology, having been
originally educated and trained for kin
dergarten work, and being to this day
one of the most enthusiastic disciples of
Froebel.
ITO know FroebeI is to know little
children, and to know little children is
to know how to act,'' Miss Bates de-
clared in brief and pithy talk before a
recent convention of kindergartners.
My personal observation of the child
mind as a kindergarten teacher, and
what learned from the study of the
great Froebel as to how TO stinulate
that child-mind, strongly believe have
been Of immeasurabIe influence upon any
thing and everything have ever done in
dramatic art" said Miss Bates. For
children are, after all, the great natural
born actors-children, that is, of the
kindergarten age. A little later, the child
becomes self-conscious, but from the time
when he first begins to walk and talk
until about his fifth or sixth year, he is
essentially and pre-eminently dramatic.
Watch a child OF three tell a story, or
relate some incident that has seized upon
its baby imagination and you will see
an exhibition Of superbly perfect histri-
onic art-art such as the best Of US
can never hope wholly to equal because
It is all SO unconscious, so direct, so SIM
pie, and above all else. so beautiful In its
7nirror-lize reelection of the subject mat
ter.
For instance-it may sound ridiculous,
but It Is the truth. nevertheless-the tech
nique with which I attain whatever
do attain in the role Of Roxana Clayton.
in 'Nobody's Widow was learned en-
tirely from a four-year-old child, a mere
mite of a girl, the daughter of one of
my friends. For two whole, precious.
happy weeks last summer the two Of
them were my guests at my farm house,
and as my friend and sewed or gossiped
on the back porch we were daily wit
nesses Of the funniest drama that ever
was on stage or on. With no other
rproperty than a broken golf stick, this
mite Of four enacted fNobody's Widow
every afternoon right there in the cor
ner OF the porch.
The child had heard me reading my
part, as had time and time again, &c her
mother, and, with the beautiful uncon-
sciousness of childhood, she straightway
began to amuse herself by playing the
part Of Roxana to q Duke OF Afereland
she had created by wrapping an old coat
about the broken golf stick. Being q
true dramatic artist as all children are,
she needed no other properties, ana so
there in the shaded corner OF the porch
she proceeded 10 put her imaginary hus-
band through his PAGES with q ndelity
to grown-up widow nature that fairly |
made the rest of ria nnsD