Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-11-15
HOW AN ACTRESS
VIEWS THEATRES
Miss Mabel RrowneIl Says
Stage Is a School for Pub
lie Uplift.
BY MABEL RRowNELL

A CTORS may come, actors NAV 90
"A but playa good play-goes On
forever. 1 cannot conceive of any
school more influential in forming
character than the theatre, and.
therefore, I agree unqualifiedly with
the Evening Star, THE Plays the
Thing"
An illustration: Last year we gave
alias Jimmy Valentine" an under
world play" The day after the first
performance Mr.. Stork, who played
the title role, received an anonymous
letter. The writer, naturally. under
the circumstances, could not betray
his Identity. He wrote that he had
been thief a long time and had been
fortunate enough to elude detection.
but from tonight | am through wiz
crime" he concluded. while seeing
you play I made up my mind would
be an honest man. Something tells
me to write to thank you. I pledge
my solemn word that from now on
am an honest man.
Shakespeare was familiar with this
wonderful power of the drama. He
makes Hamlet say:
81 have heard that guilty
creatures, sitting at play, have by
the very cunning OF the scene
been struck so to the SOU that
presently they have proclaimed
their malefaction."
] believe that stock compan es ara
particularly fortunate in this respect
The fact that the price of admission
to their theatres is small makes Il
| possible for practically everybody to
attend, and In that way they become
instrumental in reaching with this
power for good every stratum Of So
| ciety.
| The old-time Puritanic idea that the
playhouse Is, so to speak, the ante
| chamber to Satan's realm has given
place to a more just, saner view.
| Many clergymen now frankly ac-
knowledge the wonderful influence for
good exerted by good plays. And on
the other hand, we of the theatre are
no less ready to acknowledge the
baneful influence of an immoral play
And our own policy-I mean that OF
our own company--is TO produce moth
| ng that can be harmful to even the
most impressionable persons
Take. for instance, our next week S
| play, "A Romance of the Underwsr i .
| by Paul Armstrong The lesson IL
teaches is one of charitable for1e3r !
| ance toward those upon whom tho
suspicion of crime has fallen The play
shows how an innocent man becomes
the victim of circuinStantial evidence.
II shows how easy it s to condemn.
how irreparabe may be the injury.
| 1t teaches us not to be too hasty in
forming our judgments when the hap
piness of others Is at stake. II each
week only one person out of all who
come to see our plays is Influenced
for geod-and that. probably is al
extremely conservative estimate--svho
can gauge the benefit gained by the
community?
Some object that it is only those
who are unsoph sticated and know
nothing about worldly matters thai
can be influenced by a play. Such 4
play is absurd and Is born of sheer
ignorance. I have bsen an actress
some years now, and surely IL any
! body might be supposed to be "procf
against the influence of play Il Il
an actor or an actress. And yet
am just as much affected and "cafriel
away under the influence OF strong
well-acted play, let us say, q Shake
spearean play at the present time a
I was before l ever dreamed that
myself might some day be footffgh
hero ne
I repeat, "the plays the thinssf
What other school is there except tn
theatre where one can learn 80 naucl
that Is useful and good while heinG
entertained?