The Washington times., 1914-02-12
By JULIA MURDOCH.

| a ANY actors and many actresses
! Nu have made prophecies Of what
| WI they were going to DO, and
many managers have made
PROMISES for them. Perhaps one in ten
has made good, but certainly the thea
tergoers of this country and particularly
that portion of it lying outside the con-
fines OF New York city have missed
more great productions than they ever
4 saw.
| There is at least one theatrical pro-
duCing manager in America whom one
can put on record as living up to prom
ises.
Righ' here the suffragist contingent
can take notice. That manager is a wo-
man.
Five years ago in the drawing room
of the Savoy Hotel in London, Mar
garet Anglin, surrounded by a small
coterie of friends and newspaper men,
! announced that before 1915, II she lived
she would be Shakespearean star at
the head of her own company; be her
own financial sponsor, and present a
Shakespearean repertOry, according TO
her own ideas. The announcement was
cabled to America, and although any
news Of Miss Anglin's plans always en-
lists interest, there were many in New
York who dismissed it with sucn phrases
rs 'lGudably ambitious" press agents
dope" she'll never do it," etc.
Kept Her Promise
Ahead of Time.
But Miss Anglin has kept her prom
Use. and 1t is not yet 1915.
Since the beginning of her remark
able stage career Miss Anglin has pro
gressec steadily in her art, and has al
ways had one goal in vie@-Shalle-
speare. By her performance of such
plays as Mrs. Danes Defense" "zira,"
Camille The Great Divide" Helena
Ritchie," and a dozen other similar
plays not to mention her success in the
work Of the Greek masters as exempli-
fed in her performances of "Antigone"
and Electra" in the Greek theater of
the University of California, she has
won foremost place on the American
stage.
Three years ago she toured Australia
in a varied repertOry, including Twelfth
Night and "As You Like It. and
measured standards with the best aC-
tresses of England. She closed. her Last
seasons tour in January in order to
visit the European capitals and journey
through Egypt, Italy. Greece, and Sicily
for the purpose Of gathering data, mate
rial, and atmosphere TO be employed in
the scenic effects of her present Shakes
perean revivals.
Miss Anglin is not only a remarkably
gifted actress, but she Is also generally
regarded as one of the most accom-
plished stage directors on the English
speaking stage.
The idea of staging the comedies OF
Shakespeare simply and inaginatively
was Miss Anglin's long time ago
iE n
Reinhardt, Gordon Craig, and Granville
Barker and other innovators were as
familiar as they are today For this
very good reason Miss Anglin's method
OF staging the plays embraced in her
Shakespearean repertory is very justly
exploited as the Anglin method
There are few greater Shakesperean
scholars ard authorities in this country
than Miss Anglin. She has been a
student of the bard since a little girl,
and In the year of her graduation at
Loretto Abbey, in Toronto, she played
ROsalind and Viola in amateur produc-
tions. Her Shakesperean library con-
tains thousands of volumes. and she is
familiar with them all, not only the
English. but the French and German
editions as we'll
Asked short time ago to tell how. in
her own personal way, the influence OF
Shakespeare extends to our modern
stage, Miss Anglin said.
Il will answer that question with some
degree OF reluctance, not for fear of
depreciating or dlsparaging authors
and playwrights OF today, but because
the comparisons l must make might be
miscOnstrued into, cheapening the value
of Shapespeare's work.
Will Stand Reading
Over and Over Again.
The immortal things in literature
cannot he vulSarized or pOpularized.
They demand and compel seriousness Of