The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-02-09
BLAMES MANAGERS FOR RETICENCE OF
 THEATRE PATRONS
Boosting of Prices, Says Nirdlinger, Has Driven
 Public From Houses
Stock Companies May Solve Problem of Purveying
 Amusements

''It is my opinion that the American managers have driven the people out of the theatre,'' said Charles Nirdlin- ger, playwright and author of The World and His Wife" "The First Lady of the Land,'' and fTThe Turn or the Cards,'' which is produced at the Lyric all this week.
 '"They have raised the prices con Estantly. Why, in New York 1t is aI- most impossibly to buy a- ticket at the box office. You must go out into the street and purchase it from spec ulator, as the managers turn over their seats to lot of old clothes men,
 Every theatre should have perfect lv splendid accommodations for dfty cents and there should be hundreds 1 of good seats for twenty-five cents and plenty at fifteen cents.
 '"The gallery used to be 9 great m stitution in the theatre. It held as many as 1,5oe people and a very fine class went. Well, the managers Kept raising the prices until they have ab- soluteIy destroyed the gallery and now they don't build them any longer 1 Mr. NirdIinger, who talks freely and easily, admitted that the seat price topic was a fayorite with him and one which he was wrought up. men l toned vaudeville
 we hear so many people ia.uding the fine taste of the vaudeville audi 1 don't believe in it. Not long ago a manager of one of these houses said l to me, We must run our houses for I two things, either to make people laugh or make them weep but per sonaIly [ have never seen anyone weep that constant attendance of these l trivial attractions du1ls the apprecia- | fion of better things.
 I CT believe that the stock company will be the hope of the future Ev- cry city and town could have one which might be regulated by the city making 1t sort of a municipal theatre, like those so successful throughout the towns of Europe
 l In passing, MT. Nirdlinger cempH- | mented the Calburn Stock company Ivery highly.
 l "T was astonished at their good work and I have never seen a better production of my play, The World and His Wife than was given here sllast week. The work of the actors and actresses was much better than I that of the original company. Concerning his new play MT. Mir llfnger said that he wished to correct the impression which has spread that the play was founded upon an actual Fl episode of an international love story I which held the interest of the people I of two countries for some time. If there is any resemblance, 1t is due, according to the playwright, merely to a coincidence and not to any intention upon his part.
 I Concerning the white slavery plays, MT. NirdlInger said:
 Perhaps the most salient feature of the drama today Is that which is e1iphontous1y termed the fall of wo- man. Three or four of the present most popular New York plays deal with the courtesan, using the subject more freely and boldly than it was fused few years ago in the so-cal1ed
 Bowery neIodramas.
 There are several reasons for this. use of the subject in fiction, for the novel deals with the subject much more boldly today. Another reason is that the role of the street walker is a very easy one to play and managers like to put them on. Three or four of lthe nost-ta1ked-about actresses of the day won their first prominence in un- lderworld parts.
 Another feature which was just discussing with Miss Jackson,'' con-
 tinued the playwright, ''is the num-
 ber of English actors and actresses that have come to this country. Per-
 haps never before have there been so lmany on the American stage, and the
 American people seem to prefer them. lT'he reason is that they are better
 bred than the actors and actresses of this country, They wear their clothes
 better and they know how to play the
 1ady and gentleman better
 EMILY FSN6AFFyTx