The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-12-05
Theatrical Notes of

have. And now comes thrilling news from New York of a new discovery in the person of Ben Ami (pronounced
 Benn Ah-me, with second syllable &C.,
 cented). young Russian Jew, who
 is playing in Samson and Delilahr
 at the Greenwich Village theatre. { He has been in this country six or seven years, taking small parts in the
 plays al the Yiddish theatre An op- portunity has come to him thai ha may display his talents, and his genius IS recognized In fact, it is declared { that young Ben Ami has the genius
 and art the beauty and eloquence of expression, as to place himself immedi- ately as an actor of the first rank. 1; Alexander Woolcott, critic, who is a
 hardened and calloused first and sec ond nighter, and who is never dis posed to be too liberal in his praise. says of him:
 Ben Ami shows in the crisis of the second act such flaming beauty and such electric eloquence as no player
 In England or America has reached in
 our time. When the curtain falls after that act Is finished, you feel that here | has come one who has 1t in him to interpret. and in his extraordinary mo-
 bile face to express, the heartache. the wounded spirit, the nobility, the pity, 1 the terror of all the tragedies ever ! written
 Tt was something of triumph for
 this invader that every one was com pelled by his first performance to dis l cuss his potentialities in terms of
 John Barrymore, whose position in I our, theatre he most certainly char- 1 lenges.
 l Whether he has the artistic instinct
 the uncanny perception and any con- siderable measure of that soaring ] imagination which now and again lifts John Barrymore to the stars-weI I there is something you cannot predi- l cate on a single performance" Let us watch the progress of this young Ben Ami. There is an abun- dance of room at the top of the drama tic profession at the present writing. Helen Hayes is scoring an emphatic success in the role of "Bob," a play
 built out of the sub-deb stories of Mary Roberts Rinehart, by Edward Chiles Carpenter. New York is very generous in it's praise of Miss Hayes, who has been playing Bob" for some weeks at the Park theatre. It is declared Miss Hayes combines youthfulness and the technical facility of much older actress She played in Dear Yrutus' last year. with William Gillette It has been sug- gested by one of the critics that If Maude Adams mantle must be dropped On some young actress this season, Helen Hayes stands a. good chance of being discovered beneath it.''
 By the way, speaking of Barrie, "The Young Visitors" play which is never mentioned without reference to him, and it's resemblance to some of his earlier plays and the fact that he wrote the books preface, the much discussed Daisy Ashford story has been dramatized. It will be given an initial New York per- formance this week.
 MT. Percy Mackaye has accepted the offer of the Miami (Fla) university, the offer being handsome salary, a resi- dence and studio in the picturesque cam pus, where he will spend his time writ ing pageants, plays and masques. Dr. Upham of this institution is a great patron of art and has a genuine interest in the drama. I will make a guess that the tribe of picturesque Semi nole Indians will be one of the very first subjects this writer will use as pageant material The removal of MT. Mackaye to Florida will no doubt mean much for the development of outdoor drama and pageantry in that state, whose open climate, like that of Cali fornia, is so well adapted to such a form of art.
 Louis Anspacker. dramatist of note, author of "The Unchastened Woman" and other successful and meritorious plays, will be in Birmingham Tuesday, at which time he will address the local
 center of the Drama league.