Evening star., 1921-07-31

first president OF the new organization. and
John ]. Nolan. both Of whom subsequently,
stood the test Of the spotlight.
~ + \
THE CARROLL INSTITUTE CLUB
put on many plays and always at
tracted a large audience. 1t was al
ways a friendly audience in that
nearly everybody in the house was
an acquaintance of one or several OF
the players. and this fact furnishes
US with one reason for the wild
laughter and tumultuous applause
with which the actors were reward
ed But this is not the only reason,
and perhaps not the principal one. for
the enthusiastic approval of the work
Of the Carroll Institute players. The
leading reason is that the perform
ances were good. Some of you are
teur" connotes crude" raw" self
conscious" stiff" unnatural and
all that. Not so! The people of the
Carroll Institute Club to whom i'm
portant parts were given filled their
roles competently and adequately.
They were young men and women OF
natural talent and some of them were
talented in high degree. They were
patient and painstaking in their prep
arations. There was ease, spontaniety
and finish in the performances Of
the club. They put on great plays
in a way that would have charmed
audiences in which they had no per-
sonal friends. They often chose plays
which were current on the stage and
which had been shown to Washington
by professional troupes of high class
and the productions of these "ama-
teurS' did not suffer in the COM
parison. This is set forth as plain
E. I,-
writes it. and 1t was the opinion
given at the time by those Washing
ton people who had no sentimental
interest in the club.
A large percentage of the members
Of the Lawrence Barrett Club
adopted the stage as a career and
succeeded, and this was also true of
Club. And those of the Carroll In
stitute Club who did not enter the
profession" were as clever and skill
full in the art Of acting as those who
did. All the players were educated
in Shakespeare, and in those remote
days Shakespeare was believed to be
as essential to the. actor as Black
stone to the lawyer. The neIpart
actor and the case lawyer" are
rather modern growths. They are
manifestations Of the age of special
ization" founded on what appears to
be sound theory, but which pro-
duces results the desirability OF
acclaim. Perhaps it would be fair to
say that specialization produces some
men who are extraordinarily able in
their particular line, and others who
have but single idea. and that a
wrong one.
Among the plays presented by the
Carroll Institute Club were David
Garrick." Lester Wallack's romantic
'Rosedale." Augustus Thomas Ala
bama,' William Gillette's "Secre,
Service" Augustin Daly's comedy. "A
Night on; Charles H. Palmer's play
1871: Tom Taylor's old English
comedy. Still Waters Run Deep;
Robertson's comedy, Home" and a
, number Of other things. which, haG
they not been done by capable actors
would have been ridiculous. As
limited at. there was no Carroll In.
stituter who could not read Shake
speare. and in the early days of the
speare than anything else.
The first public appearance of the
club. though not the first appearance
of the members of the club. was
,, entitled An Evening with Shake
speare." The Rambler has not among
performance. though he has other
information Of it. The year was
1898. and the place was presumably
Carroll Institute Hall. The Rambler
takes what follows from an old ac-
count: The evening began with
Seven Ages" from '"As You Like
It." by Edward J. Walsh, followed
by Mercutio's speech of Queen Nab
! who cometh in shape no bigger than
an agate stone on the forefinger OF
an alderman. by J. Travis Cocker
the quarrel scene from Julius Caesar. y
with John S. Moran as Brutus, Ed
Walsh as Cassius, Matt Halloran as
Marc Antony and John Pearson as
Servius; scenes from Hamlet" with
Vincent Lynch as Hamlet, Travis
Cocker as Horatio. John Pearson as
Marcellus. Matt Halloran as the
Ghost and Mrs. Gay Robertson as the
queen; a scene from Twelfth Night
with George O'Connor as Sir Toby
Belch. Percy Leach as Sir Andrew
Aguecheek, Cornelius DAILY as Fa-
bian, Travis Cocker as Malvolio and
Miss Nora Cocker as Maria: the trial
with Ed Walsh as Shyiock, John
Nolan as Antonio. Helen Lackey. as
Portia, Travis Cocker. John Pearson
Cornelius Daily and Nora Cocker as
the other characters
THE club put on the comedy Home
1 at Carroll Institute Hall undel
the direction of Percy Winter. whs
| at that time was stage director a.
the National That was in the fall Of
1Ss5-November 13 IL the date in thu
Rambler's notes. The actors wer'
1 Edward Walsh. John Nolan. Percy