The Washington times., 1922-07-02

home people may not like,
and if in office they would
recall him.
Citations as any prima donna at
her morning vocalises. Harder.
no doubt. He is concerned with
subtler stuff Of the larynN.
r ACKING all this formal ira
dition of the groundwork,
- taese United States do yet
manage to evolve, if not to
properly appraise, a fair per-
centage of creditable actors
equipped with resources other
than that accidental per
sonality," which is, alas, SO often
overestimated and overpaid. And
wherever such equipment exists
you may thank the local stock
company, here, there, or else
where.
We develop genuine American
actors in organizations like this
clean-cut, rythmically, reactive,
efficient little body Of players
called Garrick. Subrosa, we de-
velop British actors as well.
Take, at random, the case of Mr..
Cyril Maude. Considerably over
a generation ago he was WHIP
ping his fundamentals into line
in a stock company in Duluth.
There are other gentlemen, to
say nothing of ladies, who have
returned to us as London favor
ties after mellowing down the
rudiments in some such locality
as, say, Missouri, where folks
like to be shown. One need not
show them up by way of even
ing out the matter. Suffice it
that the brand is not infreeuent-
ly American were the trade
mark is regiatered Piccadilly. If
one cares to be extreme there
are yet rarer things than that.
I have heard of the Comedie
Franchise being attained by way
of Schenectady. 1t took woman
to do that, OF course.
All of which brings US back
to our own Shuhert- -Garrick and
the instance of Dennis King. Mr..
King is an English lad who came
to America not so very lone ago,
with Monsieur Beauca're" an
operetta. At F and Seventh
streets, in Washington Town, he
is doing a variety of character
bits of all ares and conditions,
with an occasional "lead" match
ing his own juvenility. As Jimmy
Gubbins, in Three Live Ghosts,
he measured up to the best Of
anything in that line done by the
Irish Players Of Yeats and Lady
Gregory. Indeed, one felt. and
feels, a longing to see him in
some such part as the title role
in "The White Headed Boy" His
work stands closest scrutiny.
There is static soundness about
it that does not exclude the
evidences of steady and constant
growth.
A singularly excellent perfor-
nance by the way-that one Of
"Three Live Ghosts" Never
from any local stock company
have seen ANYTHING finer, if as
fine. Where for instance could
a more perfect fit be matched
than that Of the "Spoofy" of
Gerald Oliver Smith-yea and
though you combed Broadway
and Regent street from end to
end? Mr.. Smith too will bear
watching. He has q highly
individualized tone of slightly
terrorized sophistication, touched
with innocent decadence. Very
droll. A combination unique
enough to stand exploitation
some day with profit to that
manager who shall appraise it,
specifically.
Others of the players tempt
analysis. Frank Dufranne has
learned, has indeed ripened, the
trick Of tweaking an audience
into applause by the mere
making of an entrance. He
radiates, with skilful effortless-
: ness, the sense of begin a person
to reckon with, be the character
he impersonates important or
casual. Something in his slim
line never fails to hint Of
mystery and things doing in the
offing. That kind Of thing isn't
altogether inborn. 1t may come
of the authority impaired by
stock company routine. Mr..
Dufranne has learned to think
while he works. 1t is a cardinal
virtue of the stock company that
YOU cannot sleep while you work:
Then there is Dorothy Megrew
and her beauty. Miss Megrew
is free from affectations. She
manages to seem herself in what
ever she does. In that alone is
considerable art. Where she will
grow, perhaps will be in an add
ed sensitiveness Of the ear to the
grooming of vocables and con-
sonants. She must train her
speech out Of a certain hap
hazardry that is perhaps after
all but an accident of her deter