Evening star., 1938-08-15

engaged in the strenuous and trying
business Of remaining alive through
the nightly performances of the
groups production of Owen Davis
THE Ninth Guest" When you con-
slider that Mr.. Davis has permitted
only two members of his cast to come
through all the scary doings unscathed
you realize what 1t must take out of
Mr.. Sisler to stay on his feet
But Don apparently is young and
strong. for right now, in addition to
taking The Ninth Guest" in his
stride. he Is preparing for one OF the
leading roles in THE Vinegar Tree" :"
the Paul Osborn comedy which opens
. week from tonight at the Cross
Roads. After q week of The Vinegar
Tree" he goes right on in support of
Arch Mcdonald in The Old Soak I"
All of which makes Don slightly buster
even than = stock company player.
for rehearsirg at the Cross Roads is
done at night, most of the people work.
ing In the daytime
So after the mammoth Arch Nc
Donald production ends its run to
close the theater for the season Don
gets to rest He gets to rest by immedi-
ately going down into West Virginia
on location with a Government mo-
ton picture troupe.
What we're waiting for this week,
however. is for Mr.. S. to dash onto
the Ninth Guest" stage fresh from
the rehearsal Of The Vinegar Tree"
downstairs and confront the villain
with First loves a messy thing, isn't
it?"
Charles Grunwell, too, has his COM
plants about the labor he does OF his
love Of the theater. 1t seems the
powers at the Cross Roads couldn't
decide what part Charles was to play
in THE Ninth Guest" and the result
was that he learned four different
roles before he was definitely cast.
THERE has been quite a to-do In
the town over the week end. cel-
ebrating the brief visit OF the Civic
Theater's F. Cowles Strickland. Sat-
urday night there were many gay
doings out at the residence of Mrs
Helen Bull. which is somewhere to
the west OF Bethesda, RATS and RATS
Of Civic Theater people turning out
at the dance which was a reception
for the groups director. Edith So
enier won pair Of sport trousers and
a man whose name we did not catch
won a permanent wave. Margaret
"Bibby" Osterwald led the COON
shouting and Mimi Norton did not do
an Apache dance The Charles Dill
Ions told Strick all about how lovely
is Texas and he retaliated by DEM
onstrating to the Lee Buffers, the
Marvin Beers, Don Sisler and a few
other selected persons just how he
sings Ko-ko in The Mikado," ~hich
seems to be very fancy indeed. Mary
Davis demonstrated how calm she
could be by not getting too nervous
when she lost the guy what brung
her and was afraid shed be strand
ed. Charles Grunwell demonstrated
how far he could drive without gaso-
line, even when being guided through
the wilds Of Kenwood or some place
by a fellow who knew not one street
from another. 1t was a very fine
affair, 1t was.
1t was a fine affair next morning,
too. when Strick came to the Davis
menage for breakfast and for q chat
with some of his friends who could
get up that early after Saturday
night. Even Bud Watson was among
those able to make breakfast, though
it probably marked him for life, he
sitting down in mess of fresh paint.
And then last night there was more
OF this festivity of Mr.. Strickland's s
visit, this at the Lee Butler residence.
THE name Of the current Roadside
Theater production, of course, is
The Tavern" and not "The Vaga-
bond" as we reported somewhere on
yesterdays drama page. There is a
vagabond in The Tavern" however,
50 all we can say Is that we were
close? The vagabond is Paul Messink,
who plays the leading role in the hill
arious George M. Cohen satire on
melodramas surrounded by one of
the ablest casts the Roadside has as
sembled for many a moon.
For acting honors Mr.. Messink has
to compete with Milton Freedman.
Kenn Romney, Howard Wierum, Adele
Gusack. Harry Westcott, Virginia
True, Helena Cook and q number of
other people who give him some stiff
competition. So good are all these
players, in fact. that 1t is high time
we again got around to recommend
ing heartily the Roadsides revival of
its 1894 success. ..
~ 4
ON THE way:
Tomorrow nights Summer Fes-
tival at the Sylvan Theater on the
Monument slope aeill be a musical
program titled Down South" pre-
'sn'sd " tn. 81 ep''. Light Opera