MIMES AND MUSIC.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 37, 12 August 1905, Page 13

MIMES AND MUSIC.

[Br Obfhbus.] COJIINU EVENTS. OPEIIA HOUSB. Wellington Amatcnr OpcvaMa Company in "Dorothy," 16th August to 22nd August. Wellington Physical liaining School, 2nd Ootober to 4th October. Xnnce O'Neill Drnmatio Company, 6th October to 16th October. . Brough-Flemraing Company, 18th October to 4th November. Knight - Jtflrics Company, 9th November to 29th November. THEATRE KOTAL. Stanford-Howaid Dramatic Company, In season. ma MAJESTY'S THBATBH. Fuller's Entertainers. Last week several notes came to hand too lato lor insertion in this column, and, unfortunately, are of no valuo this week. Will correspondents please note that communications should reach me not later than Wednesday morning. Miss Susie Vaughan, who at latest was playing at London Criterion with Mr. Geo. Giddens in "Brooke of Brazenose," and who has been cabled to London to como out and support 'Miss Tittell Brune in "Merely Mary Ann," will play the part she. created in London in that piece. "The next Australian contralto" is said to be Miss Ella Caspers, of Goulburn, «i j ■ young lady not yet 17 years of aga. Mi. Watkin Mills' opinion of her voice is that it is a "glorious full contralto voice " Miss Casperb' voice is also referred to as "of rare timbre, a pure contralto, not of heavy calibre, but largo, clear, and em I gulariy sympathetic." At present tho young lady is being trained by Sistor j Alexia. at the Goulburn Convent of Mercy. j Miss Maggie Stirling, a Victorian singer who has studied in the Old Wouri. aud who was in New Zealand in 1894 with, the Palmer-Beaumonfc Concert Company, will make a professional tour of Australasia, under the management of Mr. J. Nevin Taifc. She will be accompanied by Miss Ethel Sinclair, a, Melbourne violinist. When Miss Tittell Brune was in Masterton last wqok she was entertained by Mr. nnd Mrs. Tai To Tau. Misses Clarice and Rosina. Buckmann sang, and thirty Maoris gave hakas and poi dances. Miss Brune was presented with a greenstone brooch and pendant, huia feather, Maori baskets and mats. The function concluded with the Maoris singing in their own language ''Home, Sweet Home." Madame Rejane is credited with the ambition of establishing a permanent. French theatre in London, where tho French population is said to be largo enough to support such an institution. Commenting on this, the New York Evening Post says :—"lf: — "If the sprightly French actress proposes to furnish tho Londoners with the same sorb of entertainment with which. s"he endeavoured to entice New Yorkers, her advontfwill not be precoliarly beneficial either to art or morals." Owing to disagreements with a chief member of the Musgrove Dramatic Company and to other causes Mr. C. B. Westniacott, the well-known .manager of that combination, took the extreme step while in Christchurch of sending a, cablegram to Melbourne asking to be relieved of his duties, says the Canterbury Times. However, when the company was in Invercargill Mr. Westmacott was still with the company. Tho most popular Eussian dramatist to-day is M. Tchekoff, whose plays are in constant demand at the Artistic Theatre, in Moscow, which was founded a few years ago by a band of enthusiasts to produce high-class dramas only. Foreign authors represented at this theatre include Shakespaare, Hauptmann, Maeterlinck, and Ibsen. Mme. Rejane received one of the neatest compliments that have ever been paid to her in the, course of her successful career at Terry's Theatre, London, recently (says the Daily Mail), wh«n she presented the well-known play "Madame Sans-Gene." She kept the crowded audience waiting for thirty-five minutes beyond the advertised ' time before the curtain went up, and for a quarter of an hour before the play began the pit and -gallery protested loudly, by means of cat-calls and booing, against the delay. Yet when Mine, Rejane had been on tha stage three minutes tho pit and gallery had forgotten their annoyance, and were enthusiastically applauding the wonderful performance. Mr. William Winter for very many years has been looked upon as the most influential and cultured dramatic critic of America — the most moderate and the most decorous. And this is what Mr. Winter has to say about Mme. Duse in a lecture he delivered at Chicago on the subject of "Tho Theatre and the Public" : "Mme. Duse's acting is a consummate exposition of charnel-house affectations and photographic detail. To- call her a great actress in the sense that Charlotte Cushman was a great actress would be an absurdity. She ia a moon-eyed reveller in artificial delirium." Bland Holt shows a strange lack of business enterprise in not organising a No. 2 company to take some of his valuable melodramas 'on tour (says the Bulletin). If Anderson can make money with his "shockers" outside of Sydney and Melbourne, there must surely bo a demand for spectacular melodramas of the sort that Bland has a large stock of. Leaving his heaviest productions— "White Heather," "The Great Ruby," "The Flood Tide," etc. — out of the question, his stock includes some powerful plays with not more than twenty characters on the programme. For instance, *'A Woman's Revenge," "The Bells of Haslemore," "The Fatal Card" and "The Cotton King/ wherein there is not a horse race nor an army of supernumeraries to be staged. Monsieur Coquelin was once asked if he ever forgot a part after learning it. He replied that ho could step on the stage at any moment, and play Figaro or Mascarille, or any other of the repertory parts he had leiuned in his younger days. "I have only to open my mouth," he said, "and the speeches come out like a ribbon that is being unwound from a reel. Bnt I am of opinion that after forty a mau's memory hardens. At all events, if I have to play a part that 1 learned in later life, I require just one rehearsal in oider to be sure of mysolf/' Modem civilisation in England is trying to bring the Church and the stage together, and there are many great and noble actors who are 'in full sympathy with tho Church. So, too, there are many good Christians who are in full sympathy with the people on the stage. But recently the following paragraph appeared in a London paper : — "On the ground that association with them is ruinous to youth, tho Young Men's Christian Association of Pifctsburg has refused membership to actors." ' r Mr. Arthur Bourchier is tho Chairman of a m-.w London organisation called "The Pioneers," which has been formed "to produce worthy plays by dramatists hitherto unacted. " It hos private meana of information, doubtless, concerning the places where such rarelies are to be found (says an exchange). It is gratifying to be assured that there are persons who have faith in their existence. Mr. Lai. Brough, the veteran actor, brother of Mr. Robert Brough, relates to Lloyd's Weekly the following experience:—."Once in that mobt beautiful of cities, Edinburgh, I was ploying a juvenile part. I was but a young fellow myself at the time, so I did not JCfyiire

a particularly elaborate make-up. Well, ono evening I had been to the Glasgow races, missed my train back, and arrived at the theatre only just in time to dash straight from the stieet on to tho stage. 'No vestige of make-up. Well, nobody seemed to notice any difference. Anyhow the piece went better than ever. After the show I chatted to an acquaintance who had that evening witnessed the performance for the first time. Hb was very complimentary, but finished up by saying, 1 'I say, Brough, old chap— don't bo offended, I only mention it for yofor own good — do alter your "make-up," old chap. It's most unnatural'; nobody ever saw a real live man look as you looked to-night.'" Miss .Mcxisv Baesian, the Armenian young lady who was starring with tho Royal Comics for a while, has terminated her engagement with Mr. J. C. Williamson, by order of her doctor, and has sailed for England. It has lieen. whispered .to me that a powerful syndicate is about to be formed in, Wellington for the purpose of building an up-to-date theatre. Th& capital is set down somewhere between £30,000 nnd £40,000, and a site near Lambtojiquay is in the promoters' eye. Aft-er an absence of years, Mie6 Bertha Fanirog has returned to Sydney. The 'time of her absence (says tho Bulletin) w-as spent in hard work among the masters of .voice training. Men ana women with Big Namce dug and harrowed and cultivated her for oratorio aud concert work, and she has come back with sheaves of laudatory notices from 'the British .pTess. • The Wellington Amateur Operatic Society will commence a season •in the Opera House on Wednesday, when Cellier's "Dorothy" will foe revived. Miss Amy Murphy and Mr. Frank Graham are in -the cast, 1 and the mounting will bo a special 'feature. The "rehearsals have gone off smpothly, 'the chorus, I hear, being especially strong. It is to bo hoped that the society will be well rewarded for its ' pains." Mr. Douglas Gerrard, a promising young actor of the London stage, 'has been engaged by Mr. J. C. Williamson for dramatic work in Australia. Mr. Gsrrard counts among :his numerous successes the parts ol Kara in Mr. Tree's production of "The Darling of fhe Gods," Lancelot in " Merely Mary Ann," and David Rossi in " The Eternal City." The MeloouTne season of 'Miss Nanco O'Neil and her company waa remarkable for the amount of really hard work don© during the seven weeks for which it lasted. No less than seven pieces were staged— namely,' "Magda," "The Fires of St. John,". "The School for Scandal," "Ingomar," '.'Trilby," and "Marie Antoinette." All of these necessitated on Ihe part of the company a considei■able amount of re-learning and polishing up characters, and as a consequence they practioally spent their whole time in the theatre, either -at re-hearsing or performing. For years it has been the habit of Hamlet and Laertes to jump into her grave and apparently trample her unprotected body under foot,, an exhibition of savagery strangely out of keeping with the profound grief of the gentlo Ophelia's brother and lover, and one which has always se^t a" shudder through the audience. Discussing this matter one night (long ago) at the Garrick Club, two very serious actors came to the ronclusion, with tremendous gravity, that it was shocking to the last degree to see a couple of men leaping on the body of Ophelia, and then having a stand-up fight on it. Toole looked up from his paper, with a strong light of mischief in his eye, and solemnly broke in : — "It has always struck me as being in the worst oj taste." On a later occasion, when the same subject cropped tip at the Garrick, the veteran comedian meekly enquired, "Do you think there would bs many complaints if somebody jumped on Hamlet?" Mr. Frohman and Mr. Seymour Hicks are, jointly,, to have three theatres in London, to be lun in conjunction with Mr. Frohman's American theatres. The London express states that Messrs. Hicks and Frohman will really stand between London and a "Trust" invasion, tor the latter does not work with the Trust in his English affairs, and the more theatres existing the less chance of a monopoly. In connection with these new houses, Mr. Frohman will establish a new training school for "musical-comedy" actresses. As at tho Vaudeville these past five years, the aspiring beginner -will be caught young and prepared for her work. There will be no fees. On tho contrary, they will be paid during tuition, appearing in the Frohman-Hicks' pieces as "extra ladies," «nd drawing salaries.' The veteran burlesque actor, Mr. E. Royce, will be the director of the new school. Theatrical Clips.— Mr. G. H. Barnea forwards from Adelaide lithos of "A Chines© Honeymoon" and "Bill Adams," Mr. Geo. Stephenson's two latest acquisitions. . . Mr. Charles Pope, the coloured gentleman, is with M'K'isson and Reams' Company, doing ' Sydney suburbs. . . Mr. Gil. P. Hoskins, secretary to the Fullers, on his return frotpDunedin, had to take to bed with a severe attack of influenza. , . More eulogistic notices of the BroughFlemming Company, to hand from Melbourne from Mr.- Claude Wbaif^. . According to Mr. Joseph M. "Veber, the great American vaudeville manager, his chorus girls are usually paid more salary than many a first-c.ass actor in London. Tho London' Express wonders what he nonsidero a "first-class" actor in London. . . Some doubts have been cast on the information given in the London Express concerning Mis. Langtry's appearance in ''vaudeville" in the United States. It may be as well to mention (says that paper) that thb facts -were given for publication by Mrs. Laiigtry herself . . . A new American company is being imported by Mr. Geo. Stephenson. . . Mr. Edwin Geach managed the concluding portion of Van •Biene'i> tour in Australia, but ill-luck still pursued the talented 'cellist. . . Mr. George Dean is a big success with Bain's Entertainers in Hobart. . . . The latest Parisian success, "The Heart ot a Sparrow," is being adapted in English by Mr Gordon Lennox for Mr. Charles Frohman. . . Mr. Rickards's statuesque turn, "Tho Modern Milo," has been photographed over five hundred times, in every variety of dross and pose (writes the Sydney Referee). . . In connection with Miss Nanco O'Neill's revival of "Trilby" in Melbourne, the Bulletin his been tryinc to picture M'Koe Rankin as Little Billee, but, so far, without marked success. . . A Sydney writer says Miss Nellie Stewart looks twonty-five, but is forty-six. . . The new Town Hall and theatre in Invercargill is nearing completion. The theatre portion is well advanced, and the contractor expects to hand the building over in eight months' time. . The Theatre Royal, Timaru, is now lighted by electricity. . . Miss Gertie Campion was due in Hobart some time this week. . . . Miss Nai!<o O'Neill's pet enr, "Magda," has travelled the world three times. . . "The Magic Kettle" (of liquid air), introduced to Dunedin by Mr. G. Stcphenson, is, according to Southern papers, an entertainment not to bo missed. The chargo was one of keeping a dog without a license. Clerk of the Court: "Do you wish the Court to understand that you refuse to renew your dog' license-?" "Yes; but — " "We want no 'huts.' You must renew the licenso, or you will bo fined. You know it expired on the first of January." "Yea; but so did the dog I"