SORROWS OF THE STAGE.

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 May 1910, Page 2

SORROWS OF THE STAGE.

GERMAN ACTRESSES PROTEST.

CONGRESS IN BERLIN,

A sordid and gloomy picture of the dramatic profession was painted by the speakers at a parliament of actresses which tilled the large Philharmonic Hall in Berlin from half-past eleven one night last month till three l o clock next morning, writes the Berlin correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph. It was a great surprise for the members of the general public, who flocked to the meeting. They found that the green-room has passions as violent and tragedies as grim as any that are enacted behind the footlights. The gathering was merely a phase of n widespread movement which has for its object the improvement of the social and material standin" of the profession, and was intended to ventilate the special grievances of its female members. That these are many and deep was soon evident. In the main they are, of course, mostly against the managers. Fraulein Hubner, of the New Theatre, opened the indictment by dcclaiing it to be a sad but undeniable fact that ideas of the stage and the immorality of actresses and courtesans were closely associated with one •mother in the people’s minds. One of the chief reasons for this was that the expenses of actresses were out of all proportion to their emoluments. In the second and third class theatres, the salaries paid during six or seven mouths of the season worked out at from £2l a year for subordinate performers io £IOO for leading players. Out of these sums the actress had to pay agency fees, travelling, and other expenses, and to provide all her dresses. It sometimes happened that in the course of a single month, during which her earnings were from £5 10s to £l2 10s she had to furnish as many as ten separate costumes. The consequence was that some fell into debt and others succumbed to temptation, while those who would stoop to neither of these expedients sat all day long at the sewing machine, putting together the dresses they were to wear in the evening. The speaker complained bitterly of “the competition of those ladies to whom the theatre was merely an advertisement for their shame and a place for the exhibition of their charms.” lire vigorous applause with which her words were received showed that she was expressing the general sentiment. RESORT FOR FAILURES. Frau Rosa Bertcns, another wellknown figure on the Berlin boards, complained that the profession was overrun by women who had met with misfortune or ill-luck in other walks of life. Formerly, she said, when a girl had an unhappy love affair she retired into a convent. Now she went on to the stage. The teacher left her class and the student her books to try her fortune as an actress. Something must be done to stop, this. Fraulein Galle, a' young actress, next narrated the difficulties the novice had to contend with. Success, she said, always went to the candidates with the smartest frocks. If an actress had no pretty dresses she was kept back, while if she had them people inquired who her protector might be. If she married slro was dismissed at once.

Herr Rickelt, the most active officer of the Stage Association, had even graver charges to bring against the managers. He put to the meeting the question, “Is'it true that many managers persecute actresses with their attentions and in a way compel them to accede to their desires?” With immediate unison and heartielt emphasis the answer “Yes,” was flung back to him from a large number of ladies present. Herr Emmanuel Roicher, one of the ablest actors in Berlin, appealed to his colleagues to unite to shield the female members of their profession from the dangers that encompassed them. This excursion into the realm of the ideal'was followed up by Herr Wauer, who propounded the view that the “life of the artist is necessarily a martyrdom.” “If,” he added, “you eliminate privation from the conditions of the actor’s life you will undermine his art, for it is only through affliction that one can mature to a great artist.” This Spartan sentiment did not awake a very cordial echo in the assembly. By three o’clock in the morning all those present were too much exhausted either to talk or to listen, and the proceedings concluded by calling upon the Federal Council and the Reichstag, which was represented by a number of deputies from different parties, to remedy the grievances of tire dramatic profession by legislative action.