ACTOR AND AUTHOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9490, 20 April 1894, Page 6

ACTOR AND AUTHOR.

INTERVIEW WITH MR. GEORGE ; LEITOH. i If Mr. George Leitcfa were a bank manager, a university professor, or a member of Parliament; (writes one of our representatives), his visitor might have felt surprised to find him sitting on the floor of a verandah, leaning a shelving wicker frame writing letters on an atlas laid across his lap. Mr. Leitch being an actor and an author one felt he was simply living up to his profession, and admired his freedom from conventionality. He laughed at my apology for seeking information of a personal character. •' .; - " Not at all.' You are nob inquisitive, but, like many others, you only wish to know why lam still in Maoriland. Firstly, then, I have a great affection for New Zealand, especially for Auckland. Could' I do so I would like to settle down in New Zealand. It is a beautiful land, and could be, and will be, made, I hope, the moat prosperous and happy land in the Australasian colonies. It has all the beauty and advantages of all the rest, with so many additionnl ones of its own, and might become another Canaan." " Then you have no settled plana at present ?" "Not exactly settled. I have been negotiating for the management of two desirable theatres in * New Zealand, and something may yet come of this." "There was some talk of your producing a New. Zealand drama here." •'Such has been ray intention. I have just .finished revising the work. It was always a hope of mine to give the first production in this city, for it was here that conceived the plot during my first visit to Auckland with the Silver King.' " " Is it a present-day drama 1" "The period is from 1880. The story opens in Auckland with a beautiful view of the harbour, the North Shore, and the ever graceful Rangiboto j-and the plot conveys the characters to some of the principal beauty spots in this justly-called Wonderland. There is a stately Maori heroine, and a heroic Maori lover, a great chief who has made his mark in history, and several other notable characters easily to be recognised. The scenes in the King Country are all very powerful and full of human interest. Mr. Spong has constructed the models from my own rough ones taken on the different spots. My original intention was to produce the play here, run ib through New Zealand, then on to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Bendigo, Ballarab, and Adelaide, and afterwards to England ; the beautiful and characteristic scenery of the drama would be a revelation to the people at home." "And can you not do this ?" " I ditttia ken, sair; I hae haed misfortunes like mony ithers. [Mr. Leitch lapses into Doric occasionally.] An accident in Victoria laid me aside for eighteen months, and broke. up all my business arrangements. Then, like numberless unfortunates, I had rooted myself in Victoria, —had squatted on land, had one leg in coal, another in antimony, while my head had rested—in belief—on any amount of auriferous quartz." "And you suffered by the financial crashes and collapses ?" " That's so; and now IJhope to have a capitalistic friend . with a few hundreds to spare ; he might do worse than put it in my treasury, for there is money in a good play, and I have several. Then I have the absolute rights of two comic operas, real treasures, which are assured successes whenever produced." " You produced the ' Pearl Divers ' here ; there were some great scenes in that." "They made its success— receipts for that tour averaged £70 a night." " There was a story in the papers of your claiming part of a large estate in America." "That was true. Ejjghty years ago two great uncles of mine, shrewd Scotchmen, went to the States. Washington was then making great efforts to establish itself as the premier city, and to replenish an empty treasury, the land in and about what is now the city of palaces, was offered for sale. My two great uncles bought up 92 blocks, It was only recently that two land agents from Washington went to England to negotiate with the heirs for the recovery of the property. I signed my papers beforo the American consul in Melbourne, who expressed his amazement at the vastness of the property." " You'll be a rich man man then, by and bye, Mr. Leitch." " I would rather be a contented one now. I expect there will be a great fight over the recovery of the estate, very few people who are on the land having titles. If I get my share I shall do some good with it, I hope." " And if not, you have still the means whereby you have lived." "Yes, and can be just as happy perhaps." " As a manager you have many applications from ladies and gentlemen eager to join your profession ?" "To enter a town or city without would be a surprise. There are a fair number of New Zealand young ladies and gentlemen whom I have introduced to the stage, and who have done very well indeed. Two, having exceptional ability, are now, under my recommendation, doing well at home, but I only undertake the tuition of those possessing real talent. There are several several young ladies and gentlemen receiving instructions from me now who, if they work hard, will make good positions for themselves."

"It takes many years to make an actor or an actress, though, does it not ?" " lb should not, if the lady or gentleman has talent and is in earnest. Miss Hilda Spong, who will soon be amongst you, is an example of this. 1 was convinced of her advancement. She was clever, ambitious, and thoroughly in earnest. I interested Mr. Williamson in her, engaged her for him, and I interested Mr. Edward Terry in her. Both these managers recognised her abilities. She is now playing leading parts, and if she still continues earnest, will make an enviable position for herself."

" What do you think of our vocalists ?" " You have some very good singers, but the voices lack culture, and none of them appear to understand the absolute necessity of elocutionary attainment. The late Sir Morell Mackenzie, in the course of one of his lectures, said ' that while he held ib to be desirable that speakers should learn to sing, he believed it to be far more necessary that singers should learn to speak ; that every system of vocal instruction should aim at strengthening the power of the voice, to increase its compass and purify its tone, and, above all, to give the speaker full control over ib even in the whirlwind of oratorical passion.' Of the value of this advice Mr. Sims Reeves stands oub as a great example. With him the poem was ever the first object to study. When he had thoroughly mastered that he turned bo the music. I have often heard him lament the indifference paid by young singers to this absolute necessity, which should be an imperative rule enforced by teachers; and this applies with much greater force when the singers aspire to the operatic stage. There can be but one rule in the aim to success—the libretto first and the appropriate action ; the music last. How often do we not hear, 'Sings capitally, bub awful intonation, and what a stick,' yefc under proper guidance the mechanism necessary to qualify the' sticks ' for a better title could be easily mastered. You have amongst you now an exceptionally gifted vocalist in Mr. Gee. lam certain that before long he will discover and develop some excellent voices. Had I the opportunity I should like to join with him in the founding of a little college of instruction, where young aspirants to musical and histrionic honours would have a fair opportunity of developing their natural gifts and ambitions." " There are many who would be with you there, Mr. Leitch." " Sir William Jervoia, who was always a kind and friendly patron of the theatre, took a great interest in the efforts of young aspirants, Hisson, who often read the lessons in Church, would come to the theatre when I had an hour to spare, to tesb and improve his voice for the coming Sunday exertions." " Isn't that a very unusual thing ? " "Oh, no. Many clergymen have conI suited me on the best methods for effective vocal production." " Bub you have been in the cloth your- ! self, Mr. Leitch." " Many times;" answered the comedian, with a twinkle in his eye, " But members of Parliament and legal luminaries at home are great students under prominent actors." "Some of our members might, with advantage, devote some o| their time to such study. Don't you *" i '

"I do." "I suppose you meet some peculiar applicants for histrionic honours at times ?" Mr. Leitch. *' Yes." Servant : girls write the funniest letters. I remember one :— Me. an' my fren' the 'ousemaid would like to go in the baliett. I'm twenty-one next berthday; -Mary's nyneteen. I'm the best figger; Mary's "gob lovely legs. 'j£f you call roun' the back gate Sunday night, we'd git rid the pleeceman." " You didn't go, Mr. Leitch ?" " No, I had other engagements. A woman waited on me in Brisbane. Her son was breaking his parent's heart. 'Ho locks himself in his room a' nights, sir, an' shakes the houso with his ravings; oh! (rather proudly) and- he can rave, sir.' Would I see him, bub not encourage him, and not take him away with me. ' He's a shoemaker's apprentice by profession, sir, and it would be such an awful disgrace to his family if he were to go away with you. I saw the raving youth. I sampled his quality. With closed eyes and muffled murmurs ho gave me 'Eugene Aram's Dream,'all in monotone, without a single pause or punctuation. I solemnly assured his mother I would not take him away even at a gift. My comments made her very indignant. Her boy was capable of raving any four of my company off the boards, and though she would never have consented to his joining with such a crew, I was a fool not to understand that fortune had stayed on my carpeb when the raver pub his feet there." You must have met many eminent people in your time ?" "It is a great pride to me to have met nearly all those I nad admired as a boy— Tennyson, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, one of my earliest encouragers in dramatic work, Charles Reade; VV alter Besant, with whom I have collaborated. Mr. Sims Reeves, one of my kindest friends, used occasionally to sing at the institution in the square we lived in. The family would all go to the concert, I being sent to bed. But I never went, for I could lean from the window and listen entranced to the beautiful voice coming through the open casements of the institution across the square. The poplar trees in front of it, their crowns bathed in the lights from the upper windows, seemed like the audience, to listen breathlessly to the music, and after ib with them to join in the applause, rustling their leaves .joyously together and murmuring their admiration find bowing themselves in homage, and I would put my hands together and join in too. Wo have laughed over this many times f/ince." " Did yon ever play with Sims Reeves?" "Oh yes, in ' Guy Mannering,' The Beggar's Opera,' and 'The Waterman,' and with Phelps, Barry Sullivan, Montgomery, and Charles Mathews. I played with rhe latter, the last time he ever appeared in public. His face, always so youthful, broke up into the age ho acknowledged. That night, when he sat down, he could nob rise again, so we lifted him lightly under the armpits, and people thought it was his own still youthful vigor. Ho was bliind with pain. Wo assisted him from the stage, carrying all his weighc, and all apparently in the beat of spirits, and the audience laughed and cried, ' What a wonder So he was. I knew Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean, bub never played with them, and Fechter and Salvini. Oh, what an artist !" " And, of course, you. know all the prominent actors and actresses of the present time?" " Yes, and have appeared with most of them ; and I have not only known, but appeared in the same bill with most of the great lyric artists of our time, with Titiens, Neilson, Patti, Trebelli, lima de Murska, Favre, Lablache, Herr Formes, Santley, Foli, and others." " You appeared with them, Mr. Leitch?" "I'm not joking. My manager to punish me for a very mild bit of mutiny, made me play for twelve nights in a farce after the Italian Opera was over. It made a little sensation ao the time. ' What's this acting, after Italian Opera?' cried Santley, the first night. ' Yes, gentlemen,' said our conductor, who was savage at having to stay and play an entracte, 'It's to strengthen the bill.' 'Oh— !' exclaimed Foli; and every night, after re-dressing, the Italians would coma and watch the action of that miserable farce. Twice did lima de Murska sit in the wings, in the robes of Astriafomonte, watching amusedly my performance, not knowing how proud I felt and yeb how humiliated." " Shf> was a brilliant vocalist." "She was a great artist. But what a miserable ending to such a brilliant life." " She died in poverty, I believe?" " It was terrible ; and in thinking of her and the pitiable ending of such a brilliant life, there comes into my mind some lines from a play I have often appeared in at home. An unthinking girl is speaking to an actor : ' I do love a good play, but it always seems too short. I want to know how it all goes on afterwards. Then (yawning) I forget it.' " The impassioned artist answers sadly : 'Soit is with many. Acting is an art unlike any other. A painter may live for ever in his pictures; a poet in his song immortalise himself But dramatic art is like a rainbow !— divine bridge at times between heaven and earth. It is admired, applauded, then vanishes, with all its colours.