STAGE GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 3040, 19 June 1912, Page 69

STAGE GOSSIP.

Johannesburg is to have a new variety theatre at a cost of £45.000. Last week, -with companies going ana coming, the J. C. Williamson firm had over 1000 theatrical people in .Sydney. Harry P. Muller is now acting as business manager of the Brennan-Fuller Vaudeville Company at the Theatre Royal. Brisbane. The death occurred at East Melbourne on Mlay 31 of Mrs Thomas Asche, mother of Mr Oscar Asche, and a resident of Sydney. Mr Bert Royle advises that the Sinbad the Sailor" Pantomime Company will visit the Dominion in Augcst, opening in Wellington on the 14th H B. Irving and his charming wife, Miss Dorothea Baird, are due to tour South Africa with their comnany. under the direction of Messrs B. and F. Wheeler. ■ .• ■ The Arabian Nights ball, in aid. of the Melbourne Hospital Fund, promoted largely by Mir Oscar Asche and Miss Brayton, has resulted in a profit, roughly estimated at £9OO. ..xi i The Brennan-Fuller- circuit have no less than 11 shows going The circuit includes Brisbane. Sydney. Melbourne (two houses), and Adelaide, a touring show at Broken Hill, another at Perth, and a show at each of the four big cities in New Zealand The dramatic critic of. the London Morning Leader wrote of Sarah Bernhardt, when she appeared at the music halls: 'She has settled once and, for all the question whether it detracts from the dignity of prominent actors to perform in a vaney theatre." , ~ The next big thing for Sydney dramatically, will be "Kismet." with which play Oscar Asche and Lily Brayton will open at the Theatre Royal oil .Tune 22. The last night of "Ben Hur" was June 18. . Ben Hur" will be presented at Auckland on U Rlports to hand speak eloquently of the success of Mr Matheson Lang and company in the Far East. Presentations were made to Mr Lang and Miss Briton by the members of the English Amateur Dramatic Club in Shanghai, and much rejoicing took place over their visit. ■ Something of a record is nut up For lengthy cast bv "The Blue Bird. which is to unfold its wings at Melbourne Theatre Royal on June 22. The number of characters set out in the programme is 42, and in addition there are many who figure in the plav but are not mentioned by name. Mifcs Beryl Faber. an English actress, who visited Australia several years ago with the Brough-Boucicault Company, and gamed great popularity in a. wide range of parts, died in London last month from heart failure, following upon influenza. In private life she was Mrs Cosmo Hamilton. , From latest news of Mr Henry Kolker, that popular actor was appearing in NewYork in a new melodrama by Paul Armstrong and Wilson Mizner entitled "The Greyhound," which is described as a lurid melodrama of the old school, with unspeakable villains, self-sacrificing heroines, and smart detectives. Mir George Stephenson, with his company, " The Wanderers," is now in Queensland, opening, by arrangement with Mr E. J. Carroll, at Toowoomba on the 18th inst. for a winter campaign, comprising the tour of Gympie, Bundaberg, Maryborough. Rockhampton. Mount Morgan, Townsville, Charters Towers, and Cairns. There are nine applicants for the position of organist for Auckland: —Mr Horace Hunt, Wellington; Mr H. G. Weber. Napier; Mr E. S. Craston. Auckland; Mr P. Webb. Masterton; Mr E. Rondel. Oamaru; Mr H. Gregson, Auckland; Mr W. T. Sharp, Auckland ; and Mr T. C. Webb, Wanganui. Each will give a recital in the Town Hall before the committee makes its selection. Jeanne Brola, dramatio soprano of the Quintan Grand Opera Co.. is a daughter of the distinguished 'soldier. General Brooks, of the United States army. For some years sbo h.T- been one of the most popular stars of the La Scpla Opera, Milan, where, owing to heT great dramatic gifts, she is known as the " Duse of the operatic stage." She was personally selected by Puccini to create Ibo title role in his "Girl of the Golden West." Sydney is shortly to have an important addition to the list of existing theatres In n structure to be known as The Pavilion, which is to be erected forthwith on a site in Bayswater road, Darlinghurst, fronting the Hotel Mansions. The originator of this new enterprise is Mr George Musgrove, who has perfected his plans for establishing bj combined theatre and restaurant, with the idea of enabling visitors to enjoy refreshments while looking on at tho performances. Exchanges report that M!r Julius Knight ia still at the Repertory Theatre in Manchester. His performance on the first night of Mrs W. K. Clifford's play "The Likeness of the Night," was well spoken about. The Guardian, whose standard of criticism, is high, said: "No praise oan be too high

for Mr Julius Knight. His performance was admirable throughout in ton© and feeling, and; technically, a most- finished! piece of acting." • Miss Lalla Miranda, of the Quinlan Grandl Opera Company, explodes the idea that grand opera singers have an easy time. I never cease to study and improve myself, says Miss Miranda, "When my vacation comes on I get away to Paris, seek out my teacher, and put in a lot of Bard work. I have made it my rule to keep on studying. A number of Australian girls who have gone to London to seek their fortune on the operatic or concert stage have made the mistake of taking things too lightly, One cannot afford to do it: A grand opera singer must work very hiaird." When Mr William Anderson, of the King's Theatre, Melbourne, produces a play that calls for big effort in a spectacular direction, he never fails to rise to the occasion. Thus, in connection with the production of "The Chance of a Lifetime" recently, when the exigencies of the play demanded the presence of a trick thoroughbred, the director secured the services of the highly accomplished hackney Trixje, her part in the performance being chiefly to walk up a long flight of stairs and along a narrow gangway SOft from the floor. She performed this taak with perfect precision of movement, the feat being loudly applauded every time. Cabaret entertainments are now popular in Lojidon, and whether they have come to stay or not is an important question which can only be answered in the future. Just at present every hotel and restaurant with any pretension to fashion is providing most elaborate cabaret shows for its guests. Expensive artists, .says the New York Review, are being imported in battalions from tho Continent, and music-hall ' ©tars, who are keen to add to their incomes by giving private performances or doing their stunts at the hotels, have ample opportunity to book nil their spare ti*ne, and theatrical managers are becoming not a little alarmed over the situation. • -

While Melbourne playgoers are in the first stage of welcoming the Quinlan Grand Opera Company, preparations are being made by the J. C. Williamson management for the presentation of another big attraction, "The Blue Bird," which opens at Theatre Royal on Saturday, June 22. Apart from the beauty and delicate phantasy and fancy of the play itself, with the beautiful lesson it conveys, the production will be a notable ono from the scenic and lighting point of view. "The Blue Bird" is characterised by some of the most wonderful stage pictures and scenic effects yet witnessed in a. production in the colonies—effects which represent the summit of the stage mechanist's art. The play will be presented by Mr Frederick Harrison's complete company from the Haymarket Theatre, London. Miss Eugenie Duggan, leading lady of Mr William Anderson's No. 1 Dramatic Company, now in Sydney, has furnished a press interviewer with an interesting account of her first entry upon theatrical life. She was teaching in a convent, she says, at the time referred to, and her brother. Mr P. J. Duggan, was then studying Shakespeare for the purpose of adopting the works of the great dramatist as his life's profession. Miss Duggan caught some of the enthusiasm of her brother, it would appear, and dietermined to accept an offer to play Juliet in Mt Wilson Florbe's company. She made a striking and brilliant success of the undertaking, but shortly afterwards decided to Teturn to convent life, because her friends were opposed to the stage. Fate, however, ordained that she should answer the insistent artistic call within her. and later on she took to the profession in real earnest, and became a big success, not only in Shakespeare but in other classes of acting also. Frequently just now the name of G. V. Brooke—who was drowned when the London sank in the Bay of Biscay many years ago—is heard on all playgoers' lios, for they have raked him up to compare his performances with those of Oscar Asche. The story of a little incident connected with Brooke and thn Melbourne Theatre Royal will, therefore, be appropriate. It is related by a M3lbourne paper. G. V. Brooke was a splendid fellow with but one fault—a weakness which unfortunately assails many artists and men of talent, as well as ordinary men. In those days, evidently stage discipline was more lax than now, for Brooke had a little habit, of slipping out to the adjacent hostelry in the intervals to seek some refresh--ment for the inner man. This little habit was widely known, but he was such n favourite that he was forgiven, and the long waits it caused were condoned and borne with patience. One evening the "gods," after waiting patiently for a time, set up a chant of "Brooke! Brooke! Brooke!" and kept it up to the beat of their feet. The piece was "The Comedy of Errors," and the first words Brooke had to say on his return were, "There is not a man I meet but doth salute me as if I were their well-acquainted friend, and everyone doth call me by my name." He went no further, fpr a time at least, as the outburst of mirth at the appiopriateness of the words was to overwhelming and long-continued.