San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

i6 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW April ii, 1908. Fair Thespian a Sailor In a thirty-foot sloop that her brother is building, Claudia Colonna, who spends her vacations with her father, Attorney George McKay, of Seattle, hopes to sail to Southeastern Alaska, early this summer. Neil McKay, the brother, has turned a vacant lot adjoining his home into a temporary shipyard and expects to have his boat ready for launching by May 1st. The trip north will begin about June 1st. Miss Colonna, McKay and a Japanese boy will be the captain, crew and cook, and as both the brother and sister are experienced sailors they are confident of their ability to take the little craft to the Northern shores. The new boat will be christened Kemah, an Indian word meaning "In the face of the wind." The craft will be thirty feet in length, ten-foot beam and will draw only fourteen inches of water. She will carry a steel centerboard nine feet in length by three and a half feet in depth. Her sail spread will be 766 square feet. Miss Colonna says she can hardly wait until the sailing date. "I just love the water, and yachting has always been my hobby. If Neil and I can't sail the boat to Alaska, why no one else can." Miss Colonna declares she would rather take her chances in the sloop than in a power boat. All that I want is a well-stocked larder," she continued, "and my brother at the helm and the waters of the Pacific have no more terrors than those of Elliott Bay. " The brother and sister expect to be gone all summer and will visit Skagway, Juneau and perhaps go as far north as Seward if the first part of the journey proves successful. A large roomy cabin will be built on the sloop with the walls constructed in such a manner that they can be opened like the sliding windows of a car. Metal air-tight bulkheads will be placed so as to make the craft practically unsinkable. — Seattle Times, March 22. Virginia Harned Secures Kate Shannon At the time of the first production of Mrs. Gertrude Nelson Andrews's play, Kate. Shannon, in Los Angeles recently, intelligent observers felt sure that the drama had a future and would in a short time find its place upon the larger producing stages of the country. Those happy early predictions have been verified, for Kate Shannon has been taken by Virginia Harned, and that well-known actress will be seen in it in Washington on the evening of May 4th, taking it to New York shortly after. Miss Harned has telegraphed for Mrs. Andrews to direct the rehearsals, which began April 13th. Mme. Alia Nazimova read the script, and was impressed to the point of enthusiasm and a preliminary verbal contract, but the role was not suited to her ; in fact, she is almost the opposite in all things to Mrs. Andrews's heroine, so friends of both were not sorry that she did not make a production of it. This work is unquestionably the best of the author's many dramatic pieces. It is a story of thought and feeling upon which she has evidently expended the best that lay within her. bringing to bear as well the fruits of a lifetime of experience. Kate Shannon is a very real type of woman, a remarkable character study as her maker has drawn her. She is a Westerner, wholly self-made, and by fortunate investments of the earnings of her little milliner's shop a very wealthy woman. The shadow of tragedy has crossed her path several times, but with the greatest portent at the time of her early love affair. Her idol is her son — who is the son of the man who wooed and deserted her. The denouement is one of originality and fine dramatic strength. Great Stage Marriage in London London, April 5. — In a few days there will be announced in London the most sensational engagement between the aristocracy and the stage yet recorded. The Marquis of Granby, son and heir of the Duke of Rutland, will marry Viola Tree, the actress, who is a daughter of Beerbohm Tree, England's greatest character actor. This is the first case of a duke or heir to a dukedom marrying an actress. The Rutlands are one of England's oldest historic families and possess enormous, but comparatively unproductive, estates, including historic Harrot Hall in Derbyshire. Viola Tree made her mark as leading lady to her father in Trilby. The engagement results from an old family friendship. When the Duchess of Rutland was Marchioness of Granby she did much excellent portrait painting, drawing her models from the Tree family. When she became the Duchess of Rutland the intimacy between the two families increased and will now be permanently cemented by matrimony. The engagement will cause much heartburning among society ladies with marriageable daughters, as the Marquis of Granby, who is only twenty-one, is the greatest of England's matrimonial catches. Great New York Art Theatre is indicated by the architects, who exhibit the drawing for the theatre which appears in this issue. November 1, 1909, is the date set for the opening of the theatre, according to yesterday's announcement. Designed to be an architectural ornament, as well as a temple of the theatrical art in its highest development, the New Theatre will occupy the block between Sixty-second and Sixty-third Streets, facing on Central Park west. The plans indicate, however, that while ample forethought has been devoted to the higher aims to be sought in the use of the new building, the social side of the enterprise has not been neglected. The auditorium, which will seat 2,318 persons, has been provided with forty-eight boxes arranged in two circular tiers, with special parlors, private halls and luxurious apartments. The auditorium is surrounded on each of the three floors by a very broad circular corridor, forming a promenade or foyer. At the two front corners of the building will be monumental stairways, in themselves works of art. The proscenium arch will be 45 feet wide and 40 feet high. The stage will be 100 feet wide, 68 feet deep and 112 feet high. Madison Square Garden Is No More This famous New York theatre had its last show on Saturday evening, February 29, which was the closing for good and all of the Madison Square Theatre, as this historical playhouse is to be torn down preparatory to the erection of a new building on its site. It was hoped that the process of demolition might be delayed until spring, but inasmuch as the theatre stands on a solid bed of rock, the architects have decided to have the work of excavation for the new structure begun sooner than was originally anticipated. Sidelights Art Witting and Mattie Davis closed with the Garrick stock in San Diego last week. Two good actors are now open for engagements. The San Francisco managers have come together and revived the Managers' Association that was in being before the srreat fire. Dick French closes his company at the Star Theatre in Portland on May 2, and moves down into California. Sullivan & Considine will install a musical comedy company at the Staf on May 3d. The summer stock company opened at the Seattle Theatre, Seattle, on April 12, and headed by Emma Bunting and William Morris, will present as its first three bills, Anita, the Singing Girl, The Colonial Girl an* Rachael Goldstein. Although a devout admirer of Shakespeare as a literary personality,, diaries B. Hanford always avoids any discussion of the Baconian theory, fc lady who listened to one of the lectures which Mr. Hanford occasionally delivers before educational institutions, approached him with the query: "Don't you think that Bacon may have had just a little to do with the writing of Shakespeare's plays?"' "Madam, responded the tragedian, "it is no longer a question of the writing of Shakespeare's plays. That has been ably attended to. What concerns the public now is their adequate representation." Sell with one hand-make change with other Book Strip Tickets nd" Ticket Perfect SfSsaa The "One-hand" Ticket As fast as hard tickets Safer than roll tickets Cheap as the cheapest stock Two-Color Reserved Seat Tickets size Write for Samples and Prices Weldon, Williams & Lick Factory and Main Office, Fort Smith, Ark. RUBE COHEN, Pacific Coast Representative 1443 Fillmore Street, Room 22 San Francisco, Cal. The Record Breakers McINTYRE AND HEATH Break All Record Receipts at the Van Ness Theatre, S. F. More People Turned Away than the Theatre Could Seat or Stand up THE NEW EDITION OF The Ham Tree By Klaw & Erlanger, Proves to be the Best Laugh-Producer Ever Seen on the Coast. GET WISE— SEE IT! 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