San Francisco dramatic review (1899)

10 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW February io, 1900 ike pacific cofitsn? Z.05 ANGELES. Special Correspondence Los Angeles, Feb. 6th. — Amusement seekers are not at a loss to find something to suit their liking this week. Three comic operas, two vaudeville bills, The Old Homestead and bicycle races are among the attractions, besides numerous musical events for those who prefer that class of entertainment. Louise Moore, who has been the prima donna with the Grau Opera Co. during their engagement here, has left the company and will -go to New York. Miss Moore is one of the youngest prima donnas on the stage and certainly has a good future before her. Eloise Mortimer, who has just arrived, will take her place. Miss Mortimer has a good voice and has achieved no small amount of success in the East. Manager Harkinson, of the Boston Lyrics, is in the city to complete arrangements for the appearance of that company at the Los Angeles Theater for the week commencing lithinst. The company comes direct from Honolulu. The Neill Co. arrived in this city 9th ir.st., and are resting prior to the opening of a seven weeks' engagement. The advance sale of seats has been exceptionally good and their stay should prove successful. A new Vaudeville Co., called the Western Vaudeville Co., has been organized in this city and will start out on the road in a fewdays. The company is composed of H. L. Miller, T. E. Richardson, Houston Sisters, Selma & Berkley, Al. Tibbetts and Dora Maxwell. It is uuder the management of Mr. Miller. The High School students produced Alabama at Morosco's Burbank Theater afternoon of 6th, and for attendance it was a veritable Hedda ('.abler matinee. The play was well put on. The Vienna Buffet management has set aside Friday evening as amateur night. Several would-be aspirants for the honors made their initial bow to the public last Friday and the venture should prove successful, as the public likes that sort of thing. At the Los Angeles Theater, Denman Thompson's Company played The Old Homestead, week of Feb. 5th. The scenery is all new and the cast very good. The piece has been seen here several times but notwithstanding that fact, good houses were the rule for the week. This playhouse is booked full up to May, and some excellent attractions are in store for the public. At Morosco's Burbank Theater the Grau Co. put ou The Bohemian Girl, 4th, 5th and 6th, Wang, 7th and 8th, and Martha, 9th and 10th. The various pieces were well staged and well sung aud good houses greeted the performers for each performance. This concluded the company's engagement here, which has been passably successful. The company has some good voices and the people work well together, but the selection of pieces has not been what it should have been for a city like Los Angeles, where the public demands some thing more up to date thau Wang, Mikado and Said Pasha. At the Orpheum a bill that "oozes satisfaction at every pore," as Press Agent Ebey puts it, is on. The dear public continues to turn out en masse for the performance. The bill consists of James O. Barrows and Company, Edna Bassett Marshall and Company, Mile. Emmy and her fox terriers, The Divine Dodson, Hansen and Nelson, Joseph Newman, Hodges and Launshmere, and Nelstone and Abbey. Herbert L. Cornish. PORTLAND Special Correspondence. Portland, Ore., Feb. 6th. — Marquam Grand — At this house the Bostouians held forth last week to crowded houses nightly. On Feb. 6th, the Portland Symphony Orchestra gave a recital which was very well attended and gave excellent satisfaction. Coming Feb. 7th, James Kidder-Hanford Co. in Winters Tale, and School for Scandal. House is already sold out for first night, and they will evidently do a record breaking business during balance of their engagement. Cordrays Theatre — Clara Thropp, in Dolls' House and Remedy for Divorce, held the boards first half of last week, to better business that she deserved, followed by Nance O'Neil in Magda, Camille and Peg Woffingtou, to capacity at each performance. The company has been greatly strengthened since their last appearance here by the addition of Clay Clement. Clement's portrayal of Claude Duval was a revelation, he gave the part a wonderful amount of character, and is certainly repeating the success he made when he was such a favorite in Denver. Miss O'Neil had better look to her laurels, as Mr. Clement certainly shared the honors and press notices with her in this city. Coming, Feb. izthand week, R. E. French Co.in Too Much Johnson. Feb. 18th, return engagement of Maggie -Moore-Roberts Co. in two new plays. Feb. 25th, the Frawleys for an indefinite period. There is a black cloud in town this week, being occasioned by the presence of Richard &. Pringle's original Georgia Minstrels who opened at Cordray's for 6 nights commencing Feb. 5th. They opened to a house packed to suffocation, and if the applause and laughter on the opening night was a criterion, the management will not regret having played Portland. Metropolitan Theatre — Nevada played one night at popular prices Feb. 5th at this house to fair business, occasioned perhaps by the fact that this house is again "Jonahed " by its bad opening. The theatre is a trifle out of the way, still the management is going to attempt a Stock Co. probably on account of the dearth of combinations. Manager Jones told your correspondent that he had two cancellations of combinations last week. PORTLAND NOTES. Geo. Mothersole of Oakland, Cal., proposes putting a stock company of California actors in at the Metropolitan Theatre, opening with O'Brien The Contractor, on or about the iSth. Portlaud is developing into quite a musical center, iu the past three weeks we have had 7 operatic performances, two grand concerts, three piano recitals, two cantatas and two performances by Symphony orchestras, and all to good business. Rumor has it that Manager Heilig will put in a first-class stock company at the conclusion of his present bookings, they say he contemplates something on the order of the Neil Company or the Frawley Company to play his circuit. Tnere is no doubt in tne world but that such a stock company would do an enormous business, for both Mr. Heilig and his theatre are popular with our amusement-loving people. In a conversation with your correspondent, Clay Clement announced that The New Dominion was to have a production in Australia at once from where he would go to London with the play for a run. Manager Heilig announces that the Bostonians broke two records at his theatre, first for the largest amount of money taken in during any one engagement, secondly for the largest matinee in the history of the house. At the Marquam we are to have The Christian Feb. 12-13-14, and Walsh-McDowell Feb. 26-28. Edwin A. Davis. SACRAMENTO Special Correspondence. Sacramento, Feb. 6— The Saturday Club gave an artists day last Saturday, with talent from San Francisco. The program wasgiven by Mrs. Oscar Mausfeldt, pianist; Armand Solomon, violinist; Theodore Mansfeldt, cellist. The program was of a high order and the hall was filled with an appreciative audience. The Sacramento Operatic Society will produce Dorothy in about six weeks. Clarence Eddy will give an organ recital next Thursday night. The Grau Opera Company Opens 11-18 inclusive. T A COM A Special Correspondence Tacoma, Wash., Feb. 4th — Last week we had the Bostonians in their new play The Smugglers, at the Tacoma Theatre, while no one could help but be pleased with The Smugglers, yet it is not so great a favorite as the Serenade or Robin Hood. Madam Nevada sang to a highly appreciative audience at the Tacoma Theatre last Wednesday night, Jan. 31st. The Neil Company play two nights at the Tacoma Theatre, beginning Feb. 5th. Chas. Frohman presents the Little Minister at the Tacoma Theatre Feb. 9th and 10th. Lyceum Theatre — Rentz-Santley Novelty and Burlesque Company, Feb. 5th. W. W. HOYT. Shakespeare Did Not Kno%) cArt Continued from page 7. horse-dealer, a butcher, a soldier, a sailor, a farmer, a gardener, a schoolmaster, and heavens knows what besides; whilst travelers have declared that unless he had himself visited many of the countries he describes, and been familiar with their languages, he could never have alluded as he does to their numerous minute characteristics. I am not aware, however, that any one has been bold enough to assert that he was a painter or artist, as we understand the term. Nor is this wonderful perhaps, seeing, as I have hinted, that we look in vain through his pages for anything more than a quite superficial knowledge of the use of the palette and brushes. Indeed the words palette and brush nowhere occur, nor do those of easel, maulstick, or any of the paraphernalia of the studio. And this, I repeat, is rather singular, for if the art, with the means and materials for practicing it, were uncommon in England in Shakespeare's day, they could scarcely have been so in Italy, Germany, Flanders or France; and he was so conversant with the habits of continental nations that one would have thought the artist's life and its surroundings would not have escaped him in detail. Yet he never even mentions the painter's brush — it is always his "pencil"; and although we know that the word popularly expresses the instrument by which artistic work is produced, it is at least odd that the poet avoids the use of its literal synonym, especially remembering the vast scope of his vocabulary. . . . The artist (Timon of Athens) talks no "shop," tells nothing about his models who sat to him, or the difficulty of getting the sort of heads he wants. Nothing is revealed as to the technicpue, or the system of priming the canvas, or laying in this or that color first — or what, in a word the process and progress of the work have been, as I submit, might fairly have been expected. Neither is any further clew offered as to the nature of the subject, nor any hint as to its dimensions; but later on, when the patron