The Theatre (September 1907)

1, Mr. Drew; 2, Mme. Kalich; 3, Miss Marlowe; 4, Mr, Sothern; 5, Miss Adams; 6, Miss Barrymore; 7, Mr, Hackett; 8, Mrs. Fiske; 9. Mr. Wilson ; 10, Miss Anglin; -THE RISE OF THE CURTA Season 1907-08. HE theatrical season of 1907-08, which began in earnest the last two weeks in August, promises to be busy and interesting. The marked dearth abroad of good dramatic material has again benefited the native playwright, and it is reassuring to note in the lengthy list of plays underlined for immediate production that the American dramatist is once more well to the front. This is as it should be. The average theatregoer, of course, cares little who writes his plays. All he wants is to be entertained. But it is a hopeful sign for the future of our drama that the day seems to be passed when the American stage was forced to depend almost entirely on the dramatic output of London and Paris. There is a growing taste on Broadway and elsewhere for home-made plays, and a growing distaste for imported pieces reflecting foreign life we do not know and with which we have little sympathy. The speculative manager has done nothing to foster this taste for the American play. On the contrary, he has found it cheaper and easier to go abroad each year and pick out the most successful of the plays which a foreign manager, more bold, had already tried out. He has exploited the readymade foreign play for all it is worth, and he has long treated the American author as a negligible quantity. But he cannot afford to do so any longer. Such American playwrights as Augustus Thomas, Clyde Fitch, Charles Klein, George Broadhurst have compelled recognition as big money-makers. The success of these and other native authors has created a large public for American plays, until foreign plays have become a drug on the market. It is a healthy reaction which should give satisfaction to every theatregoer apart from any idea of Chauvinism, for it has imparted a new impetus and given a new interest to our stage. We have been surfeited with anemic English comedy and suggestive Continental farce. Our public wants plays dealing with vital questions of American life. This country is big enough and the phases of its people’s daily activities complex and varied enough to produce a potential drama the possibilities of which as an educational and moral force are well-nigh incalculable. Our social life, industrial conditions, politics, in a word the drama and comedy hourly enacted about us —all this presents an exhaustless and fertile field for the native dramatist. Our authors are keenly alive to the opportunity and, judging by their announcements this year, even our managers, so long devoted to the foreign play, are beginning to recognize the superior qualities of the home article. The program for the season is long and varied, embracing every form of stage entertainment, from the classic plays of the ever popular Shakespeare and the somber dramas of Mr. Ibsen down to the extravagant burlesques of J. J. McNally. Most of the managers have trump cards up their sleeves, and nearly all the stars are provided with new plays. The ball was set rolling at Wallack’s as early as August 5th with “The Time, the Place and the Girl,” a strenuous production from Chicago, and this was quickly followed at the Astor by “A. Yankee Tourist,” a revised version with music of Richard Harding Davis’ old comedy, “The Galloper,” and by “The Alaskan,’ a “comic opera,” at the Knickerbocker. Then came “The Lady from Lane’s,”’ a musical piece by George Broadhurst and Gustave Kerker, at the Lyric. Hattie Williams brought “The Little Cherub” back for a brief season, and Maclyn Arbuckle came to the New Amsterdam with “The Round-up,” a Western play. Grace George, returning home after a successful engagement in London, reappeared in “Divorgons” at the Lyceum. Later in the season this interesting and ambitious young actress will be seen as the heroine of Ibsen’s drama, “A Lady from the Sea.” “The Dairy Maids,’ an English musical show which Charles Frohman has brought over from England, was seen at the Criterion, and that popular comedian, Francis Wilson, appeared in his new piece, “When Knights Were Bold,” at the Garrick. The revival of “The Great Divide,” with Margaret Anglin at Daly’s; the production of “Classmates,” a play of West Point life, with Robert Edeson at the Hudson; the opening of John Drew’s annual engagement at the Empire in “My Wife,’ a comedy from the French; and the production of Martha Morton’s new play, “The Movers,” d ae 2 Qe ESE & mz, Mr. Farnum; 12, Mr. Edeson ; 13, Mr. Bellew; 14, Miss Starr; 15, Mr. Bernard; 16, Miss Doro; 17, Mr, Skinner; 18, Mr. Mantell; 19 Mr. Crane.