Variety (May 1926)

Wednesday, May 26, 1926 LEGITIMATE VARIETY 43 SHOP TALK By J. C. NUGENT "You learn to skate In the summer and to swim In the winter." On August nights you relievo the thrill of steel runner against the crystal sheets stretching ahead between hills of srfow. The odor of dust and flowers fades and again the* razor wind of winter cuts the reddening cheek. -Can you do that, Mr. Gallagher?" Oh, yes. That is, you imagine it. And in the weary winter time you look forward to the beach and re- hearse the strong stroke that takes you through the surf. The technique of swimming becomes clear through the winter hours. When the eutntaer comes you f.^d tbatfyou swim better than you did during last vacation. It's a process the brain must digest before you can do things well. Which profundity is suggested to me by playing this week at the Palace, after six years, practically, out of vaudeville. We go back Into play rehearsals next week, but still there Is a keen reminiscent kick In tackling the two-a^day again for one lone week and feeling out the old technique of establishing an entrance with one swift decisive move, of grading shadings and exploding points and tensing ap the bread moving audience into stillness, attention, applause. It's swimming In ruder breakers than the soft feel of the more sensi- tive and subdued legitimate audience. It requires a firmer stroke, a stronger touch. And still just as you bring something to skating from' the summer, you bring something from the legitimate to vaudeville, A finesse—a confidence In the Intelligence of the audience which enables you to give to lines and points their proper time. You give them a chance to think through with you Instead of depending on the old unmixed method of merely whipping them Into hysterical excitement and laughter by unintelligible Jabber and meaningless speed. Tou are a little surer, a little more confident of your material. You have learned either to cut things out altogether or to give them their value. Where you once read 10 lines so rapidly that they sounded like a double sneese and then removed your hat and bit it, you now either read five lines plainly and go bareheaded or cut out all the lines and bite Wo hats. Hokum for Smartness Each method has its advantage according to the type of audience. The smart vaudevlllian has always two acts, a highborn act and a hokum act. If he is very smart he plays the hokum act all the time. But the principal gain of changing work once In a while is not so much what you bring from the legitimate to vaudeville, as what you gain In vaudeville for use upon your return to the legitimate. Principally, you have improved your projection, your deflmie orlnglng eut of the thought beneath the lines. In vaudeville you have been dependent upon your own brain and you return a little less dependent upon the brain of the director and of the other actors. You have learned again how important it Is to be seen and heard, clearly and satisfylngly. You have renewed your "click," your sense of tlmlnsr, your economy of emphasis and movement. Maybe you have cured a bad habit, easily acquired In long runs in the same part In a play of overlapping speeches and grabbing cues from the mouth of the opposite speaker in a scene before you could possibly have digested the meaning of what he said, answering it with the glibness of a parrot before you could possibly have formed the answer In your mind. Maybe you have learned again not to step on points, not to spread the meter of a scene by interjecting stray "ahs" and "ohs" and "whys," thus losing beats and diluting sense and rhythm and tempo. Tempo, that much misused word, sensed rather than defined when it Is understood at alL Excitement and Interest Those who feel It truly keep pace with the excitement or interest In the audience, induced by the excitement or Interest of the scene. They feel it tighten and loosen. As it relaxes they unconsciously speed up. Lines, the sense of which call for no hurry, are nevertheless spoken with quick staccato grip until the attention of the wavering erowd In front Is regained. On the crest of the renewed breathless pause of interest, the im- portant sentence or bit of action can then be given its proper time. The "pace setter" of a scene must know tempo, the grip, and sway and languor, and sudden silence, and quick eager interest of that surging crowd out In front He must manage them as a jockey managea a spirited pony or be thrown on his funny neck. The finer, more sensitive, more Intelligent the audience, the easier It Is to organise and amalgamate them all Into a common mood. They want to be entertained. They welcome the illusion of reality which It is the mission of the scene to create. They meet the actor more than half way. It is the unnaccustomed auditor, the uncultivated, occasional showgoer, who Is hard to bring into the general state of Interest. He Is not receptive to the finer values. Like the visiting rube, who claims that he sees finer baseball In the home town than at the Polo Grounds, he feels that any admiration of the play may be taken by those around him as a confession of weakness. His play appetite is not sufficiently developed to take his mind off him- self. * Anyhow, and to return to the point, one renews a sense of that "feel of an audience" by a week back in vaudeville. Because not a beat can be missed in that acuto 20 minutes. Not a word "ad llbbed" or mis- placed or introduced. You stick to your material. The most spontaneous appearing act, the most Impromptu appearing antic Is the most care- fully rehearsed. After a sketch or other act Is "set" there Is little practicing on an audience. "Thinking Through" And that is about the best thing that vaudeville experience can give the legitimate actor. The habit of keeping up his performance every show* In the out-of-town run of a "Broadway hit" or even In the latter months and weeks of a hit while it Is still In town, the careless habits of that grade of actors who give performances from memory, "reflex ac- tion" performances, Instead of "thinking through" at each show, be- gin to affect the performance. And as it does, business drops off. Through the lackadaisical, dull, casual readings which were once bright and vivid—through drags and "Walts and sloppy make-ups and late entrances, grass and weeds be- gin to grow In the crevices of the once splendid edifice. Plot, speeches and situations, carefully devised for the establishment of what follows, are gabbled through and never register, making the rest of the play meaningless. "Pictures" may have limited the business on the road. They have undoubtedly. But languid and lifeless performances have finished it. Why do the road productions of John Golden, Otis Skinner, Frank Craven, B. H. Sothern and Wm. Hodge continue to do business always and everywhere, each In its class. Because they are frequently re- hearsed. Because, In short, they are kept up to standard.' "You seem to think that nothing is as important as acting," says a letter to hand. I think many things are more important. For instance, better acting. PUCCINI'S UNFINISHED OPERA PRODUCED Milan, May 15. Puccini's posthumous work, "Tu- randot." book by Giuseppe " Adami and Renato Simon!, was created here at the Scala last week, termi- nating at the part where tho com- poser died and did not include the finish, since written by Franco Al- fano. The complete opera will be played when presented in New York, as at aubsequent perfoiTnancea here. "Turandot" has been produced by Giovacchino Forzano and directed by Toscanlni, but will not attain the popularity of "Madame Butter- fly" or "La Boheme." The librettists have followed Goszi's farcical trag- edy, from which the opera is adapt- ed, but transformed from Venetian to Chinese. Turandot being an eastern princess who has promised to many a suitor solving three riddles she asks. Failure means death. Many aspi- rants have thus been beheaded, un- til Calaf passes the test success- fully. Turandot, however, remains obdurate, and Calaf again puts his life at stake by defying the princess to guess his identity. A slave girl could divulge the secret, but she takes her own life rather than be- tray her master. It was at this point Puccini died, leaving the opera unfinished. Fran- co Alfano has concluded the music for the love scenes between Turan- dot and Calaf. Rosa Raiaa held the title role, with Fleta as Calaf. Puccini has frequently based his score on Chi- nese folk-lore, hrving studied the collection of Chinese rhythms In the British Museum, London. Brass and drums are prevalent also In the score. STOCKS SYLVIA FIELDS, STOCK LEAD Sylvia Fields, leading woman of the last production staged by the late Henry Miller, has engaged for Bummer stock with Poll's Player?, Hyperion, .New Ha,ven, Harry Kramer Players have opened a summer stock in Durham, N. C. Howard Hall Players (dramatic stock), open at the Dixie, Union- lown, ra, Maj 24.' . , , , LITTLE THEATRES "The Bells" will be produced by the Potboiler Art Theatre, Los An- geles, with Ralph Ince, picture actor and director in the Sir Henry Irving role. Ole M. Ness will direct. The Potboilers Grease Painters, a social organisation of the Potboiler Art Theatre, Los Angeles, was formed with Charles C. Oilman, president; Roland Ray, vice presi- dent; Lucille Fries*, secretary, and Ernest Brskine, treasurer. The Hollywood Community Studio of the Theatre produced three one- act plays before the Women's Club of Hollywood, CaL, May 24. "Fleur- ette and Company," "Neighbors,** and "Rosalind" are the playlets with casts that Include Mildred Voorhees, Carolln TerriU, Helenita Lleberg, Betty Brand, Charles Parr, Harold Lorimer. Edith Arnold, Mildred Toung, and Beatrice Becker. Neeley Dickson will direct. Two original one-act plays were presented at the University of Cali- fornia Apollald May II. "Princess In a Tower,'* a fantasy by Dorothy Davis, had la Its east Betty Von Klelnamld, Virginia Roedlnger, Ruth Smith, Mary Ferry, Catherine McCulley, Ruth Burns and Kather- Ine Parsons. "Landing Places," by Chet Mackle, with Charles Wright. John A twill and Stanley Ewens, was the second one-acter. - The Pasadena Community Play- house presented "The Potters" for a run that ends May 23. Alice El- Mot, Mrs. A. H. Palmer and George C. Rels are in the cast, directed by Gilmor Brown. Amateurs Baying Plays Legit producers retaining the producer's rights to yester- year hits, especially those con- tracted for prior to the usage of the regulation American Dramatists Society contracts are picking up considerable money JLn disposing of the amateur rights to productions in hand. Several new companies ca- tering to the needs of ama- teurs have entered heated com- petition to add to their leasing lists. In most cases they are buying the pieces outright for from $1,000 to $1,500. Where stock rights have been previously disposed of amateur rights were not incor- porated until lately. Those ar- ranged prior tc this incorpora- tion gives the producer clear title with the usual division of purchase price to the author. STOCK'S $18,300 Two Weeks ef "The Family Up stairs' Turns Trick Cleveland, May ft. "The Family Upstairs" at the Ohio here the past two weeks by Robert McLaughlin's stock players got $18,800 for that period. The Initial week brought $8,500, and the second seven day period, $9,800. The piece was replaced this week by "The Show Off," also pro- duced by the stock players. COAST STOCKS Henry Duffy Iihh signed J< an . Dixon to play leads at his resi- dent, Seattle, bringing her from* Minneapolis to succeed Dulcy Cooper. Maurice Franklin, general business maiutgvr, formerly &t Duffy's Aloaziir In San Francisco, has been to join the company In S<c-attl«. Franklin v:\ll open June 13. From the Seattle organi- zation Duffy Is bringing' Lillian Denn, character woman, and Rob- ert Brower^ characters, to San Francisco to Join his company there. A new dramatic stock under canvas has opened in San Jose, Cal. The troupe Is known as Mac's Players. For the opening bUl they presented "Tho BeBt People." The organization includes Louise Pe- rlne, William Gould, Alice Lucas, Mildred Brcnneman, Albert Stabell, King James, Myrtle Pepin, Ethan Allen, Charles Gregg, John De Weese, Violet Nelts and Dorothy Dyer. R. T. Mahurln is business manager and Albert Stabell is directing. Dramatic Union's Contest Four playlets will be presented in a competitive contest to be staged by the Dramatic Union of New York in the school auditorium at 468 West 143rd street, tomorrow evening (Thursday) at 8:80 o'clock. The committee In charge an- nounces as judges Florence and Mary Nash, Judge Alfred Tally and Abel Green (Variety). The pieces to try for prizes are "The Valiant,** "8peaking to Father" (George Ade). "The Man Upstairs" and "Lonesome Life." The union has 860 active mem- bers. It expects to be represented In the Little Theatre tourney next season, the union to select Its play- let and cast via the elimination process. Levethal's 3d Stock The Bayenne opera house, Ba- yonne, N. J., has been taken over on a five-year lease by Julius Leve- thal, who will Install a dramatic stock policy when he assumes ten- ancy In August. The acquisition of the Bayonne house will give Levethal three stock stands In Jersey, Rlalto, Hobeken and Hudson, Union City. An organisation known as the Menard Players Is to do dramatic stock In Emeryville, Cal., a suburb of Oakland. The company will play under canvas, using a very elaborate equipment formerly uti- lized by Ed Redmond. . The site chosen Is 47th and San Pablo ave- nue and the opening date May 30. Harry Iceland is in charge and will direct and play characters. The company has not yet been completed because of Indecision over the choice of a leading man, Players signed are Margaret Allen, leads; Earl Moore, Helen Saunders and Dorothy Dyer. Wallace CV Smith Is scenic artist. Mitchell and Gold tree, acting as casting agents, announce that 'the organization will play one bill a week, but give two shows nightly, the first attraction Is to be "Not Tonight, Dearie," and followed by "Watch My Smoke." None but roy- alty plays wll be offered. There will be also a singing Jazs orches- tra featured. The tent equipment, which is a very elaborate one, has a seating capacity of 1,200 and utilises a sloping auditorium floor with regulation plush, spring seats. Santa Cruz (Cal.) has a summer stock, the Burke and Maxwell Comedians at the Cameo, opening In "The Hoodlum." Bills will be changed twice weekly. Among the players are Aleen Collins, Ted Maxwell, Frank Burke, Mary Moe, May Sheldon, Ben Dean, Bruce McDonald and Ben Chapman. The Community Players of the Toung Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association of San Fran- cisco last week produced Capek's "R.U.R." In the Players' Guild the- atre. Gerda Wismer Hofman di- rected. Jolson-Richman Film Following the publication of Al Jolson's resignation from the Westchester-Biltmore Club last week, because Jolson re- sented being told that a Jew- ish friend, Harry Rlchman, wasn't welcome, a film com- pany offered the comedian $500 tor a strip of film show- ing Rlchman and himself on the finks. Jolson refused and the firm bid more, but he told them the film was his personal property and he didn't intend to part with it. The picture was taken in fun some time ago when he and Rlchman were golfing together. Huguenot's Stock Harry A. Huguenot, who directed the Shreveport, La., little theatre group which took second prize In the Little Theatre Tournament, be- comes director of the summer stock opening at the Auditorium, Ashe- ville, N. C, May 25. The Players' Guild, as the group will be known, is a Nlcolal A DeMUt stock. Mr. Huguenot is a veteran stock producer. Joining the Shreveport players and putting that group on the map. Thin organization was considered by Variety as superior to the Dallas Players, which took first place by a 3-2 vote of the offi- cial Judges. STOCK NOTES STOCKS UNDER CANVAS Chicago, May 25. M. L. Mitchell opened his tent repertoire company May 18 at Doet- won, Iowa. Fred Reeth Is In re- hearsal with an early opening* In Wisconsin scheduled. An entirely new tent show called the Hatcher Bros.' Players ope* In Elleston, la., management, Don Hopkins. 8t a roll's World Tour Red Oak, la., May 25. Mme. Starell, grand opera, who recently returned here from Flor- ida, has left for a concert tour of the world. She will make her foreign debut in South Africa. r > Summer stock will open at Shea's Opera house, Jamestown, N. T., May 31 with "Just Mar- ried." Nancy Duncan will be lead- ing lady and Ralph Bellamy lead- ing man. Other members include Phyllss Oil more, Gertrude Moran, Caroline Morrison, Oeorge Clnrk, Walter Vaughan, William I.ee, W. O. McWatters. Oswell L. Jackson Is director and Claude Lewis scenlo artist. Quy Harrington has leased the Stone, Blnghamton, N. Y., for sum- mer stock, opening this week with "Applesauce." Harrington and Mar- garet Fields will do leads. Others are Myrt Bcllair, Olga Walters, Ellen Cameron, James Boshell, Walter Cartwrlght, Rankin May- fleld, Al Kranz and Kenneth Moore. The Young-Adams dramatic stock, after four weeks at the Strand, Hal- ifax, has gone on a tour of New- foundland. Later it tours Eastern Canada. John B. Mack, actor-manager, John B. Mack Players, Auditorium, Lynn, Mass., which closed its winter season there May 15, reopens Labor Day. • Mr. Mack has renewed his theatre lease for wveral years. Ralph Clonlnger, of the Clonlnger stock, Wilkes, Salt Lake, has turned playwright. Ills play, "Mauret," Is at that theatre thin week (May 25). Ivy Morton, in utock at Tacoma, Wash., will be leading woman with the Rl.'.ltn htock. Sioux'City, la.'