OCR Text |
Show especially concerned if the play is a comedy to prevent any slowing up of the action. A good stage manager is a tremendously active person from the minute the first curtain goes up until the last comes down. He darts here, there, everywhere on his rubber heels r it is an obsession with stage managers that people back stage should wear rubber heels and then he takes his place at the first entrance, that is in the wings nearest the audience. He watches the acting as well as he can from there and listens carefully for every line. Off he goes again to silence some waiting actors who talk above a whisper. Suddenly there is a silence on the stage, a silence that his practiced ear knows should not come just that moment. He dashes down to the nearest entrance to see what is wrong. And to his great relief he finds it is only one of the actors in the scene taking a longer pause before speaking. But the suspense serves to call attention to another responsibility of this busy man. He must know the play so thoroughly that he can throw in a line any time it is needed he or his assistant is always near the wings with a complete manuscript of the play open and if necessary he must be ready to go on at a minute's notice to play the part of some one taken sick whose understudy does not happen to be present. And whenever there is an occurrence out of the ordinary, that too is duly noted by the conscientious stage manager in his log book, which contains memoranda such as actors late for entrance R breakages in the scenry, in short anything he wants to keep for record. From the very moment a play goes into rehearsal, as has been hinted, the stage manager is important. He is always at rehearsal before any member of the company, and he is always the last one to leave rehearsal. He acts as first assistant to the man who is directing the production, and should the director be absent he carries on. It might be remarked in passing that these two words are the expression of what a stage manager must always do. At rehearsals, among other things, he keeps the manuscript constantly before him and makes notes in it of every change of dialogue or business, until by the time a play is actually produced it looks as if the manager had written it, at least in his handwriting. He also is responsible for the correct preparation of carpenter's, electricians and property mans plots, so that adequate preparations will be made in the theatre where the play will go. Just before the opening night, furthermore, the stage manager has a job which seems minor from the outsiders point of view, but which really causes as much trouble or more than anything else the stage manager has to do. This is the assignment of dressing rooms. He has the job of a hotel clerk without any of that gentlemans opportunities for excuses. Another phase of his work that requires good judgment is the stage managers assignment of understudies. These are from the lesser lights of . the company and trained in parts of the principals practically as soon as the play has settled in a theatre. When East is West settled ' down for a run at the Astor Mr. Maxwell promptly began his selection of understudies, and for the past month he has put them through their parts both morning and afternoon, incidentally trying out other actors who might be considered if more than one company were to go on the road next season. It has happened in productions that understudies could be drawn from only persons playing very small parts, or merely walking on. As might be expected, these persons were sometimes mere novices. So that to all intents and purposes a stage manager finds himself conducting a school of acting. And it must not be forgotten that the stage manager, in addition to telling others how to act, quite often takes a part himself. This part may be of greater or less length. Occasionally the producer allows him to choose a part, but whatever its length, and whatever changes of costume it requires, he must never allow his other work to lapse. Even while on the stage he keeps busy at more than his actual lines, for he watches the scene at close range and keeps check on the actors. This combination of acting and stage managing surely has complications at times, as in the case of Mr. Maxwell again, for he has several lines in East is West which are Chinese, and he has found it necessary to learn bits of the language in odd times to make sure that he and others give these Chinese lines in the correct dialect. New York Sun. PASSING OF BLACK FACEl The death is reported from California of George Primrose, who during his more than fifty years on the American stage, was considered one of the most successful of the black face minstrels. Primrose was perhaps the last survivor of the old style song and dance man. He was a favorite with New York minstrel going audiences more than a quarter of a century ago, when black face entertainments were at the height of their popularity, and through his yearly tours of the larger cities of the country he won much the same favor throughout the United States. But the peculiar form of entertainment in which Primrose excelled had had its day years before his death. There is now in existence not a single big combination of black face e artists such as made up the minstrel show. The wonderful drops for the opening act, the high silk hats and long drab overcoats for the unparalleled daily street processions, the banjos, bones and tambourines of the end men went into storage years ago. The entertainers, the . sweet voiced tenors, the negro comedians, and the buck and wing and the jig dancers have largely become deserters to the vaudeville stage. Primrose was one of the last to give up, but he spent several years either as an old-tim- individual entertainer or as the director of a dancing team before his retirement from the stage. Minstrelsy has done its full share in making the world forget its cares and troubles; it enlisted in its service at some time in their career many men who afterwards became Americas foremost comedians. So distinguished an actor as Joseph Jefferson was not averse to expressing indebtedness to his early burnt cork days as training for the success he later attained. ways seems to me that those old warriors were very much like our modem financiers. What on earth do asked Triggs. Well, you mean? they were always investing some one elses capital, werent they? iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiHmmiiniminiiiiiiniiiiinnHiiiiiiniiiiimiiiiiiiniuiiii AETNA Service Supreme - Vaudeville has been the greatest gainer by the decay of black minstrelsy; but there are still old timers who will question if the modem theatregoers have been wholly benefited by the change. New York Sun. Wit. 4000 mmiuiiiiH UNDERSEA TUNNEL. A submarine tunnel under the Strait in Japan is to Ed D. Smith and Sons I I General Agents 30 W. 2id So. St. wwwuMHUtiiMunmmwnuiminuMwinwmHiiHMmiiiiniiM "At tho Old Clock Cornor Shi-monose- ki be started this year and it is planned to complete it in 1928. The authority for the announcement is the chief of construction bureau' of the Japanese government railways. It is estimated that the tunnel will cost $10,000,000. Two years will be devoted to studying the geological formation of the strait bed and drafting the general plan of work in preparation for the tunneling. Japan will send engineers to the United States and Europe to study the tunneling achievements of the West. The length of the tunnel will be seven miles, of which one mile will be completely under sea. Banking Perfection Under U. 8. Inspection" Service is Our Highest Aim Utah State National Bank ANCIENT INVESTMENTS. They were talking of the great wars fought in the days when this old world was considerably younger. But you know, said Briggs, "it al lahr Fafcral team M MtMIlimaMIMMHI If its good youll see it at the American. A program for the week thatll be the talk of the town! :r. s SUNDAY AND MONDAY J. WARREN KERRIGAN in A WHITE MANS CHANCE A Romantic story of an American adventurer in Old Mexico, From the novel now running in the Munsey magazine. Y S T E R Y I THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR -- j j : Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday M j j s I R O M A :s : j i : N G 7 E Bayard Veillers great dramatic success. Friday and Saturday : : M ! I ii ii: 8 8 s MABEL NORMAN, She of Mickey fame in WHEN DOCTORS DISAGREE Its a comedy, and Oh, Boy, Youll laugh until your sides ache. American features: Symphony orchestra, orchestral echo pipe organ and Frank Gibney in popular songs. I : I t 8 8 j I s i i j 8 i : 1 i 3 |