Show a Real Society Play I I r I 2 I t t R Mrs O. O H. H P. P Belmont Society Leader and Suffrage Suffrage Suf Sui- frage Worker Presents the Operetta U Melinda and Her Sisters to 10 Win Supporters to 10 The Play Aims to Effect a Change in the Way the Present Day Society Society So So- Girl Is Reared AR it from Marie arie Dressler Dressier as a T. T TAKE suffrage operetta Melinda and h her het T Sisters Is b a scream E Everything Is put 00 especially pat especially for Miss Miss' Dressier Dressler r herself hersell to whom Mrs Mm And Belmont has lias given the f at fat part take it jt from Miss Dressler Dressier again Mrs 0 O. H. H P. P Belmont she Belmont she Who champions suffrage and has a a. villa at N Newport and Is the mother of the Duchess Duchess' of Marlborough ls is some same playwright A librettist for suffrage ge that is what Mrs Belmont terms term's herself erse She and Miss Elsa Maxwell In collaboration collaboration tion have written the suffrage operetta ta The piece booked to open at the Waldorf Astoria Waldorf-Astoria Astoria on on n Feb 18 boasts a a. notable actable cast cwt of amateurs re recruited from the same society which Mrs Belmont Bel mont satirizes so cleverly and a of eminent emment professionals for forthe forthe forthe the more important parts Among them themis is the bouncing Miss Dressier Dressler who plays playa Mrs Pepper the society climber er and Miss Marie Doro DON who is Ls the charming Melinda the suffragist girl who has none of ot the highfalutin fads Cads h her r so society mad mad iet-mad sisters have deY de- de Y in Paris and elsewhere P Pepper family ly who comprise comprise comprise com com- prise half the cast there is plenty of pep pep to say nothing of ginger mustard mustard mus mus- tard tar tabasco and what not in Mrs Belmont's Belmonta lines In a a. tartly tartly pleasant pleasant way she ahe makes her characters say a alot alot alot lot on the stage that they wouldn't dare say cay ay in society Epigram and ana repartee sparkle from m one end of the thes s skit it to the other plus plenty of songs and dances as the plot unravels itsell to a 6 triumphant victory for tor suffrage over all competitors Miss Maxwell is from San Francisco but she ahe has haG lived in London for far some years year and there met the Duchess of n Marlborough Maryborough through gh whom She ehe e tie was Ryas introduced to Mrs Belmont The California Cali i- i fornia girt girl has provided the stagecraft stagecraft stage stage- craft att music musi an and the lyrics but the wit and the lines dines in B and the plot plat are are Mrs t's ts own written w-ritten by her last crast summer in Newport Rehearsals have bare been going on oa for tor weeks and the girls and young ung men of the cast have ib been n having lots of f fun out of it Society will be present res-ent in force atthe initial performance boxes h have hare T been going like hot cakes And there is is' talk or Melinda and Her Sisters on rho regular stage to tour the country in aid d of Votes for dor Women When the great writers writer of pf Prance France want to impress the Ule public with a new moral Mrs Belmont says they use the stage You can always get people people peo peo- p e t to go goto to the theatre whereas you have set about doing our i share chare toward effecting this result re- re suit sult by means of If our play We have in mind the instruction instruction instruction tion of mothers as to somo weaknesses in the education of their I daughters Melinda l and Her Sisters' Sisters is a satire on society and on the way the society girl is 13 brought up to I J thought I ought to know pretty well just how this is s done and how it ought to he be doneIt done Tt It t is high high time that th the mothers mother of society be led lea along different dines than they are at present The out coming of f the e d debutante is not the beginning and the end of her Iller life ute As it seems to me to-day to this is like Uke putting her up In the slave market of old to be bought by the highest bidder I want to change all these things pleasantly and ind agreeably If tf I T can oan with the operetta but change them any anyway way I think too that I am as able to ho treat of suc such i a subject as any WOman in I New York I think my own tOwn children have hive turned out pretty well I 1 would like to see women change in their ideas especially the tale wom women n of wealth |