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6 We Week's Bills Auditorium— Ferris . in . >. "A Gold Mine." ..'¦' nelnspo— "Chnrley'ii Aunt." Burbnnk— "The :. ¦ Prince and the Pauper." Grand— "The Kerry Gow." . Lou ¦' Angeles — "Way .-. . Down Cant." Mason — Marie Cablll In "Mar . rying . Mary." Orpheum — Advanced Vaude ville. • Flacher'* "Tile IllnKinnnt Vnuilevllle. ' ¦ WILL TRY PLAN OF NATIONAL THEATER NEW YORK next season will be the scene of a highly interesting experi ment, and one which, if It is a suc cess, will be of almost inestimable ad vantage to American playwrights and to American players. Foundations have been laid in that city for a J3.0W.0D0 the ater, a theater which has been endowed by a conslfierable number of wealthy New Vorkerf. When completed the house is to he managed under a plan similar to that in practice at the Theater Fran calse, with the exception that It will be privately, instead of governmentally, supported. If announced \ lans ar« carried out, masterpieces of all countries wl.l be pre sented at this theater, where will be offered the best light opera and the best musical comedy, as well as tiie best j drama of the day. It is iikely also that i foreign artists as well as foreign plays will be presented there. The scheme as outlined has obvious ad- j vantages' and equally obvious dlsadvan- ; tages. As pointed out by Elmer B. Har- | ris In the course of a recent talk the house will not be a national theater, but a playground for the exotic rich— a ciass theater. Despite this drawback, however, its power for croud, rightly managed, cannot but be large. Mr. Harris sug gests that the management might insti tute some sort of a competition for plays having to do with American subjects; that a dramatic club might be organized and a company or artistic young players developed. ; In fact, he believes that some euch move as this will be necessary if the theater is to prosper. In speaking of this necessity, Mr. Harris said: Couldn't Get Stars "The best autors and actresses today are a.l stars, and they are making so much mjney playing for the syndicate that they would not think of going over to the no-called national theater. It would be a losing game for them. Hence this theater must go without the best talent. It can't liave the John Drews, Mauuu Adamses and Dave VVarflelds, be cause It can't afford to pay them the amounts they could command elsewhere. "More, playwrights, in the ordinary course of events, will only submit their manuscripts to this management as a last resort. A play presented at this theater wi'.l not be allowed to run long no matter what its success, and no playwright will be content with two or three weeks when at another house he might hops for as many years." There, ir brief, are the obvioua disad vantages. There is another that Mr. Harris did not mention. The manage ment of the theater will be controlled by a little group of millionaires. Many per sons believe today that the immediate future of tne American stage will show a strong trend toward socialism, and It Is not to be believed that any play touching upon this theme or depicting the social istic movement in other than a disrepu table light would be permitted in a thea ter co governed. Star System Bad On the other hand, there are good rea sons for believing mat the new theater will perform a real service for the stage. To begin with, It will mean the creation in New York of a stock company of the first class, and It will mean the artistic development of new talent. The star sys tem, satlifactory from a commercial standpoint, makes for bud artistry. The play ordinarily suffers through the ex ploitation of the star. In all probability, also, there will be an air of refinement and elegance about the conducting of this theater which will be a Godsend to the general public; and if the management should interest Itself in playa offering a solution of ¦¦current prob lems It would then perform an admirable service to society. I the New York project thrives Mr. Harris believes that it may be possible In the future to establish a chain of such theaters, endowed by wealthy men of different cities. In other words, Mr. Har ris would have these millionaire theatrical entrepreneurs form a syndicate of their own. The cities he suggests as ripe for the experiment are New York, Chicago, Boston, St. Louis, Los Angeles and San Francisco, with others to be added from time to time. "The power euch a chain of theaters would exert," be cays, "would be tre LOS ANGELES HERALD: SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 29, 190 T. PLAYS PLAYERS mendous. Little by little a dramatic lit erature wo-.-d be born. Plays produced at these theaters would be published and widely discussed. The theaters would become a stronger Influence In society than so many pulpits or editorial chairs." WILL PRESENT NEW PLAY BY ANGELENO WITH the announcement that Dick Ferris and his company will put on at the Auditorium next week Mrs. Gertrude Andrews' play, "Kate Shannon," local thep.tprgoers have awak ened to the fact that here is a writer who has a greater stage reputation than any other resident of the Angel city. Yet so MRS. GERTRUDE ANDREWS, PLAYWRIGHT unassuming has been her work that out side of the fact that her husband, Fred G. Andrews, is Mr. Ferris' business man ager the connection of the family with things theatrical has scarcely been sus pected. Nevertheless, Mrs. Andrews has long been intimately associated with the drama m almost ail its sides, and this is by no means her only venture Into the realm of dramaturgy. In fact. It is her fifth play, all her previous ones having been eminently successful. Besides the plays she has a long series of sketches, one-act affairs, and monologues to her credit, none of which has ever recorded a failure. Also, Mrs. Andrews has been on the stage herself. She played for eight years, in her more youthful days, as Gertrude Andrews, and was accorded the laurels of the successful actreßS. Hence her knowledge of stagecraft Is by no means that of the tyro; she knows It from the ground up. She has even staged plays, not only her own, which she always puts on, but others. She was the right hand of Manager Bishop of San Francisco in his very best days, doing much work for him in the way of revision, rewriting and directing. Sne helped him put his plays on, and she did much toward making them succeed. With all this behind her it Is no wonder that Mrs. Andrews went about the pro duction of "Kate Shannon, or the Dawn of Tomorrow" without blare of trumpets or shoutings from the housetops. Unlike the amateur she did not send forth the announcement that she was going to write a play. She started In germinating the Idea; she slowly and carefully wrought out her theme and gradually through two years of travail she brought It to being. Accepted in East Now she is in a measure able to enjoy the results. For "Kate Shannon" has been passed with the highest praise by everyone of the Shubert readers, the lead- Ing one calling It "The best I have read in many years." It is accepted for early production in the east; Alia Nazlmova, the great Russian actress, is wild over the prospect of playing the title role, and Henry Miller wants Margaret Anglinl to create It. Meanwhile Mrs. Andrews has arranged for Its premier in her own home city, thus showing by her fentl ment that she is a woman after all, und Dick Ferris and Sparks Berry have eagerly grasped the chance to place it before her own public in faultless fashion. Florence Stone has read the play and is enraptured with the title part, which she will play; Sedley Brown and jess Bonnor are now preparing the stage equipment and Mrs. Andrews will start rehearsals under her personal direction, with the aid of Mr. Brown, next Tuesday morning, when the play will be read to the Ferris company for the first time. The play itself, as Mrs. Andrews .says, Is not of the "problem" order, though It has Its lesson for those who think. "X do not believe," says she, "that any one but a woman with a strong maternal feeling could interpret Kate Shannon her self, for it demands the perfection of mother love. That Is why I am glad Miss Stone will first bring it to life, for she has that maternal feeling to a de cided degree. You know, a writer has peculiar feelings about the presentation of a play; it is her own child, the product of her own brain, and she waits In greatest expectancy the birth of it Into the public view. Drama of Life "There is in tho play the element of true life; in other words, it is full of the vital facts of existence. It tells a story that is true to life, and it does It plainly and I believe convincingly. There Is no 'problem,' as the term' is usually under stood, though some may write one into it. On the contrary. It is eminently clean and vigorous, with real flesh and blood men and women and the atmosphere of truih all through it. "Kate is a western v.-oman, even In her New York environment, and never loses her inherent freshness and vigor. She knows right nnd wrong through the berft of life's teachers— experience. And she never hesitates at the crucial points. Her mother love is stupendous— so strong. In fact, that It even smothers other things, but It rises triumphant nt the end, anil in this end it justifies all that has gone before. That is all the 'lesson' or 'problem' I have wrought Into It. "Naturally, after two years' work on the play, I am anxious to see it brought to life. To me it is a part of my ex istence, and 1 feel very strongly about It. More so than I ever did about a previous play. I shall work very hard on it all next week, giving myself up to the re hearsals, and we expect to see it perfect In presentation Monday nleht. "Mr. Brown and I have already agreed on all the details of stage management; Mr. Bonner and I have designed the scenery nnd he Is now painting it, and I think Los Angeles will have reason to be proud at least of the presentation and environment of its first play by an Angeleno woman when the final curtain falls." Mrs. Andrews, as she says, has put in vastly more time and energy on this play than on any previous one, though her past efforts have brought her much fame and many dollars. Among the dramas from her pen, most of which are now running in the east, are "Eagle Tavern," "A Kentucky Cavalier," "A Virginia Romance," "His Honor the Mayor," for Barney Barnard, "A Matrl monlnl Muddle" and "In Berkshire Hills," all successes. Her vaudeville sketches are always In demand, and several of them are row on the various circuits. With the pre sentation of "Kate Shannon" In the east she will begin work on another play which Is already outlined In her own mind. OBSERVATIONS BY A FIRST NIGHTER LAST week at the Los Angeles theater we had a first performance on any stage. Next week at the Auditor ium we are to have another one. The Auditorium play Is the work of a Los Angeles woman, Mrs. Gertrude Nelson Andrews, wife of Fred G. Andrews, busi ness manager for Dick. Ferris. It has been named "Kate Shannon, or The Dawn of Tomorrow." This Is a cumber some title and must inevitably be dis carded later. The play is not a problem drama, but has to do with the tyranny of mother love. It has been accepted for early production by the Schuberts, with a likelihood that Alia Nazimova, the gifted Russian artist, will play Its leaning role. The part Is to be created, however, by Miss Florence Stone. "Sham," which had Its first production at the Los Angeles last Thursday night, has In it the makings of a vastly di verting little comedy, a comedy, too, from which the moral Is not lacking. Its lines snap and scintillate with all tho unexpectedness of Chinese firecrackers on a dry night. Its characters are real persons, not puppets, and Its situations are never Btrained. To be sure It needs tinkering— what new play does not?— but this tinkering once accomplished, "Sham" should have a pleasing and a prosperous season. It wants action, it wants a dif ferent ending, and it wants a revised and abridged first act. Much action tho comedy does not need, but It needs more than has been provided. Just when we are to have the prlvllegs of seeing Katherlne Emmet, the new leading woman at the Belasco, In a role worth while Is not quite clear. Last week Jn "Lord and Lady Algy" she neg lected what few opportunities the part afforded her and in so doing I believe she did well. Much depends upon first Im pressions nnd had Miss Emmet playnd this "horsy" part as it should >iave been played, she undoubtedly would have cre ated an unfavorable Impression. This week the bill Is the old and shop-worn "Charley's Aunt." a farce that will give Miss Emmet less chance than the Carton comedy. Doubtless there are good man agerial reasons for presenting these plays at this particular time, but they are somewhat inscrutable to the lay ob server. The success of the Burbank's special matinee last week gives good promise for the future. There are many fine one-act plays, plays that are miniatures of artistic excellence, and It Is matter congratulate that Manager Moroßco has decided to give us more of them In the future. The Burbank's Invitation to players at other houses to attend last Thursday's performance was generally accepted and the body of the house showed many professionals. Wedding bells rang for Ollle Mack laßt week and there was no echoing clang from the patrol wagon gong, as certain sensationalists had led us to expect there would be. All in all the publicity given to Mr. Mack's domestic affairs in certain newspapers was a sad commentary upon the taste of persons who enjoy reading such stuff. Of course It was advertising and it may have brought a few dollars Into the Grand box office, though I doubt It; but on the other hand It provided ef fective ammunition for those persons who habitually inveigh against the stage as Immoral. Mack didn't seem to mind tho row, nor did the woman in the case, who took every means In her power to secure publicity for matters better left undls cussed, at least by others than the In dividuals directly concerned. There nre many bright lines in "Marry ing Mary, ' which Marie Cahill brings to the Mason this week. Here are a few of them: Drlnkwater (a perpetual tippler, to Mary, thinking she is the maid)— lt you are real good I'll give you a k133. Mary— l never take liquor in any form. Col. Culpepper— A gentleman never gets drunk before breakfast. Mary <to her pastor)— You have paid me such a sincere compliment that I am going to ba guilty of an Indiscretion; I am going to tell you the truth. Mary confesses that she Is married already, or rather was married. Her pastor— Dear, dear me— and the dear de parted ? • BEN WELCH, IN STREET ATTIRE AND COSTUME, AT THE ORPHEUM Mary— Waen't dear oivl Isn't departed. * Ortn»by j Culprppor , (speaking; of Mary)— Her life is an unwritten page where my autograph shall stand alone, surrounded by 'a', beautiful white margin. ¦ ~ ¦•¦¦'.¦ ' - Mnry (askle)-He wants to marry a blank book. Ormeny— Prnetlcal politics means compromise with evil; I stand on principle. . Mary— lf you stnml on It lon* enough you'll sit down on the first thhiK handy. Mary— lt's never safe to Ret away from glit tering generalities Ormsby (In anger, to his father. Col, Cul pepper)—Oee, I wlnh I had some money to cut you off from. I had occasion to wander back on the Auditorium stage just before the rise of the curtain on "The Prodigal Daughter" last week, and from curiosity looked at the "prop" books and papers on a table standing ready for the actors to use. WARREN COOK (Top), Los Angeles. BERNARD DALY (Bottom), Grand There were three large books there; one was Volume II of Macaulay's England, another was the Baptist hymnal and the third was a campaign edition of the life of Theodore Roosevelt. The paper was the Manitoba Free Press of Winnipeg. Now I want to know whether that hym nal was in such company for a reason, and how on earth, with all the papers published In Los Angeles, a Manitoba paper should stray Into a scene sup posedly laid in London. Eleanor Montell of the Ferris com pany is the latest member of that organi zation to be offered a change of orbit. She has been asked to assume the role of Salomy Jane in the play of that name in New York city. The offer was a tempting one, but I understand she la going to remain here. Like Florence Barker, she sees the ghost walk every Tuesday In Los Angeles, while the Great White Way is now populous with Jobless players. And Mlbb Montell Is eminently wise. MANY PLAYERB ADOPT "NOMS DU THEATRE" A singular request made by Sam Ber nard, the actor, to the court was recently granted. He received permission to be legally known by his stage name. He w»s bnptlzcd Samuel Barnett, but when 25 years ago he adopted a stnge- career he took the name of Sam Bernard. He now prefers this namo, giving these rea sons for his desire to change: "For my own sake, my profession and my chil dren." Another player who had his name changed by law is Edwin Arden. His original name was Hubert Pendleton Smith, but finding Smith undesirable as a stage name he received his father's con sent to change It. As the prejudice against the stage grows less year by year fewer players change their names for stage purposes, but there are still a large number who for various reasons are not known by their real names. How many people know that Marie Dressler's real name Is Leila Koer ber? She adopted the name by which she is known to all playgoers when she made her first appearance in Saginaw, Mich. She rarely refers to this engagement, ex oept to say: "I've never been there since." In private life Frltzi Scheff Is known as the Baroness F. Bardeleben, her husband being v young officer In the Austrian army. Her mother Intended her to be come a prlma donna in grand opera, so sho originally named her Frederlcka. As she grew up, although Miss Soheft says: "I never grew, up very far," sho had a governess who called her Fritzl, because she said thnt the little Frederlcka was the most Impish child she had ever trained. The most Intimate friends of the actress call her "Frißky." Trlxie Frlganza's mother was a Span iard, and her father an Irishman. As her own name, O'Callahan, hardly seemed ap propriate for an actress she took her mother's name, Frlgariza. When she was a child, and made her first appearance upon the stage, Louis Harrison called her Trlxle, because she was a regular little vixen. Charles Blgelpw is responsible for the nickname given to Edith Decker. Be cause her mother's name was Decker be- DICK FERRIS AND FLORENCE STONE fore she was married Blgelow calls the actress "Double Decker." Marie Augusta \Davey is the real name of Minnie Maddern Flske. She took the name Maddern from her mother, and the Fiske when she married Harrison Grey Fiske. During her first season Mary Manner ing played more than fifty small parts under her own name, Florence Friend. When Daniel Frohman discovered her he changed her name to Mary Mannering, thinking It more attractive and euphoni ous than her own. Helena Modjeska during her girlhood appeared throughout her native land using her name, Modrzejewska. When she sought to win success in this coun try she simplified it, making it easier for the Americans to pronounce her name. Mmc. Alia Nazimova was known In Russia by her own name, Nasimoff. She is the wife of the Russian noble man. Count G'olovini. In New York, where Mme. Nazmova has made such a success, there are few who pronounce her name correctly. The accent Is on the second syllable, and the-thlrd sylla ble Is slurred. Few persons, even her most intimate friends, know that Bijou Heron was christened Helena, ami that Bijou Is a pet name that she has been called since her babyhood. "Doro" Was "Btuart" Because Marie Doro refuses to he in terviewed little Is kqpwn of her pri vate life, and not many know that when she attended a fashionable young 1 ladles' school in New York she was known to the students as Marie Stuart. When Maude, Adams adopted a stage career she did not use her family name, Kiskadden, because of the objection the Kiskadden family had to the stage. However, If you were to receive any business communication from this popular star she would sign It with her full name, Maude Adams Klskad den. \ Much has been Written about Ethel Barrymore, yet there are only a few that know her first name is Blythe. Camille D'Arvllle, whoso native land Is Holland, had won a name for her self as Neeltye Dykstra some time be fore sho becamo well known in this country. <¦ Julia Marlowe was originally called Sarah Frances Frost. Helen Ware, who has won much praise by her Impersonation of tha gypsy. Malena, !ni"The Road to Yester day," is a San Francisco girl, who was once /a soloist in a church choir and known by her re'nl name, Remer. Drina De Wolfe was baptzed Drlna Waters, but when sho married Elsie Da * " olfe's brother she took his name for stage uss and dropped her own. Mrs. Humphry Ward has concluded a contract with a London manager for a new play based upon her novel, "Tho Marriage of William Ashe." Mrs. Ward, with Miss Margaret Mayo again as col laborator, has completely rewritten tha version. Thi^ new performance, which will open in London, will show some radical changes, notably an entirely new fifth act, designed to liven the action and brighten the situation at the close. Lester Lonergan and Adelaide Nowak will head the second company to play; "The Great Dlvldo" on tour.