Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The morning Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1899-1930 | View Entire Issue (June 21, 1908)
33rd YEAR. NO. 141 ASTORIA, OREGON, SUNDAY, JUNE 21, 1908 PRICE FIVE CENTS fTHE MIMIC ART-ITS SPONSORS, ITS ARTISTS AND ITS PATRONS j - I Hager's Theatre i J On Monday June 2lt, Hagcri J'licalre (late Star) will be rc-opcn-:! by The Ashton Stock Company in the four act new and origin"! melo "drama entitled "The Sheriff". The plot deals with the cattle rustler of the south. The scenes are laid in Los Xruee New Mexico and certain in rcldcnt of the play are taken Uom the life of one of the greatest gun fighting Sheriff! ever known in this country. The play openi at , Judge I Dawitonswith Caron the head of the J gang aking for the hand of Kate I Dawm. She refuses him. Her heart 'yg given to the Sheriff, Enraged A the refusal Carson gains the con fidence of Ricca to blacken the char Ceter of the Sheriff. She inform Kate fthat the Sheriff ha ruined her Kate and the father dismiss the Sheriff there I a raid of the gang. Their plan are frustrated. They are landed in Jail. Only to be dismissed by the Jury who ha been Intrimidatcd. The Judge Is shot by Ricca. The Sheriff I accucd of the murder. But finally clear himself, ami he and Kate are happily reunited. The climax are exciting and original. There it not dull moment in the play and the comedy i well woven into the love scenes. The characters are all real men and women. Miss Lily Brans combe the favorite and clever leadiffg lady, will be ecn o Kate a part in which she excels. Herbert Ashton at "The Sheriff' j the robust manly gunfiKkter to the life. Miss Stewart will fee cast for Briget which will prov-jfher worth as a character wo man Jmh Hilda Graham has a very tin fx part as the Spanish girl Ricca, ami is sure to become a favorite. Mr, C.irKC Mortimor the comedian will bejscen as Judne Dawson. Mr. Law rire late of the Raker Stock is cast ih the viUinn. Mr. Walte Wistrand s the old negro servant. Mr. Bern ard and Mr. Smith will be seen as grecscrs, The policy of the house , will be a change of bill every Thurs day and Monday. The latest moving picture between the acts. This company is composed of art st excellent in their special line of nisincsa, Notably is, the charming fyoung leading lady Miss Lily Brans- .. V. ' ' ' LILY BRANSCOMBE, Leading lady of the Ashton Stock Co. IF) kV It l ' IK combe who has won the hearts, of thousand of theater lovers by her winsome acting. Mis Branscombe i an actress of rare talent. Her versat ility is remarkable. She is a much at home, in a rough soubrette a she is in the great emotional part of "Sapho". In which she will be seen the last half of the opening week. "Sapho" is one of Mis Branscombe favourite parts as if gives her unlim ited opportunities to show her ability also to wear some beautiful gowns. During the season at Hagers Theatre Miss Branscombe will wear some exquisite dresses that will surely gladcn the hearts of the lady patrons. This clever leading lady is sure to become the most popular that has ever appeared in Astoria. The leading man and stage director Herbert Ashton is also an actor of great ability. Having played with some of the greatest stars in America Mr. Ashton was also with Dania 1'rawlcy during his oriental tour. His ability as a static director is well known. Miss Stewart is one of the youngest character women on the coast and is sure to ' become very popular. The comedian of the com pany Mr. George Mortimer Is direct from the east where he created the part of 'Steve' in the Virginian. Miss Hilda Graham is an exceptionally bright actress and the remainder of the company are all splendid. Al together this company is evenly balanced and sure to please the theatre coers of Astoria. f Heart Is the Art It is a strange life, in its hours of effort and achievement, that the actor or the actress must live. - Let us set the stage. To the rear, a curtained wall and exit; on the sides, more curtained wall; in front, a little row of glaring garish lights. Here, within these narrow confines, the people of the world of stage-land have their being. Here all their senses have their exercise and play, It i a small place, cramped and un real. Beyond that little row of lights lies wsjMtiBMj wwyfni i w iw,wiMiiniMMMppMffwi J fF". ; ; ;,' r' i ' , '"' ' x ''' :vV,",:;'' A i ff ' u '. . " . - f--..:l- . ,,) GEORGIA HARPER. Leading Lady, "who will appear tonight in "Nell Gwynne" at the Astoria Theatre. The upper left is Jos. Die trich, leading man in "Nell Gwynne." Upper right is a view of Miss Harper in "Sapho." " a dark domain but it , is peopled, densely peopled, and it is voiced, with the Voice of the Multitude. Out in that dark pit, among the people, sits Judgement, beholding the lighted ta bleau. And when Judgement gives the sign the Voice speaks its decrees. And the word of the Multitude, thus given, means exaltation and de light, or misery and dejection to the men and women who move in the pic tures of the play, When the curtain rises upon the first act of a drama, the distance be tween the audience and the players, is infinitely great. The"people out in J front" have come from their homes, ; l their places of business, carrying with them the dull worries, or the intense, practical thoughts which arise from ( their individual avocations. They, have had no time to shake off the in- fluence of monotonous daily circum-( stance. Their minds are hard and cold. It is the art of the actor and actress to eliminate the "distance' between player and people. The audience, in pose, they may delve for "psycho tho player is to triumph, must cast! logical defeats," and all that. But aside the leaden weight of its cares j the big truth sticks out that during and circumstance, forget for the time that performance the "distance" dis- tjie actualities of ordinary existance, and move over the magic highway of imagination into1 the land of make believe, V . An actress, for instance, may labor never so hard in the interpretation of a human emotion, a dramatic climax, a tragic situation; she may apply to her work the highest discriminative fculties of a brilliant mind; accord- of Greatest Appeal ing to her own conception she may live her part exactly as the original of her fancy lived it; she may follow, with extreme nicety of application, the theory that art begins where imi tation ends that it is the perfect counterfeit of reality and yet she may fail, dismally, irretrievcly fail A critical 'audience may decree that she has admirably caught the psy chology of her characterization and the reviewers may write it down and still she may have failed. For the distance that the footlights spread be tween the actress and her audience may not have been diminished. If the people leave the theatre talking about "psychology" and "art" the performance has been to little pur pose, so far as the player is concern ed. It may have been brilliant, but it did not make the people forget; and as long as they are capable of cold philosophizing, their imagination is still asleep, : ' hen you sit in an audience and see the people leaning forward, gaz ing intently at the heroin and hero of the drama; when you see ladies carrying their handkerchiefs to their eyes", when you note, with the fall of the last curtain, how the .multitude is gradually "coming to;" when you hear women express their feelings in that time-worn but always useful safety-valve of emotion, grand." and note that 'its just your male then neighbor blurts out "great' you know that the actor or actress has struck home. The critics may fuss and fume amr pick flaws as much as they please, they may discuss de linquencies of method and poise and f appeared, the people have crossed the footlights and lived their little hour in the realm of romance lived it even as' the priests and priestesses whose business it is to serve at the nUar of art. Perhaps the underlying logic of it is that the art of the stage cannot be based strictly and exclusively upon mental appeal! To be' worth' while; I : T1 " .... ,. 1 t n. ' it ' . ; s " J. ' .Vf - . j - :m ' the art of the actress must reach the heart. . AH this, I should here explain, is due to an interesting chat with Miss Georgia Harper, whose performances at the Ingomar, during the past three weeks, have brought her into such high favor with the thertre patrons of Eureka. It should be added that, while she might not agree, as. to ex pression, with all I have said, I have attempted to follow, in the main, the line of reasoning I perceived in th,e drift of her conversation. We have ben talking of problem plays. I' ventured the opinion that the problem play. With its penitent Jezebels and Magdalens, could be dis pensed with, without loss in the at tractiveness of the stage or in benefit to the people. Miss Harper demur red. The problem play, she argued is practically the only vehicle for ex pression, on the stage, of truths which, however unbeautiful, should from time to time be made manifest. No agency, she urged, can reach so many people as can the stage; and one can present a lesson of life more impressively. The better class of. problem plays she insisted, operates to raise a bar rier against transgression, and at the same time to make the world more charitable in its judgements and hu mane in its instincts respecting those who have erred and who would truly repent. "Take Zaza as an example," she said. "Here was a girl reared with out the guarding influence of a home. She was of Latin tempera ment, impulsive, emotional. Is it so strange, when we stop to consider, us , v. n t v - HERBERT i Leading man of the The Pleasant "Jewel" One of the really pleasant places to spend a half-hour, almost daily, is the handsome little "Jewel" the best appointed any best appreciated moving-picture house on the upper coast. It is fast growing in popu larity, which it justly deserves. . that she would have lived and loved as she did with Dufresne? Her reali zation of the wrong she did was in adequate, in the very nature of things. Can any scene depict a nobler change than that which came into her life upon her discovery that Dufresie had deceived her; that he was married, and the father of a child of tender years? Her great love had purified her and fortified her. Who will de ny her the credit of her splendid tri umph over self, or question'the value of the lesson that triumph teaches? "But there is another class of prob lem plays I can have no sympathy with," she went on. "I could never have any sympathy with Elizabeth in 'East Lynne,' for instance. It might be possible to feel a certain pity for this woman., in the weakness of her fall; but it is beyond me to comprehend redemption for a woman so base as to abandon her own off spring in order to go the way of wickedness." There, in those two little speeches, Miss Harper betrays, I believe, her personal temperament as it bears up on her splendid gift of eliminating the "distance" I have heretofore j mentioned. A heart sympathy threads through ,her nature, and it is her sympathy which kindles the flame of her genius. . , That explains why her "Sapho" is outranked by her ''Zira," strong as her characterization of the former role may be. For Sapho, however she may have been elevated by her love of Jean, at heart is selfish to the end. Zira, by her self-abnegation, conquers her selfishness and with it her sin, and rises to a plane upon Vhich she can seek communion in sympathy, with the sternest of those that sit in judgement It is as natural as can be. In "Sapho," the heart interts is largely artificial; in "Zira," it becomes real, and in "Zira" Miss Harper triumphs. It is easy for her to touch the heart when the play-builder gives her a chance; therefore it is easy for her to be an artist. ASHTON, Ashton Stock Co. 'C- -!