33rd YEAR. NO. 141 ASTORIA, OREGON, SUNDAY, JUNE 21, 1908 PRICE FIVE CENTS
fTHE MIMIC ART-ITS SPONSORS, ITS ARTISTS AND ITS PATRONS
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I Hager's
Theatre
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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-
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LILY BRANSCOMBE,
Leading lady of the Ashton Stock Co.
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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
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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;
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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
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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.
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