APPENDIX

SOME PLAYS I HAVE GIVEN

THE first American production of Ibsen's "The Master Builder" was given by me at Hooley's Theatre in Chicago on March 21, 1894, with a cast which had been trained into the Ibsen atmosphere by months of hard work. The following incident will serve to show you how little Ibsen was understood at that time: When Solness spoke the lines, one of the greatest psychological speeches of modern dramatic literature: "Oh, Hilda, what a blessing to me that you have come, for finally I have found a person that I can speak to," a woman, a member of a literary club, was overheard to exclaim, "The idea and he a married man!" After this production I determined to go a step further in tone work and atmosphere by producing the greatest one-act acting play ever written, Maeterlinck's "The Intruder." There is a possibility of "The Blind" by Maeterlinck being considered equally great, but it is a play that cannot be acted. While in Europe the summer before my production of

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"The Intruder," I visited Maeterlinck at his home. Although I found him a charming companion, he in no wise suggested to me the coloring of "The Intruder," being a man full of the red blood of life, the antithesis of his play. He showed a deep interest in Ibsen's dramas. His manner was animated while discussing my production of "The Master Builder," and when I told him that I purposed giving "The Intruder " on my return to America, he quickly asked what members of the cast of "The Master Builder " were to act in his play and in what roles. It may be interesting for readers to know that the man who played Solness in "The Master Builder" played the Uncle in "The Intruder," and the actors of Ragner and of Brovik in "The Master Builder" played the Father and the Grandfather, respectively, in "The Intruder."

Although the Ibsenesque atmosphere is not the same as that of Maeterlinck, the training that these students received in the one enabled them to give a fuller and truer atmosphere to the other. I rehearsed "The Intruder" three months, placing special emphasis - almost entire emphasis I might say upon the tone work, which is the most wonderful I have ever dealt with. As an illustration of the great difficulties

that this play opens to the rehearser, I will take the climax of the play. When at the last moment, as the clock strikes twelve, the door opens upon the left of the stage, the Sister of Charity appears, signifying the death of the mother. At the same instant the wail of the new-born infant is heard—thus balancing the atmosphere of death and life, past and future. In producing the infant's cry the demarcation between the "ridiculous and the sublime" in vocal expression was so slight that it required the testing of twenty voices before getting one which gave the truthful effect, and on the night of the performance at this critical moment I held my breath, realizing that success and failure hung in the balance. Happily the true note was sounded and the success of the piece was unquestioned. This unique performance was given in Steinway Hall, Chicago, February 27, 1895.

Up to the year 1897 Browning's play "In a Balcony" had never been acted, and I can claim the honor of producing it on April 26th of that year, in Recital Hall, Chicago. Owing to the hyperintellectual quality of this play, lovers of Browning had been afraid to see the characters materialized. The success of the undertaking necessitated, first, the understanding and

psychologizing of the three characters the Queen, Constance, and Norbert- and the securing of temperamental, pictorial, and vocal truth in expression. The most subtle voice work is called for in depicting the Queen's emotion when she believes herself beloved of Norbert.

This production led Mrs. Le Moyne to give a presentation of the play five years later in the Grand Opera House, Chicago, with Miss Eleanor Robeson as Constance, and Otis Skinner as Norbert, Mrs. Le Moyne herself playing the Queen.

December 17, 1896, I gave the first American production of "The Land of Heart's Desire" at the Great Northern Theatre, then just opened to the public. As this play was written by William Butler Yeats for the Irish Theatre, it called for the Celtic atmosphere. This did not mean rough Irish brogue.

March 30, 1904, I presented "The Hour-Glass," also by Yeats, with signal success.

At the Grand Opera House, Chicago, in 1898, I gave the first American production of "The Fan," by Goldoni, translated for me from the Italian by Mr. Henry B. Fuller. A year later a different translation of this play was presented in New York.

May 18, 1897, I produced two of Mr. Henry