The Mormons and the Theatre; or, The History of Theatricals in UtahLindsay, John S. (John Shanks)
Religion
The Mormons and the Theatre; or, The History of Theatricals in Utah
Lindsay, John S. (John Shanks)
Latter Day Saints; Theater -- Utah -- History
On August 6th, Rose Eytinge, then in the zenith of her fame, opened a
three nights' engagement in the play of "Rose Michel" and followed it
with "Miss Multon" and "Macbeth." The writer had some hard work during
this brief engagement, the two first plays being entirely new to him,
in both of which he had very long and arduous parts, and on the third
night he had to do Macbeth. Rose Eytinge at this time was one of the
best actresses and most beautiful women we had on the stage. Good
gracious! that is twenty-eight years ago, and she is still acting! but
she has to play the old woman now. When I played with her two years
later in Portland, Oregon, she was married to an English actor named
Cyril Searle, who insisted on playing Macbeth, but made me study
Antony in "Antony and Cleopatra" on very short notice as the San
Francisco papers had criticised his Antony so severely he declared he
would never play it again.
On August 14th, the Richings-Bernard Opera Company played one night.
Played again on the 16th. On the following night, the 15th, Tony
Pastor with a fine vaudeville company, gave a great show the first
company of that kind to cross the continent and play in the Salt Lake
Theatre. He had a packed house, for his show was a great novelty.
It was a little surprising that with the love of the drama so
universal in Utah so few contributions to dramatic literature were
offered by local authors for representation on the stage. Those
thought worthy of presentation by the managers we have already
recorded. Mr. E. L. Sloan's "Osceola" (an Indian play), in which Julia
Dean and George Waldron played the leading characters, and his "Stage
and Steam," a later production, contrasting the old stage coach with
the locomotive methods and results. By far the most important local
contributions to the stage were the plays of Edward W. Tullidge:
"Eleanor de Vere," played by Julia Dean and stock company, "Ben
Israel" and "Oliver Cromwell," played by the local company. Now comes
John S. Lindsay with "Under One Flag," a drama of the Civil War. This
play was presented for the first time on September 13th and made so
favorable an impression as to hold the boards for three nights. It was
repeated on October 5th, during the conference season, and has been
played by the author and his company in nearly all the towns and
cities of the Northwest. These performances of "Under One Flag"
virtually closed the season of '76 and '77, which had run
intermittently all through the summer.
CHAPTER XXII.
SEASON OF '77-'78.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account