The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 447
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Renaissance of the Galveston Theatre
corps had come to be called, elected to try their strength in
Shakespeare. Othello was billed, with Romeo and Juliet to follow,
and this despite the discouraging attendance of the week before.
The house was now called the Galveston Theatre, and T. J.
Herndon, an accomplished comedian, and long known in the
city, was listed as "acting and stage manager." The prices of seats,
reduced, were given as, Parquette, $i.oo; Parquette reserved,
$1.50; Family Circle, 75 cents; Gallery, 50 cents. Only fair-sized
audiences greeted the players at both performances, Othello and
Romeo and Juliet (December 18 and ig). Flake's had nothing
critical to say of Othello, but offered this interesting observation:
One very good thing occurred in the first scene. Iago, Richmond,
was delivering the sentiment, "I hate-" At that moment a drunken
man made an audible remark, causing some confusion. After a
momentary pause, Mr. Richmond completed the sentence: "a fooll"
The aptness of the coincidence was greeted with a round of applause.
What the "local" (the news reporter) had to say of the first
act of Romeo and Juliet (the only act he could stay to see) makes
us wish he could have seen more.
We were not so well pleased with the play as we had anticipated.
Mrs. Ayling did not seem to have a just conception of the whimsical
creature, the nurse, and utterly overlooked the bright points in the
dialogue in which she fixes the age of Juliet, and the discourse of
her juvenile mishaps. The wit of this part of the play is exceedingly
fine, though a trifle indelicate, and it may have been a fear of giving
offense that caused her to pass over it so lightly.
Drummond, the journal observed, made his Romeo seize the
edge of the balcony with his fingertips and pull himself up too
much after the manner of a performer in the circus ring. The
player was reminded that nowhere in the tragedy is it set down
that the love-stricken Montague is a gymnast. Such behavior was
considered a solecism that should be looked to.
There was a double bill on Christmas day. Lucretia Borgia
(J. M. Weston's version of the romantic tragedy of Victor Hugo),
at the matinee, drew one of the largest audiences of the season.
In Boucicault's Irish "sensation" melodrama, Colleen Bawn,7 at the
7For an account of the origin of this ultraromantic piece, see Townsend Walsh,
The Career of Dion Boucicault (New York, 1915), Chapter VIII.447
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959, periodical, 1959; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101173/m1/544/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.