BEHIND THE FOOTLIGHTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8549, 5 October 1907, Page 3

BEHIND THE FOOTLIGHTS.

Miss Rosina Buckmann will be the leading lady in Mr Alfred Hill's opera, "A Moorish Maid," on its production in Dunedin. Mr Alfred Woods and Miss Maud Williamson, who are now in South Africa, expect to be in Australia for -Christmas. Mr Woods is playing Wilfred Denver in "The Silver King" in South Africa. Mr Charles MacMahon is, it is un-

derstood, contemplating exploiting •■*New. Zealand shortly with a biograph 'illustrative of Rolf Boldrevvood's '' well-known book, "Robbery Under Arms." Chester Fentress, who toured New Zealand recently with the Irish ballad sirger, Marie Narelle, banked £I,OOO in one year as a result of the engagement. Fentress has just refused £2O per week, offered by Ramaciotti, for comic opera work, and is to "tenor" at "Pennydom," a Shipman enterprise at Sydney, for a good salary. The Holloway Company have replaced the "Two Little Vagabonds" with "The Coal King," which is having a triumphant run at the Melbourne Bijou. Mr Harcourt Beatty, with Mr Gaston Mervale. and the newly-imported Meynell and Gunn lady star, Miss Madge Mcintosh, have been appearing at the Sydney Royal in a melodrama, "Her Love Against the World." The new lady is well spoken of, but the piece does not appear to be very much. One Sydney paper says of it:—"Summed up, 'Her Love Against .the World' is mediocre stuff, whose innate foolishness is. mitigated by gorgeous nonentity and generally sound acting." Mr Henry Hayward. of the WestBrescians, is bringing out to the colonies the great Egyptian conjurors and entertainers, Maskelyne and Cooke. Miss Maud Hildyard, who is to appear for the first time in Wellington next week, is said to be a sensational actress of most powerful personality. Her costumes are described as the finest ever seen in the colonies.

Dunedin figures largely in the pre- »■ sent Julius Knight Dramatic Ccm- " pany, s five natives of the Edinburgh of the South being in the caste: Reynolds Denniston, A. J. Patrick, E. J. Wiseman, E. Odell, and Walter Monk.. Mr Bland Holt's reproduction at the Melbourne Royal of the dramatic adaptation of Hall Caine's striking novel, "The Bondsman," appears to have been a. complete success. Mr Geo. Rignold gets a great deal of kudos for his powerfully realistic impersonation of the part of Jason. • Mrs Evel/n Nesbit Thaw has promptly denied a story that, weary of solitude, she was going on the New York stage this autumn. She says that she has only taken one singing lesson, and that was because her voice is getting weak. The doctor recommended it. Scarcely a day passes when the demure little figure, quite plainly dressed for a New York lady, fails to call at the gloomy gaol bringing with her table delicacies for her husband and packets of cigarettes. Harry Thaw looks forward to these visits, and has admitted that his wife has done more to cheer him up in prison than anything else. He expects to be tried again in November, and in the event of an acquittal says he •will go on tour round the world with his wife. "The picture of loneliness and desolation" is the description given by a Johannesburg correspondent of the condition of the grave of the onceadored and beautiful Kate Vaughan. It is stated that the last resting place of'the famous dancer has been sadly neglected, and that alongside the other well-kept graves it presents a pathetic appearance. The grave is surmounted by a small stone cross, such as is usually placed over the grave of a child, with an inscription stating the date of death and bearing the epitaph: "One has to pass through life to reach eternity." A number of English music-hall •artists who went over to America about the time of the variety strike have returned to London, amongst them being Miss Vesta Victoria and Miss Alice Lloyd. The former lady •was exceedingly popular in New York, where she repeated, with "Daddy wouldn't buy me a bowavow," the success—her first big success —won by that curious ditty in England. "Everybody wanted to give me the bow-wow daddy wouldn't buy me," she said, on her return to England, "and if I had taken them all, the Dogs' Home would have been a quiet place compared to mine." j West's Pictures and the Brescians •will shortly tour Tasmania under the | management of Edwin Geach, when, in view of their great popularity in the "tight little island," success is assured. Lewis Waller will return to the London Lyric in December, when he will produce "The Squaw Man," which will be re-christened "An Eng;lish Cowboy." Mr Andrew Mack staged his new piece "The Ragged Earl," at Her Majesty's Tbeafcre, Sydney, last Saturday evening,for the first time in that city, and it was greeted with the same unmistakable approval as marked the succession of revivals which preceded it. The famous .fight especially came in for a large share of applause. Word has been received from Mr J. C. Williamson that he had made final arrangements for a tour of Australasia by Miss Margaret Anglin. This is a most important engagement, as Miss Anglin is considered the leading emotional actress of America. She will be associated with a specially-selected company to support her in her Australian and New Zealand tour. The sporting instinct which is aroused by the production of "Raffles," at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, has no doubt something to do with the popularity of the piece. One evening a galleryite expressed himself in typical language to the effect that "it was the first time he had seen a play in which , "the bloomin' burglar'got off," and it would seem that ftis' sentiments are endorsed in more refined language by the circle and stalls patrons.