Ada Dyas, Comedienne

Ada Dyas, comedienne, must have taken the train from Norwalk, Connecticut to reach her stage work in New York. This ad in the Byrnes’ Dramatic Times from the 1880s is ambiguous for its very simplicity. Was she looking for work? Was she merely announcing she had arrived? Maybe both.

Ada Dyas, born in 1843, was an Irish actress who played in “Henry IV” in London in 1861, and would later become famous for her featured or starring roles in comedies. One of these most famous plays was Dion Boucicault’s “The Shaugraun.” We mentioned in this previous post that playwright/actor Mr. Boucicault played at Boston’s Hollis Theater in the late 1880s.

Here is link to a photo of Ada Dyas in “The Shaugraun.” We have another portrait of her as described by novelist Edith Wharton in “The Age of Innocence” (D. Appleton & Co., NY, 1920). In the book, the character Newland Archer is captivated by the scene in the play where Dyas and the hero part in romantic silence.

“The actress, who was standing near the mantlepiece and looking down into the fire, wore a gray cashmere dress, without fashionable loopings or trimmings, moulded to her tall figure and flowing in long lines down her back….” Wharton goes on to describe the famous scene where the actor in silent parting kisses one of the ribbons.

Edith Wharton, less romantically, remarks, “Miss Dyas was a tall red-haired woman of monumental build,” with a “pale and pleasantly ugly face…”

Her ungainly appearance, even more than her talent for it, would have consigned Miss Dyas to the comedienne’s roles. But, in her obituary in the New York Times, March 13, 1908, Ada Dyas is recalled in more dignified terms.

“She belonged to a school of actresses taught to pronounce the English language with marked accuracy.” Truly, a product of a bygone era was Miss Dyas of London, New York, and Norwalk, Connecticut.

Thomas Mitchell Tours in "Death of a Salesman"

“Death of Salesman” by Arthur Miller was a Broadway hit of 1949. Two years later in November 1950 its Broadway run ended. A few months later in January of 1951, Thomas Mitchell starred as Willy Loman at the Court Square Theater in Springfield, Mass. as the road show toured New England.

Mr. Mitchell, one Hollywood’s greatest character actors who had performed in some of Hollywood’s greatest films, was making the transition in 1951 from films to television roles. The better part of the 1950s he played on TV, but before this transition he had made an earlier one from stage to movies.

Thomas Mitchell had first appeared on Broadway in 1916, and through the 20s had been a stage actor until Hollywood gave him a new career. He was actually the first actor ever to win the three awards: the Tony, the Emmy, and the Oscar.

But from January 8th through the 10th, 1951, he was Willy Loman in Springfield.

One-year blog anniversary.

This blog was started a year ago tomorrow. Thank you for the pleasure of your company.

Upcoming plays for January 2010

Upcoming plays in New England for January 2010:

At Boston’s Colonial Theatre:
“Strega Nona” is the musical tale of a friendly magical witch- with a funny name- who strives to cure the ills of her tiny Italian town of Calabria. The baker has bunions ("As big as an onion"), his daughter wishes for witchery, and the local single ladies are always unlucky in love. The town faces real problems when a local lug named Big Anthony sneaks a peek at Strega Nona's magic book and uses Strega Nona’s magical ways for selfish means. When Anthony fools with the magic pasta pot, and can't figure out how to turn it off, pasta threatens to engulf the whole town -- unless Strega Nona can save the day. With an energetic and tuneful score by composer Aron Accurso, this fantastical tale teaches that witches can be good, and that and you can’t judge a pot by its pasta!

At the Hartford Stage:
“Gee's Bend” By Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder runs from January 14th through February 11th.
Directed by Hana Sharif, “Meet the women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, who sing hauntingly beautiful gospel melodies as they create magnificent handmade quilts. The story of the women of Gee’s Bend, who quilted their way to economic freedom, already has touched millions of people who witnessed their stunning quilt work through a national exhibition tour, and features in Newsweek, House and Garden and Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine.”

At the Majestic Theater of West Springfield, Massachusetts: “Almost Maine” by John Cariani runs January 7th to February 14th. “The story takes place under the Northern Lights on a cold and clear night in the mythical town of Almost. It got its name because it’s, “not an actual town” as one of the locals explains, “since we only almost got around to gettin’ organized.” But the residents there do fall in and out of love in unexpected and hilarious ways. Knees get bruised. Hearts get broken. But the bruises heal, and the hearts mend in this magical play. “ALMOST, MAINE” aims for the heart by way of the
funny bone – and hits ‘em both!”

At the Merrimack Repertory Theater in Lowell, Mass
“Fabuloso” by John Kolvenbach runs January 7th through the 31st.

“Do you have a friend who is the life of the party? But what if that friend never left and the party never stopped? Teddy and Kate are living a quiet existence in their one-bedroom apartment, until Teddy’s long lost friend, Arthur, appears out of the blue, with his fiancée in tow. A screwball comedy of living life to the fullest. (Contains Adult Situations and Adult Language).”

At Maine’s The Portland Stage:
“The Mystery of Irma Vep” by Charles Ludlam runs January 26th through February 21st.
“A hilariously exaggerated spoof of Gothic horror and Victorian melodrama in which an unsuspecting woman marries a mysterious Lord, only to discover that the presence of his first wife still haunts the manor house. Complete with vengeful vampires and damsels in distress, Irma Vep is filled with witty literary allusions, subversive political jabs and one of the funniest “penny dreadful” plots ever to take the stage!"

At the American Repertory Theatre, Boston, from January 7th through February 7th:

“Gatz”
“One morning in the low-rent office of a mysterious small business, an employee finds a copy of The Great Gatsby in the clutter of his desk. He starts to read it out loud, and doesn’t stop. At first his coworkers hardly notice. But after a series of strange coincidences, it’s no longer clear whether he’s reading the book or the book is doing something to him.”

“An audacious theatrical tour de force, Gatz is not a stage adaptation of Fitzgerald’s novel, but a reading of the entire book – brilliantly brought to life by one of New York’s most exciting and acclaimed theater companies, Elevator Repair Service.

A fully staged theatrical production in which every word of the novel is spoken, verbatim, by the cast of 13 actors, who speak the dialogue of the characters. The actor who plays Nick Carraway speaks all of the narration.”

At The Bushnell, Hartford, Connecticut:

“In The Heights” runs from January 5th through the 10th.
“In The Heights, winner of four 2008 Tony Awards® including BEST MUSICAL, is a sensational new show about chasing your dreams and finding your true home.
In The Heights is an exhilarating journey into a vibrant Manhattan community – a place where the coffee is light and sweet, the windows are always open, and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music.”

And at Boston’s The Huntington:

The American classic “All My Sons” by Arthur Miller runs January 8th through February 27th. Directed by David Esbjornson at the B.U. Theatre – Mainstage.

See you in 2010...

Taking the week off. Thanks for the pleasure of your company in 2009. See you in 2010...

Christmas Night Performance in Boston 1941

Christmas, for actors and actresses, is sometimes a celebration fit in between performances. In December 1941, when Pearl Harbor earlier in the month had already established that this would be the first wartime Christmas, Ruth Gordon played the Majestic Theatre in Boston.

From her “My Side - The Autobiography of Ruth Gordon” (Harper & Row, NY, 1976), Ruth Gordon captures a moment.

“Two days of dress rehearsals and open Christmas night…I hurried out onto Avery Street, deep in slush. No empty taxi, a cold rain beating down, dress rehearsal at two-thirty. I rushed along Tremont Street. No need to dodge the puddles; my feet and legs were soaked. I could feel the cold water squish. Only a few blocks, cross Boylston, then up the alley to the Majestic stage door. Just beyond it and across the alley is the stage door to the Colonial. Had Hazel Dawn ever had to run through rain and slush? I was perspiring from having hurried so. What if I took cold? What if tomorrow my voice was ragged? Or gone altogether? All those lines, all those words, all those changes and cuts and additions!”

Opening Christmas night, peace on earth, and anxiety backstage. Always, for the actor, putting one’s career on the line with every show.

“Backstage was taut with excitement, nerves, good wishes. Actors are great. None of us thought the show would make it, but the good wishes didn’t sound like that. One last sip of water, one last trip to the ladies, one last pat of the powder puff, last prayer to God, then wait in the wings. Deep breath. Cue, open the door On! A burst of applause, the first line.”

The play, which she does not name, got bad notices. As Miss Gordon wrote to Orson Welles afterward, “The Mayor of Boston gave me the key to the city, the pubic gave me the gate.”

The second week of performances was cancelled. They took the show on to Philadelphia. In five months, it was back to Broadway for Ruth Gorden in May 1942 with “The Strings, My Lord, Are False.” Directed by Elia Kazan, it ran 15 performances. The same play? Or another opening, another flop? One hopes her shoes dried out from the icy slush of Tremont Street by then.

Road Show - "Mister Roberts" at the Court Square Theater

Another opening, another road show. Here we have the program for “Mister Roberts”, which came to the Court Square Theater, Springfield, Massachusetts from December 11th through 16th, 1950, when the Court Square entered the period its last golden years.

Directed by Joshua Logan, the play starred Curtis Cooksey as The Captain, Robert Burton as Doc, and Don Fellows as Ensign Pulver. Cooksey and Burton were veterans, who first trod the boards on Broadway in 1915 and 1916, and Cooksey had appeared in several silent films. Both had worked in early television as well.

Don Fellows came to the road show from the original Broadway hit, where he was part of the ensemble. He had also originated the role of Lt. Buzz Adams in “South Pacific” and appeared in a number of Broadway musicals, films, and television in his long career.

The cast also included a couple of newbies who would one day become famous names, Jack Klugman and Lee Van Cleef.