The Drama of Celebrity by Marcus Sharon;

Author:Marcus, Sharon;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2019-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

Theatrical scrapbookers could rival fan mail writers in their obsessive evaluation of plays and players. As registers of theater attendance, all scrapbooks encode value judgments about what their compilers deemed worth seeing and commemorating. Many scrapbooks included theater reviews, in which professional journalists evaluated actors’ merits. A significant subset of compilers also recorded their own terse but firm assessments of plays and performers. One painstakingly inserted capsule reviews into the small space between character names and actor names on the program for an 1890 performance of As You Like It, distinguishing the “stately … but stage” Olivia from the “vivacious” Maria, the “artistic” Malvolio, the “manly” Sebastian, and the “graceful—sweet—refined” Viola, whose voice was “at times too high.”81 An 1897 compiler wrote of lead performer E. S. Willard: “There is no doubt he is a fine actor and overshadows every one in the caste [sic].”82 In spidery handwriting, the person who began keeping a scrapbook in 1881 opined that Modjeska in Much Ado About Nothing in 1888 was “Charming—Graceful. Sweet voice.” Ten years later, the same compiler found Modjeska “Perfect” in a production of Mary Stuart and was sufficiently impressed to add two rare exclamation points after her name on the cast list pasted into the album. No soft touch, the amateur critic sometimes gave more mixed reviews. In red ink, on the cast list of Augustin Daly’s production of As You Like It, next to the role of Jaques, they noted “Good voice, not magnetic,” while Lilian Olcott in an 1886 version of Theodora was a “V.G. and careful actress. Poor voice—cold. Best in Act 1 Scene 2.”83 Damning the performer with faint praise and noting in exactly which scene she had done her feeble best, this compiler emulated the fine distinctions made by discerning professional reviewers and occupied the position of a connoisseur for whom only the best acting would elicit the highest praise.

A few compilers assessed plays rather than players, laconically doling out grades. Though some scrapbook compilers were enthusiasts, many adopted a highly discriminating attitude and used their albums to demonstrate that they were not easily pleased. The compiler of an 1898 Cleveland scrapbook kept an index of every play seen and assigned each the rank of good, fair, poor, or fine (figure 7.6).84 A young New York woman who went to the theater about once a week used the slang of the day to rate the plays she saw. Those she disliked were “punk,” “rotten,” and “vile”; those she enjoyed ranged from “fair,” “very fair,” and “very good” to “great,” “splendid,” and “perfectly marvelous.”85

FIGURE 7.6. Index to WRHS Akron Academy of Music Scrapbook, 1892–1917, TRI Scrapbook #1.

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