More than twenty years ago several attempts were made to establish a vaudeville theatre in this city; two houses were built at different times for the purpose, but they were short-lived, dying out for lack of patronage. Within the last three years, however, the city's population having greatly increased, no less than four have been started here, two of which survive and seem to be doing well.
During the early years of the drama in Utah, several of the towns besides Salt Lake had very talented companies. Provo, Springville, Ogden, Brigham City, and St. George each had fairly good theatres and many very capable players. It is somewhat remarkable, however, that out of the hundreds of persons who have "gone on the stage" in Utah, so few have drifted into the profession and left their homes to follow it; the percentage is very small. Miss Sarah Alexander was the first to drift off, and although she has not made much stir on the stage herself, she has chaperoned her niece Miss Lisle Leigh to fine success. Mr. James M. Hardie was the next to break away; then Miss Anne Adams, Mr. Logan Paul and the writer complete the list so far as the Salt Lake Stock Company is concerned. Later Miss Ada Dwyer and Mr. DeWitt Jennings. This is accounted for by the fact that, much as the Mormons love the theatre, they love their homes and their religion better. The theatre is a pleasant pastime with them, but the staying at home and building up of their kingdom is a religious duty, and unless they are "called on a mission," they prefer to stay with home and Church.
CHAPTER XXV.
CONCLUSION.
A few reflections on the theatre and its work in concluding this little history may not be out of place.
The cultivation and progress of the drama in connection with its kindred arts, poesy and painting, marks the progress of civilization, culture and refinement at any given period in any country. Without the aid of the theatre and the actors' art, the great majority of mankind would remain in ignorance as to the works of the most gifted writers; without those great reflectors of human thought, how many thousands there have been and are who never would have heard or read the plays of Shakespeare and other writers of genius, but who, by the assistance of the actor's delineations, have become familiar with the most sublime and beautiful thoughts and sentiments that adorn our language. I make mention particularly of Shakespeare's plays, as they are beyond all question the greatest and grandest compositions ever written. Among the thousands of plays that have been written during and since the great dramatic renaissance of Elizabeth's reign, they still stand out incomparable as models par excellence of dramatic composition, challenging competition, and as yet unrivaled after a lapse of more than three centuries.
That the stage is a great factor in our modern civilization, for the education of the people, no reading, reflecting person would attempt to deny. It is true that some pernicious things occasionally creep in that would be better suppressed, but they are rare and exceptional. The great bulk of dramatic entertainment is uplifting in its tendencies. The infinite variety of plays presented, showing human life in all conditions, and under every variety of circumstances, can not be otherwise than educational in effect upon those who witness them. However crude or devoid of literary merit a play may be, there seldom is one, however bald in plot or uninteresting in sentiment, but what "points a moral and adorns a tale."
In Shakespeare's day the theatre was even more or an educational institution than it is today. Books were scarce in that age, and the newspapers were an undiscovered medium of information, so that plays (especially historical plays) possessed a wonderful interest for the masses, who had little chance for schooling or the acquirement of knowledge from books.
The old chronicles and legends were freely used by the dramatists of the Elizabethan era, and the incidents of history were made so familiar to the habitues of the theatre that the common people acquired a good knowledge of history by witnessing the representation of those plays. To illustrate how much this was the case, Ben Jonson tells the story of a fellow who, having been taken to task on some question of history and the accuracy of his position being assailed and the authenticity of his assertions being called in question, replied by way of defense: "No, I confess I had it not from the histories but from the play books, and consider them the more authentic."
Many dramas have been written (and more especially by the poets) without perhaps having in view their exploitation on the stage, but like their other poetry, to be read, suitable only for the library, more poetical than dramatic.