1916 Yearbook
Source URL
Title
1916 Yearbook
Description
"The Fortune Hunter'
"I TELL YOU what, boys, there's some property on that stage right
A now!" and Matt Lamb's experienced eye, as it took a last critical
survey of the setting, twinkled its evidence that all the demands
of his professional instinct for scenic effect were amply satisfied.
Then the curtain rose on the third act, and the capacity audience that crowded the College auditorium on the night of June
7, 1915, lost no time discovering that Mr. Lamb was right. There
was, indeed, property on the stage, and it was arranged with a skill and a taste
one rarely hopes to find in the presentation of amateur productions; yet the annual
class play of 1915, in the opinion both of the management and of the audience,
owed its gratifying success not merely to capable stage direction and scenic
beauty, but to the genuine talent developed by thorough coaching into the real
acting of the members of the cast.
People attend college theatricals for various reasons. Fathers and mothers,
relatives and friends, come perhaps out of natural interest in a son or friend who
is taking part in the play; others buy a ticket or two from a sincere wish to
help the institution or the cause for whose benefit the amatuer production is
being staged; some attend the show in a complacent mood of patronizing philanthropy; others out of the merest curiosity as to what the nature of the college
programs may be, and still others just to convince themselves there is and can
be no acting outside the professional theatre.
Most of those who attended "The Fortune Hunter" at St. Ambrose last June
were either quite pleasantly surprised or agreeably disappointed. The just pride
of parents and friends in their favorite student performers, was fully vindicated
in the excellent behavior and the unmistakable evidence of talent they saw in
their proteges; loyal patrons of the institution had no ground to regret the support they gave; the curious and the hypercritical found a "home talent" play, the
clever execution of whose truly difficult parts, sadly disarranged the faultfinder's
neatly ordered convictions as to the hopelessly mediocre character of amateur
acting. For the earnest work of intelligent coaching had been so well done that
scarcely a weak link could be found in the chain of roles; average material was
"I TELL YOU what, boys, there's some property on that stage right
A now!" and Matt Lamb's experienced eye, as it took a last critical
survey of the setting, twinkled its evidence that all the demands
of his professional instinct for scenic effect were amply satisfied.
Then the curtain rose on the third act, and the capacity audience that crowded the College auditorium on the night of June
7, 1915, lost no time discovering that Mr. Lamb was right. There
was, indeed, property on the stage, and it was arranged with a skill and a taste
one rarely hopes to find in the presentation of amateur productions; yet the annual
class play of 1915, in the opinion both of the management and of the audience,
owed its gratifying success not merely to capable stage direction and scenic
beauty, but to the genuine talent developed by thorough coaching into the real
acting of the members of the cast.
People attend college theatricals for various reasons. Fathers and mothers,
relatives and friends, come perhaps out of natural interest in a son or friend who
is taking part in the play; others buy a ticket or two from a sincere wish to
help the institution or the cause for whose benefit the amatuer production is
being staged; some attend the show in a complacent mood of patronizing philanthropy; others out of the merest curiosity as to what the nature of the college
programs may be, and still others just to convince themselves there is and can
be no acting outside the professional theatre.
Most of those who attended "The Fortune Hunter" at St. Ambrose last June
were either quite pleasantly surprised or agreeably disappointed. The just pride
of parents and friends in their favorite student performers, was fully vindicated
in the excellent behavior and the unmistakable evidence of talent they saw in
their proteges; loyal patrons of the institution had no ground to regret the support they gave; the curious and the hypercritical found a "home talent" play, the
clever execution of whose truly difficult parts, sadly disarranged the faultfinder's
neatly ordered convictions as to the hopelessly mediocre character of amateur
acting. For the earnest work of intelligent coaching had been so well done that
scarcely a weak link could be found in the chain of roles; average material was
Date
1916
Rights
St. Ambrose University, 518 W. Locust St., Davenport, IA 52803
Identifier
http://cdm16810.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16810coll2/id/3495