MADGE KENNEDY PREDICTS GREAT AMERICAN THEATRE

"An American theatre equal in prestige to the Comedie Francaise is the next step in the development of the stage here." Miss Madge Kennedy, star of the stage and screen, declared in a recent interview.

"This American theatre, for which plans are already going forward, must grow out of a permanent stock company with a theatre of its own. It will require time and support from patrons of the theatre. Recent suggestions for the establishment of such a theatre outside New York seem to me unfortunate. Only in New York can such an enterprise enjoy the atmosphere it deserves.

Stage Here Still Young

"The stage in this country has had a long youth and a great opportunity for experimentation. It has prospered through the ability of the actors to fall on their feet. Until recent years the great majority of the players have had little education outside the rough and tumble school of the theatre. Through such a life the actor has broadened surprisingly.

"Now, however, college-trained men are numbered among the best players of the theatre, having stepped into the boots of their stage-trained fathers. It is proposed to make this a tradition, so far as traditions may be established arbitrarily. Mr. Wallace Eddinger's scholarship plan proposed some months ago for Harvard's amateur actors seems to me excellent.

Degree Not Indispensible

"Perhaps college-bred men are broader at the beginning of their careers on the stage. I am not sure, however, that a college degree is indispensible. But I am sure that an assured subsidy for stage study abroad and a guarantee of parts on Broadway would begin a new era on the stage.

"The stage is now changing under our eyes, but there are factors which never change. To every young amateur I recommend the cultivation of two qualities, courage and amiability. I am not convinced that we need to be self conscious; it comes by itself. The play assumes such importance, becomes so inexorable a force with us, that we never even question our obligations.

"While I was playing in 'Poppy', the young man who played opposite me was in the care of a surgeon. Immediately following a very painful operation he went on the stage. He never hesitated about it. But throughout the evening he was revived to consciousness before each entrance and managed to complete the play under the stimulus of smelling salts.

"Players must have confidence in that courage of their supporters. This confidence comes rather slowly. It is carefully built up and the substitution of an understudy undermines this stable ground of assurance. I imagine that nowhere is that so true as in vaudeville. There speed is the vital force.

Burlesque Craze in New York

"I have become interested in the growing craze for burlesque, a craze which took New York by storm. Burlesque, under this popularity, is being improved in theatrical and moral quality. The greatest rage is the negro burlesque.

"There is a phase of the theatre utterly new, and in great contrast to the American tradition. Such shows specialize in naivetes. They are exotic and childlike. They cast plays with a naturalness and a simplicity native to their race