What could not be done for the people of this land, were we to have a
great and recognised theatre! Consider our speech, and our manner of
speech! Consider our voices, and the production of our voices!
Consider the pronunciation of words, and the curious use of vowels!
Let us say we have an established theatre, to which you come not only
for your pleasure, but for your education. Of what immense advantage
this would be if behind its presiding officer there stood a board of
literary directors, composed of such men as William Winter, Howells,
Edward Everett Hale, and Aldrich, and others equally fine, and the
presidents of the great universities. These men might well decide how
the American language should be spoken in the great American theatre,
and we should then have an authority in this country at last for the
pronunciation of certain words. It would finally be decided whether
to say fancy or fahncy--dance or dahnce--advertisement or
advertysement, and so with many other words; whether to call the
object of our admiration "real elegant"--whether we should say "I
admire" to do this or that, and whether we should say "I guess"
instead of "I think." And the voice! The education of the American
speaking voice is, I am sure all will agree, of immense importance.
It is difficult to love, or to continue to endure, a woman who shrieks
at you; a high-pitched, nasal, stringy voice is not calculated to
charm. This established theatre of which we dream should teach men
and women how to talk; and how splendid it would be for future
generations if it should become characteristic of American men and
women to speak in soft and beautifully modulated tones!
These men of whom I have spoken could meet once a year in the great
green-room of this theatre of my imagination, and decide upon the
works to be produced--the great classics, the tragedies and comedies;
and living authors should be invited and encouraged. Here, again, we
should have at last what we so badly need, an encouragement for men
and women to write poetry for the stage. Nothing by way of the
beautiful seems to be written for us to-day, but perhaps the
acknowledgment and the hall-mark of a great theatre might prove an
incentive.