Vaudeville

Last year the University of Arizona Library, Special Collections received a very large and important donation of material from the American Vaudeville Museum in Boston. Thanks to David Soren in the Classics Department (if that Dept. still exists) who was a Vaudevillian performer as a kid, and others, UA was chosen over Harvard to receive the collection of some four thousand items.

At the time, I happened to be reprising my brief turn as "The Italian Director" (a true bit of comic genius) in one of the Cabaret Boheme shows. Frank Cullen (I believe his name was), one of the curators from the Museum and also a vaudeville performer of sorts, came by to watch our last dress rehearsal. Esther, Cindy, Jolene, April, Pip, Bryan, Sophia, Miguel and the other real performers of Cabaret Boheme put on quite a show that night, even in the small rehearsal space.

Wouldn't it be great tonight if I started the "Stanislavsky in America" presentation talking about Vaudeville? That would surprise people - what the heck. If I am tracing the lines of work through America and some even back to Tucson it might be worth a try. The Vaudeville one might not be complete or might be a stretch or it might not be legitimate. I don't know. I would have to do a little research between now and tonight.

At one time in Russia, during the hey-day of the Moscow Art Theatre, it was forbidden during Lent for theatres to have performances. So actors and others during that time would get together and put together cabaret and vaudeville shows to entertain themselves. They took the name cabbage parties - because they ate a lot of cabbage during Lent. Hey, Stanislavsky has a whole chapter on this in "My Life in Art." Anyway, there a was friend of the Moscow Art Theatre, a want to be serious actor named Nikita Balieff. He begged and begged to be in some shows and eventually got some small parts (yea, yea, I know...there are no small parts only small actors...). But apparently he was one of those guys who couldn't keep a straight face and just made people laugh by his looks and presence. Therefore, he found himself as the main organizer and director of the cabbage parties for the Moscow Art Theatre. Eventually, they got an actual space for these performances and it was called "The Bat." As the Moscow Art Theatre had the emblem of The Seagull on its curtain, this place had one that looked just like that except it was a bat. The place became a famous after hours joint for artists and actors. It became the place to go for fun for visitors to Moscow at that time. Many of the most famous actors of the MAT and other theatres performed there on occasion.

Come the revolution and Balieff like so many had to leave Russia. Eventually he reorganized "The Bat" in Paris and Prague and Berlin and other cities around Europe. And finally in America, in New York. When Stanislavsky and the MAT came to perform in America, they went to The Bat club to see and participate again in the performances. For a stretch of time then "The Bat" was a happening place in New York with its Vaudeville and Cabaret Performances.

I'll have to make this work tonight somehow in a quick five minutes!