n. Frohman consulted with his authors, artists, and
assistants more in his office than in actual rehearsal. In the theater
he was sole auditor and judge. His stage-manager would rarely make
suggestions during rehearsals unless beckoned to and asked by his
manager. When the office-boy came in at rehearsal on some important
business errand, he got a curt dismissal, or at most a brief
consideration of the despatch, contract, or message.

Here is a vivid view of Frohman at rehearsal by one who often sat under
the magic of his direction:

"In the dim theater he sits alone, the stage-manager being at a
respectable distance. If by chance there are one or two others present
directly concerned in the production, they all sit discreetly in the
extreme rear. The company is grouped in the wings, never in the front.
The full stage lights throw into prominence the actors in the scene in
rehearsal. Occasionally the voice of Mr. Frohman calls from the
auditorium, and the direction is sometimes repeated more loudly by the
stage-manager. Everybody is listening and watching.

"The wonderfully responsive and painstaking nature of Maude Adams is
fully alive, alert, and interested in Mr. Frohman's directions even in
the scenes in which she has no personal part, during which, very likely,
she will half recline on the floor near the proscenium--all eyes and
ears.

"Or perhaps it is a strong emotional scene in which Margaret Anglin is
the central character. At the theatrically most effective point in the
acting the voice breaks in, Miss Anglin stops, hastens to the
footlights, and listens intently to a few simple, quiet words. Over her
face pass shadow and storm, and in her eyes tears form. Again she begins
the scene, and yet again, with cumulative passion. Each time, with each
new incitement from the sympathetic director, new power, deeper feeling,
keener thought develop, until a great glow of meaning and of might fills
the stage and the theater with its radiance. Mr. Frohman is at last
satisfied, and so the play moves on."

Just as Frohman loved humor in life, so did he have a rare gift for
comedy rehearsal. William Faversham pays him this tribute:

"I think Charles Frohman was the greatest comedy stage-manager that I
have known. I do not think there was a comedy ever written that he could
not rehearse and get more out of than any other stage-director I have
ever seen--and I have seen a good many. If he had devoted himself, as
director