Lone Wolf

Loneliest of the dramatic arts is the monolog. It is unpopular with male performers, but a handful of U. S. actresses have developed it to a high degree of art within its narrow limits. So far this season, Monologists Ruth Draper and Cornelia Otis Skinner have visited Broadway. Last week Manhattan theatregoers had a chance to witness the work of another capable theatrical lone wolf. She was Helen Howe.

Monologist Howe, who writes her own skits, comes by her penetrating literary manner legitimately. Daughter of a Harvard Overseer, sister of Editor Quincy Howe of The Living Age, she tried one year at Radcliffe, then studied with Georges Vitray in Paris, later at the Theatre Guild's defunct school under Winifred Lenihan. Critics, who had not seen her in Manhattan since 1932, applauded her sly caricatures of the U. S. scene, rated her less profound than Draper & Skinner, wittier than either. Some of the Howe Characters & Caricatures:

A British socialite coyly rehearses some friends in a madrigal to be sung at Christmas. They decide to make the madrigal "Christmasy" by adding ''Noel! Noel!" at the end.

A garden club president instructs fellow-members on the psychological use of flowers in table decoration. One use is "sublimation"--"an Ophelia rose grafted onto President Herbert Hoover."

Dean Gruggs introduces to her charges in a girls' college a Dr. Daisy Bell who will address them on the Facts of Life. Dean Gruggs recalls the curiosity of a little child who once questioned her on a delicate matter. "The little dear said to me: 'Miss Gruggs, where did Kitty come from?' Now girls, you should be able to explain that to the little six-year-old as easily as I did. and you will, after Dr. Daisy Bell's lecture."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.