The Tri-County News April21, 1916
Singbad the Sailor played to a capacity house at the Camera theater Wednesday
night, and presented one of the best home talent plays ever given in Mounds
Reserved seats were placed on sale at the Postoffice Confectionery Tuesday morning
and long before the doors were opened for the performance the last seat had
been sold. Something over sixty general admissions paid at the door.
As to the play itself, it showed the result of the careful and painstaking work
that has been put in on it by the players for the past several weeks. There
was no stiffness, no forgetting of lines, not a hitch from curtain to curtain.
The players knew their lines and played them easily and naturally. As Singbad,
Frank Chambers was a scream. He played the part as it was supposed to be played--a
wonderful hot air merchant, pompous a universal flirt, but withall full of good
tunes and a dancer who could step to any kind of music, whether a two-step or
a dirge. The trio, "The Music I Like" of which Singbad's dancing was
the feature, was perhaps the best received of any single selection.
The other characters played their parts well, Miss Daisy Wills as the queen,
doing especially well. Mrs Bilbro as the Princess Aminta, reciting her music
lesson, was one of the best numbers. The cannibals performed well, and the cannibal
king was a very ferocious being indeed.
Miss Ethel Coffman proved to be an accompanist of ability. The success or failure
of an amateur musical often rests with the accompanist, and Miss Coffman is
of the best.
Minor Sisson, with crude materials such as an old curtain and a little kalsomine,
painted an appropriate back drop for the cannibal chorus. L. F. Bilbro excels
as a stage carpenter as well as a cannibal king.
The receipts were all that could have been asked, and everyone connected with
the play was well satisfied. To accommodate those who were unable to obtain
seats Wednesday night, the play will be repeated at the Camera Monday night.
An offer of a nice guarantee from Kiefer has been made, and it is likely that
arrangements will be made to stage "Singbad" there some time soon.