Jennie Jane Kennark (1893)

In 1896, the second stock season was a slight roller coaster ride with a positive ending. It was described concisely as follows:

In 1896, Mrs. Elitch signed J. H. Huntley to direct a resident stock company, headed by Jennie Kennark (who had been leading actress at Manhattan Beach the previous season) in a series of popular melodramas. The season opened with Rosedale, a Lester Wallack success. After six weeks of melodrama, however, and a few unsatisfactory notices, the organization of the company was changed. Huntley, who was not very popular with audiences or with newspaper reviewers, was replaced by Walter Edwards, leading man at Manhattan Beach in 1895. Since there had been criticism against the type of plays being offered, the plays under the direction of Edwards were lighter – more comedy-drama and comedy and less melodrama.

Huntley left the company on July 11,1896. Walter Edwards became director on July 12,1896. Theatergoers and drama critics approved of the change to Edwards and of the new play selections. The first play directed by Edwards was J. K. Tillotson’s A Gilded Crime. The newspaper review carried the following comment:

A Gilded Crime seemed to please the audiences greatly … Walter Edwards’ presence has strengthened the company materially…

Maude Fealy, who was to become a well-known Denver actress, made her debut in the Theatre during this season, playing children’s roles. She first appeared during the week of July 19th in Henry C. De Mille’s The Lost Paradise.

Among the many other plays presented during the season were Richard Blanchard’s The Galley Slave, William Haworth’s Ferncliff and Steel MacKaye’s Hazel Kirke. Hazel Kirke was written in 1880 and was “among the very first plays to send out road companies, five of them touring while the original production remained in New York.

[Borrillo, Theodore A., (2012). Denver’s historic Elitch Theatre : a nostalgic journey (a history of its times). pp. 29.]