“Beyond the shadow of a doubt the most promising figure upon the American stage to-day is Helen Ware. This exceptionally talented young player has been progressing in Broadway theatricals for the past five years, showing constant growth and development with each succeeding season–until now she is but one part removed from stardom; with her next new role is to come stellar glories.
Miss Ware was born in San Francisco, Cal., her parents being John August and Elinor (Ware) Remer, but she passed her youth in New York City, gaining her schooling at the public schools and the Normal College.
She started up the stage ladder the season of 1899-00 as an ‘extra’ with Maude Adams in ‘The little Minister,’ and the season after this she was Miss Carlton in ‘An American Gentleman,’ with William Bonelli and Rose Stahl. In the fall of 1901 Miss Ware was seen with Blanche Bates in ‘Under Two Flags, ‘ playing Lady Venetia and acting as understudy to the star. Owing to Miss Bates’ illness she played Cigarette with signal success for a week, being discharged immediately thereafter, since then no understudy has ever filled Miss Bates’ shoes. Miss Ware finished out this broken season as Lygia in ‘Quo Vadis,’ and with Harry Corson Clarke Stock, Washington, D.C. The season of 1902-3, she was first with Jane Kennark in ‘Under Two Flags,’ then with the Woodard Stock, touring Missouri and Kansas, next with the Powers Stock, Grand Rapids, Mich., and finally with the Rodriquez Stock, Parkersburg, W. Va. After this strenuous season, Miss Ware played Madame Alvarez in ‘Soldiers of Fortune,’ with Robert Edeson, followed by a summer term with the Lyceum Theatre Stock, Rochester, N.Y. She passed the season of 1904-5 with Balnche Walsh, playing the Princess Marie in ‘Resurrection’ and Dora Miller in ‘The Woman in the Case,’ and that summer she was with the Hunter-Bradford Stock, Hartford, Conn. Miss Ware began the next season as Miss Warmester in ‘His Grace de Garmmont,’ with Otis Skinner,following which she was seen with Mabel Taliferro as Meg Monahan in ‘In the Bishop’s Carriage,’ then came Aloysia Weber in ‘The Greater Love,’ supporting Howard Kyle, and finally came a return to Blanche Walsh’s company, this time as Claire Foster in ‘The Woman in the Case.’ It was in Miss Walsh’s support that Miss Ware electrified New Yorkers, in August, 1906, by her Celia in ‘The Kreutzer Sonata,’ an admirable bit of acting and a few months later she scored again as Melena, the gypsy in ‘The Road to Yesterday,’ with Minnie Dupree. The year following she appeared with Arnold Daly in the one-act plays, ‘The Shirkers,’ ‘How He Lied to Her Husband,’ ‘After the Opera’ and ‘The Flag Station,’ and as Prossy in ‘Candida’ and Nellie in ‘The Regeneration,’ and the summer of 1907 she was seen in Chicago as Emma Brooks in ‘Paid in Full.’ She began the season of 1908-09 with Mr. Daly in ‘The Regeneration,’ and then came the triumph of her career, Annie Jefferies in ‘The Third Degree,’ the part that won stellar recognition for her.
Of a most appealing, responsive and sympathetic temperament, Miss Ware’s futrue lies brilliantly before her and no one can deny that it’s possibilities are vast and unlimited.”
Source: The Actors’ Birthday Book, Vol. 3, by Johnson Briscoe, Moffat Yard and Co., N.Y. 1909, page 236
