Show I I AH ACTRESS 1 ARTS Society Women not a Success on the Stage SOME REQUISITES TO GREATNESS 4 The Director of the American Academy of Dramatic Arta Gives the Necessary Neces-sary Requirements FOB TIIE SUNDAT HERALD Copyrighted r CTING is an art which Jrtf l must helearn JhJ r f Ii ed by hard study both on < jL 1 I and off the r stage It requires J C r t re-quires much n y T and varied j X IF preparation s Jlf Of course natural 1 J V i lqt l tural gifts area 1 are-a power in thl t themselves 1ft i 1 but It requires experiences to lit 1t il ° v I ripen them fh I and it is only a by study that even the simplest sim-plest effects can be properly reached To be natural on the stage is not a matter of casual mood but of trained habit A young woman may be exceptionally well gifted She may bo pretty have a good facial expression a fine speaking YOica a commanding stature and have the necessary physical conditions and yet be unable to portray the emotions of the human hu-man mind in such a manner as to be entertaining enter-taining and intelligible to others Let anyone go upon tho stage before an audience and say the same things and act the same deeds which ordinarily occur in everyday life and he will appear wholly atupid and uninteresting It will be no more entertaining to an onlooker than is any commonplace visit into any ordinary family such as occurs every day No one is particularly interested or entertained People must be taught how they should I act move walk speak and sing if they are to do these things as perfectly as to please others s Long ago nature might have been so lavish with her children that each man and woman said and did exactly the right thing at the right time and with exactly tho right expression But all that has passed away We are taught in etiquette books and in society to CONCEAL OUR EMOTIONS Aladylike monotone with smooth and even accent and a VOIce that never rises or falls beyond a certain pitch are things ordinarily i ordinar-ily to be cultivated Never in ordinary parlor conversation must the face express extreme emotion Passion rageangerdis gust contempt pleasure and surprise must all be veiled beneath an outward mask of serenity The woman of breeding will never show by the lifting of an eyelid that the thinks a person is bad tempered unkind or even crueL At all times a beautiful calm overspreads her features she walks slowly I I slow-ly speaks deliberately and whatever effect she may wish to produce she does entirely by means of little ways andactions that are I c pretty rather than effective In a parlor fttU may be quite agreeable but upon the 1 J 1 c 1r lW stage the effect is lost and the woman I would appear inane and lifeless It is because of this that tho theatrical managers dread the society woman who goes upon the stage She may in the first place have prestige and name as a social leader and if sho is connected with a fine family and has gone upon the stage because of domestic or other disturbances this fact goes far to arouse curiosity in advance from an indulgent public whohaving heard of her previously are willing to go once to see her behind the footlights All this Is very well as long as the newness I ness and freshnoss and novelty lasts but there comes a time when the society women wo-men having been seen once by all the world must sink into oblivion in the minds of the fairminded public They see that actuated by motives other than those which should impel anyone CHOOSING A VOCATION the actress is either frivolous vain indolent indo-lent incompetent They notice that she does not improve and that having seen her once and gratified their curiosity they have seen all that there is to bo seen Tho pretty little mannerisms sweet voice style and figure which in the first place made my lady attractive upon tho stage aro not sufficient suf-ficient to keep them interested beyond the first nights performance And that is the reason that high standard schools of acting and theatrical managers hesitate to take a society woman and bring here before the public Occasionally there will be one that will find that she has chosen the proper vocation and will after a time devote herself her-self to the study so earnestly that good results re-sults are achieved but more often there is no improvement after the first week and the manager finds that ho has a star who is a white elephant upon his hands and who cannot keep her place before the public In examining candidates for our school of acting 1 frequently have young women come to me and mention the fact as a point in their favor that they are never nervous when appearing before the public They say that they are always calm cool collected col-lected and unimpressionable When I satIsfy sat-isfy myself that this is really the case and that a young woman cannot be aroused sons so-ns to exhibit or atleast to feel nervousness I at once make up my mind that she is wholly unsuitable for the stage A successful success-ful actress must be highly nervous she must be scared when she goes behind the footlightsher heart must beat faster as sho sees tile audience There must bo a state of nervous tremor and she must feel in sympathy with the audience or she will be wholly unsuccessful in catching their attention atten-tion and holding their interest throughout the part 1 s i r s Ir r dl A Per Fr I V lG I SUPPOSE THAT OPPOSITE TOO STANDS TOUR LOVER ONE OF Olin FIRST TESTS in examining candidates is to put them upon the stage and after picturing a dramatic I dram-atic scene and locating the characters ask them to say certain lines I say to ayoun woman Suppose that opposite you stands r f t sf 7 7 i = r your lover between you and him is your I father who objects to your attachment for your lover ana seeks to estrange you A woman who is the heavy villain of the play I stands in the background scowling and lowering upon you Your lover says I am wrong Forgive forgive Show this woman that you can forgive How would you reply and where would you locate these characters Now a young woman with the true dramatic instinct will locate all these characters char-acters put them in their right positions upon the stage and keeping each one in her own mind will say her lines so vividly that you can see in your minds eye each and every character She may not being untaught say the lines with proper inflection inflec-tion but you can plainly see that she realizes real-izes how many people are upon the stage where they are and to whom she should look when making an appeal Another girl with a good voice and apparently ap-parently tho same dramatic properties as the other will have a vague look in her eyes and will say the lines looking here and there and yet nowhere in particular thus robbing them of all interest What kind of a girl do we like best to train for an actress Well it is hard to tell exactly because the subtle element enters Into the composition composi-tion so largely that given all the qualities which I am about to enumerate a young woman might yet come to us and be refused admission We first consider her nationality national-ity The French and Irish are the best as they aro the most adaptable and susceptible suscepti-ble Tho Germans are next if we except Americans who being a mixture of all nationalities I na-tionalities are brightest of all There are I rolls upon the variety stage which make AMEIUCAXS INVALUABLE and their ready wit makes them quick to learn a part and notice those points which upon the first night takes best with an audience The English especially Englishmen English-men are good in society plays Among the Americans the downcasters are the hardest to train They are brainy and smart and have a natural business faculty fac-ulty but they do not do well in roles of sentiment It is the Southern girl with her sensitive temperament emotional nature na-ture and dreamy eyes who can moo her audience and carry her hearers with her through all the varying lights and shades of domestic life inwrought with unhappiness unhappi-ness and tragedy As to height it is a great disadvantage to be short because however artistic one may become in adding an assumed height to ones own stature tho actor can never quite overcome the defect with which nature bas handicapped him If an actress she will always find that it is difficult for her to play stately or commanding parts If she is slight she can add to her height by making mak-ing conspicuous her litheness and slenderness slender-ness Vocal quality vocal expression and pantomimic pan-tomimic action must all be taken into account ac-count in examining the qualifications of aspirants Some people have naturally a good voice a good walk and an expressive lace Others have to acquire these The former are fortunate while the latter are not but these things are wholly aside from tho dramatic instinct Without this last an actress is never a success beautifully Rifted though she may be But give ber this instinct in-stinct and she is a success from the beginning begin-ning because she had that which cannot be acquired and to which all other things are subservient THE BRIGHTEST GIRLS who over como to us are those who have been on the variety stage They have been before the public for a year or two and have decided to learn those things which will enable en-able them to take part in the legitimate i drama Nothing ever disconcerts them no audience can ever throw them out of countenance coun-tenance They como to us to receive the finishing touches Wo have only to prune and to refine to teach them little elegances of manner and speech which they have not learned They are our best pupils Ordinarily with people who lack training or stage experience expression is conveyed by the face At best the hands are brought into use but rarely la the rest of the body called upon to perform any office other than that of a vehicle to hold the head and arms Now this is entirely wrong Tbo body must talk and one abeuld be able to show by the movemeats of the body whether one 1 f < < t is pleased on unhappy and whether one is agreeing with the speaker or disagreeing 1 gy l It t s 1 lilT is XOT 50tt Take tho simple sentence It is not BO Think of how many ways there are of saying say-ing that without uttering a sound Let us leave out all except the one sequence that comes with emphasis To begin with suppose sup-pose you wish to fay simply and as quietly as possible It is not so Without speaking speak-ing a word a closing of the eyelids and a slight drooping of the mouth expresses this sentence Wo repeat the thougnt more emphatically em-phatically This time the eyes are closed the mouth droops the nose contracts slightly slight-ly very slightly and the head is turned a little to one side There is a slight closing of the hand Again It is not so7 The right hand sweeps across the body with a negative gesturo toward the rignt the back of tho baqd is uppermost and the head moves toward to-ward the left with a negative turn that is almost a shake Once more It is not so And now the whole body moves The hips shoulders and bead seem to be turning violently vio-lently away as if in UTTER ABHORRENCE of the idea while the hand sweeps away as if it were brushing thought of tho object from the mind But one more way remains without actual act-ual speech and that is to rise with all these negative gestures to rush from the room with a long stride that indicates grief disgust dis-gust denial and despair Lifting the shoulders and lifting the chin are strong expressions They are rare and should only boused when abandonment and intense emotion are indicated Ayoung woman or a young man wishing to judge of eligibility to a school of acting cannot bo his own critic as to points of expression ex-pression The only thing that can be self determined is a natural fondness for tho wore and the knowledge that one has the ordinary requisites for the stage to wit a fair education sensitive temperament and no serious physical defect As to age wo I prefer scholars from twentythree to thirty For special roles character parts they are eligible beyond those years An actor should possess many accomplishments accom-plishments He should bo able to sing danco and fence have an eye for color and I form as in costuming an ear for every shade ot dialect much business faculty and a mind well stored by observation study and experience The larger the knowledge of other arts the better In the old days beginners In acting were simply apprentices in their dramatic workshops work-shops Now there are schools Such has i has been the educational advance in the I study of actinir that the dramatic vocation bos become a profession as well as a trade demanding knowledge as well as skilL Dramatic training first strengthens and tunes the actors instrument tbe body and the voice It educate the mind to a fuller realizatiom of the power aad qualitiea of action ditties and stape effect tban the experience et real life afford Careful training train-ing help sad derelop not only the tech 6 S Y y < a < < nlque of the stage and dramatic effect but also the very spirit of the different parts in the play I would say to everyone who wishes to go upon the stage Abandon all hopes of sudden sud-den success and devote yourself honestly earnestly and thoughtfully to systematic drill and training FjajfKiix H SABOEXT Director of the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts |