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Show Play Rehearsals Tax Patience and Temper Keheaxsals are trying periods. Everybody Ev-erybody seems to be wearing his nerves outside his skin. The question whether the actor should take three steps to the right and pause with his left hand on the back of a chair, center, cen-ter, before proposing to the heroine or whether he should do it from' the hearthrug, with his left elbow ou the mantelpiece, may threaten the friendship friend-ship of a lifetime. The author wants him to do It from the hearthrug is convinced that from tiiere and there only can he convey to tlvj heroine the depth and sincerity of hiij passion. The producer is positive that' a true gentleman would walk around the top of the table and do It from behind a chair. The actor comes to the rescue. He "feels" he can do It only from the left-hand bottom bot-tom corner of the table. "Oh, well. If you feel as strongly about it as all that, my dear boy," says the producer, "that ends It. It's ' you who've got to play the part." ! "Do you know," says the author, "I 1 think he's right. It does seem to ', come better from there." The rehearsal proceeds. Five minutes min-utes later the argument whether a father fa-ther would naturally curse his child before or after she has taken off her j hat provides a new crisis. Jerome K. I Jerome, In Harper's Magazine. |