Show OTIS OIlS SKINNER SKIN NER TALKS OF BOOTH Actor Recalls First Nights I. I With That Once Foremost Tragedian SOME QUEER SITUATIONS SITUATION S I Plays Those Days Were Not No Arranged as Careful Carefully Y Yr 1 r as They Now Are i v First nights were often queer times time i. i In the Edwin Booth days dars Otis Skinner was enjoying a restful rest rost- t ful fUI hour of ot reminiscence In his room r at rho Tito Players not many hours after atter r his Ills own first night In The Tho Duel Somehow in In the tho old Gramercy Par Park club house with its mellowed memories mom mem orbs ories and relics all talk I is s sure to t 0 insensibly return again aln an and again t to o the tho great presence which seems there thereof of ot all places to bo be Just withdrawn Wo dl didn't nt go so at a play then as w we wedo do o now went on Mr Skinner with wit h r rulo rule and compass plotting out ever every y detail of or the dialogue and business bustness busi bust ness ncsa before the opening night W Wo We rushed into the first performance wit with h little but our enthusiasm and faith that somehow Mr Booth would woul d make mako it all right There Thero were n no 0 elaborate dress rehearsals with eve even n inch of the sot set carefully determined as os Is tho the case caso now And our first performance performance per per- had their surprises now anthen an and d then I assure you Mr 1111 r laughed hed at his recollections I r remember my first night of ot Tho rh o Merchant of ot Venice with Mr Booth when I played playe vary very young youn g and very careful of my dignity I In Inthe n the of ot the c comets caskets the upon uvon Which tho they thoy rested stood upon a raised dai dais I found to m my dismay Imay that th tho table tabla was so large It Jt barely left m ine me e room to stand However Howo by putting g ono one foot in front of the tho other an and l leaning close I managed to cling cUnS' on not too gracefully and went ahead with my mr lines Just In the middle o otho ot of tho the apostrophe to the Uio silver casket S swaying a little too far to windward I su suddenly felt myself going I could couk not step down don without losing my poise polso no tiO vcr very gently I clutched tho the table be be- tilde eido me Unhappily my hand caught caugh a fold of ot the cloth which slowly but bui surely slipped until I ended by reeling reel lug ing hastily off ort the dins followed b by cloth dolli casket and table which happened hap hap- to bo be much too light I had to walt trait ignominiously under tho eyes of ot m my amused Portia until tho the Belmont servants restored order and und I returned to choose from a lower r step with much dampened spirits Rarely The Tiro fact tact that Mr dir Booth rarely v came came to rehearsals used to make first nights with him all the more mora appalling to m my youthful sense I shall never forget fOret once when I X wag was rehearsing for tor my first appearance with the master roaster I was vms to be Francois in Richelieu and was very nervous and deeply impressed with tho the Importance of or my part When at the afternoon rehearsal Just tho the opening night Mr Booth failed to appear I 1 j tool tood aghast f 01 But how I stammered to the stage 6 age manager r. who was reading Mr 1 Booths Booth's lines how am I to know Just where Mr Booth expects me to stand In our scene Z Never cr c mind my boy bo boy said the rho manager soothingly Mr lr Booth will find you at Right night That used to be the favorite reassuring re- re assuring phrase of all aU Mr 1 Booths Booth's managers Dont worry Mr 11 Booth will mako make It all right on tho the stage In to Thoro Thero was little enough h time those days to study things thinS out care- care fully We Yo j just st got ot together and anti trusted sted ed r to inspiration and our chief to got s-et us through And somehow scenes cenes however however how how- ever badly rehearsed shaped them themselves them selves es about him at the tho critical moment r and went wonderfully after all Nowadays Now Now- men odas we prepare plays with willI h a u. m micro c them then we went at t them with a 0 and shovel with moro mora eagerness s than finesse But Dut when first nl night ht mishaps mishap dl dill did occur continued Mr Ir Skinner I I al al- al found It best beat est to face tho thin thing squarely ane and acknowledge c It to my au- au b by showing that I knew my 1 It an and that the they knew It too Tho The moment momen t ou try to conceal an awkwardness s s s. s I you sou ou lose loco their sympathy and become a a. flair mark for tor derision Ac torn Should lie ne Composed It always seems Beem to mo me a groat great ml mis- mis take taku that an actor should bet bo e in n any wa way y bothered mothered with the details of or a e- e don tion There Thoro should bo be ao nomo omo o on ono one ao elso else to caro care for tor all that side of ot tho the matter I cant can't bear now to luna have coming coming- Ig g to mo me on the eve ovo o of a n. now play 1 wi with then tit th as to whether athey they Y have have chosen chos en the rl right ht kind of or drapery or whether er tho set net of ot a scene la Is strictly of or tho p per per- er- er iod Jod I like to go 0 to the tho theater on m my y Tnt t nl night ht without the faintest co con con- tt- tt of ot any stage details wha tso- tso ever feeling that ull all these things ha have havo ve been intelligently provided for Of q course the tho natural t tendency o of cn n actor on his first night la is towa toward rd inn mn overstraining of oC his effect and too Often ono one starts out In ones one's big scones nes on an such Buch u a high key koy that it IB Ie impossible ble ito io get higher her I remember once fl IndIng findling find find- nd- nd ling Ing scene fn myself fn soU in the tho middle of ot the p play lay in Hamlet Hamlot as such a pitch that hat t when whon I got ot to tho the line line- Why let the stricken deer go o weep the c con con- n. n came camo over me that I was u up p to the top notch with nothing higher his In In Insl n sl ht Still SUlI I am not surf sure It Isn't bettor betto r to err err err on tho aide side of ot hitting your top noto note than on that of ot under expressing y your our part For tho the main thing Is 18 s to know now your audience au In III my wa way of ot think thinking n ing n their minds mind follow their hearts and once you ou have havo thrilled them you have havo h ave gone Kono ono far Car towards convincing t thorn thom With the tho exception of ot tho the student tho the critic and tho the artist the public go gothe goes to th the tho theater for sensation which Is is 18 after nil all tho the fundamental appeal t to all art Your Tour Dumas plays with their their- force of physical contest arc eternally attractive Tho The parts of ot hamlet which really catch the a aage average average aver ver- age audiences arc aro the ghost steno and the play scene with their suggestion of ot hysteria In short abort tho the theater theater- Is Is in a n. way a palace of sensation Thrill of it n First An element of ot first that we e horn havo always alt with us ua arc tho the people who are tiro out to bC see if It anything happens They enjoy tho the sheer thrill of ot a first night night- They watch for contretemps th they y havo have a ghoulish glee gleo in lit seeing an authors author's or an actors actor's laborious structure ture tumble down before tho the jeers of tho rho public It If there thero are arc happenings s of any sort Bort breakdowns speeches or ac- ac c these first nl want to be bo t there horn no so they can talk about it after wards warda This first night craze springs s. s I sup aup- p ose from Crom tho the peculiar dc desire lre to be the first Ater to eco see or to have havo things It is la exactly parallel with the womans woman's wish to Lo have havo tho alto first drat spring hat bat or to a mans man's struggle lo to wear tho the first fall faU necktie This element of or tho the first night I audience Is s on tho the alert for tor anything I and ready to Jump either cither way at the tho slightest provocation On tho the whole though I am not sure suro it Isn't an cas easier lor clement element to bear with than a certain typo you OU find often oCten enough h in British audience which comfortably comfortably com com- makes up its mind to boo a a. deco anyway particularly if It it bo be an art importation Augustin Daly used to tell tella a story etory of his experience in an nn English theater at tho the first night of at an American American Ameri Amerl can play when ho he happened to bo pit nit nit- tinS ting in to tho the last row of or tho the stalls Ba Bo- Bo toro foro tho curtain rose roso a burly man camo cam e in Just behind him As Aa the roan man too took k off oct his coat and settled himself for Cor th tho evening ho remarked ed to a neighbor Well f ores eros o s alt att a n. crown crOWD n thrown away away |