Part 8 (1/2)

THE CALLING OF AN ACTOR

I received, not very long ago, in a provincial town, a letter froe as a profession but was troubled in her mind by certain anxieties and uncertainties These she desired me to relieve The questions asked by my correspondent are rather typical questions-questions that are generally asked by those who, approaching the stage froht of prejudice andof the actor to be one erous and intellectually contemptible; one in which it is equally easy to succeed as an artist and degenerate as an individual She begins by telling reat s about it” Now, for any man or woman to becoe” is in itself the height of folly There is no calling, I would venture to say, which de of heart, thought, deliberation, real assurance of fitness, reasonable prospect of success before deciding to follow it, than that of the actor And not the least advantage of a dramatic school lies in the fact that some of its pupils e, beconise in time that they will be wise to abandon a career which must always be hazardous and difficult even to those who are successful, and cruel to those who fail Let it be soer than mere fancy that decides you to try your fortunes in the theatre

My correspondent says she has ”heard a great ht presume to offer a piece of advice, it would be this: Never believe anything you hear about actors and actresses from those who are not actually familiar with them The amount of nonsense, untruth, sometimes mischievous, often silly, talked by otherwise rational people about the theatre, is inconceivable were it not for one's own personal experience It is one of the penalties of the glamour, the illusion of the actor's art, that the public who seesituations on the stage, cannot believe that when they quit the theatre, they leave behind them the emotions, the actions they have portrayed there

And as there is no class of public servants in whom the public they serve take so keen an interest as actors and actresses, the wildest inventions about their private lives and doerly retailed at afternoon teas in suburban drawing-rooms

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE STAGE

Now, the first questionon the stage need a good education and also to know languages?” To answer the first part of the question is not, I think, very difficult The supreenius need have no education or knowledge of languages; it will be ies of birth and education or has been picked up in the streets; genius, the highest talent, will assert itself irrespective of antecedents But I should say that any sort of education was of the greatest value to an actor or actress of average ability, and that the fact that the ranks of the stage are recruited to-day to a certain extent fro classes of people who fifty years ago would never have drearatulate ourselves Though the production of great actors and actresses will not be affected either one way or the other by these circueneral level of its excellence, in its fitness to represent all grades of society on the stage, if those who follow it are picked froarded as a calling unfit for aor education,

The second question this lady asks me is this:

”Does she need to have her voice trained, and about what age do people generally coe?” The first part of this question as to voice training touches on the value of an Acade Of the value--the practical value--of such an institution rightly conducted there can be no doubt That acting cannot be taught is a orncan be disciplined; the ebullient, so talent may be modified by the art of the teacher; those rudiments, which many so often acquire painfully in the course of rehearsal, the pupils who leave an academy should be masters of and so save much time and trouble to those whose business it is to produce plays The want of anyat all with the floods ofat the doors of the theatre, has been a long-crying and rievance The establisho far to remove what has been by no means an unjust reproach to our theatrical systein a theatrical career, I do not think there is any actor or actress ould not say that it is iin too early--at least, as early as a policeand life short applies quite as truthfully to the actor's as to any other art, and as the years go on there ret that they did not sooner decide to follow a calling which seeht of time

TEMPTATIONS ON THE STAGE

My correspondent also asks me a question which I shall answer very briefly, but which it is as well should be answered; She writes, ”Are there e, and need she necessarily fall into thee, as there ht into contact on a footing of equality; perhaps these temptations are somewhat intensified in the theatre At the same time, I would venture to say from my own experience of that branch of theatrical business hich I have been connected--and in such matters one can only speak fro to these teht-up, sensible girl will, and can, avoid theround for dissuading any young wo To say, as a writer once said, that it was ie without impaired morals, is a statement as untrue as to say that no ue, a doctor unless he be a quack, a parson unless be be a hypocrite

To all who intend to become actors and actresses,you have chosen to pursue You will often in your experience hear it, see it in print, slighted and conteious prejudice, fostered by the traditions of a by no etting the disadvantages, the difficulties, the uncertainty of the actor's life, see only the glare of popular adulation, the glitter of the coe salaries paid to a few of us--such unreasoning envy as this is another; and the want of sympathy of some writers with the art itself, who, unable to pray with Goethe and Voltaire, remain to scoff with Jeremy Collier, is a third There are causes from without that will always keep alive a certainas the public, in Hazlitt's words, feel more respect for John Kemble in a plain coat than the Lord Chancellor on the Woolsack, so long will this public regard for the actor provoke the resentment of those whose achievely, to their audience But if they would only pause to consider, surely they ht lay to their souls the unction that the immediate reward of the actor in his lifetime is merely nature's compensation to him for the comparative oblivion of his achieveine for oneat the present hts the spectacle of their fae the actor the few years of fervid aded to enjoy, soo, as colory that have fallen to the great poet?

So sneered at by those who pursue it

There are few professions that are not siirded at by some of their own rained discontent When you hear such detraction, fix your thoughts not on the paltry accidents of your art, such as the use of coss that are obvious marks for the cheap sneer, but look rather to what that art is capable of in its highest forms, to what is the essence of the actor's achieveenuine admiration and respect of those whose ad

ACTING IS A GREAT ART

You will read and hear, no doubt, in your experience, that acting is in reality no art at all, that it is ht nor originality I will only cite in reply a passage froe to the elder Charles Mathehich, I venture to think, goes soreat actor,” he writes, ”coic, is not to be a mere copy, a fac-simile, but an imitation of nature; now an imitation differs from a copy in this, that it of necessity implies and demands a difference, whereas a copy aims at identity and what a marble peach on the mantelpiece, that you take up deluded and put doith a pettish disgust, is compared with a fruit-piece of Vanhuysen's, even such is a mere copy of nature, with a true histrionic iifted with motion; but still art, still a species of poetry” So writes Coleridge Raphael, speaking of painting, expresses the sa ”To paint a fair one,” he says, ”it is necessary for reat a scarcity of lovely women, I am constrained to make use of one certain ideal, which I have formed to myself in my own fancy” So the actor who has to portray Hareat dramatic character--has to form an ideal of such a character in his own fancy, in fact, to eination similar to that of the painter who seeks to depict an ideal man or woman; the actor certainly will not meet his types of Hamlet and Othello in the street

But, whilst in your hearts you should cherish a fir, the art you pursue, let that respect be a silent and er for that I have known actors and actresses ere always talking about their art with a big A, their ”art-life,” their ”life-work,” their careers and futures, and so on

Keep these things to yourselves, for I have observed that eloquence and hyper-earnestness of this kind not infrequently go with rather disappointing achievement Think, act, but don't talk about it And, above all, because you are actors and actresses, for that very reason be sincere and unaffected; avoid rather than court publicity, for you will have quite enough of it if you get on in your profession; the successful actor is being constantly tempted to indiscretion Do not yield too readily to the blandish editor who asks you what are the love scenes you have e, and whether an actor or actress can be happy though e, and be just as natural off it; regard the thing you have to do as work that has to be done to the best of your power; if it be well done, it will bring its oard It may not be an immediate reward, but have faith, keep your purpose serious, so serious as to be almost a secret; bear in mind that ordinary people expect you, just because you are actors and actresses, to be extraordinary, unnatural, peculiar; do your utmost at all times and seasons to disappoint such expectations

RELATIONS TO ”SOCIETY”

To the successful actor society, if he desire it, offers a warest that he should hters, but why should they? An actor has a very unattractive kind of life to offer to any wo his profession What Ian actor does not debar hiratification as he may find in the pleasures of society And I believe that the effect of such raising of the actor's status as has been witnessed in the last fifty years has been to elevate the general tone of our calling and bring into it men and women of education and refinement

At the same time, remember that social enjoyments should always be a secondary consideration to the actor, soed in An actor should never let hienerally speaking, is seriously interested in what he does, or that popularity in drawing-roo of the kind Always remember that you can hope to have but few, very few friends or admirers of any class ill pay to see you in a failure; you will be lucky if a certain number do not ask you for free admission to see you in a success

THE FINAL SCHOOL IS THE AUDIENCE

It is to a public far larger, far enuine than this, that you will one day have to appeal It is in their presence that you will finish your education The final school for the actor is his audience; they are the necessary complement to the exercise of his art, and it is by the impression he produces on them that he will ultimately stand or fall; on their verdict, and on their verdict alone, will his success or failure as an artist depend But, if you have followed carefully, assiduously, the course of instruction now open to you, when the time has arrived for you to face an audience you will start with a very considerable handicap in your favour If you have learnt to move well and to speak well, to be clear in your enunciation and graceful in your bearing, you are bound to arrest at once the attention of any audience, no matter where it may be, before whom you appear Obvious and necessary as are these two acquire and correct diction, they are not so generally diffused as to cease to be re on the stage, however short the part you may be called upon to play, you should find i You may have to unlearn a certain amount, or rather to mould and shape what you have learnt to your new conditions, but if you have been well grounded in the essential elements of an actor's education, you will stand with an enore over such of your coo into a theatre to learn what can be acquired just as well, better, hly, outside it