Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1869-04-27
4 School Exhibition Experience. !

4
A gentleman relates, in the AdUance,
his experience of the effects of an ex-
hibition at one of our best academies.
And as 1t seems to me instructive, |
will give II to the readers of the
HeTald-somewhat abbreviated:
1T fell to my lot to act the part
o. Nero in drama written by one of
our brilliant youn.r ladies. a chris
.'ah h.other and her little child had
been seized by my soldiers, and were
IN prison, awaiting their death by
torture, so ran the drama. IN one
scene the Empress, beautiful slave
raised to the throne by one of the
tyrants sudden fancies, was frantic.
ally pleading for their lives. 1t an.
peared that the Empress and nv
poor captive had been children tc-
gether, and the tender supplications
OF my charming schoolmate, the
Empress, were made so real and SO
full Of love and agony as to win the
interest and sympathy OF the audi
ence, and rouse the deepest indigns.
ton at the pitiless scorn, with which
it was my business to reject her
prayers / can remember to this
nour the heartless sport | made Of
her distress. fever | felt devil in
me, II was on that stage, with that
kneeling figure before me, that sweet
face looking up to mine SO pleadingly
ana voice trembling with real agony
Tor the time, praying for the mother
and child.
TIE acting eff the scene was, and
still Is, one OF the greatest horrors of
my life and SO successful was it that
tie village people for weeks after.
ward seemed to have kind Of hor-
ror OF Nero whom he met them on
the street, and everybody pitied the
Empress for the terrible grief she
had suffered at his cruel hands.
For months afterwards that drama
haunted me, making me, by turns.
and frightened at myself,
could hardly say my prayers with
out the rawlings Of that drama COM
ing into my mind.
The critics pronounced it a grand
and its actors were In re-
quest for other dramatic perform
ances, bat one Of them, at least.
promised himself nevermoro to ven
.ure into land SO full Of enchant>
nent."
This little history suggests the
question, what, in the nature Of the
'ase, is the effect of acting. on the
actors themselves?
In orderto achieve the highest sue-
;ess, the actor must enter soul and
'ody into the character be repre-
ents. lie must be, for the time
what he pretends TO be. II the part
8 that OF tyrant. he must feel the
pirlt OF tyrant; if . low knave, lie
must be villain for the occasion. #
! murderer, he aust feel the spirit Of
murderer and if "a fool, he must
eel like fool. And Just so far as
le succeeds in making a monster, or
. scoundrel, or q fool Of himself for
he time being, just so far he is pro-
loGnced master Of his art"
We all know the power of habit.
one Pretends to be what he is not.
5 does every one that acts the part
i somebody else on the stage, will it
lot naturally tend form the habit
i being false? Ar what is he good
or then2 Ii exhibitions are 10 be
made, surely nothing but good should
'e spoken or acted. Evil doings.
vii feelings, evil sayings should not
2 presented, lest both actors and
Observers be made partakers of the
wi and evil IS natural enough to US,
md common enough among us, with
mt our increasing it artifcialIy.