The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1884-03-19
TRAVELLING ACTORS HARpsHIps.
The Inconvenience, Discomforts and Ner.
vous Strain TO Which They are
Subjected.

Are not actors careless and extrava-
gant2"
Many of them are, but consider the
hard lives they lead, and the peculiar effects
on their nerves of the work they have to
do. Few people outside the profession
know what playing one night stands means.
Il Is frequently getting into town late in
the afternoon, snatchin9 very queer meal,
and hurrying to the theatre, unpacking
three or four suits of clothes or dresses, and
oil the adjunets of the toilet besides wigs,
paints, powders, gums, &C., dressing by a
bad light in o hot, ill-ventilated cupboard
or big, bare, freezing barn, playing part
which more Or less strains the nerves and
emotions, packing up ngain with the utmost
care, and then brief sleep, with call at 5
or o'clock to catch train for the next
town, or often sitting up till or 2 o'clock,
and perhaps not soing to bed at all. And
some companies keep this up the entire sea-
son. These are the less important ones,
but nearly all the best companies occasion
ally have to play one-night stands in order
to fill up their time and make jumps with
out missing playing on week night.
=" Of late, too, in the West and South the
poor actor has been made to play on Sun
day, and many managers give ten perform
ances week. Even when he is staying in
cities fora week or more OF time the actor
must not be'judged by the same standard
as the man in trade or in any of the other
professions. II you allow your feelings to
become greatly excited you cannot immedi-
ately afterward go home to bed and to sleep.
Well, the actor who only pretends to feel
becomes to some extent the slave of the
feeling he tries to depict. His nerves are
strung up tightly and his frame is restless.
Even those who do not play strongly emo
tional parts are subject to great nervous
tension. No one who does not act knows
what a strain ON the nerves is the appearing
before ON audience. Why, its effect is SO
powerful that people who are so i'll that
they cannot stand up when in the wings OF
speak there above O whisper nre able to
move about forcibly and use their natural
voices when they once get upon the scene.
have seen women who had to be carried
from their dressing rooms to the places
where they had to make. their entrances,
and who were sufficiently braced up by the
sight of the house to be able to get through
their parts. In the case of purely nervous
pains, such rs neuralgia, toothache, and
some forms of headache, the actor often
loses entire consciousness of them while he
is playing, but of course the reaction is
most severe. When the actor is we'll there
Is also q reaction after the strain. His
nerves and muscles are not yet ready for
rest. II is small wonder If he feels the
need Of little wine or spirits. Then, too,
he is generally far from home or friends,
his solitary room, uncomfortable as only
single rooms in hotels con be, is not invit-
ing and in every town there are always
number of men who seek the society of
actors and ondeavor to make things agree
ablo for them in the way of little convivial
gatherings. The actor, If he 10 solf-re.
respecting, must do something toward keep.
ing his end up, and in this way he spends
good deal of money!