The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1885-09-03

peulit hN WV S'NSe wv .A'Hh We sNA+'"''
ting their parts Is u hay'l GA asa man
ager always preferred TO have aroud
me rsople 10 whom this worS was i'm
cult. fct surer VITA them. knew they
hada wei discipline menory, anu whsh
once tAey had earned their parts they
could be Deepen lel upon, But there are
exceptions to all rules, ! rcaall an IN
stance OF u youu n tor who was IN a com
puuy | hal IN Wa>h,nsiul sons years
ago lie was II brisat fellow and ha!
line stage appearance, but he had the most
unretenl!vc memory ever knew. Whea
he had, after great labor, learned u part
he would often ut the critical time forget
some Of IT, At last he got discouraged
and got disgustea, and the sequel of the
matter is that he is now prosperous
farmer in Michigan.
az can always tell an actors tempera
ment by the manner in which he studies
his part 1t Is a line INDEX to his oharac
ter. Any one who has ever seen Irving
study can attcs, the truth OF that as
sertion. He takes the utmost pains with
eye.y line and WORD, He weighs every
syllable MS though his life depended upon
| ii, He studies slowly, not because OF any
difficulty in memoriling. for lie has 40
such difficulty, but because he pays the
| same attcnt, on TO the details oil the lines
of the play rs he does to the details Of the
| scenery.
"Ioo,h is another actor who WINS most
careful in his study, but it has been 30
| long since he learned a new part that the
task would now be almost novelty To
him. 20 r Ned Southern was u very IN
tcr,stiag actor to be seen learning part.
Th.se was nothing s'ovenly about his
work. He learned easily, but he was n e
customei to pace up and down the ioor If
his room, uttering u line over and over
again until he had struck The corree; eN,
pression But these Efforts never created
anytbing artificial in him. He was ear
nest and sincere always. Fred WGrde laS
n noti hly quick and retentive memory, !
recall an instance illustrative o. this.
Theodore Hamilton WAS once cnGag ii III
New York to play Edmund in X II
Lear Edwin Eo0th was playin, the '.t.t
role. Late in the afternoon HAMILTON & I
, sick, and seut word that he cold hot ~
peal. The manager was In most VA
pleasant dilemma, especially as II was I'll,
, opening performance of the engagement
He looked alo.t for some one to take
Hamil,on's place, and selected War'e
, who had been assigned to an inferior par
| Warde protested that he knew practically
nothing of the part, and said he ha no
sufficient time in whic 10 study it, Tia
3 manager, however, insisted, and Ward'
y got down to work. That night his th
: mund was warmly greeted. He did 10
: miss a word.
: ~ remember one night when GcuTg
Q Rgno,d was playing Henry Fifth ahoH
, 1875, in Ford's Theatre, in Washington, Ii
$ was taken suddenly i'll. The man Er
: was In great trepidatlon. He didn't knoY
y how on earth to get u man in time to ila.
e this important characte9 that evening IN
d til Z. X. Collier, who was to strut acroa
|, hte stage as one of the heralds, came Tor
: ward and declared he'd Gil liig iuli'
/, place. He said he 0idut know the part
v but would have it committed to mem i
+ in time. Some OF the conp1ny laughe
!! u at Collier, but the manager had con ,t.e,ic
n In the ambitious young fellow, and iii
IS result of it was that although he hi
It only four hours In which to study the i.a.
" he made Il great success. He is high i
= the profession now and dates his RI
e from the night he made the great jun
+? from d herald to Il king, When the oi
If City Museum was still stand ng betwte
u Fifth and Crown streets, b. G. Rogers, a
a, a old-timer, was playing Bob Acres in I'll
+ Rivals He got sick and they called &
d Sam Helnple, the popular Philadelph
o comedian, to take his place Sam declare
y he didn't know word of the part.
r. "Play it, anyhow, moaned Roger
W you've got three hours to learn 1T in,
l. get to work.
n "Sam got to work, learned the part al
to made capital hit.
n ACTORS these days don't have any SUE
ct troubles and they don't study niue
ae either. They learn Ole or two parts
the beginning of the season and play the
week after week without any change
bill. Even If they had many parts
ID learn in season there would not be or
third the trouble the actors of the O
school had. The text of our mode
he plays is easily learned and easily remel
in bered Any actor will tell You that it
ry IL far more difficult matter to learn pre-
CHI erly five lines of one of SHAKESPEARE
re Kuowless, or the other great dramatist
rd blank verse dramas than it is to commit
m memory forty-.tve lines from the me
er dramas of to-day. Every man or WON
DIS in these latter plays more or less chang
re the text, either accidentally or purpose
til and in very many cases these interpo
nd lions are better than the ori-silal eNpr
res sions. | have seen playwritcrs stalff
ed the wings when their plays wer3 bel
re- performed and incorporate into the te
be some of the words AID sentences the
inc tors substituted for the regular version
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