The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1888-07-13
THE CHURCH AND THE THEATRE

stead. "-Bost0n TraUeler.
IL CHURCH AND THEATRE.
Civilization, in its most perfect fo.m, so
far as it concerns social intercoms sc be-
tween humankind, is ''acting." The more
honest and sincere, the more refined and
artistic, the more natural and less artificial
this ~"acting" is, the more perfect is this
form of civilization.
The favorites in society are frequently as
good actresses or actors as those in the
comedy. Their acting is simply not done
on the same stage. That of the latter is
more interesting, because their lines are
specially prepared by more able minds
than those Of the society actress or
actor.
Take a person in everyday life with a
peculiarly unpleasant voice, with extreme
ly eccentric mannerisms, with an awkward
gait, and with an obtrusiye and meddle-
some disposition, and everybody will sure
ly vote HIM an intolerable nuisance. But
let another mimic him ON or off tie stage
in all the peculiarities and Objectionable
characteristics, and it will at once int. lest
and amuse. Find a couple ma. re- or un-
married, with their young hearts full of
the most ardent love and true manly and
womanly feeling, and let them q their
natural and almost uncomfortable afiee-
tion before their friends in the parlor. and
they will soon find themselves deserted as
spooney simpletons. Yet Romeo and Juliet
and Claude and Pauline ara nightly ap-
plauded for Stimulating the same things on
the stage.
Men and women will pass squalor and
hunger in rags upon the streets a hundred
times a day without so much as turning
about, unless hunger and rags clutch Their
beaver overeoats and sealskin sacques; and
yet these same beaver and sealskin saeques
will weep copious tears at this same hum
cry squalor stacted on the boards" There
are thousands of noble men and women in
our midst whose thoughts and actions de-
serve the loudest recognition; but We do
not know Hamlet, Palthenia. Camille, Lea
Henderson, Osip. Master Walter, John
Strebelew, Nirginius, Lanciotto, and the
heroes at our side, unless there is an or
chestra between us and a row of glaring
light thrown upon them. The poet says
that all the world is n stage, nd the men
and women are only players, bnt he for.
got to tell us that, to be appreciated, ap-
plauded and emulated, they must exhibit
themselves under the direction OF an ex-
perienced stage manager. These truths,
within the knowledge of everyone of any
experience, prove the innate, d~eep-rooted,
natural and indestructible 1--we with which
humankind is fortunately blessed, for low
ing and admiring sincerely-acted imita-
tions of the doings and sufferipgs ofothers.
This irresistible love has led to systemati-
calIy-arranged dramas or plays, or what
ever they may be called, for stimulation on
the sta re of a theatre. The more COM
plete these s.mulations and their surround
ings in the theatre are, the more popular
they ever have been, and ever viii be, now
and forever.
The drama, properly comprehended, has
in it a higher purpose than the mere mar
rative of bare facts. 1t is life's realities
placed before us in their most favorable.
interesting, idealized form, clothed in their
best garb, stripped of all their objection
able features, brought wildly to our con-
ception for our entertainment and for our
instruction through the agency of high art
and stage %artifice.
The better drama, properly represented
in the theatre by those who make it a
study. should no more come under the ban
of the h~igh-minded christian and moralist
than should that which is presented to us
through books, the leetnre-room OF 4 the
pulpit. Why should it be more q%uestiona-
Bile, enacted in an appropriate and pictur-
esque garb by those to the purpose drilled,
than that recited by the frequently discor-
dant voices and with the awkward gesture
of the rostrum, or that hidden in the less
interesting pages of fiction or history p
Otto Psltzer, IN Music and the Drama.