, 1888-07-12
FALLING ON THE STAGE
An Actress Tells How 1t Is Done-DangeT
of Getting Hurt.

An Actress Tells How 1t Is Done-DRnBer
of Getting Hurt.
Want to know how we fallf' said the
beautiful, graceful woman. why, see,
this way. First your knee, and then your
hip, and then your shoulder, and you are
down." and the graceful figure was prone
ON the carpet with outstretched arms.
Every fold of her lace drapery in the pref
test possible place, not a n inch of her
ankle or CLEAN of the snowy skirts was
visible, and the falling has been as noise
less and graceful as q butterfiy's dip and
swoop down to the heart of a rose. Then,
with a supple grace N quick, agile
spring, she was on her feet in a second.
'In this way-sideways, you see" and
with a dip and curve and sweep of the
lace draperies. down she foated as swift
and noiseless as a swallows downward
sweep, and she lay apparently ~lifeless,
with her face hidden. Another little
spring and she foated backward into q
chair SO limp and faint that even the
smile on her lips hardly treasured you
that 1t wasn't an actual sudden faintness.
I'VE are taught in the schools, and
practice OF q rug at home first, you know;
and of course we get many bruises while
learning. We fall first to the knee and
then to the hip, the shoulder, and down.
OF course we do this very slowly at first
and awkwardly, but we do 1t over and
over again until one fall blends into the
other SO completely that you cannot dis
tinguish it. Oh, yes, it is lard at first,
but all there is to it is to take all the
viii out of your body and collapse. Make
your muscles involuntary and inspired
with the part you are playing, so that at
the proper time you will fall almost IN
consciously, and then you won't be hurt.
Our prompter tainted the other night,
and fell and hurt himself very badly.
Now, l could fall in a faint a hundred
times and not be hurt-you see my fall is
an unconsciously mechanical action. You
go into q familiar room in the dark and
your body will unconsciously take the
right direction to avoid coming in con-
tact with the objects in the room, SO my
body takes the mechanical curve and
poise requisite to avoid a hurt without
my thinking anything about 1t If 1 make
myself perfectly inert-give myself all
up, you know.
81 have been hurt several times. Those
old fashioned sloping stages were treach-
erous affairs, and very often when play
Ing on an unfamiliar stage we were hurt.
L remember going down bang on my nose
once-almost broke it. Everything was
dark for a minute, and then there flashed
out all the consultations known to man,
and several more that haven't been dis
covered, but / went on with my part and
10 one knew. Then l had another fall
that made my hip black all over-thought
that would never get well, for / j had to
fall on 1t every night, no matter how 1t
hurt.
Are we afraid of being hurt2 Oh, no.
We are constantly in danger. Great heavy
things are hanging over our heads that,
If some stage carpenter shall blunder or
some piece of machinery break; would
emma down md TnoLa short ~orly of ne
had a heavy iron bar fall not four inches
from my face once, and a man cut my
forehead with a dagger, and other people
have accidents, but we don't think any,
thing about them after it is over. Like
nervous people on shipboard fancy before
they sail hat they are going to think OF
their danger all the time, but two days
out they will forget all their fear and feel
as safe as on land. So we throw our
selves down on the boards and roll off
sofas and down terraces and out of chairs,
knowing we might break our bones, but
never thinking of it. No one ever did
such q fearfully dangerous thing as that
Miss Fetter, though. 1t seemed strange
the papers didn't speak of it before, for it
just seemed cruel for her to endanger her
her health and even her life just to make
one more funny point in the play.
Men say sometimes that women fall
more easily and lightly than they them
selves. This may be true, for women are
supple, 1.-the and elastic and not 30 tall,
for the fall is Just as mechanical. People
only watch the pretty curves and grace
full sweep of q woman's drapery, and do
not see the mechanical studied action
underneath. We float down very grace
fully, but the floating is lone as accu-
rately as a problem in geometry New
York Sun.