Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-12-28
ACTING AS AN ART.


of success in dramatic art Her reply was
as witty as it was true-in the value Of
two letters in connection with art, they
are, the letters ''h' and Sc" That is to
say, in the highest form OF art there is
heart, and that is most successful which
has heart in it. Perhaps no more concise
response to the inquiry is possible. Mr.
Wilson Barrett, also an English actor Of
distinction, recently lectured upon the art
ofd acting. He agrees with Mrs. Kendall
that study and training will not produce
the highest form of dramatic art. He be-
lieyes that emotional aptitude must be evi-
dent in the beginning, which is equiva-
lent to saying that actors of high merit
are not artificial products must be
born to the art The actor makes his au-
dience feel, who himself feels, and accord
ing to Mr. Barrett that is the interpreta-
ton of our term personal magnetism y
This arrives, therefore, at Mrs. Kendal's
simpler and effective description of true
dramatic art, which is the ability to feel.
Then comes in naturally the Delsarte the
ory, that if one feels ne can trust to that
feeling debating the best form of express
sion, in voice, gesture, corntenance and at
titude
But it must not be assumed that train
ing is valueless. The suggestion Of feeling
will be best, and find the most natural and
impressive form of expression in the per-
son who has been trained in the arts OF
elocution and graceful bearing. Nor can
even the best Of natural actors. those who
have heart in their work, at all times en-
ter spiritually into the parts they Under
take to portray. Conditions may surround
them that forbid feeling; in all such cases
the trained artists, those who are skilled
in the artifcials of the art, possess Won
derful advantage. over those who trust to
inspiration Of the heart and the direction
of feeling. That is to say, there is art in
stimulation which, in the absence of feeling,
is so adroit that it often passes for the gen
uine metal.
Mr.. Barrett goes a step beyond Mrs.
Kendall when he says that not only is
that the better acting into which feeling
enters, but that it becomes the best, the
very highest form of the art, when the
actor plays part that is nearest to his
own nature. Whether the critics will
agree with him in this remains to be seen.
Booth is estimated equally the artist in
Iago and in Hamlet, but he certainly has
no natural sympathy with the sentiment of
the former. The best stage "villain7 we
ever knew was one of the gentlest
and most inofensive of men, absolutely
timid, and in his sympathies as tender and
sensitive as a child. It was Adelaide
Proctor who said: eve always can be
what we might have BEEN" But the
sourdness of the statement may be ques-
toned. We are not prepared to subscribe
to it by any means We have seen too
many pitiable efforts made upon the stage
to personate characters in which the ma
tural disposition, tendencies and personal
characteristics of the actor should, under
the Proctor rule, have made them su-
premely triumphant. At the same time
the assertion Of the st. Louis Globe-Demo-
crat is correct
The average theater-goer does not need to be
told that actors are continually trying to repre-
sent Oh arscters that are foreign to them in
every respect. We see men figuring as knights
and heroes whose souls are manifestly ignoble,
and women attempting the roles Of heroines
when il is easy TO understand that they are but
milkmaids in thought and feeling. These in
congr1ities, which are ludicr0us when they are
not repulsive, tend TO diseredit the stage and to
make dramatic ait mockery.
But we do not concur with our con-
temporary in saying that mo person can
successfully simulate what he is incapable
of feeling This Inconvenience does
not fly in the face of the rule laid down
by Mrs. Kendall A person may success
fully simulate that which is abhorrent to
MS soul, and into which he cannot conjure
any feeling; but it will not be done with
the same degree of success that viii dis
tinguish the acting which is full of feel
ing. In her charming autobiography,
Anna Cora Mowatt relates that one of the
best strangers" she ever saw or played
with she met in that character in England
in the person of a comedian, whose nature
was the reverse of melancholy, and who
had only the bright side of life in view.
In the midst of the most fearful passages
in that doleful play, this artist, by his
soto voice interjections and his mirthful
interpretations between his tears, would
fairly upset the gravity of Mrs. Mowatt,
and compel her to conceal her laughter in
the midst of her assumed anguish behind
the convenient handkerchief The public
was not unmoved because the comedian in
tragedian's part was insincere. Unques-
tionably, however, it would have been
more effective PRESERVATION had feeling, not
stimulation only, entered into the part So
it amounts to this, that there may be fir
ished acting in which all is artificial, and
in which the externals are wanting in no
respect but the highest form and mani
festation is that into which feeling enters.
The magnetism that Mr. Barrett finds so
apt word to express his meaning, is su-