Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-04-11
HOW TO BECOME AN ACTOR
INITIATIVE FACULTY AND PHYSICAL
FITNESS REQUIRED.

Master.
"Acting can be taught as readily as music
Or painting said well known actor anG
skillful stage manager, a man distinguished
by his profound knowledge of everything
pertaining to dramatic art. ITO become al
actor" he continued, ''the pupil must be
able to recognize emotion and must have the
initiative quality to represent it,
'You think, then, that any one can be
taught to be an actor?" asked the reporter.
Eyes, provided he has the initiative quality
Generally speaking, that is the sine qua non
just as the recognition of tone and time is te
the student of music There are exception.
to all rules, and know men wholly destitute
of initiative quality who are very acceptable
on the stage, simply because they do not try
to act at all, but appear in their own persons
just as they do in private life, being so for
tunate as to have parts which merely EN-
body their own individuality. If man car
appear gracefully as gentleman in modern
society lie ought to appear to equal advant
age in the same character on the stage. Mer
of this kind sometimes achieve moderate sue
cess in the dramatic profession because they
recognize all that they are capable of and dc
not strive beyond it."
HOW TO TEACH ACTING.
"What method do you think the best fol
teaching the people to act!"
"First of all make them understand def
nitely what we mean by acting. To my mine
it is the representation of human emotion by
means of artificial and natural language
The former consists of the words which we
employ as medium to express our ideas
The latter is made up of facial expression
gesticulation, tone of voice, quality and guam
tity of voice, infexion and meditation Of
voice and rate of movement in speaking
Natural language is universal, and is the
same yesterday, today and forever among al
the people of the earth. There is German
proverb which says: Love understands al
languages meaning that the natural Ian
guage of love is the same among all races
and nationalities, and it is equally true of all
other emotions. Artificial language is oil
many different kinds-French, German, En-
glish, In acting, the natural and artificial
language must be made to harmonic. This
is what Shakespeare meant when he made
Hamlet say to the players: Suit the action
to the word, the word to the action
"When the pupil has been made to analyze
the physical effects of all the various emo
tons, and consequently the natural language
in which they find expression, he should be
taught their various grades and theil
mode of passing from one grade to another,
Thus Joy subsidies, first into gladness, Their
into happiness; grief becomes sorrow, sorrow
becomes sadness, etc. Let him then take ur
some dramatic author, read a passage, and
having decided what emotion it is meant tt
express, let him interpret the authors artifi
cial language with appropriate natural Ian
guage of his own. This should be practiced
till he is rs familiar with the natural language
of all the emotions of the human mind as he
is with the alphabet, and can represent every
one of them by that language with as mucE
readiness and facility as he can repeat the
multiplication table.
"When he has mastered the natural form:
of emotional expression, turn his attention tt
the artificial ones. Artificial language should
be most carefully articulated, that its every
word may be distinctly heard by the mos
distant auditor. The most powerful voice il
nil without distinct articulation. How otter
we see actors, clergymen and other public
speakers who, though they have the voices Of
stentors, fail to make themselves understood
simply because they have never learned to
articulate their words clearly and distinctly.
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