Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-04-04
HOW TO BECOME AN ACTOR
INITIATIVE FACULTY AND PHYSICAL
FITNESS REQUIRED.
Suggestions for Persons Ambitious to Ri
val Booth, Barrett and livingstone of
Master.

"Acting can be taught as readily as music
or painting" said a well known actor and
skil6ul stage manager, a man distinguished
by his profound knowledge of everything
pertaining to dramatic art. ITO become an
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 actorg' 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 to
the student of music. There are exceptions
to all rules, and l 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 u man can
appear gracefully as a gentleman in modern
society he ought to appear to equal advant-
age in the same character on the stage. Men
OF this kind sometimes achieve moderate sue
cess in the dramatic profession because they
recognize all that they are capable Of and do
not strive beyond it."
HOW TO TEACH ACTING.
"What method do you think the best for
teaching the people to actg"
"First of all make them understand def
nitely what we mean by acting. To my mind
it is the representation of human emotion by
means Of artificial and natural language.
The former consists of the words which we
employ as a medium to express our ideas.
The latter is made up of facial expression,
gesticulation, tone of voice, quality and guam
tity Of voice, infiexion m meditation of
voice rate of movement in speaking.
Natural language is universal, and is the
same yesterday, today and forever among all
the people of the earth. There is a German
proverb which says: Love understands all
languages meaning that the natural Ian
guage of love is the same among all races
and nationalities, n it is equally true of all
other emotions. Artificial language is of
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
tions, and consequently the natural language
in which they find expression, he should be
taught their various grades and their
mode of passing from one grade to another.
Thus joy subsidies, first into gladness, then
into happiness; grief becomes sorrow, sorrow
becomes sadness, etc. Let him then take up
some dramatic author, read a passage, and,
having decided what emotion it is meant to
express, let him interpret the authors artif-
cial language with appropriate natural Ian
guage of his own. This should be practiced
till he is s 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 much
readiness n facility as he can repeat the
multiplication table.
"When he has mastered the natural forms
of emotional expression, turn his attention to
the artificial ones. Artificial language should
be most carefully articulated, that its every
word may be distinctly heard by the most
distant auditor. The most powerful voice is
nil without distinct articulation. How often
we see actors, clergymen and other public
speakers who, though they have the voices Of
s%tentors, fail to make themselves understood
simply because they have never learned to
articulate their words clearly and distinctly.
Though all graduates of colleges should un-
derstand how to do this, I am surprised TO
find how many of them are wholly ignorant
with regard to it,"
so CALLED FEELING"
"Well, admitting that all men can be
taught to act, " said the reporter, ''you surely
do not think they can all be taught to act
equally well; that every man can be taught
to act as we'll US Booth, Barrett or Irving, for
example? You must allow something for
genlus?"
"Genius is simply an intensely earnest de-
sire to do, with constant application to the
doing. There is nothing beyond these. Any
man possessing the physical requisites of an
actor in the same degree with Booth, Barrett
or Irving, and, having the same amount of
initiative quality, can, by earnest desire and
constant application, make himself as great
an actor. Ambition and hard work-of
which the latter, in the actors case, means
study and practice-are the only factors of
success in anything. Tom Moore says, in his
Life of Sheridan:' Labor is the father of all
the great works in the world, whether in lit
erature or stone, poetry or pyramids One
great stumbling block in the way of actors is
the false idea, SO largely entertained both by
themselves and by dramatic critics, that act
ing is a matter Of feeling. Now, if the actor
feels his part and merely portrays his own
feelings he does not act at all, but that he
does not feel it is proven by the fact that af-
ter portraying emotion which caused serious
illness and perhaps death to the character
he is acting, he will completely recover his
equanimity the moment he comes off the
stage.
Dumas play Of Camille is founded upon
a story OF real life, and he tells us that the
original Of Camille, after the parting with
Armand, was sick almost unto death for six
weeks. Did any actress who has played
Camille ever feel the part to that extent? I
think not. Every Camille I have ever seen,
after going through the most heartrending
agony at parting with Armand, would come
off the stage and Immediately commence to
rail at her dressing maid in good set terms
for some real or imaginary fault.
s'The stories you hear about some actor
SO feeling the part of Richard III that he
fancied himself really that parsonage and
rushed into the street in his stage clothes,
brandishing his sword and calling for a horse,
are simply nonsense. Washington Star. ::
q Civilian Control. 'TN
Our system Of military administration has
been growing more and more civilian in
character since the days of Wellington. Then
the commander-in.chief had far more power
and influence in the decision of military ques-
tions than at present. Then the supply of
guns, arms, ammunition and Of all sorts of