St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-04

| IneSe Are the rim requisites
Timely and Sensible Advice
to the Young Woman Who
wants to Go on the stage
The Price of Success as Great
as the Reward.
Correspondence of the Globe. copyright.
1T is SO easy not to write a tive-aet.
tragedy" said NJ. Dumas. While he was.
in the mood for making epigrams he
might have added, it is so easy not to bel
an actress. The difficulties in the way
of stage career are not as great as they
were, l daresay, but there is no easy
method OF becoming a great artists 1t
is hard and steep road. Art is an
exacting mistress. 1t does not matter
much what the medium is-painting. {
sculpture, music, acting-every great
achievement pays the price of patient
work and earnest study.
Oh! l know the old legend that
stage success is lightly won and lightly
| lost. In a measure that is true. 1t is
only true, however, when the.succesS is
due to some fippant and accidental
circumstance. If it was due to art you
Any child may be taught to act, just as
any child may be taught to paint. But
all the instruction in the world will not
make great artist of a commonplace
child. And the first requisite for sue
cess ON the stage is this aptitude for the
art. You may call it genius or talent or
what you will. 1t is the Indispensable
stuff out of which the artist is made.
You can't make brocaded gown out of
! linSey-Woolsey.
Do you remember Mile. Clarion? l
think she Is one of the most charming
pictures in that charming century OF
powder and patches and high-peaked
| bodIceS-the eighteenth. The changes
of her lite-now a German princess,
again the illustrious tragedienne,
creating the leading roles in Voltaire's
greatest playS-WouId furnish matter
for comic opera. 1t is impossible to
Imagine anything more deIiciously
eighteenth-century. Her life was one,
as far as the casual reader knows, of
| glitter and triumph and careless achieve
ment. In reality no actress ever did
more to deserve success. She had the
aptitude. And with that she had in
dustfY.
How to be great artist? One GER
tainly needs those two things. They
are the material out of which the
broeaded gown is made.
l do not suppose any one of you has
an acquaintance so small you do not
know at least one young girl who
wants TO go on the stage" She may
| ha hu Of
reasons. IT she is a girl of adventurous
spirit, tired of the calm, quiet and very
polite twilights of home life, she thinks
going on the stage the easiest way
out" This sort of agirl often becomes
a good actress. The spirit of adventure:
often leads her to overcome all the
obstacles to success. But great deal
of the adventure, romance and charm of
an actress life Yanishes when the lights
of the theater are turned out. The rest
of her life is hard work. There is ex-
element and pleasure in it, of course,
as there is in all artistic efforts, but it
is not without due measure OF weari-
ness and anxiety. Love of adventure
is not much use here. The best thing
one can have is belief in ones art
and a love for it.
This young girl who wants to 90 on
the stage is a very Important aud
| ubiquitous young person. In fact. I
/ always like to think of her as a cap
ltallzed Young GirI-as though she
were tendency, or a phase of civilfza-
ton or something of that sort. And 1
like a cosy chat with her now and
again.
Miss Russell, want to 90 on the
stage" the Young Girl says.
land why?'' ask her.
Then she tells me all herenthusiasms,
and in the end We come to very good
| understanding. she wishes to be a
| great singer and wants to know the
''secret." Really the secret" is like the
one in the fairy tale, and that was moth
ing at all. The personal equation,
as the astronomers say. has so much to
do with the operate artists success.
| The attraction is not only in her talent
but in the individuality of her talent.
But there are certain essentials, al
though they can hardly be called
| secret.
And so I tell the Young Girl the
| personifcation of the feminine ambition
and unrest OF her century-that is,if she
wishes to be an operate artist, she must
have voice, musical culture, health,
! beauty, patience. industry Indeed, one
might add almost indefinitely to the
| list
Success in opera really demands the
talents for two distinct arts. One must
be musician and an actress rolled into
1 or hn oh 70
| art in the terms of the other. The COM
poser and writer collaborate. The artist
must interpret the intimacy between
the writer's thought and the musicians
emotion. / think 1t was Nine Grisi
VINO said it re quired a passionate in
telligence" 10 be great singer.
1t may be have taken the Young Girl
too seriously. She may ''look'' upon
the stage merely as a desirable bust
ness. This it undoubtedly is. The So
cial conditions which have forced SO
many women to make their own way in
the world have furnished the means.
There is great deal of cant written
about the stage. 1t is not q nursery for
| young mOraiteS.
1t is not likely to supersede the pulpit
as ''moral agent" But it has I'M
| doubtedly advanced. 1t has become
as honorable as any of the other artistic
! professions; music. painting or liter
| ature. The young girl. if she has
strength to carry herself safely in any
| self-supporting walk of life, need never
hesitate TO take up the stage as a pro-
fessIon. The cant of stage perils is
| every whit as foolish as the cant of The |
, stage as moral agent ~!
How should we go about it? srrsS |
There is no literature of the art of
acting. There are biographies and |
autobographies by the score. They |