The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1895-05-03
ACTORS BY NATURE.
ALL ARE SUCH, ACCORDING TO AN
INSTRUCTOR IN STAGEcRAFT.

Self Consciousness-Early Training and
Its Powerful Effect.
'"The ability to express, in voice and
face and motion, the ideal which the
mind oonceives is the actors talisman
of success, said we'll known instruct
Or in one of the dramatic schools when
asked to define the essential qualifica-
tion of an aspirant for dramatic honors.
''Not to represent character, but to be
it, is what wins the audience. Great
earnestness counts, of course, and deli
cacy of conception, careful training, ex-
perience, and all that, but complete
abandon to the emotions of the moment
is what sways mems minds. That is
geniusl
Every child is born actor" he
went on, ''and to prove that we have
only to watch the expression and move
ments of a little child when it is in
room by itself and is unaware of speota-
tors. 1t will be initiating in pantomime
alternately the persons and animals it
knows Or has seen. Enter the room and
ask the little one to do that over for
auntie or uncle, or whoever it may be,
and Immediately there is change. Self
consciousness has come in with the
locker on, and the child is constrained
and shy. The grace of movement, the
bright, animated gesture and inimitable
expression are gone. AS the child grows
older this constraint, this repression, in
creases, particularly in America, where,
from babyhood, she is taught to disguise
her real feelings. You must not laugh
aloud, it isn't refined; you must walk
quietly and sedately and not attract at
tention'
''This is sample of the lesson of self
repression, inoulcated line upon line,
precept upon precept, day after day, un-
til the real nature becomes walled in
within the artificial one. When that
girl gets to be 20 or more, she has a
yearning for the stage. She feels that
she can portray some of the characters
which so interest and appeal to her. She
enters dramatic school; but, alas, it
is too late. The desire to act is there,
and the accurate conception, but the ar
tificial routine so instilled by precept
and practice has become inextricably
interviewer with the natural instinct,
and it cannot be eradicated. She is in
the shackles of self consciousness.
My greatest find in the last year or
two," continued the speaker, sis a
young Pennsylvania girl who came to
me with her mother last season. My
daughter has been educated in Paris,
and she is most anxious to go ON the
stage. She feels that she can do some-
thing in that line and will not be con-
tented until she tries,' said the mother.
I looked at the girl, who sat quietly by,
with rather an Indifferent expression on
her face, and was not prepared to find
in her anything very promising She
was about II, very dark and quite good
looking. Iasked her to recite something
She stood up and began to repeat poem
about an Indian nurse. The nurse was
foster mother to kings son. had nurs-
ed him at her breast along with her own
child of the same age. In a revolution
the mob came to kill the kings son,
and the nurse, in loyalty to her SOW
ereign, substituted her baby for the heir
to the throne. Before the girl was half
through with the story I had to stop
her. The tears were running down her
cheeks, and Irealized that my own eyes
were moist. That girl is going to make
name for herself. She seemed to acquire
by intuition what other pupils would
take months to learn. attribute her ex-
traordinary power of expression to her
having been brought up in Paris, free
and uneonstrained in an atmosphere
where every one is enthusiastio and is
not ashamed of it, and where emotion
is expressed naturally.
"After brief interval of instruction
I placed her on the road where she
would come directly in contact with the
technicalities of the business and have
the advantage of being with good
company. twill not be long before the
public hears from her.
''lt has been my experience that the
French, Italian, Spanish, Mexican, He
brew-any of thesouthern raoes-possess
this nameless abandonment, this per-
sonal magnetism, as it were, in excess
of any other nation" continued the
speaker. 'And where it is found in an
eminent degree in Americans they gen.
orally have some strain of foreign blood.
Americans make unsurpassed character
actors-that is, when we wish to per-
senate miners, westerners, New Eng
landers, farmers, darkies, any of the
various phases of typical American life,
we find ample material right at hand.
If, however, we wish to depict draw
ing room scene with setting complete
and to the life, we must call ON for
eign country for the actors 1t is LAM
entable fact that, SO far as the stage is
concerned, we must go to England for
cur gentlemen. For some reason the
leisure class in America, the men of
breeding and culture, when choosing q
profession, do not select the stage. 1t
may be that the calling of an actor is
not looked upon, on this side of the wa
ter, as sufficiently dignified; but, be
that as it may, of all the applicants for
histrionic honors in this country only
few of them are recruited from the
ranks of recognized gentlemen's sons.
In England it is different There are
plumbers of younger sons there who
have no money, who are debarred from
going into trade on account of the fam
lily escutcheon, who have not the men,
tai ability to become doctors and law
yers, and to whom the stage offers q
4 .,k