The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-03-31
HOW PLAYERS STUDY
SOME STARS LEARN EASILY, OTHERS
HAVE TO SIR UP NIGHTS.
The Nightmare That worried Edwin
Booth Toward the Lnst-PIay
BILLS This Week.
New York Telegram.


alter constantly often wonder how actors
learn their parts. In the old days actors
had very different methods of committing
their parts to memory, and to-day of the
few actors who still pay in repertoires
probably each has his own pet method of
learning his lines.
In the matter OF recovering parts actors
differ very much Some study very quickly
and some are very slow, ard it is an ac-
cepted rule of the theater that actors who
learn their parts easily lose them with equal
ease, while the actor known as a poor
study gets his lines to keep them.
John Mason was a very quick study, and
could learn a part with any number of
people about him, chatting and chasing
1t has many times been a marvel to Bose
who knew him well that he learned part
at all. as he would walk about room full
of people, by turns studying and talking,
and finally fling the book from him and
take part in the sport. and yet. on the first
night. be quite perfect. Indeed, he was an
unusually good frst-nighter.
Every one knows that in his later days.
when Edwin Booth was taxed with not CIV
ing any new parts to the stage and was
urged to play some novelty, he frankly
owned that 1t would be impossible for him
TO learn a new part. Nor is this strange
The actors Of Booths time learned most of
the leading Shakspearean and other roles
from hearing them over and over again
more BY an oral process than in any other
way, and never was quite able to know jus.
when or how he learned it. Booth used to
say that IL he missed word 1t was we'll
nigh impossible for him to go on, and that
ia the last years of his life, accounted for
of his lines His fear Of stopping over
powered him. This was because the say
Ing of the words had become purely me-
chanical OF course, all this merely con-
Germs the learning of the lines of part,
which to-day is but small fraction of the
In the old days the ordinary actor had
one OF two things to do. II he were play
Ing for the first time an old role he had all
the traditions of the part to learn, usu-
ally he had seen it done by so many other
actors that they came to him as second ma
up in his mind what sort of a man he was
to play, and then he went ahead on tradi-
To-day there are methods very different
fer the actor OF rank ana the actor in the
ranks. Every one knows the famous Coque-
lin method. Pages have been written about
the creative processes Of the great actor,
In which he bothers not at all for some
M the beors hs wora of the part
man he is to play-sees him in all his parts
his physique, his face, his manner, the
tone Of his voice, knows even what he eats
and drinks, and when the image Is fixed in
fast, fadelesS colorS, proceeds to learn such
OF his words as the author has written out.
COQUELIN'S METHODS.
Coquelin. before he acts a part. knows
not only what the man he is about to play
does in the circumstances the author has
set down, but what he would do in very
different circumstances, indeed, in all cir
cumstances.
But actors of less rank have not this
license. Some one else does all this con-
ceiving for them If it is a Pinero play, it
is the author. If you read Pinero you will
see that he leaves the actors very little
them exactly how old all his people are,
what they look like. and sets down the
actors skill is in patching the authors
conception, and has failure In not doing So
long for the rehearsals of a play to-day
and often an even longer time Is given, al
though 1t IL becoming conviction that
oyerrenearsing Is even worse than under
rehearsing play
To-day actors do not go to rehearsal let
to do, although from a force Of habit old
actors will still do 1t. Usually they simply
carry their parts, and it often happens that
they have not really read them. 1t is not
uncommon for actors not to know their
lines until the last rehearsal. The business
IS Of much more Importance than the words
In the eyes of the modern stage manager.
There t5 much excuse for actors who do
not learn their parts until the last minute
for the modern play is never sure of being
quite shipshape until the last rehearsal Is
called. Very often the entire piece is re-
learned their parts before those parts are
really completed they have the difficult task
and putting new ones in their places.
Robert Taber is slow. labcrious study
acquiring. his lines with the. utmost diff
Guilty, but once they are fixed in his MEM
ory he is able to hold them.
He requires not only the utmost quiet and
application to master his lines but he takes
an unusually long time, and has IS never rye, yet
been able to take an engagement on a short
nofice-to lump, lump Ito part" as it is
actors, like Maurice Barrymore, who has
more confidence than accuracy in this mat
Kellard can do.
Mrs. Taber is also a rather slow study
ionabes Birthday they both thou found lo Brown-
ing's verses SO difficult to commit that they
We're nearly in despair over it.
went into the forces of Charles Frohman
to play the same parts year in and year out
she. used to declare that the only way she
could possibly learn a part quickly was by
lying nat on her back with her heels in the
Her favorite position was lying on the
bed with her feet on the top of the foot
board. She confessed to this fact when
taxed with It, and was much amused when
It was suggested that this effort to keep
her thoughts from running out of her head
was doubtless the same principle that al
Tor their midwinter exams
AT the time. II you make a tour of the
more than half the fellows who are at
work have their heels on the manteipiece
or on the table, while the nearer they are
70 being reversed the better able they arc
to study.
HOW ELLEN TERRY STUDIES.
No one who knows Ellen Terry would
doubt how she learns her parts Lady
Nell" as her friends call her. would. Of
course, lie down among many cushions in
the cheerfulest place in her lovely house.
and keep quite still, if it were wintertime,
but in the Summer she would study out OF
doors. s4Ayss IA
When she Is at her town house, at Bark
ston Gardens. she studies in her tiny little
sitting room. 1t is just off the dining
room, and is said to contain more chairs
IN a small space than any room in the
United Kingdom. In one corner there IL q
dfvan 1t almost takes up the entire room
and 1t is covered with cushions of every
shape and size. 81
Near the divan is a shelf of Shakespeare
alone, and here Ellen Terry reads and
studies In winter. But many of her parts
she has learned in summer, when she de-
GEfA Worlds Fair