The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1895-04-13

ALL ATE SUCH, ACCORDING TO an
INSTRUCTOR IN STAGECRAFT.

ALL HttE S1GF1y ECOORDiR1 ~ AN
INSTRUCTOR IN STAGECRAFT.
Every Child, lie says, L. Eo-n an Actor, but
the Gift !, n ,Ecst Cases Soon EIarre! by
Self ConaeIcusncss-Eariy Trainias and
+ Its Powerful Eject.
"Tno ability to express, i'll voice and
face and motion, the ideal which the
mind conocivcs is the actors t~alisnlan
of success. ;" said awell known instruct
or in one OF the dramatic schools when
asked 10 define the essential Gualitica-
! ton Of al aspirlnt for dramatic honors.
mot to represent O character, but to be
it. is what wins the audience. Great
essnealntss counts, of course, and deli
cacy of conception, careful training, ex-
perience, and al that, but complete
abandon to tho emotions Of the moment
is wLas gways mems minds. Thas is
! genius!
"Ev1iy child is a born actor" ho
Went On, land to prove that we have
only to watcn the expression and mcve-
mcnts Of a little child when it is IL q
room hy itself and Is unaware Of specta-
tors. 1t will be Initiating il pantomimc
alternately the persons and animals it
knows or has seen. Enter the room and
ask the lttio one TO do that over fer
aunt;e OF uncle, or whoever it may be,
and immediately there is g change. Self
consciousness has come III with the
locker on, and tho child is constrained
and shy. The grace of movement, the
. bright, animated gesture and inimitabIe
expression arc gone. As the child grows
older this constraiut, this repression, in
c~reases, particularly i'll 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 sedatcly and not attract at
tentiOn.'
This IS a sample of the lesson of self
repression, inculc2ted line upon line,
preceut upon preoept, day after day, n
til the real nature becomes walled III
within the artificial one. When that
girl gets 10 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 4 dramatic school; but, alas, it
is too late. The desire to act is there,
and the accarate conception, but the ar
tificial routine so instilled by precept
and practice has become inextricably
interviewer with the natural instinct,
and it cainot be oradicated. She is in
the shackles Of self consciousness.
My greatest lind in the last a or
two, continued the speaker, sis a
young Pennsylvania girl who came to
me with her mother last season. MY
daughter mas been educated i'll Paris,
and she is most anxious to go on the
stage. She feels that she can do some
thing in that line and will hot be con-
tented until she tries. said the mother.
l looked At the girl, who sat quietly by,
with rather al Indifferent expression on
her face, and was not prepared to find
in her anything very promising. She
was about i, very dark and quite good
looking. Iasked her to recite something.
She stood up and began to repeat a poem
about an Indian nurse. The nurse was
foster mother to a 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 / had to stop
her. The tears were running down her
cheeks, and realized that my own ewes
were moist. That girl is going to make a
name for herself. She seemed to acquire
by intuition what other pupils would
take months to learn. attribute her eE-
~traordlnary power Of expression to her
having been brought up in Paris, free
and unconstrained in an atmosphere
where every one is enthusiastic and Is
not ashamed Of it, and where emotion
IS expressed naturally.
AFTER a brief interval of instruction
l placed her on the road where she
would come directly in contact with the
" IT the business and have