Rock Island Argus., 1895-06-01
ACTORS BY NATURE.
ALL ARE SUCH, ACCOSO;::i TO AN
INSTRUCTOR IN STAGEcRAFT.

INSTRUCTOR IN STAGECRAFT.
Every Child. He Says. Is Born an Actor. but
the Gift Is In Most Cascs Soon Harrsd BY
self Conxriousuess-Early Training and
Its Powerful Eject.
''Thc ability to express, i'll voice and
face and motion, the ideal which the
mind conccives is tho actors taiisman
OF success, said we'll known instruct
or in one CT the dramatic schSbls when
asked to define tho essential qualifica-
tion Of an aspirant for dramatic honors.
Not to represent q character, but To be
! carnestEcsa counts, of course, and deli
cacy of conception, careful training. ex-
perience, aud all that, but conp!ete
| abandon TO the emotions of the moment
| is what sways mems minds. That is
genius.
Every child is a born actor" he
went on, land to prove that wo have
only to watch the expression and move
room by itself and is unaware of speota-
tors. 1t will he initiating in pantoniime
alternately tho persons and animals it
/ knows Or has seen. Enter the room and
ask the little one to do that over for
auntio or uncle, or whoever it maybe,
and Immediately there is a change. Self
| consciousness has come in with tho
locker ON, and tho child is constrained
! and shy. The grace of movement, the
| bright, animated gesture and inimitablo
| expression are gone. As the child grows
| older this constraint, this repression, i'll
| creases. particularly in America, where,
| from l,abyhood, she is taught to disS uise
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 q sample Of the lesson o. self
repression, inculcated limo 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
L
which So interest and appeal to her. She
enters dramatic school; but, alas, ii
is too late. The desire to act is there,
and the accurate conception, but the ar
ti1icial routine so instilled by preccpt
and practice has become inextricably
interviewer with the natural instinct,
and it cannot bo eradicattd. She is III
the shackles of self consciousness.
MY greatest find in the last year OF
two," continued the speaker, lis q
young Pennsylvania girl who came to
me with her mother last season. My
daughter has been educated in PAWS,
and she Is most anxious 20 60 OH the
stage. She feels that she can do some
thing in that line and will not Ee con
tented until she tries, said the mother.
looked at the girl, who sat quietly by,
with rather an indifferent expression or
her face, and was net prepared to find
in her anything very promising. She
was about II, very dark and quite good
looking. Iasked her to recito something.
She stood up and began to repeat a poem
about an Indian nurse. The nurse wa:
foster mother to n kings son. had nurs
ed him at her breast along with her owl
child of the same age. In revolution
the mob came to kill the kings SON.
and the nurse, i'll loyalty to her SOW
ercign, substituted her baby for the hei,
to the throne. Before the girl was hal
through with the story had to stoI
her. The tears We're running down hel
checks, and realized that my own eye
were moist. That girl is going to make
name for herself. She seemed to ACQUIRE
by intuition what other pupils woult
take months 10 learn. Iattribute her ex
traordinary power Of expression to he
having been brought up i'll Paris, fret
and unconsiraircd in an atmospher
where every ono is enthusiastic and j
not ashamed of it, and where emotion
is expressed naturally.
'After brief interval of instruction
placed her on the road whero sh
would come directly in contact with til
:. tcchnicalities of the business and hav
tho advantage Of being with goo
q company. 1t will not be long before tn
!. public hears from her.
Il 1T has been ry experience that tn
French, Italian, Spanish, Mexican, He
], | brcw-any of the southern races-posses
e this nameless abandonment, this pei
sonal magnetism, as it We're, in exces
of any other nation." continued tn
g speaker .And where it is found in q
= eminent degree in Americans they gen
!. orally have somo strain of foreign blood
!. Americans make unsurpassed characte
= actors-that is, when we wish to pei
c senate miners, westerners. New Eng
landers, farmers, darkies, any of th
u various phases Of typical American life
we find ample material right at hand
II, however. we wish to depict draw
ing room scene with setting complet
l. and to the life, we must call on fol
d eign country for the actors. 1t is Ian
g entab'a fact that, SO far as the stage
+ concerned, we must go TO England fc
our gentlemen. For some reason tn
leisure class in ..ncrica, the men
breeding and culture, when choosing
/. profession, DO not select the stage.
# may be that tbs calling of an actor
not looked upon, Oh this side of the W: