Evening star., 1896-11-14
STAGE DEATHS.
Views of an Actress Who Has Had n
Varied Experience.

Views of an Actress Who Has Had
Varied Experience.
From the Boston Globe.
Miss Viola Allen has probably died as
many times as any other woman on the
stage-that is to say, of course, dramatic
death.
There is something fascinating to me-
she said, ''in death scene. If the actress
has to fall to the ground in death agony
she must be careful that she does not per-
form the feat as though she were a clasp
knife folding up. Then. again, she must
cultivate breathing, SO that she may seem
not to be breathing at all. Nothing is more
ridiculous than the spectacle presented by
a supposed corpse whose cneSt is heaving
violently, in consequence of the emotion
attendant upon falling
Il remember in .VirginiuS' [ was stabbed
and fell backward to the sroun I. The blow
made me gasp-gradually my limbs tocame
rigid, and l fell at the moment the srarls
OF life was supposed to have left my body
used to remain mo;ionless with my mouth
and eyes open. Once q fly flew into nv
mouth-but that is another story. My au-
thority for such action and subsequent pose
Is the strongest. | was The witness of lust
such tragedy in real life. The only pain l
experienced in that scene was the enforced
holding of my breath. The lc3yth Of the
actual ueath scene is about five minutes.
When played in 'Othello' with Tomaso
the Smothering scene, because the italian
tragediah used to get extremely excited 1
"~ouu ~ TURN my lace sideways and hold a
siiiaii space open under the further side Of
tie pillow, so that could breathe, but even
that breathing hole would Frequently get
closed under Salvini'S forceful energy Then
When he had found that he had killed Des-
oenona without cause, in his remorse he
Wouid throw himself heavily upon the body
used to wait for this piece of business as
one would wait for a locomotive about to
project itself upon the waistbanI.
AS Juliet l have died many times. Ro-
nleo, you Know, drinks the poison and SUBJ
sequently throws the phial away as Juliet
approaches him: then, seeing him die stabs
herself and falls over him. At oa,. theater
,he property man, thilking poison should
,s ne repLesented by some black ;lud, filed
the vial with ink. AS Romeo made merely
shsht motion of drinking the huu;d. he
oia not hotlce the nature Of the fluid But
when he threw the bottle from him n
struck somewhere near Juliet, and the ink
new all over my face and the lovely white
gown l wore. On hat occasion, YOU NAV
be sure, the life of Juliet was ended with
the least possible delay
In La Charbonniere' the heroine dies a
SLOW death by poison. In this case I took
special care to find out the right poison
mat should be mentioned in the piece. as
the one that would cause a slow numhing
of the senses
Death by starvation Is by no means ,olJv.
AS Jess in 'Hoodman / lave had to mike
believe i would give my life for a dough-
nut. In this play my dea,h occurred while
was reclining on my side, well down the
stage, toward the footli.:bfs This ,yas
quite often an awkward situation. because
OF the different curtains at the various the
aterS: NOW and then, to al Old my beng
struck by the curtain, the hero would lie
obliged to draw my body back. and QUO.
thoush a man put out his hand 10 Keep the
roller from touching me, the heavy mass
actually grazed my nose