The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-02-25
TO ''MAKEUP" "ASAHAG
Eva Vincent Tells the Uninitiat.
ed How It Is Done.
THE COsTUMING IS IMPORTANT.

1As ActrcsS Experiences In Getting suits-
Bile Attire For Character Part-The
Combination OF Grease Paints Which She
Used ON Her Face In q Character Role.
At the recent production of Alfriend and
Wheeler's melodrama "New York" at the
American theater in New York city the
hit of the piece was made by Eva Vincent,
who played the role of Nance, one of the
smallest In the play. While her acting was
unquestionably very fine in part which
held out little of promise, her makeup had
great deal to do with her success Nance
Is an elderly woman who has daughter
OF great beauty. This child becomes in
volved In an entangling alliance and final
ly kills the man who has deceived her as
to his private life. The mother is very
coarse and entirely unlike her daughter.
The latter despises her parent, and it must
be admitted that 1t Is not to be wondered
at. The contrast between the delicate, re-
fined looking girl and her coarse, disrepu-
table mother, who, however, still loves her
child, was striking as IL was represented
on the stage Of the American thcater.
An actor usually has no compunction
about making himself up to look as re-
pulsive as possible, but 1t Is seldom that
an actress Is willing to mar whatever
beauty of face or figure nature may have
endowed her with. This fact 1t Is more
than anything else that makes the get-up
of Nance notable. Inasmuch as women
are notoriously behind the men in the
matter of makeup, IL might be interesting
TO know how one actress who Is an excep-
tion to the general rule, manages to 80
thoroughly disguise her identity under the
mask of grease paint and to hear her views
as to the Importance of living up to the
character to be assumed, even to the point
of Disagreement, with the consequent dan.
ger of loss of sympathy of the audience
1t was with this idea that / asked Mrs.
Vincent for an expression of her opinion
in this connection.
"To begin backward" said Mrs Vim.
cent, II wish to say that anybody who Is
unwilling to dishgure himself or herself
when the exigencies of the part require it
would better give up all idea of going on
the staRe. The makeup is to theatrical
role what the novelist devotes chapters to
i'm the way of description of the peculiari.
tiles Of appearance etc. II an explanation
lof all the traits Of each character to be rep
resented on the stage could be printed on
the programme we actresses might all look
our prettiest all the time II nature had been
good to us. But as this manifestly can
not be done, the only resource is make. up,
which, by the way, involves a great deal
more care and study than the average out
sider would think. If / am to create a
character In q play which has been drama.
tizod from q novel, my first step is to get a
copy Of the story and attempt to obtain
not only the authors idea of thesparticular
person whom am to body FORTH but
the atmosphere of the whole, which fire.
Iquently Is an important factor in deciding
"a playeras to the details of makeup. Then,
too, by this course one is enabled to ascer-
tain whether or not a modification of the
makeup is necessary as the play progresses.
BY makeup, as contemplated here, de-