The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-02-07
WOMEN AND THE STAGE
FACTS FOR THOSE WHO THINK Sue
CESS AND FORTUNE EASY.
But Few Succeed and Even Great
Stars Require Continued coach
ing" to Hold the Popular Esteem.
pecial to the Indianapolis Journal.


profession has been considered one of the
principal callings supposed TO be open TO
women generally both as practical means
of an independent livelihood and as afford
ing fair road to fame and fortune. In the
old stock company days it was rather
trade, and for the most part confined to
those born of stage parents and those grow
ing up in the immediate environment of the
theUter The allurements of the footlights
were hedged in by the limitations of local
demands, few theaters, slavish work, low
pay and slow advancement. and the social
feminine doubt of responsibility.
With the advent of the combination sys-
tenn came revolution, not alone in the ex-
traordinary increase in the number of thee
ters everywhere and the corresponding null
tiplication of theatrical companies, but in
the attitude of the public itself toward the
theatrical calling. The demands of the
stage for talent were at once greater than
the supply and salaries went up with rap
idly growing profits, until hundreds of per-
sons with little or no talent were getting
more money than could be earned by ac-
complished men and women in other walks
of life
At the same time growing familiarity
the country worked The most extraordinary
change of social sentiment witnessed dur
ing the century. Actors have become the
companions of statesmen and bosom friends
of Presidents, while the women who form
erlv ranked so low are sometimes welcomed
in the best society.
These causes have brought about an an
nual deuge of women as candidates for
public favor and aspirants to histrionic
fame The market is overstocked with men
and women who have been actors and act
resses. are now such, or want to be. The
rush of the raw material has forced COM
petent people of both sexes into the back
ground and has degraded salaries until the
best must strive continually TO be able to
make enough money during the season to
keep them from want during the summer
months of inactivity.
Any New York manager will tell you that
there are from ten to twenty applicants for
every part to be given out. The bottom Is
rapidly dropping out of all salaries except
those at the top, and even top salaries are
feeling the squeeze.
THE SALARIES PAID.
The majority of leading people in road
companies get but $50 week or less. Four
| fifths of the profession as whole. includ-
| ing chorus, ballet and supernumeraries, av-
| erage but about SIS a week for the season.
which means an average of less than 50 a
| week spread over the twelve calendar
| months. The other two-fifths do not av-
| erage more than $S5 week. including
| stars, taking 1t for the year. This covers
| only the part of the profession employed
| not the two or three thousand now annu-
| ally out of engagements. The estimates are
hi
| The dramatic schools of this city and
| other places now turning out nearly
one thousand pupils each year. This in
cludes all pupils being fitted for the stage.
Those who go directly to the boards with
out a registry will swell the annual appli-
| cants to full thousand new people. The
estimate is made upon close calculation
with Mr.. Franklin H. Sargent. president
| of the American Academy of the Dramatic
| Arts, and upon his authority. That insti-
tuition. through its regular course and by
| private instruction, sends out about one
| hundred a year.
| Taking the figures of the academy and its
| counterpart in Chicago and other cities as
| financial premises must arrive at the
conclusion that not less than 81, 000,0o0 is be-
ing spent in hard cash every year for stage
! preparation. AS this estimate includes all
sorts of special work. from that put upon
| a star like Mrs. Leslie Carter down to a
| skirt dancer, the figures will probably run
below. rather than above. actual expendi-
lures According to Mr.. Sargent, the aver
age cost of preparation for the stage is ST.
| 900. Therefore, one thousand people are
turned out annually, the total for annual
instruction must be a round s1,0O0,e01.
Mrs. Potter was as conspicuous an in
stance of financial actress making as is
Mrs. Carter, though no legal scandal grew
out of IT.. She was refused by Sargent-as
was Mrs. Carter-and turned over to Bel
asco. who had for six years been a noted
teacher III the Academy of Dramatic Art
Belasco put in five or six thousand dollars
worth of time on her. And, according &c
| her friends, the time and money were well
spent.
There is not a single actress or actor OF
note but has spent thousands upon a dra-
matte education, either in money direct OF
in weeks and months and years of persist
ent and intelligent labor. 1t is a grevious
mistake to suppose that all this money and
even all of this hard work will make either
an actor or an actress. All the coaching
and all the work that might be squeezed
into hundred years will not put an atom
OF Drains INTO any ntdO lndI Olu not nave
them in the beginning. 1t can only improv,
and develop the stock on hand.
BELASCOS METHODS.
The methods of Belasco set the laymar
world laughing. But they have been tn,
methods i'm a way. of the expert and tn,
nonexpert stage manager for years. 1t il
both the theory and the practice that WON
en- should be trained like animals of tn,
four-footed variety. with a whip. Their
are exceptions in this of women of rare in
tellectual attachments and acute sensibili
ties. but the rule is, metaphorically, TO re
duce them with "A club 1t is the only wa,
of getting them out of their self Unconscious
ness of subduing their pigheaded sef-es
teern. of subordinating insufferable vanit.
to a smoothly working intellectual an,
physical machine. Every expert stage di
rector applies this theory. and the hes
have practiced 1t successfully in beating tn
crude material into dramatic shape.
When Belasco was n dramatic teacher Il
the academy he followed the same method
observed while training Mrs. Carter-metn
DDS of the whip and club and alternat
praise and comfort-just the sportsman
trains setter dog: the Snowman train
a trick mule. "A performing horse or eIe
plant Max Freeman. Ben Teal and all tn
rest follow the same method substantially
though their labor is mostly of the mouth
This is especially the case I'm the trainin
of women for the stage. the latter bein
more SuScentible to fear and nrovinD NOR