The times., 1898-06-05
TINY TALKS.

A Times man stumbled into the Column
bia Theater on Thursday and found VIII
liam Ingersoll making up. The critic did
not really want to talk with Mr. Ingersou.
because that had been done so short d
time before, but there he was with a sub
ject in his hand and daubed all over his
visage, and so he was asked. DO you find
1t difficult to paint your face into a sem
biance of someone else's?
We'll. no. replied the actor, though.
as matter of fact, the ability to do so
well Is nothing less than fine art. One
goes at ii just as a knight of the brush
goes at his canvas. only he has the ad-
vantage of possessing the essential fea-
lures on which to build. From the other
hand, however, his is more delicate per
formance since the art of makeup is
one of lights and shades. While there
are. of course, roundabout methods none
Is so simple and yet so effectual. For
example. note the average old man as
he is portrayed on the stage He is one
mass of heavy wrinkles and deep fur
rows. AS a matter of verify you cannot
see the marks on a mans face for fifteen
feet.
"Supposing such a person were to enter
the door now, you could tell his age al
once and YET you would not see a line
The first thing you would notice would
be the color of his hair and beard his
walk or even the shadows in his face
Therefore a character should be so made
up. Simplicity is generally the best
method and often a white wig will do
more than an hours steady work Lines
thinly drawn and then mated with white
to give the shade effect also look well
Features may be made more prominent
too, through the use of putty or by
throwing them out with white grease
paint
1T is not an easy thing to make the
signs of the face characteristic and yet
they should be so. When Nat Goodwin.
with whom | have put in two or three
seasons, staged Nathan Hale" he gave
Gertrude Elliott the role of a bright, win
ming girl. She realized fully the exigen-
cies of the part and took great care TO
make up accordingly. She even painted
her own eyebrows completely out and put
others half an inch above them in order
to give herself frank, girlish expression
Imitation of other peoples appearance is
very easy and one needs nothing to go by
Personal resemblance may help. but il is
not necessary, while every feature may
be simulated. 1 look nothing like YOU and
yet within three minutes l could so ar
range it that people in the front of the
house would not be able to tell us apart
My make-ups are merely what are pro-
fessionally termed clean That is TO
say that 1 am generally supposed to be
a neat looking, fresh appearing young fell
low. TO this end my face is covered with
a flesh tint OF grease paint and then sim
ply busted with powder of such a shade
that in itself it would be enough TO give
my cheeks a bright hue. Sometimes I
alter or change my nose or mouth a
trifie, too. in order to complete a charac-
teristic.
In many respects appearance is the
most essential part of an actor The first
thing an audience thinks is, Does he
look the role? The eye is much quicker
than the ear and just as the smoke from
q gun is seen before one hears the report,
so Is the initial impression created by
looks. 1t pays to work over a makeup,
and | only wish that l were more pro-
ficient in the art
"Katisha is one of my favorite char
acters.'' confessed Viola d'Armon the
other night. Neither Gilbert and Sui
Evan nor any other of the famous operat-
ists-H / may coin a word-have ever
drawn a feminine part so full of oppor-
tunfties. Brief as 1t is, there is laugh in
every line and a dozen bits of business
that can hardly be equaled. Unique at
the time of its conception. it has been so
often initiated since that one thinks in
connection with that topic of the old ad-
age SO often displayed by patent medicine
companies, limitation Is the sincerest
praise Probably no role has been more