The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-12
Written for the Sunday Standard.

the past few years what appeared 20 be
the opponents of a new school of acting.
what they did and the results that these
men and women produced were SO differ
ent from the work of the purely corven-
tlonal players of the day that the easiest
way TO dispose of it was to call it a new
school. To very many it is much more
interesting to think that something new
mas been born than that merely new ex-
ponents of the old have been found, and
80 the new school idea has been very
peasant one and we have talked it, writ
ten 1t and believed in it. All this is very
well, and it is not a gracious task to say
that this natural school is not new, it is
only natural. It only seems new because
1t was SO extremely different from the
very unnatural, most artificial school
which has turned out the mummers who
nightly parade their self-consciousnes in
our playhouses.
We have always had natural actors,
realists, among our players and they
have always attracted a show of atten-
ton. When they have missed it, it has
been due to one of two facts, or both of
Them Either these realistic players have
been small in small parts or their noisy
colleagues have drowned their uuietness
in oceans of sound. But when these quiet
folks have been at the same time great
then nothing was sufficient to prevent
them from showing the meaning which
was al the base of their difference from
their fellows, and such a convincing ex-
position was usually quite enough to
make the play-goers understand and ap-
preciate. 1nefficiency and mediocrity may
both be right in theory and still be unat-
tractive; it Is real merit which, like true
steel. rings out clearly all the while
When we had got to such pitch in our
acting, to such depth of depravity in
our production of plays that women with
forbdding pasts were welcomed on the
stage because of the very scandals which
had disgraced them, and when the new
plays were all of sex problems with I'M
chastity as their themes it seemed a bad
time for the drama, and the most cheer
full optimst was blue as to the outlook.
The actors could not act and the plays
We're not fit to be acted. Just at this time
there appeared in this country almost I'M
heralded, new and great actress. She
came from Italy, but had been seen also
in France and England She was not
beautiful, no scandal attached to her,
nothing was heard of her but that she
was sincere in her work. She played. and
the theater-goers who had only been born
a day or two before said that she be-
longed to new school, natural school.
school of realism. ~.O
This was true in a measure. The school
was new to them, and 1t was a natural,
a realistic school, But it was not new at
all. All great actors have belonged to it
from Garrick down, for it is the business
of the actors art to make even the most
artificial thing seem natural, while it Is
only in caricature that natural things are
made to seem artificial. No, Eleanore
Duse had not brought US a new school.
But she is great actress, and she showed
some of the younger women who were on
our stage where artificiality screamed in
high staccato or vulgar farce romped it
self ont of breath, that great results
could be produced by a natural quietness
which before they would have believed
would have lost its effect before it got be-
yond the footlights. Accumulate, accen-
tuate. had been drummed into their ears
until they believed in the foolishness as
though 1t were fundamental law of their
art Some of them were shaken in their
old faith, and one or two had the indie
pendence and the wisdom to put in prac-
tice what Duse had taught them. And
so we owe Duse great debt. She did
not bring US anything new, but she
brought us what was true. and the truth
is always in season-doubly so if those
who need it most had forgot about it.
We must not call these men and women
who, since the advent of Duse, have done
better work in a better way, imitators of
the gifted Italian, for she did not dis
cover a new method nor found new
school. She merely reasserted in her act
ing what had always been, and the pub
lie appreciation of her work produced
renaissance in play-acting in America
She, it will be recalled, was as simple as
a child and as little self-conscious. In
deed, she was child, and we could pay
her art no higher compliment, for it had
reached that height of concealment where
1t did not appear like art at all.
The first woman to achieve success In
this time of renaissance was Mrs. Flske
] believe she does not hesitate to acknowl-
edge her debt to Duse. Of course, she
does not call herself an imitator of Duse,
for Mrs. Fiske is woman of intellect and
must have realized long ago that each
player must do his or her work for him.
self, and when one becomes an imitator,
then that person had best go to the con-
cert hall or to the establishments where
continuous performances are given. Art
requires sincerity in unmeasured quanti-
ties and enough originality to keep sin
certify in harmonious adjustment. lmita-
ton is mere make-believe, a trifling, an
abomination. The actor who cannot be
himself and still be the character de-
lineated had better give over trying
he has missed his vocation: certainly there
is no room for him in the natural school.
Mrs. Fiske's first efforts were successful,
but she went on from one thing to an
other and proved that she was among the
greatest women on our stage. Here was
a change indeed from the dancing, rope
skipping, Lotta-like hoyden to. great
artist, an artist whose name will live in
the annals of our stage in large letters
writ That was not Buses work; but it
was Buses hand on the post that pointed
out the road.
Then we have Annie Russell. She. has
always been public favorite, I believe.
But she used to be a favorite which the
public ticketed as emotional" To be
sure, when she was an emotional she was
rather quiet but she appeared to be pos
sessed with the idea that she must put
tears in her voice and with frantic
clutches press down the sobs which rose
from breaking heart to choke her. But
she is now no longer an emotional. She,
too, is natural And she is admirable.
1t may be that in living her life she has
learned that in the big crises. in the times
when love has been wounded unto death