The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-12-09
THEY ARE STAGE STRUCK.
Men and Girls Who Want to Become
s.Play Actors
and EXPRESS.

New York Mail and Express.
Scarcely a day slips by but the New York
press is Photographed with the ~eScapadeS
OF stage-stricken misses. Once they have
reached the gold-paved metropolis, what
becomes of these and others equally obsti-
nate and uninterrupted? Each year-from
al quarters of the -glope-hundreds come to
training schools for would-be ~Thespians.
The entrance examination for ~which-ex-
cept on Fridays, 50 is exacted-comprises
at least two recitations OF contrasting
style.
Moreover, the candidate is unknowingly
submitted to a searching test for physical,
personal. intellectual, pantomimic, dramatic
and elocutionary Qualities. Certain OF the
women applicants-their sex preponderance
is as two to one-are the wrong side of
fifty. Quite recently one of the most per-
sistent-a man this time-was a venerable
seventy-year-old grandfather. Several
members of the Sacred Forty have been or
are receiving tuition at the school.
These owe their attendance TO one or
stage, a desire for new excitement, a hope
to stem the debts occasioned by that cost
lest of foibles, the keeping up appear
ances." The last reason assigned is natur-
ally hypothetical, as any pupils secrets
that may even come to the management's
ears are jealously -safeguarded.
Irish girls, from their peculiar tempera-
ment. frequently excel in the M in
stinct-more or less the heritage of all hui
mainly. A type of applicant with potential
tiles is the poor East Side Polish Jew.
With a long train of suferingS in the past,
as he enters the room, scowling furtively
TO right, To left, he looks the typical
tragedian. Many women candidates wish
to adopt the stage purely with a view to
its marriage prospects.
In the entrance examination men and
women. aye. even college graduates, who
may otherwise show anna talent. are
'plowed' through deficient education.
Quaint and curious are some of the letters
received by the faculty. Here a girl under
a Canton postmark writes she is nineteen
years old and has great and wonderful
thoughts when returning from a theater,"
''she does all the fun at parties" If the
manager is unmarried, will he please
adopt her as his own child?" An appeal
from Woonsocket states that the writer
is sixteen years old. has bright brown eyes,
and means TO be the worlds greatest ac-
tor. He has no money, but esteemS it the
duty OF the strong to help the weak. An
other letter states crisply that the under
signed Is stout, croSS-eyed and bow-legged.
Does he stand a good chance? a young
lady from Texas hinges her membership on
the primrose of a theatrical engagement
after twelve months tuition. Further in
stances, alike farcical and pathetic, could
be multiplied indefinitely.
If a pupil can undergo with credit a two
years test and is still determined she en-
joys n tolerable chanc OF subsequent
theatrical employment. A large proper
so of attendance. The glamour has become
n little ~threadbare. They realize that here.
as elsewhere. the seemingly fiippant calling
has a substratum of very serious work.
The complete course for graduation con-
sists OF two six monthly academic years.
The first years course covers all the es-
Sentials-action, diction and stage work
I'm the actors practical education. The
second year is devoted to the production of
plays and TO advanced classroom studies.
there being several special courses in ad-
dition. To the layman even slightly in
touch with the other side of the footlights
the thousand and one ramiications OF a
successful training school are somewhat
OF a revelation.