Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-03-23
WHEN ACTORS GET TIRED

| WHEN ACTORS GET TIRED
Tho monotony of roles repeated nightly
year In and year out bears heavily upon
| some actors and actresses. The perennial
reiteration of the lines of a single part has
| affected some Of the stage folks peculiarly.
| too. 1t 10 of record that Joseph Jefferson has
| absolutely forgotten the lines at critical
stages Of his famous impersonation OF RIP
Van Wrinkle more than one occasion.
The late W. J. Florence, who was what IL
known as good study" more than once
forgot the lines allotted to his famous char
aeter. 81. Bardwell Slote," that he had por-
trayed thousands of times. The late John
T. Raymond had performed the part Of
| Col. Sellers so often that he fell into the
habit of repeating the lines mechanically,
ana thus he grew too confident. The result
was That at big benefit performance In
| New York he utterly lost the words Of his
famous testimonial to the virtues of "Col
! sellers extraordinary eye wash and
| actually had to be prompted by the stage
manager from the wings. to whom-and to
| mostly everybody else on and off the stage
the lines were as familiar as those of the
| solfloquy in Hamlet" Raymond, by the
way, had played .'Col. Sellers for so long
time, and the theater-going public had
| so completely and insistently Identified him
with the character, that he hated 'Sellers''
with all the ferecity Of his nature. Persons
I
II would be a humorous as well as highly
! complimentary thing to work off the eye
| wash speech, as indicating. their rity
| with and their appreciation of Raymond as
| an actor. Raymond never failed to glare
at sucn a person and turn his back upon
him.
Ada Gray, the actress who played East
lynne" for so many years, and who now
| Hes near to death at the Home for Incura-
pies In New York, was so desperately sick
Oh the role that 1t finally got on her nerves
of her health
| some actors and actresses find the strain
OF giving the same part even throughout
one GEOGRAPHICALLY if the part be an
! eLhotlonal one-almost uncomfortable. Mar
Saret Anglin. the young actress who has
peen playing the name part in Mrs Danes
Defense In New York since the beginning
OF the season. told the writer not long ago
tnat she often finds herself reluctant to 90
TO the theater, so insupportable has the
perpetual repetition Of her lines in the
piece become to her The part is OF an
intensely emotional character "a part
| winch makes sensitive auditors wriggle In
tneir seats in shamed sort of sympathy
Ior the woman on the stage. Miss An
siln does her work well, and she has made
| the hit Of her career, yet she saws that
sne often feels like taking a train and
getting away as far as she can before they
her merciless role.
bianche Bates, so wen known to Wash
lnstonlans, Is another clever actress who
wearies OF constantly repeated role. She
| doesn't slump in her work when the part
begins to pail upon her, but she says that
| she finds herself very ridiculous at times.
ana because the actors and actresses on
| the stage with her have seen her in the
| part she is playing so many times she
| can't shake off feeling sometimes that
/ everybody in the audience has also seen
ner portray the character since her first
assumption OF 1t, and that they are dis
covering her to be very tiresome and par
rotlke. She says that the feeling she pos
sesses occasionally that the audience
| studying her has seen her do the same
| thing many times before is particularly
strong on the nights of matinee DAYS. The
| interval between the matinee and the night
performance is so short that she can't get
| II out OF her mind, when she makes her
night appearance. that the matinee folks
| haven't left their seats, and that she ia
consequently doing the same thing all over
| again Tor the identical same crowd and
she finds it difficult to convince herself
| that they are not rightfully bored and is
| always more or less amazed when she is
| called repeatedly before the curtain a.
! the termination of the fiat" scenes.
So heartily disguised do actors and Ar
| tresses become with cver-repeated nortrav-
ais OF single parts that companies frequent
| ~ let down. in their work along towarJ
the close of the season. They neglect.
what base ball folks call team work,
! They don't do it Intentionally, but they
become SO weary Of their lines that they
fall into mechanical and even slipshod
| methods. The stage manager is always
the first to notice lapses of this Character
and his method of putting stop to it is
! peculiar, and yet absolutely necessary He
! compels the company to assemble 70 re-
| hearse piece that may have been done
| py all OF them together for years at a
stretch. They invariably growl over this
| ana decla1m that 1t Is unreasonable and
unnecessary; but the event proves it to be
both necessary and reasonable. When thew
| are brought up for five or six hour rehear-
sails of their old, familiar parts the NM
I lSlmGnC
| future rendering of their roles.
| Inc pest actors and actresses rarely NAV
eheir parts twice In lust the same. identi-
| their lines or their gestures or their move
| ments, and yet they sometimes INTRODUCES
new meanings into their roles, or, on the
contrary. fall short of the meaning In
tended by the author. in fashion that is
puzzlins until one reflects that they are
| subject to the same moods that visit other
| folks, and that they consequently do better
| on some occasions than on others On
! one night, for instance Mrs Carter will
| give rendition of ''Zaza" that carries the
| most callous theatergOer almost out of his
seat ana marks her for player Of un-
| usual genius. On the next night perhaps,
| or the night after that, Mrs. Carter will
| 1mpersonate 'ZaZa" in a most unmoyin9
almost wooden fashion No less an actor
| than Edwin Booth would once in a while
! give rendering Of Hamlet" that was an
| solately dull, listless, even stupid-and Vet
! at other times he performed Hamlet" as
| no man ever had performed 1t before. The
| nub OF the matter Is not difficult to find.
| When talented and successful painter
| doesn't feel like painting-when the paint
| Ing spirit is not on him-he simply doesn't
paint He puts away his palette and
| brushes and waits until the spirit prompts
him to go to work again. When the tai
| ented and successful actor doesn't feel like
! actfng-when the acting spirit is not on
him-weii' mes got to act anyhow, or lose
| his job. However, the horse may be led
| to the trough, but he can't be made to
| drink The out-of-sorts actor may appear
| to save his contract. but he can't be made.
| nor can he even make himself, perform up
| to his standard under such circumstances.
| wanted Thirteen-Inch Shells.
! From the Memphis Scimitar