The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1902-05-12

No, my dear young friend. cannot ad-
wise you to adopt the stage as a profess
sion unless you have taste for the busi-
ness and are In need OF job. Also, I
cannot advise you not to.
Life OH the stage Is a hard life That is
TO say. the life OF the actor when he IL
of. as we'll as on. the stage is a hard life.
At least. that is what every actor or act
ress, that / ever saw quoted, says So
suppose IL must be true. The life OF some
actors while they are on the stage Is
harder on their audiences than 1t appar-
entity is on the actors. But of that, more
anon.
There are some eighty million people In
this great country of ours. A very con-
siderable proportion of them are actors.
or. at all events. are employed upon the
stage. There were never so many actors
in all the world before Moreover. a very
great majority OF the balance of the pop
ulation either try To be actors, or have
ambitions TO be, or think they could be,
or are regretting that they didn't take up
the profession when they were younger
and handsomer.
III all the people who think they would
like TO be actors were To have their am
bitions realized. the department store
would be depopulated of clerks, the mills
OF hands. the dump heaps of laborers and
all the polite professions would be ex-
hausted. About all that would be left to
patronize the theatres and see the others
act would be, perhaps, the baseball play
ers and the automobiists. / fancy most
of these are indissolubly welded TO the
idols that now afford them vocation and
avocation.
Indeed the profession of the stage Is
attracting devotees In such sizeabie
punches that II will soon be a question.
anyway. where enough people will be
found to patrenize the theatres profitably.
Everybody will be acting and there will
be no audiences except those who go TO
the theatre on a professional pass. from
some other theatre on an off night.
Yet, the actors life-is a hard one. The
actor will tell you so himself, between
whiffs of his fragrant perfecto. as he in
dulges the interviewer reclining in his
easy chair in his elegantly embellished
boudoir. II is one of the fancies dear TO
the heart OF the actor that his life is par
ticularly hard and he would advise no
young aspirant TO seek the stage as a
pursuit without full understanding OF
the wretchedness of the career.
The actor works all of the time. He
says he does. He has very few moments
for such recreation as falls to the lot OF
the fortunate worker In other spheres of
the strenuous life we, as people, are
leading. To be sure, to the general run
OF people, he only appears to work for
two hours and a half each evening, In
cluding rests between-the-acts. and for
the same amount Of time at mstinees.
Even then, that doesn't seem like work
10 his audience-that is, not always. A
good deal OF IL looks like standing around
making motions, or breathing behind the
scenes waiting for the cue. But even this
contemplates a nervous strain not to be
easily understood by the non-professional.
So the actor says.
Then there are rehearsals. They are
hard too, terribly hard. And between
times the actor has to study parts, and
In the odd interstices OF the crowded
twenty-four hours, he must be thinking
a great deal to perfect himself in his part
and to develop his art.
II surely seems to be an awful life, to
hear the actor tell 1t. This paltry labors
Of the merchant at his desk, the lawyer
lolling in his fee-papered office, the doc
tor nonchalantly going his rounds, the
clerk reclining behind the counter from
"a sfx and "A nj do IN a re sS-tw wice-
a-week, the mllliner unctuously creating
things for easy going customers who will
take her word for II that the thing is ex-
tremely choice and very reasonable at
the price, all this Is a child's play by con-
trast to the actors life, IL people could
only realize what that life was in all it's
darker shades away from the glare of the
footlights, behind which IT seems only
like a lovely dream In fancy clothes.
That's what the actor says.
Between you and me, though, my dear
young friend, / have my suspicious that
the severity OF the actors life removed
from the footlights, calcium and the
transparent paper, is about as much OF
a myth as the glory of 1t in the full
glare OF the same.
II Is probably a case Of hoss and hoss.
with the audience the notion has de-
veloped that the actors life Is all span
glcs and something more than stage
wine. With the actor, on the other hand.
has developed he contrary idea
that his life ia extremely nard. that only
t.Ae robust and the strenuous can possi-
bly, stand IL and that. unless one Is sat
isfied to sacrifice much for art, one had
better avoid the stage. etc, etc.
MY notion Is that the actor does just
about as much work as most folks and
has just about as good time as most
folks out of onIce--or stage hours. And
he doesn't have 10 work so hard as n