The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-01-20
PRIMA DONNA'S
ADVICE TO GIRLS
Relates Some Experiences with Struck
Study Must Be Added to TaentSnger Brains Most
of ATraining for Graceful Bearing Enunciate Dis
tincty..
BY JESSIE BARTLETT DAVIS
Copyright, 1904. BY Joseph b. Bowles.

AS many as fifteen girls have called
at my house in one day to ask my adj
vice about going on the stage. What
do / say to them? I give them fifteen
kinds Of advice, and then don't know
whether I have helped them.
I often think that a young girl with
talent is a great deal like rock at
is started rolling. no power on earth
can stop it. The same holds true
with the girl. If she has talent even
in a small measure, you can't stop
her. What she needs most is conf
dence in herself: then she must have
good old American push" Bother
the theatrical manager. The girl
with talent and the determination to
succeed will do SO in spite of all the
theatrical managers and stage man
ayers in the country. To use another
homely expression, you can't start her
and you can't stop her.
But have no patience with the girl
who thinks that all she needs is good
80 far on the stage, and only
looks. Beauty will carry girl only
SO far for a short time. Stage work
is not fippant. To begin with, it
must be taken seriously. If a girl has
a voice, she will find that she has to
ASlly AcISCll i11dIly VI 1OSS lIStL
precious gift She will have to study
ceaselessly. There never comes a
time in her life when she can say,
II have finished my studies Every
day she must study, work, think Of
her voice.
1t is not necessary to study acting
before a singer expects to go on the
stage. AS a matter Of fact, you can't
study acting.
Not long ago fond mother brought
her daughter to my house to get ad-
vice. The daughter, it seems, had
been studying elocution and acting.
WELL" I said to her, lets see you
do something. Suppose you sing
song and accompany it with gestures"
ply had to laugh. She had tried to
make some one give her what she
didn't possess-brains. Brains is what
z. singer needs most Of all. Give her
that, and the rest is easy.
It is very important that girl start
young. She should be studying music
seriously at IL. She ought not to sing
much until she Is IA. But after that
IT must be a continuous round of
study. She must learn to read music
as readily as she can peruse a news
paper. Everything she can learn about
music will be Of assistance to her in
hASA CIoSSC ScI Gel lcIc Will come
q. time when this knowledge will be
OF great benefit. She will find lots Of
people around the stage who think
they know about music. but don't. She
must be in a position to tell those
people why they are wrong and she
Is right when she does a certain thing
In certain manner. Then these ig-
norant people will have respect for
her. AS I said before, it is a case of
brains. -"
Every young girl who can sing and
wants to go on the stage should study
dancing and fencing. Nothing is
more charming in a woman on the
pleness. And nothing will give a girl
these priceless accomplishments so
much as fencing and dancing. Not
that she will have to dance or fence
on the stage, but the movements she
will be obliged to go thru with before
the fencing and dancing masters will
give her body that suppleness which
nothing else can bring about A sing
er will find that she cannot dance
much upon the stage. Dancing af-
fects her breathing. She may have to
go thru few steps, but that is all.
If she wants to sing she will have to
give up everything else.
Another. matter Of Importance.
singer should learn to enunciate dis
tinctly. I can imagine nothing more
Wearisome than a singer who num-
bles her words SO that only one-tenth
Of them are understood. It would be
far better for her to sing in a foreign
tongue.
Once given the opportunity on the
stage it remains for the girl herself
to force an advance. Then is the time
when she must use her brains more
than ever. Then comes the chance
for her to show her energy, her grit,
her push. - =.
Only this spring a girl came to seek
my advice. She told me her whole
story, how her relatives in Memphis