The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-07-23
JULIA MARL OWES
WONDERFUL GIFT.

There must be something in a gift
| thatbrinss in 100000 a year. That is
/ what they say Julia Marlowe gets. 1t
/ is $500 a week, for the theatrical sea
! son is only forty weeks We need not
/ wonder at the craze 10 so on the stage
that fills nearly every girls mind at
some time in Her early life and turas
many mems careers aWry. Because YOU
| feel the craze and are profoundly con-
4 WINGED that there is evidence OF your
I natural adaptabflity, il does not mean
| at all that you can act. Most people !.
think they can learn You can learn all
| practical occupations even If You may
II not have the genius necessary 70 be
! great in them; and when IL comes TO
( any kind of art you can learn even less
/ of that. You may arrive at mechanical
J effect in almost any art; but you can
I not make 100000 a year on the stage.
( Some disappointed aspirants call il luck.
/ but it is not luck some say il is ad-
/ VertISement. IL is not advertisement. It 3
! is gift that Is given to you just as
your voice is. is yours alone. different
| from every body else's gift. whatever it
| may be, even II it be the gift Of similar
/ artistic instinct
4 Julia Marlowe is an artist by gift 3
| But she is not an artist who has not
/ needed 10 work for her success. There
was time before the gift had gained
/ perfect control OF her that she read
/ Shakespe2re's lines very badly. The
! gift inspired her 10 overcome that de-
/ feet. and for a good many years no
| actress on the stage has been able 10
/ speak the lines OF the great parts as
| she can. 1 remember her very well
| when she was crude in her reading, but
| from the first she had the natural gift
I of acting I suppose shall be told that
| this proves YOU can learn. It proves
/ that i'm art. as in anything else. there 4
/ is a technique 20 be studied out; that.
/ in fact to produce in an audience the
| Illusion Of spontaneity, there is much
I TO be learned But that Is not what
| makes anybody worth S1OQ. coo a year
| Before Julia Marlowe could give all
/ the point and value to Shakespeare
| words she could act Viola, and Rosa
lind. and Juliet She has always been
/ a woman of singular knowledge OF her
| self. Ten years ago she acted Beatrice.
! I recall speaking with her after the per
| fOrmance- She said Il am not old
! enough to play Beatrice. I shall not try
! il again for ten years" And she kept
/ her word She had fully grasped the
! character at that time. but she also
/ grasped the fact that she was too inn
mature to play it. This same intelli-
! gence she shows today in everything
/ she does.
! I spoke with her of OpheIia. She said
! that she had thought out that character
/ in her own way. Naturally she as
/ sumed that in the first place Ophelia
/ could not have been a simple. girliSh.
| flower-like sort of person. Hamlet was
/ intellectual first and last, everything
he said, even 10 Polonius and 20 Ophe-
| liza, had the intellectual quality. IL did
/ not seem right. therefore. TO suppose
/ that he could have found the pleasure.
/ it is shown he did in the company OF
/ a frivolous, emptY-headed girl Ophe-
/ liza need not have been very learned
! very intellectual at all. but serious. sin
! cere. earnest. fun of deep feeling. and
/ most sympathetic TO the intellect Of
/ Hamlet she must have been There
was the keynote OF Ophelia 10 her and
I I do not remember any other inpersOn-
/ alton of the part which carried so
] Il frrN.H nTanm#
/ hers.
! Juliet she always understood, played
/ it with the girlish effect when she was
a girl. but played it with infinitely finer
! art this last time. There is no abso-
4 lutte necessity that Juliet should be
! fourteen years of age. Shakespeare I'M
/ derStOOd as nobody not of the Italian
race understands better than we Cali
/ fOrnians, that the Latin girl develops
/ early, feels all the passions and emo
lions more wildly at a far younger age
! than the northern girl; but we all know
/ perfectly well that even the women OF
/ the warmer bloOded races can. no more
play the Juliet of Shakespeare at four
/ teen than the Anglo-Sa21On- 1t is an old
| axiom that an actress cannot play Jul
! let till she is thirty at least. 1 think
/ Julia Marlowe has been the only ex-
| ceptiOn T have met with. I dare say she
| could have made fair success of it at
/ fourteen. But if Shakespeare had not
/ inserted in the play that discussion
]
/ critic would ever have dreamed Of sup
/ posing she was not of age at least;
and we should possible have had large
| crop of middle-aged Juliets. Julia
! MarlOwe's Juliet is today the very fin
est deepest. most consistent and i'm
/ pressive performance of the role I can
/ remember, and have seen a great
\ many.
in every character Miss Marlowe
| plays. there is not line that has not
( been carefully thought out You may
have your own fanCies about II, ana
/ find readings not to your mind exactly,
/ and stage-business you imagine might
/ be improved upon But that Is yOue
/ individual view, and it still remains that
( Miss MarlOwe's reading or Introduction
/ of business is never dehatable as an
} oversight Of some meaning or misun-
derstanding. 1t belongs to her concep-
( ton of the part. perfectly consistent
| and may be accepted most of the time
/ as the better idea At ali events she
suits her to role personality. plays 1t to
I the artistic illusion OF voice, manner
gesture and expression of emotion,
| which all come naturally from her
And so she gets $4,000 a year for
/ it. Well. if such trash as we have seen
so often makes more than that for some
star" who has simply succeeded in
/ finding a play that eNcites the public
to that extent it is something much Is
more to our credit that the finest
Ehakespearean actress Of today Is
worth that in our country. The most
curious paradox about the matter IS
that the most intense enjoyment OF
Shakespeare comes to the class Of pes
pie who have no great amount OF lux
ury not much money; but who let their
earnings go willingly for the chance to
witness the great plays But after all
most of the great minds have been de-
veIoped in poverty; and there is hardly
a case of a famous man or woman, fam
Gus in ellectually or artistically, who has
not had some time in his life, hard
struggle to live. Up there in the bal
cony of the gallery, you must look for
the finest appreciation OF acting and,
perhaps the keenest and truest cr1u-
cism even if it is never printed. es-
pecially of speare.-Peter Robert
son in Sunset Magazine for July.
@po