The Jewish outlook., 1905-08-18

the C1mG Oh my determination dL d lOWu Ill
the neighborhood of Odessa. Consulting
with my friends, who were all of the same
faith as myself, we engaged hall in Odessa
in the fashionable district and sent for the
Yiddish players at our own expense. The
result was a keen disappointment; the play
was mediocre-the acting was worse. But
although disappointed we were not discour-
aged. We dubbed together and amassed a
sufficient sum of money to order from dis
tinguished playwright a number of one-act
plays, depicting, in an interesting and ap-
pealing manner, the pathos and tragedy of
the home life of our people We further
more engaged for the leading parts
actress of talent and lovely personality.
Our work began to attract attention. I
assisted at every rehearsal and constituted
myself stage manager and all-around critic.
When an actor repeated his lines in a man
ner that did not suit me, l would throw of
my coat and show him how 1 imagined it
should be done. l entered heart and soul
into the experiment, and before long had
memorized every role. More than once our
leading woman came to me saying: You
must act. You are natural actor. You
must become a member of the company"
1 refused continually, giving for reasons
that had already lucrative position in the
customs house and that my family would
seriously object to such proceeding on my
part. One evening" however, the lover" in
the company fell suddenly ill.,
"This settles it," said the leading woman.
You must take his place and act! 1t is
fate!"
accepted the situation and that evening
I made my debut actor. I made a very
poor lover, but when the round of applause
reached my ears it filled my veins with a
fever that has never left them. Not the
fever of applause, but the burning knowledge
that single man could sway multitude by
the power of the lines he uttered if he had
the art of uttering them with power.
1 soon realized my unfitneSS for the role
of lover. l took up character work and in it
found my first success and inspiration. From
the beginning l had no other gauge of sue
cess than the reception accorded to my work
by the audience. When 1 was applauded l
knew that what 1 had done was right and
then 1 at once sought the reason why this
was right ana the other wrong.
On one occasion when was playing the
part of a very old man, I placed my staff
upon table, By some error it was re-
moved. AS 1 stood up to make my exit my
hand instinctively fumbled over the table
for the cane. Not finding it, became more
anxious and nervous in my search. l finally
was obliged to totter out without it and,
much to my surprise my exit was received
with rounds of applause.
Another time my skull cap fell from my
head while I was making a speech-this
time it was comedy role-and was caught
on the collar of my habit. My lines con-
cluded, stopped to pick it from the floor
where supposed it had fallen. 1 searched
to the right and to the left and then to the
back, the audience in the meanwhile convuls-
ing with laughter, and when finally discov-
cred it and banged it on my head with look
of discontinue, 1 found that had made
hit
1t was these little accidents that taught
me the Importance of adhering closely to
tho natural acting human intorDreta-