The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-01-22

send them a lock of hair or smile at them
from a cab window Or
They nearly always ask for my auto
graph
And you send it?'
Always. answer every note that
comes. hope / shall not have to get a
secretary. but I'm willing to il iCs necss-
sary like being n matinee idol though,
Of course. I'm not much Of a one yet, says
Mr. Warned, modestly.
And do you not fnl it dnhcult even
with the alienation of the matinee girls
admiration, TO play the same role night
after night
That is question frequently asked Of
the actor especially il the piece has great
run. One can only answer il from a per-
sonal experience.
i think playing a role over. night after
night. Is Just exactly like going fishing
You have the same brook perhaps. and the
same line and the same kind of bait, but
there is always different kind of fab;
and who ever got tired Of fishing who really
loved the sport?
1T is exactly the same thing with re-
gar& to acting: you have the same lines and
the same stage setting and you are the
sameJ but beyond the footlights is the
strange fish Of an audience that may have
TO lie played with a long time or may he
caught immediately there is always that
uncertainty which makes the sport quite
worth while
DO you ever have stage fright
Indeed do. The frat step on tine stage
before crowded house j. always like the
first plunge into ice water Il doesn't make
any difference II you take it every day
1t Is always the same that sudden awful
plunge After the first step u taken you
get light over the feeling.
"Thi, season one OF the men who takes
subordinate part was III and another
was substituted All he had to do was
to hand a paper and say something like
The rent Of the piano is four dollars
Well every night this poor fellows hand
. and the paper in II would shake like a leaf,
II he had had something else to say he
would have got over that first fright, but
he never had time
i the frat night especially productive
Of stage fright" was asked
The frat nj ght is awful confessed the
boyish actor
| should be perfectly happy
There is q great responsibility attached
to that first performance and an equally
great uncertainty. Besides that, you are
playing TO the most critical of all audi
encss, all the old first nighters, all the
dramatic critics and all the members Of
the profession who can get there.
Personally | do not think the first night
is as fair representation OF talent as the
second ia. any more than | think the first
sentences an actor speaks are as representa-
tive of his powers "a those he utters after
he has found himself and the first moment
Of stage fright il over. For as soon as he
gets nervous his ?oice Is d-y and ceases
70 hc flexible
Does playing character parts help a
man TO overcome this dread? IL he less
self-conscious?'
Il do not think So don't believe hold
ing buffalo robe before one is necessary
10 make one forget ones audiences and
lose ones identity in the role played. The
man who can disguise himself externally
in his character stands no more chance
Of becoming good actor on that account
than does the man who is good TO his mother.
. lnoy are Doln adInnaDle QUALITIES, no
doubt. but they are outside Of the real
touohstone Of dramatic art
Don't you hate to see women in these
-o-caled funny character parts, all those
atrocous wigs. putty noses and makeup
in which they conceal all those attractive
feminine charms? | do. It's all very
well for a man 10 undertake 10 play in char
acter but am always disappointed when
! know that clever woman has chosen
her life work in that direction.
And yet after all, one does not choose
to play character parts. One plays them
naturally If the talent lies along that direc-
ton / fell into il without any idea in my
mind in the beginning that | was destined
TO be what Is called character actor Some
times. in the horrible moments of one night
stands. when there was nothing else to do
when We were waiting for rehearsal, or
when one was just over, and we would rather
stay in the theatre bad az it was, than 60
back to the hotel ! would amuse the com
pany by giving little recitations, Very
often when | recited something with a