The San Francisco call., 1908-03-29


vision win be vagiie and uncertain.
Now, after he has formulated his char
acter the actor goes into rehearsal Per-
haps his concept may be as clear in his
mind as reflection in an excellent
mirror, but he somehow fails to realize
it. He does not act as he sees his men
tai model act; the role assigned TO him
is not accomplished, and he says. Not
a bit like it
What is the trouble2 The actors
technic is not equal TO his task 1 love
music and have musical experiences,
but ] could not put any of them
through the medium Of a violin under
my chin Why2 Just because / do
not know how to play the violin.
The art of acting Is twofold, then:
half consists Of the ability to construe
and half is in the ability to present
imagination and technic. that is all
Music and acting have much in com
mon. Some musicians have the ability
TO construe, but lack Nthe technic TO cx-
press some have no Imagination what
ever. but have technic enough and TO
spare. / remember having heard Mem
oelssohn's Spring Song perhaps a
hundred times before I ever really
heard it. 1 did not know what il was
all about until some amateur pianist
unknown to fame. showed me what
Mendelssohn had heard and seen in the
piece. !, too, heard the larks song. I
saw the dew wet fields, the bright sun,
blue skies and the blossoms on tree
and shrub That musician had imag-
ination-the ability to construe.
When I portray part il is as
though ] follow IN the steps of the be-
Ing my mag nation has created Did
you ever think of the psychological
evidence of that fact? 1t can easily be
explained
Frequently ] cry in the last act of
Gaines BOndman' at the heroism of
Jason Jason himself would not, per-
haps, have wept, but l do at the con-
templation Of his tremendous sacrifice
IN behalf of the woman who loves him
but who is the faithful wife of his half
brother Don't you see that 1 am trying
10 act as Jason would have acted un-
Ger the narrowing circumstances Of the
plot, and, seeing the result OF my own
technic In the expression of Jason's
sorrow, cry the same as some of the
audience do. The better / realize my
vision the more likely am to weep and
the more likely you are. too"
We were speaking of that last act
Of the melodrama and Lackaye said
that he had been criticised often for
turning a little comedy into his play
and for making light of the sacrifice
Of the man who takes banishn1ent and
perhaps death in place of another. "All
heroes act that way" said Lacka We
did you ever meet truly brave man
that would admit the courage of his
ect2 Ask a fireman some time after he
has risked his life TO save that OF an
other, how he found courage to SO i'm
peril his life. He will probably say, oh
its all in a days work, or That's what
Tn paid to DO or he will make some
other belittling reply. So with Jason
He will not admit his heroism, but
passes il of lightly. I think that was
a very fine touch on the part of Caine
when he wrote the book.
Il wish ] might tell you what I shall
play in next season But do not my
self know a. present.
Fitch is the best writer of plays Of
play there is. ] have read a thousand
plays submitted by people from all over
this country. but have failed to find a
no idea what sort of stuff is sent to me-
DO not believe the story about hidden
and suppressed genius There are hun
.dreds Of actors like myself who are
dying for good play, but we don't get
them. Nobody is writing them. Most
of the contributions are positively IL
literate, or else their only merit is IN
some mechanical feature connected with
the proposed production. The more OF
mechanics there is the less OF acting.
sometimes wish we could go back to
ShakespeSre's time when sign stuck
up. These are trees. supplied the
scenery In the attempt TO leave moth