The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1909-05-09
SEEN FROM THE STAGE.
bullying m Audience-whcre Pathos IL .
Failure.

Some day I'm going to write a book
and call it Audiences said an old actor.
Critics Of all ages, points OF view and men
tai calibres have been regulating the
stage for years. and 1t Is about time some
body who sees things from the other side
should tell a few things. Why, take 1t
from me. therein nothing queerer in lie
than a theatrical audience.
An audience is unable to keep still
in the dark unless there is something
startling going on: This is true on all
kinds. from burlesque to grand opera.
An audience will sit as still as a frozen
fGumdrop on a marble slab for IN hour
while there Is something doing; but you
let a dark change come or let somebody
on the stage go to sleep in a chair by-a
dim freight.
After never more than five or six sec
onds Of comparative silence some femi-
! nine voice will he found feeling around
in a femipine throat for a local irritstion
that isn't there. Then comes a shorts low
! nervous cough. Fine for the lady. The
ball is started.
Then over in the other corner OF the
/ house there III be an answ ering cough.
Pretty soon a man gets into the game.
He is usually louder and longer. Next
t or three of 'em try it at the same
time. Then all hands get together in a
grand syncopated chorus.
Then suddenly the lights 60 on, or the
burglar breaks in at the conservatory
W window, The hacking symphony stops
short. Not a single cough then.
"Ill tell you another fool thing about
audiences. All you have to do to make
'em laugh is 10 say Damn and il the
comedian can by any vast originality
manage to say oh. damn instead OF the
plain Damn he'll get applause in with
the laughter.
~Then look at the vaudeville audience.
The apparent W illingness of that class of
audience to he sw aged by the egotism Of
en- illiterate in ~grotesque clothes
who tells jokes OF ancient parentage is
almost dish%eartening.
'The variety monologist advances
confidently to the footRghts and says
the audience maintains some degree Of
individuality and does not applaud.
Then the suave and elegant gentle
man who lie entertaining leans over the
lights and asks Who brought the dope
into the house?' This makes all audiences
embarrassed, but they don'g usually
lau gh. Then he Gays. Say, l hate TO
youse, why don't youse sleep in the lobby?'
The audience feels at ono that IT'S ability
TO appreciate humor is in question. II
laughs. Well, the rest Of youse can
think It over when youse wake up says
the artist and then the audience, goaded
to desperation. laughs, applauds and
in general misbehaves itself.
.The ten, twent'. thirt' folks are ada
mant. II they want TO laugh they will
laugh. II they want TO- cry they will
cry and in either case no power on earth
can stop 'em.
aThcy carry their likes and dis
likes and their individual judgment
to such an extent that they would break
up any band OF performers who were
not used to them. Pathos is something
they cannot understand. They are not
awed ny it. Not at all. They catalogue
that along with everything else. and
II It seems funny they laugh at II appre-
ciatively. IL 1t seems tragic. they weep
at it loudly and c~ontentedly.
you a imagine an old man dodder-
ing across the stage TO get his life earn
ines from the old bean crock on the shelf
when the audience knows his scamp
grandson has stolen IL a few minutes
hafore Thu acfar Ia IRVINE hta Laval