Omaha daily bee., 1910-02-20


cises a sort Of mother Of the family super
vision. None Of the less important actors
can ever get Sarah ~Bernhardts ear, but
Maude Adams allows no Intermediates
II a super or an unimportant undcrstudy
has a grievance or complaint he can go
straight to Miss Adams with II. This adds
greatly to her work, but she declines to
allow any one else 70 take II off her
hands.
Unlike many stars. she IL never greatly
concerned about the points that she per-
sonally makes u the rendition OF the play
is perfected. other actors never have to
play TO her nor sacrifice their own ppo
tunities TO score because she n the star.
In the preparation OF her own role her
method Is a subjective one. She studies
the play quite as much as her own part
until gradually the character that she Is
10 assume begins to take a personal form.
And until this visualizatiou comes to her
she will make no attempt 70 devise a
makeup When she was ~rehearsins "what
Every Woman knows two days before tile
first night she had not decided upon the
makeup, and then all Of a sudden Il came
to her.
She is mistress of stage technique. She
may have twenty different ways of getting
the same result under varying conditions.
such as the size Of the theater, the tenn
per OF the audience, the state OF things be-
hind the scenes. But the effects she pro-
duces are the effects she intends to pro-
duce.
why does the audience always laugh
at that liner" a novice once asked her.
Because" she answered simply, II read
It for a laugh"
She has great presence Of mind during
a performance and Is equal to any emer-
gency. once in an important scene an ac-
tor with whom she wal playing became
confused and the effect OF his line was lost.
II was a delicious line upon which the
scene turned. Without 1t the scene was
flat. Instantly Miss Adams, standing with
her back to the audience, whispered, Say
it again" The line was repeated and
scored as it was meant to.
When Miss Adams is creating a role or
working at a production from the stage
directors point Of view she becomes wholly
impersonal and distracted and hardly rec
onizes her most Intimate friends. During
the rehearsals Of Joan Of Arc" in the
Harvard stadium she worked all day and
until 9 in the morning and then was back
again at 7 O'Clock to go on with the work,
and all the time went about as II she were
In a dream, passing friends without a look
of recognition.
In the enthusiasm Of work Maude Adams
is apt to lose all sense Of time and physical
limitation. When a new production is I'M
der way she seems not to know fatigue
herself nor to recognize its most obvious
manifestations in others. During the re-
hearsals Of Twelfth Night" the company
became ~listless and one very good actor
who had an important part seemed to have
lost his grip entirely. She spoke OF this
afterward to her secretary with surprise;
II don't remember" she said In a
troubled voice, ever to have seen So-and-
So so irritable before. l wonder II he was
ILL.,"
He wasn't ill.," replied the secretary, The
was half dead. So were they all. They
had had no lunch, they had had no tea
and L suppose they were beginning to think
they were to have no dinner
"Oh!' Miss Adams exclaimed and was
much troubled. 1t had never occurred &c
her that the had been rehearsing for
seven hours on end.
Neither Maude Adams nor ]. NJ. Barrie
can be mentioned without suggesting the
other. Each made the other famous In
THE Little Minister" and from Lady
Babbie to Maggie Wylle, Maude Adams
has created all Barrie's most important
women for him, not TO speak Of Peter Pan.
It is an open secret among those who
knew them both we'll that Miss Adams has
assisted in the creation of at least one OF
Barrie's women in another sense than
merely being the first and most successful
actress to play the part This is Maggie
wylie. The heroine Of What Every
Woman Knows has in fact been sketchet