The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1910-01-19
character Acting.

John Drew is aging Jack Straw,
De. ancey or as he is this season,
.Inconstant George" we go to see
John Drew. What is true of John
Drew is also true of William H.
Crane, William Collier Hackett,
Kyrle Bellew, Ethel Barrymore, Hat
| tie Williams, Billie Burke, and any
of the twenty-five stars most promi-
nently in the eyes of the public
Character acting has gone out of
] fashion in the sense that actors no
| longer aim to ob-iterate their per.
sonality and lose themselves in the
character they assume. The players
of the modern school seek rather ia
J, infuse and tinge the character with
| the charm or quality of their own
personalities and it is not in point
! here to open discussion OF the re-
spective merits of the two schools
It is enough to say that character
acting, in the sense iii which the word
was used century ago, has very
nearly passed and survives in it's per
lection in perhaps but one actor o.
the present Otis Skinner In Charles
Lambs delightful rambling essay, "On
Some Old Actors he draws a me-
, morable picture of the character actor
of old days and of the manner in
which his art wrought. He was speak
ing of "Dodd." Few now remember
"Dodd.' he exclaims. What an Ague-
cheek the stage lost in him! Longrove
| who came nearest to the old actors
| revived the character some few seasons
ago and made it sufficiently grotesque:
but .'Dodd" was 1T, as it came out of
Natures HANDS 1t might be said to
remain in 'puris naturalibus. In eX-
| pressing slowness of apprehension this
| actor surpassed all others. You could
see the first dawn of an idea stealing
slowly over his countenance, climbinh
UP by little and little with painful
| process till it cleared up at last to
the fulIness of twilight conception
it's highest meridian. He seemed to
keen back his intellect as some have
/ had the power to retard their pulsa-
! ton. The balloon takes less time in
filling than it took to cover the eX-
,pansion Of his broad, mooney face
| eli
| A glimmer of understanding would
| appear in the corner of his eye, and
!: for lack of fuel go out again. part
| of. his forehead would catch a little
| intelligence, and be a long tins in
/; communicating it to the remaindec.
Only Charles Lamb, who can thus
| make us see the mental processes of
Dodd's portrayal of stupidity, could
! do Justice to some of the miracles
which Otis Skinner works as La
| fayette Towers, the old barn storning
actor whom the times have passed by,
| IN Your Humble Servant Otis
Skinner is Lafayette Towers. If we
go to see the performance second
| time it is not to see Mr.. Skinner or
the play but LAFAYETTE Towers. We
come away from our first introduce
ton to him feelicg that we have me-
= new person, mat somebody is in
the word who was not there yester-
day At the end Of the third act
when Towers, mlsled by Margarets
declaration to him, made to mislead
Dick Prentice, begins to tell her
| what is really in his own heart, and
it off by pretending that he has been
acting, as she, while acting has beer
pretending to be in earnest, there is
the most marvellous piece of char
acter portrayal seen in years 1t is
| not Otis Skinner acting, however; it
is Towers, shrivelling up under the
shock and pain Of lis quickly blight
ed hope; it is Towers, getting the
mastery of himself again and going
OIL INTO Tic DOllOdSl VI ltiC Vio oe"SN
which has come to be his first nature
rather than his second. Again in the
fourth act Mr. Skinner shows in
striking manner how an actor who
| knows how can keep his character
'in the scene which is being con-
Quoted by others without detractine
| from effects that properly belong tC
them. 1t is a great performance an9
| it is more, for it is the last great ex-
| disappeared.