The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-08-12
BY ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.


more attention to the study of the
drama and it's amateur illustration
than ever before.
Courses have been instituted in high
schools and the latter also indulge in
amateur theatres.
Dramatic Clubs all over the country
are "head-lining" their particular stars
in semi-social affairs.
Women's clubs are inaugnrating sea-
sons of study of the drama in its more
literary aspects.
Ben Greet's open-air performances
are duplicated by other companies OF
thespians of equal excellence.
Church societies are giving vaude-
Vile entertainments
Drama Leagues are telling 'em how
to do it.
Magazines are featuring" those
higher up"
Sunday editions front page the
news of the theatres"
Dramatic critics are paid fabulous
salaries-not in Richmond, Indiana
to write learned and analytical disser-
tations on the last new production.
The stock company is being re-vivi
fed in every section.
But is the public becoming more
discriminating?
It's hard to tell.
The professional frequenter of the
theatre thinks sometimes it is. Some
times not.
And the actors announcements are
colored by a dozen considerations. So
his judgments are not unbiased.
The truth is that little interest is
taken by actors in dramatic art.
Even among the greatest.
When Duse arraigned her own pro-
fessiOn at one time, in Paris paper,
and said they were vacuous, uninter-
esting, uniformed and almost totally
lacking in culture, she was denounced
howlingly by her confreres.
But was she far off the mark?
She was, to be sure, speaking of her
compatriots and of one or two contin-
entail countries, and this was said
decade ago, perhaps.
Still 1t may. have been a generaliza-
ton that had some basis in fact.
1t is a somewhat sardonic comment
airy on dramatic art, however, to see
it's alleged opponents taken SO serious
ly by a public which, after all, has
little realization of the formers atti-
tude toward the stage.
"Art"-a badly and, indeed, nauseat-
ingly mis-used words something
with which the theatre has little to do.
Actors, as just stated, rarely talk
about dramatic art and it's varying
phases.
Very few of them know or care
about it in either theory or practice.
Most of them are in the theatrical
business" to make their living and as
long as they get salary and some
modicum of applause they care not.
You hear them, on occasion, refer
ring to leads" "heavies," "ingenues,"
character men, or women, "fat
parts" and other nomenclature for
stage characterizations, but it is a
sort of technical designation like that
about a newspaper and which refers
in the latter to the mechanical make
up and the collection and classification
of the news.
Not to it's matter or manner.
And matter and manner are the sub
stance of all art.
Perhaps no opponents of an art dis
cuss it as do those of the painting.
Among painters you constantly hear
art discussed
In fact, this class of producers in
the arts is allied with the essence OF
their output more closely than any
other
Painters-both men and women
come nearer de-sexed entities than any
other human objects.
Artists are generally absorbed il
art.
The universe presents itself to them
} in terms of form and color. They see
nature and men cannily.
Not with the ordinary vision.
But translated through an occult
medium not Understandable of the lay
man.
The human passions are subordinat
ed.
The dramatic art, concerned will
movement and the imitation of life
does not obsess it's translators will
its beauty and importance. 1t is {
mantle which they put on and off
The painters art is himself The
actors a mask.
And. therefore, nothing is, in a way
more amusing than the Overwhelming
Importance the actors personality as
sumes with the public
All this writing and discussing ant
blithering about the relation of tn,
actor to his art is quite outside hi
comprehension save as it relates t.
his conspicuity and multiplicity o
engagements.
Dramatic art, per Sc, is to him al
unknown territory.
Dramatic art exists. But outside tn,
purlieus of the average actor
He is apt, indeed, to be crassly ma
terial and more or less uninterestins
But he has always been, and still is
surrounded with an atmosphere o
. mystery and romance.
) An atmosphere in which he reall
: does not move but through which b
is seen by the public.
Actors themselves will tell you tina
dramatic art has no recognition.
That personality is everything.