Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-02-16


folk are hapless lot. Ours is the only
profession on this whrlng mud ball that does not permit
its worker to see his product Think OF -no actor sees
himself act. We work in the dark and our ntuitions
and imagination must be brought to high class OF
development in consequence.
"The painter sees his product-ubs out, fills in gets
as he wants it. The writer his words, changes
adds. And through all the varied crafts and pro-
LESSONS. The actor alone is hapess. He cannot see
that which he creates. And some OF us, he added
grmly "are fortunate in this respect.
Acting" he went on acting in the abstract, is
hard to define as it is to define what makes great
So many things must enter into the PREMISES
deep craftsmanship understanding, sympathy, SIM
plicty, personality. And of these the last must be
first; for it Capitalization, after ALL of temperament
Irving, Mansfield Booth, Jefferson all were con
sidered great actors But were they: Irving was
actor To him lights, coors, and the gradations of
coors to the nth degree meant as much as nerpreta
ton. Mansfield had tremendous repertoire; but he
did not reach the heart But Booth had only to hit
those wonderful eyes Of his-and he had you Joe
Jefferson merely had to speak one line-and he had
reached the footlghts and had your heart In his
hand. Why2
us an understandable thing isn't it? Is it per
sonalty? If it isn't, then what is the term that IL
Eliminates? Look you-weve had Ha1nlets without
number for generations Each Hamlet has the same
text, the costumes, scene sets, traditions he
knows he do certain thing here, certain thing
there Yet no two Hamlets alike-and hardly one
Hamlet in generation IS worth the seeing and the
hearing. What makes great Hamlet! The answer
is, The force that makes great actor Well then
paused cooked his head to side wrnled his fore
head, shrugged his shoulders enigmacaly- took
sip of mineral water.
IRVING and Mansfield attempted the spectacular in
their productions: scenic establishment was their
hobby Booth and Jefferson, on the other hand were
parsimonious, if you will, respecting scenery. They
aimed at simplicity And all the truly great, the gen
fuses, are sim pie the verge of the primitive Why,
when Irving and Booth played together in England,
Irving rehearsal, said to Booth Shall put the
Kings chair to the right and the carpet to the left or
vice versa? And the steps-shal we have them in the
center or to the side? - Do anything you please
swered Booth If we act we know how to, the audi
won't look at the scenery"
Warfeld smiled He has the slow-moving smile that
in the eyes, then followed by the pursuing of
the lips then breaks all the face radat1ng good
nature. And Waried smiled as he said "a friend of
mine told me that the public made an actor great
told him he wrong that the actor was great and
then the public became cognzant of the fact and
ceped him But the public had nothing to do with the
making.
"Now the public is a great big thinking mass and
it's usually right It's always right-one hundred times
out of one hundred-in its judgment of plays. Bar
NUNS aphorism that the public likes to be fooled be-
longs to bygone age. You can't fool the public on
plays, matter what you do or how hard you try. If
two heads better than one, then five hundred
better than two heads, and frst-n1ght audience IS
usually two thousand That frst-night audi
will tell you if the play is worth while or not 1t
makes no difference what the critics may say In the
paper next day, that first night audience public
intheessence- decide All the critics in Chrisen
dom boost bad play to the skies for this that, or
and signs nnumerable may boast in glowing letters ten
feet high that the play big success-but the public
knows By word of mouth, by telepathic waves that
of the occult that rstight audience has spread
the news-nd you can't fool the public for the public
knows
@Then the other side of the shield. A play may
into rubbers the saving is in our pro-
fession. 1t has unheraded, unknown Merely a
handful perhaps, in that rst-nght audience. But
the plays worth while, and that handful spreads the
news. Incredibly swift travels goou news as we'll as
bad, and the second night finds the bOxOice receipts