The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-12-13
The Forum Offers Prizes
for Best Dramatic Review
Of New Play by Local Man

! stage as the character assumed would
move, speak and ppear in real life,
under the circumstances indicated in
the play"
AS Mr.: Howard suggested, this ap-
pears to be a reasonable definition;
but as he went on to explain, it is
absolutely and radically false" be-
cause it leaves out the one essential
Word. 1t ought to read
The art of staging is the art of
seeming to move, speak and appear on
the stage as the character assumed
moves, speaks, and appears in real life,
under the circumstances indicated in
the play"
Not to be overlooked are the preg-
nant words of the players themselves.
Ellen Terry, E~ngland's greatest ac-
tress, in her life story, says: IF I
were a teacher I would impress upon
young actresses never to move a finger
or turn the eyes without being certain
thai the movement or glance mean
something. Mrs. Wigan, (nee' Leon
ora Pincott, an accomplished comedy
actress who was at great pains to as
sist young Miss Terry in her art)
made few gestures, but each one quiet
ly, d~elicately indicated what the words
which followed expressed. And while
she was speaking she never frittered
away the effect Of that silent elo-
quence."
The late Sir Henry Irving, who was
the most complete master of stage
craft the English stage has ever
known, once said: EFF you do not pass
a character through your own mind it
can never be sincere This was the
great artists method of working out
a conceived idea, and it was the en-
hO0jnant nf artistic nh;Incnrhu
Irving, who was manager as we'll as
actor, put the matter of the actors
part in a general performance plainly
from the more comprehensive point of
view: =
1T Is most important that an actor
should learn that he is a figure in a
picture, n that the least exaggera-
ton destroys the harmony Of the COM
position. All the members of the
company should work toward a com
mon end with the incest subordina-
ton of their individuality to the gen
eral purpose"
AS to the scenic environment, that
splendid actor-manager said: you
want above all things, to have a truth
full picture which shall appeal to the
eye without d~istracting the imagina-
ton for the purpose of the drama
The late Richard Mansfield, the
American actor-manager, who was to
America what Sir Henry Irving was
to England, also who had the true ar
tistic instinct in his staging Of plays
as in the acting of them.
In describing Mansfield's acting of
the death scene of the depraVed old
Baron Chevaril at the banquet table
in A Partisan Romance upon the &C.
casion of the premiere of that play,
one New York critic said: mo one
listened to the lines, all eyes in the
house were focused on the withered,
shrunken, faccid little old Baron who
sat at Rosa's right, ignored by every
n about him as they gorged on his
food and drank his wine.
Soon he drew himself up to his feet
and raising his glass, said: Here's to
the god from whom my pleasures
come. Here's to Plutus and a million.
Here's to material nature, the
prolific mother we all know, see or
hear. Here's to the matter that
sparkles in our glasses, and runs
through our veins as a river of youth;
they dWell on the bloom of those
young cheeks. Here's to the matter
that-here's to-here's-the matter
the matter that here's
THE attack had seized him. Terri
BILE and unforgetable was the picture
of dissolution. The lips twitched, the
yes rolled white, the raised hand
trembled, the wine sputtered like the
broken syllables which the shattered
memory would not send and the
swollen tongue suddenly could not ut
ter. For one moment of writhing ag-
ony he had the trembling glass aloft,
then his arm dropped with a swiftness
that shattered the crystal. Instinc-
lively he CROPPED to the stairs for air
and light. He reeled as if every step
would be his last. Rosa helped him up
to the window, but recoiled from him
with a shrek. Again his hand flew up.
but there was neither glass, wine, nor
words. He rolled helplessly and fell
to the floor dead.
at was probably the most realis-
tically detailed figure of refined moral
and physical depravity, searched to it's
inevitable end, the stage had ever
seem"
From this description it will be seen
that the actor had omitted not the
slightest detail in his picture. The
criticism may also be considered as a
model, for it shows how completely
the true critic can forget himself and
devote his brain and pen to the sub |
ject under consideration, yet, at the
same time, write with force and liter
ary merit.