The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-02-07

| ambition to be a woma n-and live a
woman's full life-as well as an acc
tress. She Is the only American ac-
tress one can name offhand who has
possessed to the full everything a
woman can rightfully claim of life
without over sacrificing any OF the
glory Of the actress to the satisfac-
tons Of the woman. Miss Barrymore's
Who's Who would thus pretty well
demonstrate that one may GO into
vaudeville, become married, have chill
dren, home, temporarily retire from
the stage, abandon fiimsy drawing
room comedy for parts Grecian in
their uagedy-in fact, that one may
break one stage don't after another
and live happily ever after-if. at
any rate, that one is Ethel Barrymore.
About half way between Folkestone
and Boulogne there is a shoal" one OF
the characters used to say in Pinero's
"Mid-Channel."
Nobody has ever encountered thar
blessed shoal without. experiencing "A
most unpleasant time. The sun NAV
be shining and outside the harbor the
water may be as smooth as it's been
inside hut as you near the ridge
midchannel-you begin TO feel fidgety,
restless. out Of sorts. But the sensa-
ton does not last long. In every new
line of march taken by everybody in
life there is the rough and tumble Of
mldchanncl to negotiate. Some arrive
there quicker than others. some later;
II depends on wind and tide IL in A
bad time, a time when travelling com
panions see nothing but the spots on
each others yellow faces and when
nnumerable kind words and innumer-
able kind acts are clean forgotten But
IT'S soon over-well over II people only
say to themselves, Were on the ridge,
we're IN midchannel but in another
quarter of an hour the boat will be
steady again-as steady as when we
stepped to the gangway." So. too there
Is "A midchannol in every actresses ca
reer. II is reached when she would
grow from being merely herself on the
stage to the point OF actually creating
another character than her own. Rtlt
there are heaps OF other midchannels
in a career 50 complicated as that OF
the stage; and much IL to he learned
from weathering each Of them. Moth
ing, for example. gives an actor or an
actress a fuller grasp OF audience psy-
chology than acting in vaudeville-lf
only she or he can weather the annoy
ances incident to 'the halls" Again
anu again MISS barrymore has Safd
that she would not at any price give
up that knowledge OF what the public
wants Cleaned from her vaudeville ex-
pcriences.
Acting she once said. rs a good
deal matter OF economy. To every
body on the stage is given so much al
tention by the audience. and the skilful
economizing of that attention-dlsturb-
ing It not at all when 1t isn't needed.
drawing upon it rather less than more
when one must have II, and then really
satisfying II but not exhausting IL at
the ends something Of what / mean
by the law of economy in acting. IL
Is the least possible amount Of loss
between the audiences concentration
and what the actor says and does. -
One cannot hut remark Ethel Barry
more's constant thriftincss with her
audiences whatever her MAY
may he, II must he one OF her secret
fondncsses navigating in and out ~
the attention OF those out front--untiI
the needs Of tho scene or OF the nlsv
demand 1t all-when she rises TO sat-
isfy hut not cloy the attention she ba.
earned.