The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-10-23
THE THEATRE A FORCE FOR GOOD

1T APPEALS TO ALL CLASSES IN
AN EMOTIONAL RATHER THAN
AN INTELLECTUAL WAY-sE-
cRET or ACTORS AND PLAY
WRIGHT's SUCCESS.
Without doubt, the two great lay
influences in the world today are the
press and the theatre, writes Charles
Phillips in 1.-The Monitor" San Fran
cisco. While the press reaches the
readers, the thinkers, of the land, the
theatre appeals alike to all classes,
for there is something in everyone
that answers to the outward and
visible sign in attractive gflise. Men
and women are truly, after ALL chill
dren of larger growth" and we all
know that the imagination is the door
to boyland. The stage shows us a.
picture of life, and somehow there is
enough good in all of us, that even
the lowliest feels instant sympathy
for the hero, be he Hamlet soliloquiz-
ing on the mighty problems of life in
words that strike home to the souls
of men, or but the lusty lad that
rescues some fair lady from the villain
of melodrama.
If the stage is often used to spread
the contagion of evil, it must be re-
membered also that from Shake
speare's day to our own time, many
a sublime theme has been brought
home to the world through the po-
tent agency of the drama.
The stage and the press may be,
and often are, made efficient aids in
the triumphant march of civilization,
and whatever tends to elevate the
tone of these, great agents is dis
tinct benefit to humanity.
people like that sort of thing" is
the excuse given by one manager for
purveying the vilest of the vile. 1t
is true, some people do, for like calls
to like, but generally speaking, I have
the greatest confidence in the people;
they are clean at heart and love the
clean and the pure. After all, we, as
a mass, are emotional rather than in
tellectual. We deal in hearts, not
heads, and the impulses of our hearts
are very easily directed toward the
good. We crave the better things
not the baser.
people go to the theatre to feel
not to calculate" said Miss Anglin the
other day, during a rehearsal of ''The
Divine Friend" which she is to pro
duce at the Columbia Theatre next
Monday. In that fact lies the reason
for the failure of the dissection
drama which attacks the head and
not the heart. And in those words
too, it seems to me, lies the whole
secret of success on the stage
whether for actor or writer. The
actor who touches the hearts of the
people succeeds; the play that, lit
orally fulfilling its destiny, plays
upon the feelings of the people, is {
success. 1t is their feelings that PEG
pie bring to the theatre, not their cal
culating intellects.
So much for the audience. For the
actor and the playwright, the position
is rather paradoxical. They may ap
peal primarily to the hearts and no
the heads of their auditors, who come
; not to think, but to feel. But thei
own heads they must use in the proc
ess, or be lost! Verify must be thu
touchstone of their every word ant
action.
Again, if the secret of the actor
and the playwright's success is to b.
found in the fact that the masses a
the theatre feel rather than think
likewise, in that same fact, lies thei
responsibility. All art is responsible
: Whatever lacks purpose is evil" thu
poet O'Malley tells us. If it be thu
province of the dramatist and acto
, to play upon the feelings of tn,
! crowd, to arouse their emotions ant
mold their impulses and actions, thel
, by all that is moral and right, the,
, are in conscience bound to give t.
the people plays and acting that will
E stir mems higher and not their lowe
selves, lifting their emotions up, no
} dragging them in the mud.
To me the most wonderful thin
about Miss Anglin, the great arts
: who is to produce 'The Divin
Friend'-the thing that surpasses al
the transcendent beauty of her act
| ing-has been her unwavering fidelit
f throughout her stage career to tn
high responsibilities of her chosen art
Very wisely has she said that tn
people go to the theatre to feel rathe
than to think. Knowing this, an
realizing that the actors message t
the souls of men must be reache
through their hearts, she devotes hel
self whole and entire with all he
, power and strength, to the clean an
! purifying things-to the things tina
refresh peoples spirits and lift u
: their minds above the sordid and tn
| commonplace, directing the impulse
: of their hearts to the highest planes
. holding their feelings and emotion
o into forces for good.