The sun., 1917-09-30

man or woman who adopts life be-
hind the proscenium as his or her pro-
fession is certainly Of a higher order
than formerly, and audiences are de-
manding more and more each year,
especially Is this true of musical COM
edy where the star system is dying out
and quality is the thing that counts.
1t is not even too much to hope that
in the musical plays of the future
there will always be a real plot. all the
singers will have real voice, and all
the comedians will understand the
word subtle!
But I don't want to give you the
impression that just because person
ally get the best results when
play the fool seriously. think that is
the only way to get comedy across.
Indeed no; there are almost as many
ways as there are comedians, because
no two funny men or funny women Of
the stage adopt quite the same
method. For that matter. no one man
or woman even plays his or her own
role twice alike II 1t happens to be
comedy part. When you play tragedy
you might at each performance use
exactly the same intonation in your
voice where you tell your erring hus-
band you can no longer remain under
his humiliating roof one single. soli
tary night longer. or you might have
identically the same choking catch in
your throat on the two hundredth
evening OF the run as you had on
the opening night. and you never
quite know until you can judge by the
applause at the end Of the act eX-
actly how well you are being received
You cannot see from behind the foot
lights whether the men and women
out in front are weeping or not. But
with a comedy role. you have your
finger on the pulse Of your audience.
as II were-you can feel when 1t
quickens, when II Is Just normal and
when II Is too slow. You have to get
your laughs at a certain time and II
, You don't get them you have to All
in the pauses with impromptu 'busi-
ness No two audiences are ever
alike, consequently you can never be
| sure Of a Joke that went big on Mon
day going equally big on Saturday
That is why am never funny at a
rehearsal. have to play to real peo-
pie, not rows Of empty chairs, before
can tell exactly how I'm going
to handle the role.
when Mr.. Elliott of the producing
} Arm Of Elliott. Comstock & Gest,
which is presenting Leave II to Jane,
first saw me at a rehearsal he was
bitterly disappointed, and l don't mind
telling you now that he expressed to
Mr.. Royce. our stage manager. n fear
that / would not do for the part.
knew the lines and I knew the neces-
sary cues. but that Is the least part OF
Comedians Job I did not know
how was going to play tho role. he
cause, as I have said, never do know
! until an opening night. I get my real
cues from the audience; l try out a
peculiar voice, or an absurd gesture,
or ridiculous bit Of pantomime, or
original dance, and IL the folks In front
take to 1t, keep It in; II they don't
show the slightest tendency to wear
out their gloves, try something else
the next night, until give them what
they want After all. it's the audi
ence that writes the comedy--the au-
thor and the actor are the audiences
collaborators."
Miss O'Ramey halls from small
town In Ohio and her childhood was
spent In the very serious environment
Of life on q farm three miles away
from the nearest schoolhouse. When
she was years old she went to live
with her grandparents in town num-
bering about 1000 Inhabitants and she
saw more people at the railroad sta