New-York tribune., 1919-03-23
By Rebecca Drucker

Otis Skinner invited me to sit down
and watch him transform himself. from
calm, elderly and respectable gentle
man into frayed, staggering and
battle-scarred ruffian. A virtuous
countenance is not easily obliterated.
1t takes an extremely complicated
makeup to alter Mr.. Skinner into the
rascally Colonel Philippe Brideau.
"What shall we talk about 2" asked
Mr.. Skinner, as he rubbed in the pc
culiarly violent shades Of red and
yellow ochre which forms the rich
bronze of Colonel Brideau's complex
ion.
"Oh, talk about the Romantic Renais-
sance, please" / urged. "Some one
says there is one on the way"
"Really?" asked Mr.. Skinner, in a
disappointingly unmoved way. "The
people who have their ears close to
the ground have announced rumblings
from that direction so often that !
can remain calm under the news"
"But this time-the reaction from
the war; murmured.
"Ah, yes," said Mr.. Skinner, apply
ing makeup in q dispassionate, unhur-
ried way. "Some one is always find
ing that the time is ripe for Radi-
cal Departure or Romantic Renais-
sance. 1t seems to me that one or the
other is in each seasons schedule
though at the end of season one is
disappointed to find that nothing real
ly upsetting has occurred. Some one
discovers a new way of writing play
wrong side before, or finds that you
can have play with only two charac-
ters instead of forty, or presents
bedroom with two beds in it instead
Of one--by the way, aren't we having
a Bedroom Renaissance land that is
as far as our changes go.
"Perhaps our plays have not changed
very greatly" said, "but, surely you
admit that the fashion of acting has.
eyes, that has changed. They no
longer deliver ranting speeches in
elaborate attitudes as they did thirty
years ago. The modern, creed of real
ism on the stage has it that to be
perfectly natural one must turn ones
back to the audience and speak in a
casual, muted voice. But, though the
fashion of playing has altered, the
limitations of the stage have not. You
cannot compress life into the stage--it
is too sprawling and crude and unfin-
ished. To achieve perfect realism you
might go out and pick up a couple Of
newsboys and policeman and couple
Of sailors and some of the everyday
people one sees about everywhere and
put them on the stage, but you would
then get something too close to life
to be interesting. The fact is.
stage may not reproduce ,life--itsna&y
only recreate it. And, by that test, any
theatricality which recreates life ANUS
ingly or interestingly Is justified.
do not mean by this that only gilded
and artificial things belong on the
stage, but do believe that only life
which has been retouched so that 1t
is pictorial can fit into the proscen-
ium.
"The frankly theatrical costume play,
by which is usually meant the romantic
play, stands no better or worse chance
now than it ever did. If it is dull
play, no amount of costuming or quaint
vernacular will save it. "Kismet" sue
ceeded in a season when the costume
play was considered quite extinct, but
it did not succeed wholly by it's pic
torial quality. Something robust in
the character caught the imagination.
The romantic play may have its colors
laid on more richly and with a heav-
Ter brush, but it must have form and
substance as we'll.
"Now, naturally belong to the school
Of heavy brushwork, not the impress
sionists. am not a repressed per
son. / like expressing definite emo.
tions in an enthusiastic way. l like
picturesque attitudes and rich speech
And since picturesque attitudes and
rich speech are supposed to be quite
foreign to modern life, / must lool
for MY roles in the past. But an
skeptical Of that rule. do not Sc,
why in country made up of as varie,
conditions Of life and as many enter