Omaha daily bee., 1920-03-14
sunshine, vivid with life-and ready
to love and to be loved"

sunshine, vivid with life--and ready
to love and to be loved"
The action of the play opens in
the luxurious apartments OF Give
Couper. member of parliament
bored and lacking interest in the
concrete things Of life and utterly
unmoved by the love of the beautiful
daughter Of his old friend. Then
comes into his life little servant
girl, cook, whom he picks up in
the street, and they enter into an IL
licit love affair which continues for
two years. 1t is to the unlcttered
girl OF the masses that the awaken.
ing comes rather than to the cul-
tured and gifted man Of the world.
The scene at the close Of the third
act, when Sally renounccs her lover
and at last confesses to him and to
herself that the end had come, is
spoken of by New York critics as
the most powerful dramatic situa-
ton ever shown on the English
speaking stage, and Miss Starr and
Lionel Atwill both rise fully to its
tremendous possibilities.
Miss Starts supporting cast is
the identical original company in
tact, exactly as seen on Broadway,
including, in addition to Lionel Al
will. Frederick Lloyd, Wallace Frs
kline. Whitford Kane, Thomas Lou
den, Mary Moore, Daisy Belmore
and Helen Andrews.
-0-
Otis Skinner, who comes to the
Brandeis i'll "Pietro," in a recent
conversation regarding the various
feeling actors undergo on first
nights, said:
"A first night is formidable
enough a: any time of life. You
have all the natural buoyancy the
exhilaration of expectancy, which
amounts almost to hysteria, to hold
in check. OF course, different ac-
tors take it differently. Some are
naturally phlegmatic. Indeed, can
recall occasions, when ! was my
own producer, stage manager. car
penter and leading man, when the
whole burden and weight of detail
so oppressed me that on the open
ing night was under my part
rather than over it. / like to 60
to the theater on my first night
without the faintest consciousness
of any stage detail whatsoever, be-
cause want to feel that all these
things have been inteiligently pro-
vided. OF course, the natural ten
dency on first nights is toward an
overstraining for effect and too
often one starts out in ones big
scenes on such a high key that it
is impossible to get il any higher.
Still | am not sure that it isn't bet
ter to err on the side of hitting your
top note too soon than on that Of
under-exprcssing your part. For
the main thing is to know your
audience. With the exception of
the student, the critic and the artist,
the public goes to the theater for
sensation-which is, after all, the
fundamental. appeal of all art. The
parts of Hamlet which really catch
the average audience are the ghost
scene and the play scene with their
suggestions OF hysteria. In short,
the theater is, in way, palace
OF sensation.
Besides, I love my work, and
there is no keener sense of enjoy
ment to me than that which exists
in the period from the selection of
the play, through all its prepara-
ton, to its final performance. There
is so much for the actor to study.
so mu:h that will develop and round
out mis- art. To take his calling
seriously is no less an essential for
an actor than it is for any other
man or for any other
artist"