Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-05-11

Miss Florence Minis Writes Of
"The Playgoers" and "The
Florist Shop"
Dear Advertiser:
If anything could have been writ
ten on my heart for the past month,
the words would have been Senior
Plays. 1, being the coach, have felt
like a mother bird teaching her
young ones to fly, or to be exact,
teaching the students how to con-
duct themselves under the sway of
certain given emotions on the stage.
I well remember how I felt whe3
L first began rehearsing for our big
play at the Leland Powers School in
Boston last spring. 1t seemed to me
as stood behind the footlights, that
l was a large oak or pine growing up
between the boards on the platform,
so well rooted that could not move.
All could do was to stretch my arms
and hands as my branches and twigs,
but soon found that / was as free
there as elsewhere, when had once
gotten my sense of direction fairly
fixed in this place to which l was
newly transplanted.
So the students here must have
felt, though behind their masks of
paint and powder and their more eff
fective masks of character, they re-
vealed the thoughts of other people
whom they were impersonating, and
kept their own fears concealed.
1t all depe, ds on the clay which
the potter has to work with, as to
whether he deserves great deal of
credit or not in succeeding. If the
clay is soft and pliable he is but the
motive power back of it, and if the
clay is unyielding, he then deserves
double credit for making a thing of
beauty.
In my case, I had but to speak,
and the thing was done; but to sug-
gest and the suggestion was taken;
but to work, and the students worked
with me, so the credit goes mostly to
the thirteen characters who were
wise enough not to mind giving two.
performances on Friday afternoon
and evening.
| If l could have been in dozen
places at once, invisible, l would have
been there, behind the scenes (where
I was in reality, book in HANDY or out
in the audience clapping, for 1 knew
they deserved it, or out on the stage
spurring them on with smile, for
they knew also that believed in.
them everyone. -
In way, it is more interesting to
see an amateur performance than
professional, for though the profes-
sionals may give perfection, the ema-
teurs are SO evidently trying that we
enjoy watching them. Their acting is
process of development, the other
is polished product.
The first play was English. 'itThe
Playgoers," written by Sir Arthur
Pinero, and the leading man, by
chance, was an Englishman with
really good English name, Clarence
Mitchell, while his wife, who to all
intents and purposes should also have
been English, since they were sup
posed to live in London, was an Aus
trian, and would more properly have
been Viennese, but those are stage
secrets that should not be revealed
for fear that you might think the do
mestic warfare was also war of ma
tions.
The six servants who were the
other characters were mostly Firms,
and this isn't fish story, but clearly
the truth.
behaved myself very well, that is
I was calm and controlled on the out
side, as a school ma'am should be,
until the orchestra began to play and
nobody knew it then, but was very,
very thrilled that the Red Sea cur
tain would soon part and my foreign
children might or might not embark
and arrive safe and dry on the other
side.
But I came to from my good
dream, when the cheering of the au-
dience informed me, not through
words, but by more ineligible
.or,J ;,c+ +ben that all had gone