Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-11-08

miss Florence Minis Gives
Views ON the Theatre.
IDear Advertiser:
E When I was in Boston before, al
school, / used to go every week to the
different performances of the Elem.
Fry Jewett Players. would marvel al
[their excellence, never dreaming that
Eone day / should myself be studying
with them. / sometimes used to leave
1.-the theatre feeling that I had been
Eto church, though you may think ii
was a very paradoxical emotion.
kdid not then try to analyze my
Thoughts as / do now. I only knew
Ethat my metlitations on leaving the
building on Saturday evening were
mot greatly unlike those I expert
fenced on leaving a house of wor-
ship the next morning. I think that
EJhis is an explanation. In both places
I learned a truth or truths. Though
A walked down two different ave-
|nues, ] arrived at each at right con-
|clusion about many phases of life.
( The pulpit deals in one way, and
the actor in another. There are come
people who disapprove of the thea
tre,; and they learn only in the
churches. There are others who new
fer frequent church and yet who
have many vital principles Of right
living and right thinking portrayed
ton the platform. Now I am not for a
moment thinking that anything does,
Or ever can take the place Of the
church. We know, in reality, that ev-
cry right thing in the whole world
came from the Bible. The best things
in the drama today, are another way
Of saying the principles of the New
Testament.
4 ] am speaking of the great dramas
Of the world, written by great men
and played by people of culture and
experience. When good play is
rightly interpreted it shows the evil
Of wickedness and the good of right
eousness. 1t runs the whole gamut
Of life in a few hours.
ga crime is committed early in the
q q s instanee and; the end you
have learned, II 'you did not Know 1t'
unmistakably before that there can
be no wrong without terrible conse-
quences to the wrong doer, and that
sometimes right early. The audience
sees that the murderer or whoever
the criminal may be, gives his peace
of mind, that most cherished of all
possessions.
There is no harm actually done.
The actor did not really commit the
crime. The person whom he has SEEM
ingly injured may be in reality his
best friend. Yet the audience goes
away with a peculiar understanding
of that cross section of life. The au-
dience has not only learned through
the eye but through the ear. A
thought passes much more quickly to
most of our minds if it is aided by
the power of vision. So to me a play
is often an impersonal sermon.
The players are the preachers, and
the audience is the congregation.
There is never any offense, for neith-
er of the two groups knows the 9TH
er. The audience sees the actors, but
not the actors the audience. The
players are blinded by the footlights,
for they are not preaching to, but for
that vast unseen multitude. If a bit
of needed advice goes like an arrow
from the actor to a certain hearer,
no one knows it, and the person is
unembarrassed. For we are so made
that we like to shield ourselves and
our vanities.
The more we can learn pleasantly,
and the oftener we can be rebuked
secretly, the more welcome to our
selfish selves. The hearts Of the hear
ers are harps upon which the actors
play and who shall say that the 81
lent music thus brought is not a
hymn in tune with sublimity.
Before the velvet curtain rises
from the stage, there is soft light
glowing beneath it. To me it has seem
ed like that "dim relipious LIGHT that