UC-NRLF 
 
 B M m3 331 
 
THE ART OF ACTING 
 
 and 
 PUBLIC READING 
 
THE ART OF ACTING 
 
 AND 
 
 PUBLIC READING 
 
 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 By 
 ROLLO ANSON TALLCOTT 
 
 F*rofcssor of Public Speaking and Dramatic Art 
 in Butler College, Indianapolis, Indiana 
 
 as 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS 
 
 THE BOBBS MERRILL COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
copyrtght^ 1922 
 By the B()bus-Mi:kr[ll Company 
 
 Printed in the United States of America. 
 

 To 
 
 My Mother 
 
 Harriet Isadore Tallcott 
 
 50... .J 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book has been written in response to a demand 
 for some text that will outline a course of instruction 
 leading to professional work. It takes up the work of 
 Acting and Public Reading, and presupposes thorough 
 training on the part of the student in common read- 
 ing and speech mechanics. It is for the advanced 
 student in the normal school, the college, the profes- 
 sional school of oratory, or the private studio. 
 
 The purpose of the book is to set forth a comprehen- 
 sive classification of the different ways of presenting 
 various types of literature, taking into consideration 
 the author's purpose and the class of audience to be 
 entertained. It is my belief that such a classification 
 can be made and that it may become a useful guide in 
 maintaining a standard of consistency among readers, 
 entertainers and actors so that there may be less harsh 
 criticism which the average elocution teacher feels 
 moved to make upon the propriety of this or that fea- 
 ture of an entertainment. 
 
 In taking up this classification, let me say that I do 
 not hope to have it accepted as infallible or as the 
 only classification possible, but I do hope that it will 
 give the young platform artist a clearer conception of 
 his field so that he will not encroach upon the actor's 
 art in the name of public reading. 
 
 It is my purpose to show among other things that a 
 studv of the actor's art is fundamentally essential to 
 
PREFACE 
 
 a complete understanding of the reader's art and that 
 no public reader can be truly suggestive unless he has 
 first been given the opportunity to express completely 
 and conscientiously all action that he hopes ultimately 
 to suggest. 
 
 One of my best friends in the profession maintains 
 that good taste is the only standard we may safely fol- 
 low in carrying out our individual styles of entertain- 
 ing. This might be true were it not for the fact that 
 there are many talented entertainers who lack natural 
 discernment and good taste, and who believe that any 
 method of presentation which brings a laugh or hearty 
 applause is acceptable. It is for such that a standard 
 classification is necessary. It may even prove helpful 
 to those champions of good taste who differ with their 
 fellow entertainers as to what is really good taste. 
 While it is true that good taste might govern the ma- 
 jority, it is just as true that there are other determining 
 factors which enter into the presentation of literature 
 and make it more effective. 
 
 I am indebted to Miss Mae Belle Adams of Emer- 
 son College of Oratory and to Professor H. M. Tilroe 
 and Mrs. Florence Butler of Syracuse University for 
 my early instruction in fundamental principles of in- 
 terpretation ; to Professor Fredrick D. Losey of New 
 York City, whose technical instruction and whose pro- 
 fessional work in Shakespearian readings have always., 
 been a source of inspiration to me; to Professor I. L. 
 Winter of Harvard University and to Professor 
 Arthur E. Phillips of Chicago, whose training in voice 
 culture and the principles of practical public speaking 
 
PREFACE 
 
 has been invaluable : to Ernest Elton of New York 
 and to Donald Robertson of Chicago, whose instruc- 
 tion in acting gave me the actor's point of view and 
 first led me to see the true relationship that acting 
 bears to public speaking and public reading, and per- 
 haps most of all I am indebted to Professor S. H. 
 Clark of Chicago University for many valuable sug- 
 gestions relating to the classifications set forth in this 
 book. 
 
 I also take occasion here to express my appreciation 
 for the careful reviewing of my manuscript which 
 Professor Ephraim Eisenberg of New York Univer- 
 sity has given. 
 
 R. A. T. 
 
 Butler University, 
 
 Indianapolis, Indiana. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 General Remarks. — All art is sugg^cstivc but some 
 is more suggestive than others. There seems to be an 
 assumption on the part of a few teachers of elocution 
 that the more suggestive presentation is the more 
 truly artistic. This is not true. Up to a certain point 
 realism is as artistic as suggestion but in a different 
 way. Acting is much more realistic than Reading but 
 it is no less an art, for with all the attempts at realism, 
 acting is still highly suggestive. 
 
 Any art seeks to bring out essentials and to omit all 
 that is not essential. If it were possible to reproduce 
 life on the stage exactly, it would not be art. A photo- 
 graph untouched by the artist's hand is not art — it is 
 science. It reproduces exactly non-essentials as well 
 as essentials. A good painting of the same object is 
 art for it reproduces only the essentials of color, form 
 and perspective, and gives the iniprcssion of a real 
 reproduction. A crayon drawing of the same object 
 leaves out the realistic element of color and depends a 
 little more uix)n the imagination of the beholder. A 
 line drawing of the same object in pen and ink leaves 
 out shading and depends still more upon suggestion. 
 All these forms of art are suggestive but in different 
 degrees and from different points of view. Similarly 
 the actor may be compared to the painter, and the 
 reader to the illustrator. As the painter with the use 
 of color is the most realistic of artists, so the actor 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 with the use of make-up, costumes, scenery, furniture, 
 etc., is the most realistic of his class of artists. As the 
 illustrator eliminating color makes the carefully 
 shaded crayon drawing, so the reader, without make- 
 up, costume, properties, etc., in personating presents 
 his characterization in literal action. As the illustra- 
 tor in still more suggestive drawing eliminates further 
 the element of shading and by mere pen and ink, broad 
 line suggestion makes a cartoon, or exaggerated com- 
 edy sketch, so the reader in hupersonatize reading 
 eliminates literal action and portrays his comedy or 
 eccentric characters in voluntary vocal adaptation and 
 facial characterization-. As the illustrator in most 
 highly suggestive form and perspective makes the pen 
 and ink sketch for serious rather than comedy effect, 
 so the reader in pure reading eliminates further vocal 
 and facial characterization and becomes most highly 
 suggestive in his portrayal of character moods, and 
 in his presentation of description and narration. 
 
 Purpose. — The following chapters will give an ex- 
 position of the essential factors in the presentation of 
 literature through Acting, Personating, Impersonative 
 Reading and Pure Reading; it will classify the types 
 of literature and the kinds of audiences best suited to 
 various styles of presentation, and it will suggest 
 methods of study. 
 
 These types of delivery will be taken up in the order 
 of their progression from realistic presentation on the 
 stage to the most highly suggestive presentation on 
 the public platform. 
 
 Explanation of Diagrams. — In order that the 
 
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INTRODUCTION 
 
 relationship which the Actor and the Reader bear to 
 each other and to their respective types of presentation 
 roay be clearly understood, it is compared by diagram 
 to the relationship which the Painter and the Illustra- 
 tor bear to each other and to their respective kinds of 
 art. 
 
 (I.) Comparison in Diagram Figure A. It will be 
 observed that a strong dividing line separates the art 
 of the Actor from the art of the Reader, and that the 
 same line extended down the page also separates the 
 art of the Painter from the art of the Illustrator. This 
 heavy line has a special significance in that it repre- 
 sents for the entertainer the point of departure from 
 the use of properties and all stage accessories, while 
 for the artist it represents the point of departure from 
 the use of color. 
 
 The Actor is likened to the Painter in that each does 
 his work as realistically as possible. The Actor with 
 all stage accessories does his work through acting 
 with action and characterization complete in every es- 
 sential detail, first, in the play with fellow actors, and 
 second, in the Soliloquy, a slightly less realistic and 
 more imaginative selection in its purpose, alone on 
 the stage. The Painter by the use of color does his 
 work through painting with realistic representation of 
 nature's colors, form and perspective first, in Detailed 
 Art, and second, in Impressionistic Art, which is 
 slightly less realistic and more imaginative in its pur- 
 pose. In the actor's art the key-note is the primary 
 necessity for scene, properties and stage effects, while 
 the key-note for the painter's art is the necessity lo.r 
 color. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Passing to the right of the dividing line in the 
 diagram, the Reader, who always works alone, zvith- 
 out the aid of make-up, properties or stage accessories 
 of any kind, does his work in three ways, namely, 
 through personating, through impersonative reading 
 or through pure reading, while the Illustrator, with- 
 out the use of color, does his work in three ways, 
 namely, through light and shade draiving, through 
 broad lines in caricature and through detail line draw- 
 ings. The reader in personating recognizes the key- 
 note, literal action, while the illustrator recognizes as 
 his key-note in light and shade drawing, the necessity 
 for perfectly blended high lights and shadows, perfect 
 form and perfect perspective. For both the reader 
 and the illustrator this is a step toward suggestion and 
 a step away from realism and attention to detail. The 
 reader in impersonative reading departs from literal 
 action and retains only vocal and facial characteriza- 
 tion in recognizing the key-note, comedy or eccentric 
 characterization, while the illustrator in broad line, 
 caricature drawing also recognizes eccentric charac- 
 terization as his key-note and departs from perfectly 
 blended light and shade, using only rough lines with- 
 out much regard for perspective. The last step toward 
 highly suggestive art and away from realism is pure 
 reading for the reader and detail line drawing for the 
 illustrator. Here the reader departs entirely from ex- 
 ternal characterization or eccentric comedy and de- 
 pends solely upon the expression of mood which is 
 recognized as the key-note and is expressed through 
 involuntary vocal changes, suggestive action including 
 
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INTRODUCTION 
 
 subjective gesture and facial expression. The illus- 
 trator recognizes mood as his key-note also and ex- 
 presses it in perfect suggestion of perspective and 
 form in line drawings of a serious rather than humor- 
 ous nature. 
 
 (2.) Comparison in Diagram Figure B. In Fig- 
 ure B the shaded area represents the proportion of 
 realistic presentation in the successive kinds of deliv- 
 ery, acting, personating, impersonative reading and 
 pure reading as it decreases correspondingly with the 
 increase of suggestiveness represented by the un- 
 shaded area. The same proportion exists in passing 
 from painting to detailed line drawing. 
 (3-) Significance of Diagram Figure C. Figure 
 C presents to the eye a means of visualizing the two 
 classifications for Action and \^oice. It is to be under- 
 stood that the terms Suggestive and Literal apply to 
 all action including the zonal classification. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART ONE 
 
 Acting 
 chapter page 
 
 I General Discussion 1 
 
 Definition 1 
 
 Relationship to Reading 3 
 
 Limit of Discussion 6 
 
 Types of Literature Suitable for Acting 7 
 
 II The Play 8 
 
 Definition 8 
 
 Kinds of Plays 8 
 
 Limit of Discussion 11 
 
 Technique of Presentation .... 12 
 
 1. The Setting 12 
 
 2. Kinds of Furniture . . . . 13 
 
 3. Properties 14 
 
 4. Grouping of Characters . . 15 
 
 5. Mechanical Effects ... .15 
 
 6. Lighting Effects .... 16 
 
 7. Concerning Make-up and Cos- 
 
 tumes 20 
 
 III The Play (continued) 23 
 
 Technicjue of Presentation (continued) 23 
 
 8. General Stage Business . . . 23 
 
 9. Detailed Business .... 36 
 
 10. Individual License in Business 39 
 
 11. Silent Acting 39 
 
 a. Unobtrusive Silent Acting 40 
 
 b. Aggressive Silent Acting 41 
 
 12. The Speaking of Lines ... 41 
 
 13. Asides 45 
 
 14. Soliloquies 47 
 
 Literarv IVescntation of Plavs ... 48 
 
CONTENTS— Continued 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 IV The One Character Play, or Soliloquy 50 
 
 Definition 50 
 
 Comparison of the Soliloquy and the 
 
 Aside within the Play .... 51 
 
 The Relative Importance of Scenery 
 
 and Furniture 52 
 
 Excerpts from Plays for the Platform 53 
 
 Technique of Presentation .... 55 
 
 V Illustrative Matter 57 
 
 From the Play Requiring Two or More 
 
 Characters 57 
 
 Illustration from the One Character 
 
 Play 59 
 
 Brief Summary 63 
 
 VI Rehearsing Beginners ..... 65 
 General Remarks . . . . '' . .65 
 
 Selecting the Cast 66 
 
 Reading Rehearsal — General Business 
 
 Given 68 
 
 Act by Act Procedure 69 
 
 Memorizing Lines and Cues .... 69 
 
 Detailed Business 69 
 
 Property Rehearsal 71 
 
 Polish 73 
 
 Dress Rehearsal with Effects ... 79 
 
 Final Rehearsal 80 
 
 A Final Word 81 
 
 PART TWO 
 
 Reading 
 
 VII General Discussion 87 
 
 Definition of Reading 87 
 
 The Relationship of Reading to Acting 87 
 
CONTEXTS— C(?n/mii£7aJ 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 1. The Arts Themselves ... 87 
 
 2. The Artists Compared ... 88 
 The Three Types of Presentation for 
 
 the Reader 95 
 
 1. Personating 95 
 
 2. Impersonative Reading ... 95 
 
 3. Pure Reading 96 
 
 The Determining Factors in Alaking the 
 
 Subdivisions 96 
 
 1. The Author's Purpose ... 96 
 
 2. The Literary Composition . . 97 
 
 3. Method of Gassifying a Selec- 
 
 tion Quickly 99 
 
 General Limitations in Attitude and in 
 Sex 101 
 
 1. Bearing in Reading (Pure or Im- 
 
 personative) Compared to Bear- 
 ing in Personating .... 101 
 
 2. Sex Limitation in Personating and 
 
 in Reading 103 
 
 VIII Personating 105 
 
 Definition Elaborated 105 
 
 Type of Selection for Personating . . 105 
 
 1. The Personation 105 
 
 Vocal Features of Personating . . 112 
 1. Voluntary Adaptation of Voice 
 
 to Characterization . . . .112 
 
 a. Conscious Change in the 
 
 Four Elements: Quality, 
 Force, Pitch and Time . 112 
 
 b. Conscious Imitation of 
 
 Speech ^Mechanics in Pro- 
 ducing Dialects . . .115 
 
 c. Conscious Imitation of Lo- 
 
 cal and Provincial Speech 117 
 
COyiTE'SlTS—Continued 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 d. Conscious Imitation of 
 
 Speech Defects . . .120 
 
 e. Song Imitation . . . 121 
 2. Involuntary Change of Voice Ex- 
 pressing the Varying Moods . 121 
 
 Actional Features of Personating . .122 
 
 1. Literalness in All Action . . . 122 
 
 2. Technique of Action in Personat- 
 
 ing 124 
 
 The Use of a Qiair and Personal Prop- 
 erties . . 128 
 
 Treatment of Personation within Per- 
 sonating 130 
 
 The Treatment of Vocal Imitation with- 
 in Personating 132 
 
 The Use of Literal Song in Personating 133 
 Relation of Personating to Impersona- 
 tive Reading 134 
 
 IX Impersonative Reading 135 
 
 Definition Elaborated 135 
 
 Type of Selection Suitable for Imper- 
 sonative Reading 135 
 
 1. The Character Reading . . .135 
 
 Vocal Features of Impersonative Read- 
 ing 137 
 
 Actional Features of Impersonative 
 Reading 137 
 
 Stationary Position of the Reader in 
 Impersonative Reading .... 140 
 
 Treatment of Personation within Im- 
 personative Reading 141 
 
 Treatment of Vocal Imitation within 
 Impersonative Reading .... 142 
 
 The Use of Song in Impersonative 
 Reading 143 
 
 The Treatment of First Person Narra- 
 tive 144 
 
 I 
 
CONTENTS— Continued 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 X Pure Reading 146 
 
 Dcfiuition Elaborated 146 
 
 Type of Selecton for Pure Reading . 147 
 1. The Interpretative Reading . .147 
 
 Vocal Features of Pure Reading . . 148 
 
 Actional Features of Pure Reading . 150 
 Treatment of Mood Representation 
 
 within Normal Characterization . 153 
 Treatment of Vocal Imitation in Pure 
 
 Reading 154 
 
 The Suggestion of Song in Pure Read- 
 ing 156 
 
 First and Third Person Narrative . 158 
 
 XI The Varied Treatment of Types . . 161 
 Selections for Either Impersonativc or 
 
 Pure Reading 161 
 
 Selections Unmistakable in Classifica- 
 tion 162 
 
 Selections Impossible to Classify as 
 
 Readings 164 
 
 1. The Burlesque 164 
 
 2. The Inconsistent Composition . 165 
 
 3. Stunts, or Imitations .... 166 
 
 4. Ventriloquism 166 
 
 PART THREE 
 
 Method of Study 
 
 XII General Discussion 171 
 
 Introductory Statement 171 
 
 The Development of Human Expression 174 
 The Development of llic Art of Pure 
 
 Reading 176 
 
 The Law of Suggestive Action . .178 
 The Law of Vocal Changes . . .180 
 
C01<ITE1\TS— Continued 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XIII Suggestions for Study 182 
 
 In the Play with Others .... 182 
 
 In the SoHloquy Alone 184 
 
 The Soliloquy for Personating . . . 185 
 The Monologue for Personating . . 187 
 The Eccentric Address for Personating 188 
 The Character Series for Personating 189 
 The Character Soliloquy and the Char- 
 acter Monologue for Impersonative 
 
 Reading 190 
 
 The Character Play for Impersonative 
 
 Reading 191 
 
 The Character Narrative for Imper- 
 sonative Reading 192 
 
 Interpretative Readings, Including Sub- 
 forms for Pure Reading . . . .192 
 How to Work out Any Selection for 
 Public Presentation 193 
 
 XIV Choice of Selection 196 
 
 The Student's Difficulty .... 196 
 
 New Selections or Old 198 
 
 Where to Find New Material ... 199 
 How to Recognize Good Material for 
 
 Adaptation 199 
 
 Cutting the Selection 201 
 
 Preparing the Selection for Delivery . 202 
 
 XV Choice of Professional Training . . 208 
 
 Introductory 208 
 
 Suggested Course for the Actor . . 209 
 Suggested Course for the Reader . . 210 
 Suggested Course for the Public 
 
 Speaker 210 
 
 A Word about the Preliminary Courses 211 
 
COxXTENTS— C(?//(:/w(/^(^ 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Appendix 215 
 
 Definition of Class Tvpcs . . . .215 
 
 1. The Artists Defined . . . .215 
 
 2. The Arts Defined . ... 216 
 
 3. Types of Literature Defined . 217 
 Definition of Voice and Action . . 219 
 
 1. Action Defined According to 
 
 Bodily Zones 220 
 
 2. Action Defined According to its 
 
 Literalness and Suggestiveness 221 
 
 3. Voice Defined 222 
 
 Definition of Forms of Composition . 222 
 Definition of Mood and Atmosphere . 224 
 
PART ONE 
 Acting 
 
THE ART OF ACTING 
 AND PUBLIC READING 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 GENERAL DISCUSSION 
 
 Definition. — The term acting must not be con- 
 fused with the term action which refers to all bodily 
 expression including gesture, facial expression, poise 
 and carriage. Acting is the art of presenting litera- 
 ture in the form of a Play or a Soliloquy. The char- 
 acters are here assumed by an equal number of persons 
 and are played in appropriate make-up, wigs, beards 
 and costume while making use of essential properties 
 and furniture in a setting of special scenery. The sit- 
 uations are made as realistic as possible with the aid 
 of mechanical devices imitating wind, rain and thun- 
 der, together with the electrical appliances that furnish 
 the different light effects. 
 
 In acting, as little as possible of detailed action is 
 left to the imagination of the audience, for its purpose 
 throughout is to make the scene realistic, although 
 there are necessarily many elements that must make 
 their appeal through the imagination. This is due to 
 the fact that acting is an art instead of a science. A 
 
 I 
 
2 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 good painting, no matter how detailed in execution, is 
 art because it can only approach realism and can never 
 be exact. A photograph is an exact reproduction im- 
 possible of accomplishment by human agency and is 
 therefore not art but science. The ability to grasp 
 all the essential details and omit non-essentials in re- 
 producing different phases of life, whether in paint- 
 ing or in acting, constitutes art, but any means that 
 can possibly reproduce these phases with exactness is 
 science and can not be called art. 
 
 The imagination is called upon in acting, to suggest 
 the passage of time. The lowering of the curtain, 
 dark changes, change in the period or style of costume, 
 or a change in the lighting effects are all means of 
 suggesting to the audience the conception of minutes, 
 hours, days, months or years which are supposed to 
 have passed during the progress of the play. 
 
 The character of the scenery representing luxury or 
 poverty ; indoors or outdoors ; summer, winter, spring 
 or fall ; the style and quality of the furniture ; the taste 
 of the decorations and the general coloring of the 
 scene, stirs the imagination of the audience to a con- 
 ception of definite location. 
 
 The unreality of the footlights and the absence of 
 the fourth wall to an interior set stimulate the mind 
 of the audience to imagine the whole scene, characters, 
 dialogue and all to be, not within the narrow limits of 
 a theater building, but out in the real world. Other 
 appeals to the imagination are made through the back- 
 ing sets to the exits, the adjoining room and out-of- 
 doors ; through the use of the telephone which induces 
 
ACTING 3 
 
 the audience to imagine a person at the other end of 
 the wire, and through the mentioning of characters 
 and events not actually represented before the au- 
 dience. From these instances it may be seen that act- 
 ing approaches the realistic representation of life but 
 still retains hold on the imagination to a very great 
 extent. It has chosen the essential details necessary 
 to give a conception of real scenes and incidents and 
 is therefore art. 
 
 Acting is art for another reason. The actor who 
 can so admirably adjust himself to another's point of 
 view that he can assume his likeness in action, make- 
 up and speech, and adapt himself to the essential 
 characteristics of the character in the dialogue, is an 
 artist, for he has aroused the imagination to a point 
 at which the auditor forgets he is listening to a play 
 and for the time being believes he is witnessing a bit 
 of actual life. 
 
 Relationship to Reading. — There has grown up a 
 prevailing idea among literary students, particularly 
 among those who make some attempt at the public 
 reading of plays and classic literature, that reading, 
 because it is suggestive, is much more worthy of the 
 name Art than is acting. An audience is thought 
 to be uplifted and ennobled if the imagination is ap- 
 pealed to, and since acting is realistic and docs not 
 constantly stimulate the faculty of imagination, it is 
 not so high an art as reading. The error in this rea- 
 soning lies in the false assumption that acting can not 
 be suggestive as well as realistic. Acting is sugges- 
 tive, but in a different way. 
 
4 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 Acting is just as essential to the ultimate building 
 of suggestive power in reading as food is to the ulti- 
 mate making of blood which feeds the brain and pro- 
 duces thought. There must first be a broad experience 
 of realism before the mind can begin to create imagin- 
 ative or ideal pictures. The individual who has the 
 genius to adapt himself to other points of view and 
 reproduce accurately the essential vocal and bodily ex- 
 pression of the character is as great an artist as the 
 finished reader who has learned to play almost wholly 
 upon the imagination. The two arts are different, 
 but their difference lies in the manner of development. 
 Acting is realistic in that it tries to reproduce every 
 essential detail in order that the picture created may 
 be to every one the same in degree of vividness or im- 
 pressiveness. It is suggestive in its larger connota- 
 tion to the auditor and in the fact that it actually 
 brings out only essential details whereby the auditor 
 can get the real picture without being obliged to ac- 
 cept the non-essentials. Acting does not require the 
 scene to be actually in somebody's front yard or in 
 the barroom of a New York dive, but it requires 
 painted scenery to suggest these places. It does not 
 go out on the city streets and bring in on the stage a 
 real Italian organ grinder to represent **Mr. Antonio," 
 nor does it conscript a country minister to give a life- 
 like imitation of himself before the public, but it em- 
 ploys Otis Skinner and Ernest Elton to represent in 
 essential detail these characters necessary to the play. 
 There is realism, to be sure, and yet back of it all there 
 is a great inherent suggestion. 
 
 iThe power of reading lies in the fact that by voice 
 
ACTING 5 
 
 and suggestive action it inspires in the minds of the 
 audience the essential details of a theme sufficient to 
 allow them to create their own complete picture and 
 draw their own conclusions. Public reading, however, 
 is impossible of accomplishment by one who has not 
 first a real conception of what he wants to suggest so 
 that he may choose the essentials necessary for imagi- 
 native inspiration. In order to be a great public reader, 
 one must first be naturally a good actor, although he 
 may know very little of the technique of acting. After 
 a reader has been developed along the imaginative 
 lines of his particular art, he very often becomes a 
 poor actor because he has developed the suggestive- 
 ness at the expense of detailed realism. Conversely 
 an accomplished and successful actor is rarely able to 
 excel in the reader's art, because he has developed the 
 detailed realism of acting at the expense of his sugges- 
 tive powers. It is this one-sided development that 
 causes so much inconsistency on the part of the actors 
 and the so-called readers when they present their work 
 for public approval. 
 
 The actor is always a character on the stage whether 
 speaking or silent, and must always be doing some- 
 thing consistent with the character he represents. 
 Great attention is paid to apparently trivial details of 
 business. Every move is important. The picking up 
 of a pin, the closing of a door, the lighting of a match, 
 or the supposedly unconscious drumming of the foot 
 on the floor ; all these have a composite significance 
 in making up the general effect of reality. But this 
 fact must be remembered : nothing that is unessential 
 may be brought in. Herein lies the art. If it were 
 
6 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 true to life, the action would be burdened with a thou- 
 sand accidental details that have no significance, and 
 the time of playing would have to be exactly as long 
 as actually living the story. In fact it would be im- 
 possible for human beings to reproduce with scientific 
 accuracy even ten minutes of the life of one person ; 
 but an artist can choose the essential acts and move- 
 ments of one person throughout a lifetime and repro- 
 duce them in the space of three hours on the stage. 
 It is not, therefore, the number of details wrought in 
 a piece of reproduction that makes it good or bad art, 
 but in the choice of details. Again, to bring up a 
 comparison, photography is scientifically exact because 
 nature and not the human mind has accomplished it, 
 but painting is artistically discriminating because tlie 
 human mind is able to reproduce essential details. 
 
 Limit of Discussion. — In this discussion of acting 
 no attempt is made to produce a professional guide- 
 book for staging plays, but there will be an endeavor 
 to give suggestions for training the student in acting 
 to a sufficient extent that he may have his mind, body 
 and voice thoroughly accustomed to being adapted to 
 the expression of different points of view (character- 
 ization). Then, later in his study of Public Reading, 
 he will have a fundamental experience upon which to 
 build his more suggestive work. The discussion will 
 not touch on make-up, costume, or scenery effects in 
 detail, but will lay emphasis on literal action with 
 properties, stage business, silent action and spoken 
 lines including vocal characterization. 
 
 Types of Literature Suitable for Acting. — In 
 
ACTING 7 
 
 Part One, acting shall be discussed first, with regard 
 to the PtSS' in wliich two or more characters are in 
 conversation, and Si^cond, with regard to the Soliloquy, 
 or play written for one character only. The Soliloquy 
 marks the natural transition point for the actor to 
 develop into the reader. He still has practice in the 
 use of properties and in literal action, but he has 
 added one new note to h.is work — that of havin,c^ the 
 attention of the audience centered wholly upon 
 himself. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE PLAY 
 
 Definition. — The Play is a piece of literature writ- 
 ten in pure dialogue form for two or more characters 
 in which costume, make-up, properties and appropriate 
 stage setting are employed, and in which as many 
 persons as there are characters to be represented act. 
 The Play, of course, may be read by one person, but 
 it is referred to in this chapter solely as a vehicle for 
 acting. 
 
 Kinds of Plays. — Plays are regarded as to their 
 character under the head of farces, farce-comedies, 
 comedies, comedy-dramas, dramas, tragedies and 
 poetic dramas, and progress in their imaginative and 
 connotative power proportionately from the farce to 
 the poetic drama. 
 
 The Farce is an almost wholly surface play with no 
 depth of thought or suggestion and with no appeal 
 whatever to esthetic or ennobling motives. It abounds 
 in exaggerated comedy and impossible situations 
 which serve merely to entertain for a couple of hours 
 and thereafter be forgotten. The Magistrate, by 
 Pinero, and Jane, by Leskocq and Nicholls, are not- 
 able examples of the farce. 
 
 Farce-Comedy is one step in advance of the farce 
 in that, while its situations are not actually impossible, 
 yet they are highly improbable, so that the humor 
 
 8 
 
ACTING 9 
 
 resulting is as exaggerated as that of the farce. The 
 Great Adventure, by Arnold Bennet, is an example of 
 the farce-comedy. While it might be said that the 
 farce-comedy does leave something for the auditor to 
 think about, it is nevertheless, like the farce, essen- 
 tially lacking in appeal to any of the higher feelings. 
 
 The Comedy makes a decided step in advance in 
 its appeal to real lasting thought. It is not exag- 
 gerated. The situations are, of course, unusual, but 
 not at all Improbable, and the humor is so compelling 
 that it is at once uplifting and connotative of beauty 
 and of the real joy of life. It stirs not deeply but 
 gently and is much more far-reaching in its imagina- 
 tive influence than many who are more sober-minded 
 are willing to admit. The comedy is more difficult 
 to present than either the farce-comedy or the farce, 
 for to bring out the essentials of humor in life with- 
 out overdoing and employing a number of accidentals 
 requires the highest type of art. To play a tragic 
 role does not demand more discriminating ability, and 
 it is easier to tell the culture of an actor through the 
 quality of his humor than through the power of his 
 pathos or his magnetic appeal to the sentiments. The 
 comedy then, has much to do with the imagination and 
 it is therefore the best of all types for the early stu- 
 dent's study and practice. The Fortune Hunter and 
 The Boomerang, both by Winchell Smith, are notable 
 examples of pure comedy. 
 
 The Comedy-Drama is a pleasantly humorous play, 
 with a mildly amusing plot balanced by serious 
 thought and sympathetic mood. The humor is present 
 
lo DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 to relieve the otherwise serious mood rather than to 
 be amusing for its own sake. Its imaginative appeal 
 is to the sentiments and its connotative power pro- 
 duces many lasting impressions. The comedy-drama 
 may have an uplifting mission and may therefore be 
 regarded as possessiiig distinct virtues for the student 
 who has ambition to become a public reader. It gives 
 opportunity for the development in another direction, 
 namely, toward sympathetic emotion, while still retain- 
 ing the appreciation for' the niceties of humor. Mice 
 and Men, by Madeline Lucette Ryley, is a splendid 
 example of this type of play. 
 
 The Drama is a serious play. While it may have 
 touches of humor (it really ought to, for a play with- 
 out humor is depressing and on the whole does not 
 leave so strong an impression) its plot and purpose are 
 serious. The appeal is to the deeper natures of mea 
 and affords great opportunity for the imagination of 
 the auditors. In this type of play, the problems, sor- 
 Tov^s and disappointm.ents of life have their expression 
 and are therefore more keenly connotative to the 
 average listener than the joys, and the unexpected 
 pleasures of life, for they come closer to the ordinary 
 experiences. It is easier to make an average audienqe 
 weep than to make it laugh. Notable examples of the 
 serious play are The Passing of the Third floor Back, 
 Kindling, The Truth and The Thief. All these have 
 remarkable connotative power. 
 
 The Tragedy is a pathetic play in which the extreme 
 of the serious emotions arc portrayed. It usually 
 teaches a powerful lesson and, because of its warning, 
 
ACTING II 
 
 gives great opportunity for imaginative effect. It is 
 the most powerful of dramas and should not be at- 
 tempted by students until they have had plenty of 
 experience in the milder forms of plays. Many public 
 readers and actors fail at the beginning because they 
 make the mistake of trying to do what is beyond their 
 experience to understand. Othello or Hamlet or Lear 
 may be wonderfully acted by Mantell, Sothcrn or 
 Faversham, or read by two or three of our veteran 
 readers, but it is a mistake for the young reader to 
 attempt tragedies in public. 
 
 The Poetic Drama is a highly idealized play written 
 in meter. It is the most imaginative of all plays and 
 is very often given with as much power as a reading 
 as when fully acted out in a complete setting. Such a 
 play rarely requires much action or use of properties, 
 for its purpose is so obviously to produce thought and 
 emotional connotation that properties become almost 
 purely accidental. There are, in fact, many such pla}s 
 which lose much of their beauty when presented in a 
 regular setting with properties and costumes. Tenny- 
 son's The Falcon and Bccket are much more suitable 
 for reading than for acting. Every wo man, by 
 Browne, makes a wonderful reading, but its author 
 has worked out so ingeniously the action in the va- 
 rious settings that when acted it loses nothing, but 
 rather adds new and clearer values which offer in 
 turn new connotations. 
 
 Limit of Discussion. — Other classifications of the 
 play might be given such as the Melodrama, an exag- 
 gerated, serious play with improbable situations ; 
 
12 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 Vaudeville Sketches; Ventriloquial Stunts, etc., but 
 they have no place here. There are, of course, the 
 musical plays v^hich approach the ideal of high imagi- 
 nation through progression from the Burlesque, Musi- 
 cal Comedy, Comic Opera and Light Opera to Grand 
 Opera, but this discussion is concerned solely with the 
 dramatic phase of the art and will not trespass upon 
 the musical field. 
 
 Technique of Presentation. — From the standpoint 
 of a finished production, there are several avenues of 
 criticism open to the Director of plays when he is pro- 
 ducing a performance, in a regularly equipped theater, 
 for which an admission price is charged. 
 (i.) The Setting. In the first place the scenery 
 must have been selected to represent as closely as pos- 
 sible the period, the season of the year, the locality 
 and the condition of environment. Special attention 
 should have been given to the grouping of the furni- 
 ture in the scene so that each room or set maintains a 
 natural and livable aspect. The chairs should look as 
 if they had been as unconsciously placed without 
 special reference to any one of the four walls — as they 
 would look in a real living-room. If the chairs all 
 face the audience at right angles they produce the 
 same effect on a careful observer that any actual sit- 
 ting-room would make if all the chairs faced primly 
 in one direction. There is, of course, this difference 
 between the real room and the stage set ; while a real 
 room should be the model for a stage dressing, yet the 
 art of decorating for the stage is manifested in the 
 placing of the furniture so that it does not seem at all 
 
ACTING 13 
 
 stiff and conventional but at the same time keeps its 
 general direction toward the audience. This effect is 
 sometimes acquired by placing one or two unused 
 chairs up stage at an angle nearly opposite to some of 
 the down-stage chairs. One of the first things that 
 marks a production as amateurish and permits an air 
 of tolerance to settle on the faces of a patronizing pub- 
 lic, is the stiff, prim arrangement of the furniture. 
 
 One way of eliminating the stiffness of effect in 
 the grouping of furniture is to place the pieces first 
 just as straight and conventionally as possible with 
 every piece at right angles to the footlights. Then 
 the director should walk across the stage, giving a 
 shove here and a push there in haphazard angles until 
 every piece has been moved. After seeing how the 
 grouping looks from the front, he should repeat the 
 operation several times, trying the distances and angles 
 until the room looks like a real one. The furniture 
 used most by the characters should be placed down 
 stage and rather near the center, leaving the up stage 
 for silent and unobtrusive action. No exact rule can 
 be given for the placing of furniture but the practised 
 eye of the director who has observed different ar- 
 rangements in real homes will enable him to bring 
 about any effect he wants. 
 
 (2.) Kinds of Furniture. In selecting furniture for 
 the scene the director must be careful to see that it is 
 appropriate in period and quality, and that it is con- 
 sistent with the atmosphere. To play a kitchen scene 
 in a richly furnished parlor set or a ballroom scene 
 furnished with wooden chair and an old work bench 
 
14 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 would, of course, hardly be permitted by even the 
 most inexperienced of directors, but there are subtler 
 distinctions that need consideration, A fireplace, for 
 instance, may be perfectly proper in a scene, but if it 
 is apparently going full blast in a situation supposed 
 to occur in the middle of July, it is too much to expect 
 that a few bright minds in the audience will not detect 
 the inconsistency and spread the news to the rest of 
 the audience. The wall decorations, bric-a-brac and 
 paintings should be in keeping with the spirit of the 
 scene and the nature of the characters occupying the 
 surroundings. A truly artistic director will pay great 
 attention to the appropriate coloring of the scene and 
 see that the furniture and upholstery is in keeping. 
 (S-) Properties. After seeing that the set is com- 
 plete the next care of the director is to know that all 
 the essential properties are in place for instant use and 
 that they are consistent wnih. the period, locality and 
 season. One of the ludicrous blunders often made on 
 the amateur stage is seen in the appearance of a young 
 woman in furs with snowflakes dotting her apparel, 
 followed by a young man wearing a straw hat! An- 
 other inconsistency is noticed in the use of a stylish 
 electric lamp at a period when candles were used ex- 
 clusively. Attention to such little details is necessary 
 to the fulfilment of the author's purpose in giving the 
 play to the public. The least inconsistency often 
 creates an atmosphere that destroys the impression of 
 reality and thus hinders the broader connotative influ- 
 ence of the play. The director should be sure that 
 each actor is responsible for every property that he is 
 
ACTING 15 
 
 personally concerned with, such as letters, newspapers, 
 fountain pen, watch, handkerchief, eye-glass, cigarette 
 case or anything that is not a general property, or 
 that is used in common on the stage by all the actors. 
 (4.) Grouping of Characters. Careful grouping of 
 the characters on the stage is most essential in order 
 to keep what is known as ''balance." The action 
 should never be centered for any length of time on 
 one corner of the stage while the rest of the stage is 
 unoccupied. The center and down stage if possible 
 is always reserved for the most important situations 
 and action in the scene. The silent actors and super- 
 numerary groups are placed in informal but balanced 
 positions up stage and at the sides. These groups 
 should never remain long in the same positions but 
 should shift about unostentatiously in order to give 
 the impression of unstudied movement and poise. 
 Groups up stage should not all stand or sit facing the 
 audience (unless, of course, their attention is sup- 
 posed to be upon those occupying the center). All 
 should be doing something or conversing in pan- 
 tomime. It is not necessary here to speak in detail of 
 the correct standing, sitting or reclining positions on 
 the stage. All this has been effectively set forth in 
 various guide-books of stage technique. It is enough 
 to say that the director must see to it that good pos- 
 tures are formed and such harmony of action main- 
 tained that no group either silent or speaking, 
 stationary or in motion, shall attract attention to itself 
 without being related to the atmosphere of the scene. 
 (5.) Mechanical Effects, Another important part 
 
i6 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 of a stage performance is the mechanical effects, and 
 in this phase of his work the director can not be too 
 careful. Since in the play realism is sought after, and 
 since as many essential detailed impressions as pos- 
 sible are given to the audience, it is important that the 
 sounds of wind, thunder, the pattering of rain, the 
 crash of broken glass, the clatter of horses' hoofs, the 
 sounds of an approaching auto, the honk of the horn 
 and all the various sounds that can be represented by 
 mechanical devices be used to help keep consistent the 
 illusion of reality. The effect of snow or rain as seen 
 through the window or in an exterior setting can be 
 brought about with a vividness that is remarkable and 
 may be necessary to a complete realization of the 
 author's purpose. All these things go to make up an 
 integral impression which, unless kept consistent, 
 would impair the larger suggestive effect upon the 
 audience. Of course, many of these "effects" as they 
 are called can be omitted without serious loss, but the 
 director must be sure that such an omission will not 
 be noticed. For instance, if a character approaches 
 the window and raising the shade exclaims, *'My! 
 What a dreadful storm ! Oh ! What a crash !" it is 
 too much to expect that the audience will remain un- 
 der the spell of the situation if, upon looking out the 
 window, it beholds a beautifully clear sky in bright 
 sunlight, and, instead of hearing the thunder crash, 
 listens attentively to dead silence preceding the last 
 part of the actor's speech ! 
 
 (6.) Lighting Effects. Electricity has made possible 
 the representation of the various lighting effects 
 
ACTING 17 
 
 which add so much to the atmosphere of a play. The 
 fire in the fireplace, the lightning flash and the dif- 
 ferent shades of twilight, moonlight and daylight, 
 have made the presentation of plays so realistic that 
 the imagination of the audience, unburdened with the 
 necessity of supplying these details, is left free to ex- 
 pand in the larger connotation of thought and feeling. 
 
 The significance of color effects is exceedingly 
 great in the production of a pretentious play. Of 
 course, where there are no important changes of light 
 throughout the play, it may be acted in whatever light 
 the theater affords, but a play requiring any changes 
 of light should not be attempted in a poorly equipped 
 theater. A good theater to-day is equipped with all 
 the necessary electrical apparatus used for the produc- 
 tion of all varieties of light. The director should 
 make himself acquainted with the various psychologi- 
 cal influences said to be present in these different col- 
 ored lights. 
 
 Yellow light is the bright, vivacious, happy light 
 appropriate to brilliant evening scenes, while the same 
 light, dimmed, lends a note of anxiety, or suspense. 
 
 Dark blue is the suggestion for darkness and in- 
 duces an atmosphere of mystery and danger. 
 
 Amber light is effectively used to represent hot, 
 sultry weather and is often used in desert scenes to 
 suggest sun-baked plains at noon time. A mixture of 
 amber and ordinary yellow light with a slight tinge of 
 light blue gives the daylight interior effect. 
 
 Pure white light should never be used except in 
 scenes portraying a supernatural, or ghostly setting. 
 
i8 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 Jt is directly opposite in effect to the dark blue, or 
 mystery light for the white is frankly supernatural 
 and the blue suggests material mystery or suspense. 
 For instance, a graveyard scene at night may be 
 played in dark blue light, but a scene representing a 
 dream in which one talks with spirits or fairies or 
 angels should be played in white light. 
 
 Light green is restful in its influence and, while it is 
 rarely used alone, it becomes most effective in its 
 modulation from the yellows and ambers of daylight 
 into the twilight green, the purple light of reflected 
 sunset and finally the dark blue of night. 
 
 Light blue is the best color for moonlight with all 
 its charms of sentiment. It has enough of the blue to 
 make mystery enchanting and enough of the green to 
 make it restful. Because it is the light that inspires 
 romance, the love scene played in moonlight is most 
 convincing in its effect upon an audience. 
 
 Red light, usually made effective through a fire- 
 place or red-shaded lamps, gives a luxurious, sensuous 
 impression — rather Bohemian and unrestrained. It 
 is the light that inflames physical passions — anger, 
 lust and revenge. A setting wholly in red light should 
 not be permitted unless the scene is intensely physical, 
 and even then the presence of too much red light is 
 apt to give the scene a sordidness that approaches vul- 
 garity. Rigbtly used, however, red light may be very 
 effective by way of contrast and warmth of situation. 
 
 Orange light is the vulgar light. It combines the 
 red light of uncontrolled nature with the yellow light 
 of brilliancy which seems to give a brazenness and 
 
ACTING 19 
 
 flamboyancy to physical passions. It is the light of 
 the barroom and the brothel, and when employed 
 gives a characteristically uncultured and lawless at- 
 mosphere to the scene. 
 
 All these various effects are accomplished through 
 footlights, overhead lights, floods, bunch-lights and 
 spotlights from the wings or back of the theater. 
 !Many modern theaters are trying to do away with 
 footlights altogether, since they make a rather unnat- 
 ural light wdiich proceeds from below upward and 
 gives unnatural shadows to the face, if the actor is too 
 near them. Their original usefulness lay in dispelling 
 all shadows, so that the artificial shadows made by 
 dark grease paint to represent wrinkles together with 
 light colored paint for the high lights would have the 
 same effect from all points of the stage. These lights, 
 balanced by overhead and wing lights, gave a greater 
 illusion to the painted scenery and did away with 
 shadows cast by the actors in walking about the stage. 
 By the skilful use of overhead, wing and tormentor 
 lights, many up-to-date theaters are successfully light- 
 ing their stages and at the same time doing away with 
 the unsatisfactory footlights. The spotlight from the 
 rear, or from overhead at the side when focussed in a 
 flood covering the whole stage is the best effect for 
 moonlight. It is well to say right here that a spotlight 
 from the rear of the building should never be focussed 
 on any one of the characters in an ordinary play. It 
 is unreal and inconsistent with material laws to have 
 any person in a scene surrounded by a halo of light 
 while she pathciically rocks the little orphan to sleep 
 
20 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 or says her prayers by the little white iron bed ! The 
 focussed spotlight is for musical comedy or fancy 
 plays and should not be employed in the legitimate 
 drama. 
 
 It is the director's business further to see that the 
 operators of the stage effects should know their busi- 
 ness cues and work simultaneously with the actor's 
 lines and business. It is discouraging for the actor 
 to walk up to a table and blow out a couple of candles, 
 saying as he does so, *'Out goes the light!" and then 
 be obliged to walk half-way to his exit before the 
 stage hand gets around to dim the lights. Every ef- 
 fect should be exactly on time ; the bell should ring at 
 the proper instant, the lights dim or go out at the 
 appointed cue and the thunder crash in its turn. An 
 instant's delay causes the audience to lose its hold on 
 the spell of the scene. The director must impress 
 these facts on the minds of his assistants and then see 
 that the business is rehearsed until it is right. 
 (y.) Concerning Make-up and Costumes. The direct- 
 or should superintend the make-up and costuming of 
 the characters for the production. Granted that the 
 student may have had a thorough course in the theory 
 and practice of make-up, it is best for the director to 
 assure himself that all make-up and costumes are con- 
 sistent with the age, complexion, nationality, position 
 and condition of environment of the character to be 
 represented. The judgment of beginners and even of 
 some professionals can not be trusted always to be 
 sound in deciding what is the proper make-up and 
 dress for certain occasions. The young women of the 
 
ACTING 21 
 
 cast invariably want to look pretty whether their 
 character is supposed to be so or not, and the director 
 has to be constantly alert or in some dark hour he will 
 observe what is intended to be a homely old maid, 
 stalk on the stage in the gorgeous make-up and cos- 
 tume of an eighteen-year-old debutante! 
 
 Before proceeding to the next topic concerning gen- 
 eral stage business, it may be well briefly to review 
 the actor's situation as he steps upon the stage in ap- 
 propriate costume and make-up, amid scenery repre- 
 senting as realistically as possible the condition, 
 season and location in which he is to speak his lines. 
 He must assume the voice, bearing and eccentricity, if 
 any, of the character he portrays. Everything that is 
 to be handled, such as dishes, food, books, papers, let- 
 ters, etc., must be there in its proper place. The 
 scene, if an interior, represents a room enclosed by 
 three walls. The fourth wall is transparent through 
 which the audience is permitted to see and hear what 
 is going on. In this setting the actor walks, runs, sits, 
 reclines, kneels, plays the piano and in fact does with 
 an exactness and precision the hundred and one little 
 acts that would be observed if, instead of a stage, it 
 were a real private room and the actor in a real situa- 
 tion. While these little things are done apparently in 
 the same way, there is still a big difference between 
 this and what it would be in real life. The accidentals 
 and the unobservable details are left out and only the 
 essentials acted. In real life the words spoken, the 
 little movements, the exits, the entrances, together 
 with a multitude of unrelated acts and speeches, are 
 
22 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 spontaneous and unforeseen in any arranged space of 
 time. On the stage the actor knows in advance every- 
 thing he has to do and say, and it is his art to do it 
 as if it were spontaneous, and as unconcernedly as if 
 he were not being watched by three thousand pairs of 
 eyes. Art enters into the writing of the play when 
 the author so skilfully connects dialogue and situation 
 with essential actions that gaps in time are bridged 
 and the w^hole story gives the impression of detail and 
 completion. 
 
 In producing the play all the actors must lend to 
 the same effect and keep consistent with the author's 
 purpose. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 THE PLAY (Continued) 
 
 Technique of Presentation (continued). — (8) 
 General Stage Business. Stage business refers to the 
 action accompanying the speaking of Hues ; the walk- 
 ing and moving about stage ; the handUng of proper- 
 ties, furniture or other characters while in view of the 
 audience, and the action when silent or in pantomimic 
 conversation with others. General stage business 
 means the larger moves that must be accomplished in 
 common with the others upon the stage. Detailed 
 stage business refers to the individual actions not 
 especially in common with the others. 
 
 Naturally the first care of the director is to see that 
 the entrances are made effectively. A poor entrance 
 often destroys the spirit of the whole scene. Even an 
 unimportant character must take pains to enter well, 
 for a misstep or an awkward move may detract from 
 the attention that should be given to others upon the 
 stage. Of course, the situation and type of character 
 represented will vary the manner of entrance but there 
 are general rules to observe which affect any kind of 
 an entrance. Even if a character is supposed to stub 
 his toe on the threshold, he must do it artistically. All 
 entrances must be "on the cue" and must not show 
 hesitancy or wavering between an impulse to step in 
 and an impulse to wait an instant. The actor must 
 
 23 
 
24 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 not linger in sight of the audience, waiting for his cue. 
 He must be just out of sight, ready to step in sight the 
 moment his cue is given. All entrances should be 
 purposeful. Even though the character is supposed to 
 enter aimlessly, the actor must be purposeful in the 
 aimlessness. In other words, the actor himself must 
 be on the alert at his entrance whatever the character 
 he represents. There must be purpose and precision 
 in every move. A small man may make just as effec- 
 tive an entrance as a large man. He must never be 
 conscious of disadvantage because of his stature. If 
 he holds up his chest and steps firmly with head erect, 
 the audience will never think of him as being short. 
 The whole secret of effective entrance lies in the fact 
 that the actor must know exactly how and when he is 
 to enter and be conscious of it at the time. In his 
 previous action he may have so registered his emotions 
 and vocal changes that he is no longer conscious of 
 them, but he must akvays be conscious of his entrances. 
 They are too important to be entrusted to habit, for 
 the actor giving the cue may have varied the tempo 
 or the action accompanying his speech so that the situ- 
 ation is changed ever so slightly. If so, the alert actor 
 waiting the cue will adjust his entrance accordingly, 
 but if he has merely registered the habit of this par- 
 ticular entrance, he may make an error. Individual 
 emotions and actions, and actions that have no imme- 
 diate relation to the other characters may be and ought 
 to be registered by thorough practice until the whole 
 expression becomes subconscious, but in all cases 
 where careful "team-work" is necessarv alert con- 
 
ACTING 25 
 
 sciousness of expression is important. This may not 
 apply to every case of professional acting, but it surely 
 applies to beginners. Much of a director's trouble in 
 the beginning has to do with the timing of entrances 
 and exits. 
 
 It may seem at first that the exit is less important 
 than the entrance, but this is not true. The actor must 
 study to make an effective exit just as he studies his 
 entrances. There are added problems in making an 
 exit which do not arise in making an entrance. For 
 instance, an actor often must make an exit while he is 
 speaking to some one in the opposite direction from 
 the door. He must judge the distance and the exact 
 location of the door while apparently giving his en- 
 tire attention to his lines and particular business. If 
 he miscalculates and finds himself about to walk into 
 a mirror or through a window it is embarrassing and 
 may spoil a scene. A purposeful exit is as important 
 as a purposeful entrance, in fact, the impression one 
 leaves behind is often more important than the im- 
 pression one makes at the beginning. Of course, there 
 are accidents which may happen at any time, but the 
 audience is quick to detect an accident due to mere 
 carelessness. It is also as quick to notice presence of 
 mind on the part of an actor in averting disaster. The 
 following illustration is an admirable example of the 
 latter case. 
 
 A popular actress had been rehearsing a scene for 
 some time in which she was to make an exit at the 
 door upper left. On the evening of the performance 
 a clumsy stage mechanic set a window in place of the 
 
26 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 door. Unfortunately the director did not notice the 
 mistake, so when the actress entered from the right 
 she made her way to the occupant of the room and 
 keeping her eyes on him while speaking, walked 
 diagonally up stage toward the door, as she supposed. 
 The action was such that she was unable to take her 
 eyes from her companion until about to step out the 
 door. She had gauged the distance and i)osition cor- 
 rectly, and as she turned to sweep magnificently out 
 the door she discovered instead a window about two 
 feet above the floor. It happened to be an open win- 
 dow so, without a moment's hesitation, as gracefully 
 as possible she stepped over the sill, saying as she did 
 so, "I'll go out by way of the garden." Her presence 
 of mind and the open window saved the situation. 
 Of course, the audience knew it was a mistake, but 
 the young woman's alertness and resource in the 
 emergency was so thoroughly appreciated that the 
 scene was not at all affected and the mistake in a few 
 minutes was forgotten by every one except the actress 
 herself — and incidentally the clumsy stage hand. 
 
 One of the most important pieces of general stage 
 business is what is termed "crossing." Prompt books 
 are full of directions marked "X" to indicate the point 
 in the dialogue where the actor is to cross from one 
 position to another. "X — right" or "X — left" directs 
 the actor to move to the right or to the left of the 
 stage, but these comments do not aid the director in 
 determining just how far to the right or left or in 
 what particular direction, up stage or down stage, is 
 meant. It is just as well that they do not, for the 
 
ACTING 27 
 
 director must learn to be independent and use his own 
 judgment. The director who is a slave to the printed 
 prompt book is lost! He must make his own pictures 
 and plan his own directions for his individual inter- 
 pretation of the play. He must be his own judge of 
 how far and just at what point his actors must make 
 these crosses. The reason for these movements is to 
 avoid conventionality and stiffness which would result 
 from actors speaking too long a time from the same 
 position. The crosses give life and reality to the con- 
 versations. Detail business may be left until later re- 
 hearsals, but these general moves and crosses arc 
 imperative at the very first, and it is absolutely essen- 
 tial to the success of the play that the lines or business 
 on which every cross is to be made should be system- 
 atically planned by the director before meeting his cast 
 for the first rehearsal. 
 
 Moves are not properly called "crosses" unless the 
 actor is to pass the center of the stage in going from 
 one side to the other or unless he crosses in front of 
 another actor, but the term is loosely used to indicate 
 any movement in walking from any part of the stage 
 to another. Actors are directed to cross up right or 
 down left or right center or left center, indicating ap- 
 proximately the position they are to establish during 
 a certain speech or piece of business, and it is for the 
 director to determine just where the exact position is. 
 The author of the play may have instructed the actor 
 to sit by the fireplace, but if the director says ''stand 
 by the victrola" the wise actor will not have to be told 
 a second time. 
 
28 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 Much could be said about the different kinds of 
 crosses, but it is only necessary here to give a general 
 caution or two. Care must be taken that no cross is 
 made in front of an actor who is speaking at that 
 moment. The character speaking may cross in front 
 of the silent actor, however. When one character has 
 passed in front of another, the other should ''take 
 stage," or move slightly in the opposite direction to 
 give balance to the positions. This must be done un- 
 ostentatiously so that the audience will not be conscious 
 of the movement. 
 
 One of the difficulties arising from the crosses is 
 the tendency of the beginner to fix his eye on the spot 
 he is to occupy and then make a dive for it the mo- 
 ment his cue comes. Another tendency is to back up 
 to the place if he didn't happen to hit it the first time 
 he made the plunge. The director must impress upon 
 the student the necessity of practising until he walks 
 easily and naturally to the spot in accordance with 
 what seems to be a normal and spontaneous impulse 
 to move. In crossing up stage some beginners are 
 under the impression that it is wrong to turn the back 
 upon the audience so they walk backward or sidewise 
 and even back out of an exit. Others think they must 
 move in straight lines across the floor whether there 
 happens to be furniture in the path or not. Common 
 sense is the safest guide for any director in handling 
 these problems. Any move that looks awkward in real 
 life will look awkward on the stage. An unnatural 
 turn or twist of the body will look unnatural on the 
 stage. The director must drill and drill until every 
 
ACTING 29 
 
 move appears spontaneous and unstudied. There are 
 rules and rules given by various stage manuals, such 
 as "Always stand with the up-stage foot slightly in 
 advance of the other'* or "Never speak up stage with 
 the back turned squarely toward the audience," but 
 these rules have so many exceptions that it is scarcely 
 worth while to make the rules. It is, of course, best 
 to keep the face toward the audience whenever it does 
 not interfere with the making of a consistent stage pic- 
 ture. The director must always watch for stage bal- 
 ance, life and spontaneity of movement, and variety 
 in grouping. 
 
 In watching the conversation between two people, 
 there are two things which the director must observe ; 
 the attitude of the speaker and that of the listener. 
 The speaker must realize that he is not addressing an 
 audience, but that he is talking to somebody about 
 something. In other words, he must understand the 
 meaning of his lines and at the same time feel an in- 
 terest in their effect upon his hearer. The listener, 
 on the other hand, must not appear as if he were wait- 
 ing for a cue. He must be taught how to listen and 
 show response in his glance, in the movement of his 
 hands or in other bodily expression. He must be 
 ready to interrupt on the instant of his cue and yet 
 appear as if the interruption were spontaneous. He 
 must be able to listen according to the mood of the 
 character he is representing and must show the atti- 
 tude in his whole bodily expression. For beginners 
 the listening part is much more difficult than the 
 speaking part. It is so hard for them to understand 
 
30 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 that it is just as important to keep in the characteriza- 
 tion while not speaking as while speaking. 
 
 In general conversation, where there are supposed 
 to be several people talking at once, the center of at- 
 tention shifts alternately from one group or couple to 
 another group as the conversation becomes audible. 
 The group carrying on the audible conversation of 
 course holds the center of attention, but the other 
 groups must continue in pantomimic conversation and 
 not stand, like clothing-store models, immovable and 
 staring, waiting for the cue to the audible speech. The 
 attitude of listening here is just as important for the 
 pantomimic conversation as it is for those who are the 
 center of attention in audible speech. If the couples 
 or groups are standing, they should shift and change 
 formations, in order to give the appearance of a real 
 formal gathering, moving about and exchanging 
 conversations. 
 
 When one person is addressing the others formally, 
 it is best for the speaker to remain on one side and a 
 little up stage while his little audience is grouped on 
 the other side and down stage unless the effect of the 
 speech upon the listeners is important rather than the 
 action of the speaker himself. When one is speaking 
 informally to the others he may be seated or standing 
 near the center of the stage, while the others, listening, 
 are grouped in balanced positions about the stage. If 
 the speech is animated or intense while the speaker is 
 standing, it is usually best for him to maintain the 
 center of the stage as nearly as possible, while the 
 others crowd around him on either side but not di- 
 
ACTING 31 
 
 rectly in front of him. The important address should 
 be so arranged that the speaker faces the audience. 
 
 Business at the dining table needs a word of explan- 
 ation in regard to the seating of the characters, the 
 handling of dishes and the pantomime of eating. The 
 important characters should be seated up stage and 
 facing the audience while those having little to do or 
 say in the scene may have their backs to the audience. 
 A circular table is better than a square one, for the 
 space nearest the audience may be unoccupied without 
 giving an unnatural look to the situation. Four peo- 
 ple seated at a square table look stiff and unnatural 
 if two are seated at the back and one at each end, 
 leaving the side toward the audience empty. This 
 arrangement, however, is sometimes necessary when 
 the scene demands an old-fashioned kitchen table, and 
 the leading character's action is such that no one can 
 be placed between him and the audience. It is impor- 
 tant that the servants in a dinner scene be trained to 
 serve and accomplish every detail of their business on 
 exact cues and with a quietness that will detract noth- 
 ing from tlie business of the more important char- 
 acters. If the servants are the leading characters, of 
 course this does not apply. The actor at the table 
 must give the impression of eating, drinking, etc., 
 while carrying on his part in the conversation either 
 audibly or in pantomime. He must know when he is 
 to stir his coffee, when to put in the sugar or cream 
 and on what line to do any of the significant bits of 
 business. Pie should never really eat much of the 
 food, but he must pantomime so that the audience 
 
32 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 thinks he is actually eating. He may pantomime chew- 
 ing occasionally, and it may be necessary to take a 
 small portion of the food, but in most cases the pan- 
 tomime is sufficient and the actor is free from pos- 
 sible accident, such as having something in his mouth 
 the instant he should be speaking clearly. 
 
 Other significant business, such as moving furni- 
 ture or handling chairs, demands the attention of the 
 director. It is very often important that the position 
 of a chair be changed in the middle of a scene for 
 later convenience of business. The director should 
 plan in advance at just what point the change should 
 be made and who should make it. Care must be taken 
 that the action does not look foreseen on the part of 
 the actor. Like all other moves it must appear spon- 
 taneous. If the business looks stilted, it is the duty 
 of the director to rehearse it until the stiffness is over- 
 come. A lady should never attempt to move a chair 
 with one hand and even a gentleman should employ 
 both hands whenever possible. It takes away the ap- 
 pearance of effort and helps the spontaneity of the 
 scene. 
 
 Writing letters while dictating their contents or 
 while taking dictation from another should be accom- 
 plished by the rapid pantomime of writing across the 
 page during perceptible pauses in the dictation. If the 
 person writing is supposed to be a stenographer, there 
 need be no pause in the writing or the dictation. 
 
 In reading aloud from a letter or a newspaper there 
 should be a significant change in the manner of utter- 
 ance. It should not be delivered with the spontaneity 
 
ACTING 33 
 
 of impromptu speech, but on the other hand should 
 be read with some irregular pauses and a monotony 
 of pitch and color, just as the majority of untrained 
 readers read from the printed page. It is a good plan 
 to have the matter already written on the sheet in 
 order to assist in giving the mechanical effect of 
 ordinary reading, but it is not altogether safe to de- 
 pend upon its being written. The lines should have 
 been memorized the same as the speeches to insure 
 against the accidental misplacing of the right sheet on 
 the night of the performance. 
 
 Telephone business requires the speaker to reflect 
 his mood as he listens to imaginary replies, or talks 
 into the instrument. It is well to construct mentally 
 just what the replies are to be so that the response in 
 facial expression may be consistent with the one-sided 
 dialogue and so that sufficient pauses may suggest the 
 speaker at the other end of the line. 
 
 Looking out the window, signaling, calling or view- 
 ing scenery must all be prompted by the imagination 
 of the actor who should visualize the suggested ob- 
 jects of his action. For instance, in calling out of a 
 window supposed to be four or five stories from the 
 street, the speaker must actually see farther down 
 than the floor of the stage behind the scene or his 
 voice will not get the proper suggestive pitch for the 
 distance or direction. In looking at an imaginary 
 sunset (not visible to the audience) through a window 
 at the right of the stage and near the front, the actor 
 must see a sunset in the distance, and not allow his 
 focus to stop at the stage mechanic three feet away 
 
34 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 preparing to dim the lights. He must see beyond the 
 reality, or the audience will not fully imagine the 
 sunset. Of course, the audience can not actually dis- 
 cern the focus of the actor's eyes, but the sum total of 
 his attitude will either make or spoil the effect, and if 
 he actually imagines a sunset, his body will respond 
 to the imagery in such a way as to make his audience 
 think he sees it. 
 
 Action near the footlights must be more carefully 
 worked out than up-stage business, as a rule, because 
 it is more conspicuous. Up-stage business, however, 
 when especially significant must be made conspicuous 
 by a little more than usual ostentation in order to 
 draw the attention habitually directed to down-stage 
 action. 
 
 The manner of falling, rising, reclining, lifting, 
 carrying, kneeling, sitting and ordinary walking are 
 points often neglected, but which are of such great 
 importance in themselves and are so easy to be ac- 
 quired that no director can afford to overlook them. 
 It is impossible to describe satisfactorily in writing 
 just how to accomplish these important movements, 
 but a hint or suggestion may be helpful to the director 
 who has not had the opportunity of technical instruc- 
 tion. 
 
 In the first place the walk of an actor must cor- 
 respond to the nature of the character he is assuming. 
 Let him observe types and strive to imitate the walk. 
 A normal walk is energetic and positive, the heels 
 striking the floor first and the knee straight at all 
 times until the moment of lifting and carrying the leg 
 
ACTING 35 
 
 forward. Any bend of the knee after the foot has 
 been ])lanted gives an unstability to the walk. The 
 chest should be kept up and the back of the neck 
 pressed against an imaginary collar button. By mas- 
 tering this erect position and walk, even a short man 
 may appear tall and commanding. In sitting or reclin- 
 ing the position is governed normally by its looks 
 from the front of the stage. If the positions are 
 awkward or stiff, the director should keep suggesting 
 slightly different attitudes until the desired effect is 
 obtained — then the actor is told to remain in the posi- 
 tion until he "gets the feel of it." Then he is re- 
 quested to get up, walk across the stage and back and 
 resume the position. A few suggestions and a few 
 repetitions of the correct assuming of position will fix 
 the impression in the motor memory, so that automatic- 
 ally thereafter the student will drop into the correct 
 posture. A little more care is needed in coaching the 
 novice to fall without making himself ridiculous or 
 doing bodily harm to himself. If he falls and appears 
 to pick out a soft spot on which to land the audience 
 wdll smile at his amateurishness. If he abandons all 
 care for himself on the other hand or falls heavily, be 
 runs a risk of remaining longer in the pose than his 
 part in the play requires — if he should happen to hurt 
 himself. There is only one way in which to fall so 
 that it looks real to the audience, and at the same time 
 will not even bruise the actor. He should fall straight 
 downward, i)eri)endicularly, relaxing tlie knees first 
 and allowing the calf of the leg to receive the first 
 shock which is in turn distributed to the thigh, the 
 
36 , DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 shoulders and the head as the waist and the neck in 
 their turn relax. The head receives no shock at all, 
 but the combined effect is a complete fall. In being 
 struck or shot, or in fainting, this same method is 
 employed most impressively. In lifting one v^^ho has 
 fallen, the same care must be taken, that no oppor- 
 tunity for laughter may be given the audience. Let 
 us assume that the figure is lying with the head 
 toward the right of the stage. The actor who is to 
 lift it kneels on the left knee just back of the prostrate 
 form, and with the right hand places the left arm of 
 the figure on its breast, grasping with the left the 
 upper arm of the figure and giving a sharp pull up, 
 at the same time placing his right arm around the 
 shoulder of the now upright figure. Then with the 
 right knee at the back of the figure he rises, seemingly 
 lifting the dead weight. The relaxation of the figure 
 must be in the neck and waist and arms, but the 
 weight is actually sustained on the bent legs. In 
 carrying the dead weight, the actor should put one 
 arm of the figure around his neck and appear literally 
 to bear the weight as he goes off the stage. It is bet- 
 ter whenever possible to have one or two people assist 
 in carrying the apparently unconscious member of the 
 cast off the stage, and the director should see that 
 the extra people get between the prostrate figure and 
 the audience so that all the irregularities of the exit 
 may be covered. 
 
 (p.) Detailed Business. By detailed business is 
 meant the individual business of one actor independ- 
 ent of the others. The handling of individual proper- 
 
ACTING 37 
 
 ties (hat, coat, gloves, cane or umbrella), the smok- 
 ing of a pipe, cigar or cigarette ; the pouring out and 
 drinking of beverages — all have their particular free- 
 dom or limitation in the economy of acting. 
 
 All general business or ''team-work" among the 
 actors has to be exactly timed and therefore requires 
 more rehearsing than the detailed business which al- 
 lows a little more freedom on the part of the individual 
 actor, yet even in this freedom there are some limita- 
 tions. All individual moves must be consistent with 
 the type of character and the nature of the dialogue, 
 and a great many movements must be as accurately 
 timed as the general business, but there are numberless 
 little actions which are necessary that are not in any 
 way connected with the dialogue, and which may be 
 accomplished at the discretion of the actor if he is 
 experienced. The beginner had best confine himself 
 to the business suggested by the director, until he is 
 thrown upon his own resources. However, even a 
 beginner may be permitted to knock the ashes off his 
 cigar, or toy with a knife and fork at the table without 
 being told exactly the word of the conversation on 
 which to act, provided such action does not disturb 
 the effect of the dialogue or other business. It is well 
 to encourage originality on the part of the students, 
 but when there is a tendency to create business just 
 for the sake of being original and calling attention to 
 himself, then the director must point out the incon- 
 sistency and show what may and may not be permitted. 
 The director must pay great attention to the facial 
 expression and gesture, as well as to the attitude and 
 
38 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 general bearing of the actor. After the general busi- 
 ness is pretty well worked out and the detailed business 
 ready to be suggested, the director must begin system- 
 atically to drill on the speaking of lines, as they accom- 
 pany the business, and the expression of the mood in 
 face and gesture. This training should not be left 
 until the last, for it is imperative that the association 
 of actions with the interpretation of the lines and the 
 bodily expression of the motion, be accomplished as an 
 aid to perfect memory of the whole work. Any ten- 
 dency on the part of the student to speak with his 
 back to the audience except when speaking up stage 
 should be corrected at the beginning, for it is easier to 
 teach him when he may talk with his back to the au- 
 dience than to show him over and over again the 
 countless times when he must not. There is one diffi- 
 culty, however, which arises from giving the student 
 the general rule, **not to turn the back on the audience 
 while speaking." He often takes it so literally that 
 in carrying on a conversation with another standing 
 opposite him, he will stand squarely facing the au- 
 dience and talk to the other character over his 
 shoulder, after the manner of a Sunday-School dia- 
 logue on Children's Day. Usually good results can 
 be obtained by telling the beginner first to walk up to 
 the other character and talk to him just as if they had 
 met in the street. Next, he should walk back to where 
 he was originally standing, and start again as though 
 he were going to repeat the performance, but as soon 
 as he has turned, the director should tell him to stop 
 and say his speech from that position. He will then 
 
ACTING 3Q 
 
 be in the most natural position for conversation from 
 these two points. 
 
 (lo.) ludh'idiial License in Business. The director 
 will do well t© remember that very little liberty of 
 subjective pantomime should be allowed to the be- 
 ginner, for his judgment will in most cases be very 
 poor. His self-consciousness will prevent spontaneity 
 and ease of movement and he must pay so much atten- 
 tion to minute instructions concerning general and de- 
 tailed business that he is incapable of thinking for 
 himself. He must even be told repeatedly the same 
 piece of business, before he gets it associated with his 
 line and mood, so it is better not to expect much 
 freedom on his part at first. As he becomes familiar 
 with his lines and business and acquires more and 
 more confidence in himself, he may be told to work 
 out business for himself. He should always be cau- 
 tioned to keep his individual business consistent with 
 the situation and the purpose of the play. 
 
 At every rehearsal, the business should be repeated 
 exactly as it was given before. No variations should 
 go uncensured and no changes with business be made 
 unless the student is told of the change. He must be 
 told to watch the director closely while a piece of 
 business is being given for his imitation. 
 (Ji.) Silent Acting. Probably the most difficult 
 thing for the amateur to learn is the silent acting. He 
 may be talented, and he may be a real genius when it 
 comes to acting while speaking lines, but when sonic 
 one else is doing the talking, he seems to lose interest 
 in the affair. Sometimes he goes to the other extreme 
 
40 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 and introduces some original silent acting that will 
 take the attention from the others to whom the atten- 
 tion rightly belongs. It is for the director to see 
 that only such action as he suggests, is introduced. 
 
 There are two distinct types of silent acting, which 
 may be called respectively — unobtrusive and aggres- 
 sive. 
 
 (a.) Unobtrusive Silent Acting. Unobtrusive si- 
 lent acting is the acting of the members of the cast 
 who are in the scene but for the time being are not an 
 integral part of it. The maid or the butler, dusting or 
 cleaning off the table while a conversation is going on 
 between two of the chief characters, or the pantomimic 
 conversation and action of a company of people at a 
 reception while other members of the cast are holding 
 the center of attention, are good examples of what 
 should be unobtrusive silent acting. One person 
 reading a newspaper silently while others converse is 
 another example. In such a situation, the amateur is 
 prone to relax and sit like so much furniture, until his 
 cue comes, whereupon he is instantly galvanized into 
 the most active participation. The student must learn 
 to act unobtrusively. He must be alive to the situa- 
 tion every instant, although he may be required to sit 
 up stage with his back to the audience for half the 
 scene or more. While the attention of the audience 
 must not be draivti to him, yet it will unconsciously 
 rest on him every once in a while and it is quick to 
 distinguish inertness or lack of participation even in 
 a silent and apparently unmovable pose. This type of 
 silent acting is more difficult to develop than the ag- 
 
ACTING 41 
 
 gressive type, for the amateur either fails to appre- 
 ciate the importance of keeping his character whether 
 he is noticed or not, or else he thinks his acting must 
 constantly call attention to himself. It is the direc- 
 tor's business to watch minutely the pose, action and 
 facial expression of the silent actor, 
 (b.) Aggressive Silent Acting. Aggressive si- 
 lent acting is necessarily more detailed and accurate, 
 for it includes all the movements, facial expression and 
 subjective action of the silent actor when he is the 
 center of attention or in direct association with the 
 center of attention. It is the action performed 
 while alone in the scene, or while with another who 
 is at the moment doing the talking. It includes the 
 attitude, facial expression and subjective gesture of 
 the actor while listening intently to another in an 
 active part of the scene. 
 
 This aggressive silent acting differs from the un- 
 obtrusive type in that it is being constantly under ob- 
 servation and has to do with the vital parts of the 
 scene, while the other is merely the necessary action 
 to make the scene live as a unit and not look stiff or 
 unreal. The aggressive type needs perfect timing to 
 cues, while the other need not be so accurate. 
 (12.) The Speaking of Lines. Perhaps one of the 
 most noticeable differences between the work of recog- 
 nized artists and that of second-rate players, is in the 
 speaking of lines. College amateurs with no experi- 
 ence whatever, but with careful drilling by a competent 
 director, are noticeably better in their reading of the 
 lines, than the great majority of small company pro- 
 
42 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 fessionals. The competent college or high-scliool di- 
 rector is careful to analyze the thought of the lines and 
 see that proper emphasis is placed, while the average 
 second-rate professional director is incapable c>f 
 thought discrimination, although he may be endowed 
 with emotional ability and originality in suggesting 
 stage business. 
 
 A college or high-school student who has brains 
 enough to keep up with his classes, is better material 
 to work on than the average second-class professional 
 when it comes to teaching the speaking of lines. The 
 beginner, therefore, should be told at the outset that 
 he is not regarded as an amateur in reading lines, but 
 that on the other hand he is already supposed to be 
 more capable than the average stage professional. In 
 action, however, he must understand that he is as a 
 child and must be taught from the beginning. Keep 
 the amateur idea away from the beginner. Call him 
 a "beginner" but not an ''amateur." The latter word 
 has a tendency to discourage him at the very start 
 and gives excuse for more mistakes than are neces- 
 sary. Why should college directors of theatricals be 
 content to have their efforts called "amateur," when 
 so much worse acting is seen about the country, in the 
 name of professional acting? The college director be- 
 Httles himself and the cause of education when he 
 admits that his instruction can only produce amateur 
 results alongside an untutored, unlettered garage 
 assistant who suddenly finds himself endowed by na- 
 ture to personate a farmer and by proper business 
 foresight is able to put himself at the head of a stock 
 
ACTING 43 
 
 company which tours the small towns and even the 
 cities as a professional organization. 
 
 The director should see to it that his students think 
 well of themselves and their ability, as long as they are 
 willing to be taught. In the first reading rehearsal 
 he should make clear to the cast that he expects per- 
 fect attention and obedience to suggestions, as well as 
 confidence in their own ability to carry the suggestions 
 out. Then, in the reading of the lines, careful atten- 
 tion should be given to the exact meaning, and errors 
 in pronunciation and emphasis corrected. Monotony 
 and conventionality of reading may be prevented at 
 the first rehearsal so that no bad habits of utterance 
 are established. Every beginner in acting should have 
 had a preliminary course in interpretation of the 
 printed page, and a course in voice training. If the 
 student has not had these courses, the director will 
 have a more difficult task, and he must keep vigilant 
 at all times for mistakes in interpretation. 
 
 It is also well at the outset to correct if possible, all 
 those provincial atrocities of speech recognized in the 
 Bostonian attempt to effect English pronunciation of 
 the final "r," or the New Yorker's less successful imita- 
 tion which reaches its greatest absurdity in the Bow- 
 ery newsboy's *Thi(e)ty-thi(e)d Street." Correct 
 English should be substituted for all dialogue except 
 eccentric or special provincial characterizations. 
 "Keep the speech as real as the acting" is a good rule. 
 
 Usuall}' beginners either address themselves directly 
 to the audience or ignore it entirely in si)eaking the 
 lines. If they have been in plays before, they may 
 
44 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 have been told not to talk up stage or turn their l^acks 
 to the audience. If this arbitrary rule has been given 
 and taken literally, the student is apt to go to the 
 other extreme and, facing the audience squarely, ad- 
 dress the audience as if talking to it instead of to him- 
 self or the others in the scene. Rather than talk up 
 stage he will often back up three or four feet in order 
 to enable him to be on a parallel line with the one 
 he is talking to. This, of course, is ridiculous, and the 
 beginner should be made to understand that it is per- 
 fectly proper to talk up stage whenever the positions 
 of the actors are so arranged that the down-stage 
 actor must speak attentively to the up-stage actor. A 
 good director, however, will plan the general stage 
 movements so that on all possible occasions the one 
 speaking shall have either a parallel or up~stage rela- 
 tionship to the other, but there are hundreds of situa- 
 tion where the opposite position is inevitable. Besides, 
 to relieve the monotony and stiffness of positions, and 
 in making the scene realistic, it is often advisable to 
 speak deliberately up stage. Sometimes the expression 
 of one's back in speaking is more important than the 
 expression of the face and the director deliberately 
 arranges the positions to give this opportunity. In 
 speaking to one about to leave at a back exit, it is more 
 often than not necessary to speak up stage. 
 
 There are a few situations w^here one must not speak 
 up stage. For instance in speaking aside, or in a 
 soliloquy and where facial expression is of primary 
 importance, the position must be planned so as to 
 bring the speaker with face toward the audience. 
 
ACTING 45 
 
 When speaking off stage, if the cliaracter is sup- 
 posed to be at a distance or behind closed doors, the 
 iUnsion is made perfect by muffling the mouth in the 
 sleeve of the coat. If nearer at hand the effect is pro- 
 duced by speaking back in the throat and gradually 
 increasing the volume, pushing forward the placement 
 of the tone at the same time until the moment of en- 
 trance when the voice will have its full resonance. 
 (13.) Asides. One of the most important phases of 
 dramatic dialogue is the speaking of ''asides." There 
 are several forms of the aside each of which requires 
 slightly different treatment. First among these forms 
 is the quickly interjected phrase or word meant to con- 
 vey the thought which is not understood to be spoken 
 aloud. For instance, a character steps upon the stage 
 and begins conversation with another character. Dur- 
 ing this conversation, his thoughts are such that he 
 doesn't want his companions to perceive. For the 
 sake of the audience, however, he must express them 
 some way, so the stage device of the aside is em- 
 ployed. Turning slightly away from his companion 
 and in a different tone or pitch or degree of force from 
 this conversation, he speaks his thought, not directly 
 at the audience as if he were addressing them, but per- 
 mitting them to hear or to know exactly what he is 
 thinking without realizing that he has actually spoken. ^ 
 This aside is employed only when it is not possible to 
 give the thought without the actual words. A great 
 deal can be done by gesture, facial expression and 
 attitude, but often the exact thought must be known 
 bv the audience in order to make clear certain features ; 
 
46 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 of the situation. For example, in A Happy Pair when 
 the husband is endeavoring to play upon the wife's 
 emotional nature, he heaves a big sigh, "Ah-h," and 
 then with a quick aside gives the impression that he is 
 thinking "Nothing like a sigh to begin with." He 
 must actually say this aloud, but the audience must 
 understand that it is only the expression of what in 
 reality is merely an unexpressed thought. If he de- 
 livers it as though it were actually aloud, the audience 
 will wonder why the wife does not hear it and be 
 indignant. The director must exercise great care in 
 getting the right effect for asides, or many scenes will 
 be ruined. 
 
 A second form of the aside is seen in the attempt 
 of one character to speak to another without letting 
 others on the stage hear. It is so different from the 
 other form that special attention must be given to it. 
 This form is frankly aloud, but with a subdued effect 
 to give the impression of being only loud enough for 
 one close by to hear and not loud enough for the 
 others. The pantomime and vocal expression are dif- 
 ferent. Properly this should not be called an ''aside" 
 but rather a ''stage whisper," The first form of the 
 aside should not be given in a stage whisper for it is 
 not a whisper. It is a complete thought supposed to 
 be unexpressed, but actually told to the audience im- 
 personally. Therefore it should not suggest a w^hisper, 
 but rather, by accompanying action, should in the 
 simplest way convey the thought and the mood of the 
 moment. The "aside to another," however, should 
 suggest a whisper, and the best method of doing this 
 
ACTING 47 
 
 is frankly lowering the voice in pitch and volume, and 
 introducing a good deal of hrealh in the tone, at the 
 same time using significant pantomhne to show se- 
 crecy. Usually the eyes are turned slightly away from 
 the one to wdiom the aside is given and the whole body 
 harmonizes with the expression of secrecy. 
 
 Another form of the aside is the meditation apart 
 from the others on the stage. This is usually a longer 
 speech and is given in a reflective mood accompanied 
 by a guarded bearing, if others are in the scene watch- 
 ing him, but if alone upon the stage, giving vent even 
 more freely to his mood than while actually speaking 
 aloud to others. For instance Shylock's long aside — 
 "How like a fawning publican," etc., — is a meditation 
 while others are watching him. Shy lock must act as if 
 he were "contemplating his present store" as far as 
 what Bassanio and Antonio can see, but the audience 
 will detect by Shylock's facial expression, which is 
 turned from the others, the mood wdth which he is giv- 
 ing the thought. Here the audience must understand 
 that Shylock is not actually speaking aloud, but never- 
 theless they must know exactly what he is thinking. 
 It would be impossible for him, by mere facial pan- 
 tomime to give all that thought without words. 
 (14.) Soliloquies. The form of the aside just ex- 
 plained in the last paragraph is what is called soliloquy 
 and will be discussed at length under a chapter de- 
 voted to the soliloquy in a play and the isolated solil- 
 oquy written expressly for a single actor in a single 
 scene. This form of the aside refers to the expression 
 of thought by an actor alone on the stage. He may 
 
48 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 talk to himself frankly aloud, or he may give the im- 
 pression of merely thinking or meditating, but since 
 he is alone upon the stage, the audience will not be 
 concerned whether it is meant to be aloud or not. In 
 Hamlet's soliloquy the impression is given that Hamlet 
 is talking aloud to himself. He is alone on the stage 
 and the burden of his thought is such that he might 
 reasonably talk aloud rather than meditate silently. 
 
 Literary Presentation of Plays. — Before leaving 
 the chapter on the Play it would be well to speak of 
 a new form of presenting plays — a form not so much 
 entertaining as educational. In reality it is an en- 
 croachment on the reader's art, but it is excusable 
 because of financial limitations existing in a complete 
 production and where the beauty of the lines or the 
 mood is made prominent for educational value rather 
 than for complete artistic entertainment. 
 
 Shakespearian plays given by college organizations 
 incur great expense and actual loss, if produced with 
 all the scenic and costume equipment used in profes- 
 sional performances, so it has been found possible to 
 dispense with special scenery and even the period cos- 
 tumes, presenting the play with all the action and 
 properties but making more prominent the educational 
 features. 
 
 The Cyclorama plan as set forth by Mr. B. li. Clark 
 in his book, Hozv To Produce Amateur Plays, is a 
 most excellent plan for schools that must produce their 
 plays inexpensively. 
 
 The Coburn Players and the Ben Greet Players, in 
 their outdoor plan of entertainment have been ex- 
 
ACTING 49 
 
 tremely successful in producing many Shakespearian 
 plays and other classics of great value educationally. 
 There are many modern plays that can also be given 
 effectivcl}' with merely screens set up for scenery and 
 a few necessary pieces of furniture. 
 
 There is a form of presentation, which is mentioned 
 here merely as a convenient means of entertainment 
 for literary clubs and societies wishing to offer a play 
 or scenes from plays without the formality of scenery 
 or the added vexation of committing the lines. This 
 plan consists of the several members of the cast "walk- 
 ing through the parts" with book in hand and attempt- 
 ing to carry as literally as possible some of the general 
 action of the play. This method may be called *'liter- 
 ary presentation." 
 
 These plans, however, are only makeshifts for lack 
 of funds, and can not for a moment be accepted at 
 the same valuation as a completely staged plan. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE ONE CHARACTER PLAY OR SOLILOQUY 
 
 Definition. — Up to this point the play of two or 
 more characters has been discussed. The first step in 
 progress from the reahstic to the suggestive form of 
 entertainment is the Acting Soliloquy, or One Char- 
 acter Play. In the Soliloquy the student becomes con- 
 scious of the fact that he alone is now the center of 
 attention at all times. Hitherto he has acted with 
 others who have alternately claimed attention and as- 
 sisted him in interpreting the play, but now the whole 
 responsibility, every instant of the play, is upon him. 
 Here he finds there is no unobtrusive action and no 
 time that he may relapse into a negligent pose while 
 the attention is centered elsewhere. He must be doing 
 something or saying something significant all the 
 time. Under this type of play the actor still uses prop- 
 erties, make-up and scenery, but it is the only form of 
 entertainment suitable to one person ivhere these acces- 
 sories are permissible. It is vital to remember this, for 
 from time to time in succeeding steps there will be 
 various temptations for the student to use properties. 
 
 In the Acting Soliloquy, we have a vehicle which 
 requires not only characterization but detailed business 
 with specific properties in order to make the thought 
 of the selection and the author's purpose understood. 
 
 50 
 
ACTING 51 
 
 When this form of entertainment is used the enter- 
 tainer must have the proper stage setting, costumes, 
 properties and make-up appropiiate to the character 
 soHloquizing, and there must be no imaginary proper- 
 ties, costumes, nor other persons concerned in the pre- 
 sentation. The one character, if he speaks at all, is 
 talking to himself and just as in the "aside" within a 
 larger play, he is giving his thoughts to the audience 
 without the audience realizing that he is actually 
 speaking. 
 
 Comparison of the Soliloquy and the Aside within 
 the Play. — All that has been said under the discus- 
 sion of the aside to one's self, applies to the speaking 
 of lines in the One Character Play. The only differ- 
 ence between the two is that the One Character Play 
 is complete in plot and purpose, and is isolated from 
 any other scene, while the aside within a play always 
 bears some relation to the other scenes. The One 
 Character Play is, of course, longer and tells a com- 
 plete story. It is written for a reader and is usually 
 arranged so that very simple scenery is required and 
 very few properties are essential. These few proper- 
 ties and the necessity for scenery and furniture make 
 the art acting, and the reader, for the time being, be- 
 comes an actor. If the properties and scene can be 
 dispensed with, they ought to be, and the selection will 
 be then classed under types suitable for the reader's 
 art. 
 
 In most modern plays the aside and the soliloquy 
 are avoided. A skilfully worked out play rarely has 
 need for them, but the foregoing treatment of the sub- 
 
52 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 ject still applies to the older plays and the classics 
 which make great use of both the soliloquy and the 
 aside. 
 
 The Acting Soliloquy is sometimes erroneously 
 called the Acting Monologue. There is no such thing 
 literally as an Acting Monologue. In a Monologue 
 other characters are assumed to be present, but only 
 the one character actually does the talking. He lis- 
 tens to their imaginary conversation, may shake hands 
 with them in pantomime or he may hand them imagin- 
 ary properties. Obviously one can not hand a real 
 property to an imaginary character, and it is at this 
 point that an Acting Monologue, in the sense we use 
 the term "acting," would become absurd. The instant 
 an audience is required to imagine the other charac- 
 ters, it is inconS'isteiit to use real properties. There- 
 fore the Soliloquy is the only form of the actor's art 
 which the solitary entertainer may consistently render. 
 The Monologue must not be acted. As a vehicle for 
 personating, a form of the reader's art, it will be dis- 
 cussed later. 
 
 The Relative Importance of Scenery and Furni- 
 ture. — The Soliloquy may have very ordinary scen- 
 ery and it may be such that a simple platform with one 
 or two pieces of furniture and some screens will do, 
 but everything must be conveniently placed for use 
 just as in a play of two or more characters. This form 
 of entertainment is especially good for a closing num- 
 ber on a lyceum program. A splendid example is 
 Leland T. Powers' Pro and Con in which a young 
 man, meditating on the advisability of proposing to a 
 
ACTING 53 
 
 certain young woman, steps on an ordinary platform 
 furnished with a chair and a small stand perhaps. 
 Almost any platform dressed tastefully for a reader is 
 sufficient to suggest the room in which this young 
 man meditates, since here scenery h of almost no 
 importance. Properties, however, are necessary to a 
 complete rendition of this piece. The young man has 
 a hat, an overcoat, gloves, and a letter in his pocket. 
 The humor of the situation here demands real prop- 
 erties — imaginary ones will not do, for there is one 
 piece of business which could not without confusion 
 be pantomimed. If it were not for this the selection 
 could be given as a Personation without any proper- 
 ties. Another similar selection is A Morning's Mail, 
 by Edmund Vance Cook. The letters are actually 
 necessary because of some particular business which 
 would not be understood if pantomimed without the 
 properties. In both selections, the characters in solil- 
 oquy are acting rather absent-mindedly and it is neces- 
 sary that the audience discern what is supposed to be 
 the action with the properties and the action that is 
 intended by the young men themselves to be only im- 
 aginary. If all the action with properties were made 
 imaginary by objective pantomime, the significance of 
 the intended imaginary action would be lost. 
 
 Excerpts from Plays for the Platform. — Some- 
 times long asides or meditations are taken from a play 
 and arranged in a soliloquy which may be acted by a 
 lyceum entertainer. Ophelia's ''Mad Scene" and Lady 
 Macbeth's "Sleep Walking Scene" may be so ar- 
 ranged. All the other characters' speeches are taken 
 
54 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 out and the one character speech acted with properties, 
 in a screened off portion of the platform made to rep- 
 resent an ordinary room in the Macbeth scene, or a 
 special outdoor scene arranged for the Ophelia episode. 
 Any similar excerpt, however, should be made from 
 well-known plays, for the audience otherwise would 
 have no way of seeing the connection with the rest of 
 the play. These scenes are best given as readings for 
 there is rarely one of them in which properties are 
 essential. Plays that are strong enough in thought 
 and emotion rarely need the action with properties 
 that could be introduced by one person during a solil- 
 oquy. It is sufficient for the one person to give the 
 mood of the character. Many entertainers go to the 
 extreme to try to arrange everything so that they may 
 "dress the part" and exploit their ability in ''make-up:' 
 There comes to mind one entertainer in particular who 
 had an arrangement from Eben Holden in which he 
 proceeded as follows: During a preliminary explana- 
 tion, he hung a mirror in the back of one of the pulpit 
 chairs (the entertainment was in a church) and put 
 several little properties on the pulpit and the altar rail. 
 Then he stepped behind the screen and, while explain- 
 ing the situation, made up as Eben Holden. Presently 
 he reappeared with lather all over his face and during 
 the implied dialogue that follov/ed, proceeded to shave. 
 It was not a soliloquy. A young woman was supposed 
 to be present. It wasn't even a real monologue, but 
 the entertainer had so arranged the dialogue because 
 evidently he saw far enough ahead to realize that he 
 couldn't make the audience effectively imagine a 
 
ACTING 55 
 
 young woman speaking with lather all over her face. 
 TlTerefore he did keep to the character of Eben Holden 
 and allowed his audience to imagine the young woman 
 sitting on one of the pulpit chairs. Considering, how- 
 ever, that the scene was supposed to be a kitchen and 
 the chief character was literal in costume and make- 
 up, it was rather too much of a stretch for the imagin- 
 ation to convert pulpit chairs, etc., into a kitchen sink. 
 The whole arrangement was absurd and need not have 
 occurred at all. 
 
 The one thing to remember about the Acted Solil- 
 oquy is that only one character can be present, and 
 then only among consistent surroundings and neces- 
 sary properties. No other character can even be as- 
 sumed for the soliloquy means one "talking to him- 
 self." 
 
 Technique of Presentation. — The technique of 
 presentation is practically the same as that of many a 
 character play with regard to the set, the furniture 
 grouping, properties, costuming and make-up. The 
 outside effects, lighting, etc., are rarely necessary, but 
 if so they should be very simple. Only those things 
 which are vitally related to the character soliloquizing 
 should be required. Since no other characters are con- 
 cerned, the properties that are not handled or referred 
 to by the character need not be in the set. The minute 
 business of the character is very essential and of 
 course of utmost importance to the play for in the 
 Acted Soliloquy it is the need of such business that 
 makes it so classified. If the thought and emotion 
 only are essential then the selection is not for actiny^~ 
 
56 DRAMATIC IXTERPRETATIOX 
 
 and will be discussed under another topic. The action 
 and the speaking of lines are treated exactly as a long 
 aside in a play. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE MATTER 
 
 From the Play Requiring Two or More Charac- 
 ters. — For the purpose of ilkistration. the second 
 scene of the first act in The Merchant of J'oncc will 
 be sufficient. 
 
 The set is a rather elaborate interior arranged to 
 represent the dressing-room of Portia. The furniture 
 consists of a settee, a dressing table with mirror, and 
 two or three chairs. The properties are all the neces- 
 sary paraphernalia of a dressing table, brush, hand 
 mirror, perfume, etc., all typical of the period. 
 
 At the rise of the curtain Portia, a young woman in 
 a dressing gown and slippers, is discovered in a chair 
 by the table at the lower left-hand corner of the stage. 
 At her back the maid, Xerissa, stands, while dressing 
 her mistress' hair. During the dialogue, at exact 
 points, specific movements are to be made. Everv di- 
 rector has a certain number of movements which he 
 has planned out, and they may all be different, and at 
 different points in the dialogue from those any other 
 director has planned, but as long as they are consistent 
 with his interpretation, they are legitimate and will 
 help make the situation real. Just the business of a 
 line or two here will suffice. 
 
 57 
 
58 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 Portia- Heigho, my little lady is awear\ of the great 
 world. (Sighs, droops shoulder and puis 
 down hand mirror zvhich she has been hold- 
 ing.) 
 
 Nerissa: You would be, sweet madam, etc. (Tarries 
 in the act of brushing and picks up comb.) 
 
 Portia- Good sentences and well pronounced. 
 (Shrugs shoidders, reaches dozvn to knee 
 and picks off a long hair and rather absent- 
 mindedly winds it over finger.) 
 
 Now, of course the above business would rarely be 
 seen in a prompt book, but the director suggests it in 
 order that these points may give a living reality to the 
 scene. He may even say for instance, ''When you re- 
 place the hand mirror, it should rest on the table at 
 the word aweary!" Of course it could be accom- 
 plished just as well on some other w^ord perhaps, but 
 if the director says "aweary" — that is the word on 
 which the action must come. If the girls are experi- 
 enced actresses it will not be necessary to be as exact 
 in telling them where to shrug shoulders or do the 
 most detailed subjective action, but to inexperienced 
 students even the small detail of showing surprise by 
 lifting the eyebrows is often necessary to suggest. 
 Just as children learn to walk and talk through imita- 
 tion, so the actor takes his first steps through imitation. 
 
 In the presentation of the scene just described, all 
 the dresser articles to be used must be there in reality. 
 There can be no imaginary comb or brush. The ser- 
 vant who enters must be real. To look upon two girls 
 
ACTING 59 
 
 in a perfectly arranged setting while they talk to- 
 gether, and to be obliged to imagine a third entering 
 upon the scene is an impossible situation. The 
 audience would immediately think the girls were imag- 
 ining the servant in a spirit of fun. The moment the 
 reader steps into the realm of the actor, he must be 
 consistent with the laws of acting or the result will 
 be confusing. Portia, Nerissa and Balthasar are the 
 three characters concerned in the scene. There can be 
 no makeshift whereby any one of the three, or any of 
 the properties concerned, can be omitted if the scene 
 is to be acted. If it is to be read, then one person will 
 suggest everything without the assistance of any 
 properties. 
 
 Illustration from the One Character Play. — Lady 
 ]\Iacbeth's "Sleep Walking Scene," when given within 
 the play, is interrupted by conversation between the 
 doctor and the maid. The setting represents a room 
 in the Macbeth castle. A table and a chair or two are 
 all the necessary furniture, but it may be as elaborate 
 as one wishes. Lady Macbeth will be in negligee and 
 slippers, with her hair in braids as if prepared for the 
 night. She will enter with a lighted candle in her 
 hand and stalk majestically to the table where she 
 will place the candle. The other characters will be 
 stationed in an alcove up stage whence they will make 
 their interpolated remarks. Lady ^lacbeth's business 
 will be mainly subjective. This scene might be given 
 by one person as a single number on a program, in a 
 setting simply arranged with table, chairs and candle. 
 The dialogue of the doctor and the maid would be 
 
6o DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 omitted, and the whole scene given as a one act play 
 in which only one character appears and talks in her 
 sleep, but if it is so given, the entertainer's purpose is 
 more to exploit the action and the costume, etc., than 
 to give the moods of the selection. Here again the 
 single entertainer will do better to read than to act, 
 but since the excerpt may be arranged in the form of 
 a soliloquy, it may be acted without violating the law 
 of consistency. 
 
 Pro and Con, by Leland T. Powers, was written to 
 be acted. It is a typical acting soliloquy requiring 
 certain properties, but since it was expected to be 
 given by a reader, the arrangement of furniture and 
 scenery is very simple. A brief explanation of the 
 synopsis will show why the selection should be acted 
 rather than given through personating with only 
 imaginary properties. 
 
 A young man enters with hat and gloves in one 
 hand and his overcoat on his arm. He lays the hat 
 and coat on a chair or convenient article of furniture 
 and proceeds to put on his gloves while soliloquizing. 
 He intends to propose to a certain Margaret, but just 
 as he gets the glove half-way on he suddenly thinks 
 of all the joys of bachelorhood which he must give up 
 if he enters the state of matrimony. Slowly he begins 
 to work the glove off until the remembrance of her 
 charms turns the scale in her favor. Then he begins 
 to rub on the glove rapidly, all the time speaking of 
 Margaret's wonderful ways. Gradually he falters 
 again as other problems crowd upon his thoughts and 
 once more he begins to draw off the glove. He alter- 
 
ACTING 6i 
 
 nates between the two decisions, showing his state of 
 mind mainly by the unconscious working off and on 
 of the glove until finally as he thinks of the mother- 
 in-law-to-be, he pulls off the glove with a decisive jerk 
 and starts to put it in his pocket, where he discovers 
 a letter. The letter is from Margaret herself and in 
 reading it he decides to call upon her after all. This 
 decision alters, however, when upon turning a page of 
 the letter, he learns that she is announcing her en- 
 gagement to another man. Blank amazement over- 
 spreads his features as one by one the gloves drop 
 from his hands. He slowly tears up the letter, staring 
 straight in front of him without saying a word and 
 then absent-mindedly begins to rub his fingers as if 
 putting on the gloves. It is at this point in the selec- 
 tion that we see why the real properties are needed. 
 To make this piece of business funny there must be a 
 distinction understood on the part of the audience be- 
 tween the action of pulling on the real gloves and the 
 absent-minded pantomime of the same act. If all the 
 properties were imagined, the audience would not 
 know the difference in the action when the young 
 man becomes absent-minded, and they would lose the 
 humor of that ]:)articular situation. Since one property 
 is essential, the other properties are necessary. To use 
 real gloves and an imaginary letter would be inconsist- 
 ent and confusing to the audience. Hat and overcoat 
 are needed to complete the consistency. Of course, by 
 sacrificing that particular bit of humor, the selection 
 could be given as well through personating as through 
 acting, but since the selection is in soliloquy form and 
 
62 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 since the properties and scenery are so very simple, 
 the entertainer might as well conform to the author's 
 evident purpose and give the selection as indicated by 
 the stage directions, for he can do so with perfect 
 consistency. 
 
 Another popular soliloquy which should be given 
 through acting, if the author's purpose is to be carried 
 out, is A Morning's Mail, by Edmund Vance Cooke. 
 The scene is a simple interior containing a table lit- 
 tered with books and papers, and a chair or two. A 
 young man enters with his hands full of letters which 
 he begins to read. All this could be done through 
 personating with imaginary letters, etc., but the fact 
 that it is a soliloquy and that one piece of business 
 would not be understood were it so given, makes it 
 more completeh^ presented through acting. In the 
 middle of the young man's soliloquy concerning his 
 letters he comes upon an invitation to a card party. 
 He lays down his letters and begins to make believe 
 deal cards as if already at the party, at the same time 
 indulging in some sarcastic remarks to his imaginary 
 hostess and guests, and imitating them with affecta- 
 tion. This imaginary action with the cards and his 
 imaginary guests would not be understood by the 
 audience unless contrasted by action witli the real let- 
 ters and surroundings. Here the audience must not 
 imagine any other person in the scene but must under- 
 stand that the young man himself is imagining his 
 guests. When an audience is led to imagine proper- 
 ties, etc., at the start, it will accept the situation and 
 imagine ever}thing suggested, but when it sees real 
 
ACTING 63 
 
 properties at the bep:iniiing, naturally it supposes that 
 everything to be seen will actually be there in its place. 
 Consequently, if any property is omitted and merely 
 indicated by literal objective pantomime, the inevitable 
 conclusion is that the pantomime is a part of the char- 
 acter's imagination and the audience will accept no 
 part of such pantomime as referring to real objects. 
 The shuffling and dealing of cards in this selection is 
 a part of the character's imagination, and since real 
 letters and surroundings have been used, the relation- 
 ship to the imaginary cards is easily understood. 
 
 Brief Summary. — Before closing the chapter, it 
 will be well to crystallize one or two apt phrases 
 that may stand as convenient guide-posts in assisting 
 the young student to judge when a selection demands 
 the art of acting and therefore requires the use of 
 properties or wdiether it may better be given through 
 the art of reading. 
 
 In a Play with other actors, he unll ALWAYS use 
 properties. 
 
 In a One Character Play, or Soliloquy, he zvill use 
 them, if the action of the play would appear INCON- 
 SISTENT or INCOMPLETE without them. 
 
 In any Reading zvhere other characters arc to be 
 imagined by the audience, the student will NEVER 
 use properties, for to imagine characters at the same 
 time that real properties are used is confusing and 
 often results in utter loss of the real significance of 
 the selection. 
 
 It is true that there are some selections which are 
 impossible to give consistently, if the author's direc- 
 
64 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 tions are to be strictly followed. In that case, the 
 selection should either be avoided or else reconstructed 
 consistently or, if it must be given, frankly presented 
 as a burlesque so that the audience may not be con- 
 fused or at least feel uncomplimented as to its intelli- 
 gence. The example quoted above, The Morning's 
 Mail, was originally inconsistent in construction, for 
 it made properties essential and then introduced an- 
 other character at the close of the scene. In order to 
 make it consistent, the other character should be 
 omitted, as long as properties are to be used, or else 
 the selection should be presented by two actors. A 
 third possibility of reconstruction would be to omit the 
 portion dealing with the imagination of the young 
 man in assuming guests at a card table, and giving 
 the selection through personating where all properties 
 are imagined. Then the character at the close of the 
 selection could also be imagined. The first suggestion 
 is the best, however, for the entrance of the second 
 character is of practically no importance. 
 
 If the student keeps watch for inconsistencies in 
 construction and takes the time to reconstruct them 
 according to the standard of consistency, he will have 
 very little trouble in working out all his programs to 
 suit the taste of all classes of audience without offend- 
 ing any. 
 
CHAPTER VT 
 
 REHEARSING BEGINNERS 
 
 General Remarks. — In the discussion under 
 
 technique of presentation it has already been pointed 
 out that it is unwise to keep impressing beginners with 
 the fact that they are amateurs. It is better rather to 
 assure them that the director will not be satisfied with 
 amateur work; that amateurishness belongs only in 
 the production given under unskilful coaching, and 
 that skilful direction coupled with earnest and con- 
 tinuous hard work will present a professional per- 
 formance, not, to be sure, equal to that of the world 
 renowned companies, but actually far better than the 
 average traveling, one-night-stand actors accomplish. 
 It is time that the public were brought to under- 
 stand that traveling companies do not necessarily pro- 
 duce professional work, nor on the other hand, that 
 Inlays produced by college students must be classed as 
 amateur. Technically, of course, the student produc- 
 tion is amateur, but the term is misleading and has 
 done much to make home audiences think they must 
 come to the college play prepared to be tolerant and 
 critical. The same audience will pay five times as 
 much to see a fifth-rate, *'slap-stick farce" or a blood- 
 curdling melodrama given by a traveling company 
 and imagine they are watching a really artistic per- 
 formance which they would not think of criticizing. 
 
 6s 
 
66 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 The director should see to it that his cast reahzes 
 they are not to be classed as amateurs, but rather as 
 beginners. They must not acknowledge themselves 
 amateurish but on the other hand must strive for pro- 
 fessional excellence. Their work then will be pro- 
 fessional, and the audience will learn to respect it» 
 
 Selecting the Cast. — In picking the cast the di- 
 rector should look for "fitness to the part," not putting 
 his inexperienced students in the leads, but choosing 
 according to seniority of experience and adaptability 
 for the part, for if a student is given a characteriza- 
 tion so unlike himself that he is conscious of his act- 
 ing all the time, he will never get away from his 
 dependence on coaching and is liable to retain a self- 
 consciousness that will rob him ultimately of his 
 individuality. He should be allowed first to act in 
 parts that are most like himself in mood, voice, car- 
 riage, size and build. He is thus enabled to get accus- 
 tomed to acting on the stage without being constantly 
 corrected and "made over." Later when he has had 
 more experience in acting out what is natural for him, 
 he may safely be directed first in a slightly different 
 mood and then gradually as his versatility becomes 
 apparent he may be guided into widely different roles. 
 It is a mistake to allow beginners to think they can 
 step right into star parts and create an impression on 
 the audience that will immediately reach Belasco's 
 ears and cause him instantly to wire, "Come at once. 
 New York is waiting for you." About nine-tenths 
 of the aspirants for the stage indulge in just these 
 very dreams, and it should be one of the director's 
 
ACTING 67 
 
 first tasks to dispel the illusion. He should not dis- 
 courage real talent when it exists, but he should make 
 it thoroughly understood that talent is of no earthly 
 use to an individual unless he works and is willing to 
 follow implicitly the advice of his director. Talent 
 plus long hours of labor makes genius, and if one 
 would be considered a genius he must plan to work 
 hard and long and patiently at things which seem 
 trivial perhaps, before he can hope to get started at 
 the big things. It is a good plan to formulate a 
 "working up" process whereby the student begins 
 with a "bit'* and proceeds through utility, ingenue and 
 character parts to the leading roles. Some will never 
 get further than "bits," but if their genius does not 
 entitle them to promotion, they should never be pro- 
 moted. It is much better that they be informed at 
 this stage of their career that they were not meant for 
 actors than to push them into parts through which 
 they would soon suffer greater humiliation. In select- 
 ing the cast, size and build should of course fit the 
 character as far as possible so that there will not be a 
 ridiculous situation arising from matching a small 
 man with a large woman or a character supposed to 
 be a giant substituted by a man of less than five feet. 
 The director will have to use good sound judgment in 
 deciding whether size and build are factors in picking 
 his particular cast. 
 
 After picking the cast the director should instruct 
 the members to read the whole play aloud at home, 
 before the first rehearsal is called. It is a mistake for 
 any member to be ignorant of the whole purpose of 
 
68 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 the play. If it is not possible for all members to have 
 complete copies, the director should read it to them. 
 
 Reading Rehearsal — General Business Given. — 
 At the first rehearsal the stage should be marked off 
 a little larger than the actual stage on which the final 
 performance is to be given. For practice, the cast 
 should be allowed plenty of room so that in final pro- 
 duction their movements in a smaller space will be 
 more concentrated in effect. To allow practice on a 
 small stage and then expect the student to expand his 
 action in the final performance results in disappoint- 
 ment because it is much easier for the beginner to 
 work in a small space than in a large one. In expand- 
 ing a movement a beginner will become suddenly con- 
 scious of himself, and indecision coupled with a cer- 
 tain awkwardness of movement will be apparent. 
 After the stage is marked off (using chairs to mark 
 the entrances) and tables, chairs, stands, etc., are in 
 their proper places, the students should walk through 
 their parts with manuscript in hand, read the lines, 
 and follow the general directions as to crosses and 
 turns, making note of places where to sit and rise, 
 and getting the correct interpretation of the lines. No 
 emotional suggestion is given at this rehearsal, but 
 the student should write down each important cross or 
 turn on the margin opposite the lines on which the 
 business occurs so that in home practice he may re- 
 hearse over and over again the line and the business 
 together. Business learned separately from the line 
 is never carried out with the appearance of spontaneity 
 that such work calls for. 
 
ACTING 69 
 
 Act by Act Procedure. — The second reading re- 
 hearsal should he a repetition of the first except that 
 the instructor should give no new business other than 
 to correct or repeat whatever the student forgets from 
 the last rehearsal. The play should be rehearsed act 
 by act until the general business of each act is thor- 
 oughly memorized with the lines. After each re- 
 hearsal W'hile the business is fresh in mind the student 
 should go over his part alone at home until every 
 movement is inseparably associated with the lines and 
 is fixed in its proper sequence. 
 
 Memorizing Lines and Cues. — Each act should be 
 memorized before taking up the succeeding one. The 
 best method of memorizing is to take the part with the 
 cues and typewrite them or write them out by hand. 
 This method eliminates the handling of the whole play 
 and the wasting of time in reading more than is neces- 
 sary for each part. Long uninterrupted speeches 
 may be memorized for attention to detailed business 
 after the general business and the shorter speeches are 
 established in mind. All the silent business and pan- 
 tomime are learned best at regular rehearsal so that 
 proper timing of the business with the lines of the 
 others may be acquired, but the study of lines and 
 general business should be done at home. 
 
 Detailed Business. — After the third rehearsal of 
 each act no book should be permitted in the student's 
 hand. All lines should have been memorized so that 
 the student is free to attend to the detailed business 
 which is not suggested by the director until the lines 
 are at least roughly in mind. A prompter should be 
 
70 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 present, but positively no manuscript should be al- 
 lowed in the hands of the performer. 
 
 The director should be independent of the author's 
 suggestion as to business. A play should be produced 
 according to the director's interpretation of the 
 thought and purpose of the play. The author may 
 have suggested business, but it may not coincide with 
 the director's interpretation and he should not feel 
 bound to follow it out. After once being sure of the 
 author's thought and purpose the director may employ 
 whatever manner he sees fit. He is almost always 
 better able to judge the values of stage business than 
 the author. 
 
 No actor should presume to offer suggestions unless 
 asked by the director. One interpretation must be 
 consistent throughout and that must be the director's, 
 not the individual actor's no matter how experienced 
 he may be. 
 
 The director must be alive to all situations and be 
 constantly originating business consistent at all points 
 with the play. The slightest detail should not escape 
 his notice for every one must be worked out for the 
 student and practised until it becomes a registered 
 part of the general action. The director will have to 
 demonstrate to the beginner who will frankly imitate, 
 for imitation is the first step in any process of learn- 
 ing. Every move must be copied and rehearsed over 
 and over again. The director should insist that the 
 student watch him closely while he is illustrating the 
 business. 
 
 After a student has been in several plays a certain 
 
ACTING 71 
 
 liberty may be allowed him in the personal business he 
 shall attach to the reading of lines that do not concern 
 another's action. He may be allowed to work out his 
 own business provided it is in accordance with the 
 director's interpretation. When working with others, 
 however, the action is **team-work/' and the director 
 becomes the coach, who makes every act consistent. 
 In dramatic art a monarchy is better than a democracy 
 since the director is solely responsible for the success 
 or failure of a performance. 
 
 The director will find that stage business works out 
 best with beginners if he suggests the business pro- 
 gressively from the general to more and more specific 
 detail until he finally rounds it out with minute direc- 
 tions in personal expression, such as the look of 
 surprise, anger, joy, etc. 
 
 Many people are of the opinion that it is necessary 
 for the actor in order to be really artistic that he 
 actually feel every emotion he portrays every time he 
 acts. Xothing could be further from the truth, for 
 the expression of the emotions becomes registered and 
 reflexive just as a simi)le automatic motion is regis- 
 tered. We learn to dress in the morning without 
 being conscious of our movements. We can learn to 
 express joy, anger, contempt or any of the emotions 
 without being conscious of the emotion at all. At 
 first in rehearsing, the student must be led to feci 
 genuinely and then to practise the resulting action 
 until it is registered and becomes automatic with the 
 repetition of the lines. 
 
 Property Rehearsal. — As soon as possible after 
 
y2 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 the book is dropped, the rehearsal should employ the 
 properties or at least substitutes for the properties. 
 The student should become accustomed to handling: 
 the articles while speaking the lines. If the property- 
 rehearsal is delayed until the last thing often such 
 confusion results that one would think there had been 
 no rehearsing at all. Mere pantomime with imaginary 
 properties, especially by the inexperienced beginner, 
 does not make a satisfactory or permanent impression. 
 The pantomime is never done twice alike but the 
 actual manipulating of the objects themselves soon 
 becomes automatic. Of course, it is impossible to 
 have all the properties in rehearsals at the very first, 
 but such things as newspapers, letters, pencils, pen 
 and ink, bells, dishes, glasses, bottles, books, etc., can 
 always be kept on hand for the practice rehearsals. 
 Properties that can not be had until the night of dress 
 rehearsal may be substituted by articles that feel like 
 them, such as a cigar box for a jewel casket ; a short 
 stick for a stove poker, or a broom handle for a spear. 
 
 The director must see that the young beginner in 
 picking up books or magazines for silent perusal 
 keeps his eye actually on the page and continually 
 glances back and forth along the page as in real read- 
 ing. Many beginners merely stare at the page or over 
 it — anywhere but the place they should look. If the 
 character is supposed to be reading, his actions should 
 indicate it. 
 
 It is not a good plan to allow students to use real 
 cigars, cigarettes or tobacco in ordinary practice. A 
 short pencil will do. It will give practically the same 
 
ACTING 73 
 
 "feel" while practising and is not half so annoying to 
 the ladies of the cast. When it is time for the final 
 rehearsal the use of the tobacco may then be permitted. 
 
 While rehearsing a dinner scene in which many 
 dishes and utensils are used, the director can not take 
 too much pains in timing the handling of articles with 
 the progress of the lines. It must be done noiselessly 
 and at the same time swiftly and accurately. These 
 scenes should be rehearsed again and again until 
 every move is reflexive and automatic. 
 
 Great attention must be paid to all music cues, 
 which should be known by the orchestra or the music 
 director behind the scenes. He must know at what 
 point to start the music, when to let it die down grad- 
 ually, wdien it is to swell and when to stop. There 
 should be a special music rehearsal in which these 
 parts are practised over and over until everything is 
 synchronous. 
 
 When an actor who does not play the piano is given 
 a part requiring that he play on the stage, it is unfor- 
 tunate but sometimes unavoidable. In such a case, 
 there must be days of special training with a com- 
 petent musician who will play back of the scenes while 
 the actor goes through the motions before the au- 
 dience. By constant practice this arrangement may 
 be brought about so skilfully that the audience is 
 often unaware that the actor is not the musician. 
 
 Polish. — After the general rehearsals have been 
 in progress some time, there will appear certain 
 scenes that are particularly effective and certain ones 
 that are weak. There should be special rehearsals 
 
74 DRAMATIC IxNTERFRETATION 
 
 called for the weak scenes, and these should be worked 
 over separately until they are as effective as the oth- 
 ers. Nearly always there will be one or two of the 
 actors who are not developing" their parts as rapidly 
 as the others. The director should find time to do a 
 little private coaching in these cases. Nothing should 
 be left undone that will make the whole cast work in 
 unison and with a good distribution of important 
 business. 
 
 The "star" system should never be suggested 
 among beginners. It is unfortunate that it exists 
 among professional companies, but commercialism has 
 made it inevitable. The cast for school production 
 should not be allowed to get the impression that the 
 part usually played by a star is necessarily the leading 
 part. Opportunity to do good work should not all be 
 given to the leads, but should be distributed among 
 the characters as every good play directs. In a good 
 play, the leading part does not monopolize all the 
 good business. It may have a major portion center 
 around the hero or heroine, but it vv^ould be unbalanced 
 and unreal to make him the center of attention at all 
 times. Wherever this is done it is usually the fault 
 of a conceited, pampered star who imagines the public 
 cares nothing about any part of the play except his, so 
 he makes every bit of business pertain to him and 
 "cuts" all that might lead the attention to others of 
 the cast. A good director will see to it that every 
 character of the play has many opportunities to make 
 his part a recognized factor in the play as a whole. 
 
 In these last few rehearsals for "polish" the director 
 
ACTING 75 
 
 should watch carefully the minutest detail in line in- 
 terpretation and business, and wherever possible he 
 should correct the imperfections. He should add a 
 touch here and there for new personal color if it will 
 make the scene more intimate and life-like. Business 
 that has not developed well or proved effective may 
 be eliminated and other business substituted. Even a 
 change in an entrance or a cross or turn may be made 
 at the last moment, if the strengthening of the scene 
 demands, but as a rule the fewer changes the better. 
 There should be no changes back and forth. If the 
 director, for instance, is undecided as to whether the 
 actor should go to the back of a certain chair or sit at 
 tiie foot of the lounge, let him give one direction and 
 continue rehearsals for that until he is sure it should 
 be changed. Then toward the last it can be changed 
 without difficulty, but if on one day he thinks the 
 back of the chair best, then on the next day changes 
 to the foot of the lounge, and finally after seesawing 
 for several rehearsals, changes back to the original 
 position, the beginner in acting will be so confused 
 there is no telling what he may do at the final produc- 
 tion. The director must decide upon one way and 
 keep that until he is sure it will not do, then he ma\- 
 change to the other, but a third change to the same 
 piece of business is confusing. 
 
 Many things could be said regarding the proper 
 way to shake hands in greeting or in farewell, the 
 attitude of consoling one in grief, or one's bearing in 
 making love, but these things are best left to the tact- 
 ful and cultured director whose good taste will enable 
 
^(y DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 him to see what is and what is not fitting in such 
 cases. It may not be out of place, however, to say 
 that a love scene must be acted iust right or the whole 
 play will be tolerantly called "amateur." Young peo- 
 ple are so self-conscious when it comes to acting a love 
 scene that it is hard to get results that will not look 
 stilted or else over-done and sentimental. In the first 
 place the director must make clear that an audience 
 will not make fun of the actor who does not reveal 
 himself in the scene. The moment an actor becomes 
 conscious of himself and acts embarrassed the spell is 
 broken. Love scenes should not be ridiculously sen- 
 timental, but on the other hand there must be no hes- 
 itancy to embrace or to give the stage kiss, if that is 
 what the part calls for. The audience will ridicule 
 the half-way attempts at love making when obviously 
 the part calls for a full representation. The stage 
 director should make clear that the audience is not to 
 think of the player but of the character he represents. 
 If the actors show hesitation and embarrassment then 
 the attention of the audience reverts to the players 
 themselves and the characters represented are lost for 
 the moment. 
 
 The success of love scenes depends almost wholly 
 upon the director. If he is a man of taste and discre- 
 tion, he will see to it that his players are not needlessly 
 embarrassed in first rehearsal. Later, when the spirit 
 of the scene is felt thoroughly, the action should be 
 introduced and all embarrassment dispelled immedi- 
 ately by calling the attention of the players to the fact 
 that they are not amateurs ; that they are representing 
 
ACTING ^^ 
 
 two serious people in a scene calling for the utmost 
 delicacy of treatment ; that any attempt at levity or 
 nonsense in the beginning is a serious hindrance to the 
 ultimate success of the scene, and that its effect on 
 the audience will depend upon the ease and lack of 
 self-consciousness with which the little intimate 
 touches — the clasp of hand, the embrace or the kiss — 
 are carried out. Many directors are so unwilling to 
 tell the players to kiss that they will change the stage 
 business, or what is worse, introduce a salute so ab- 
 surdly unlike the real caress that the audience notices 
 the inconsistency and laughs at ''the amateurish 
 trick." Such scenes are no place for false ideas of 
 propriety and convention. While there is rarely need 
 for an actual kiss, there is frequently necessity for 
 the ''stage kiss" which looks exactly like a real one, 
 and can be given without in the least offending good 
 taste or true ideals of propriety. The director should 
 not be led astray by the prudish notion that young 
 l^eople should never be allowed to embrace on the 
 stage. Of course, beginners should not be launched 
 into plays which include elaborate love scenes. Much 
 less should they be allowed to play in the problem 
 plays of the day, but plays offering simple situations 
 calling for ordinary salutations and caresses may be 
 handled with ease and with perfect regard for con- 
 vention. It is absurd, for instance, when a scene rep- 
 resenting a father returning to his daughter after a 
 long al)sence, is portrayed by the two people standing 
 lliree feet apart and gravely shaking hands. It is 
 hardlv less ridiculous to see the father make the initial 
 
78 DRAxMATlC INTERPRETATION 
 
 movement toward offering the kiss and then rest his 
 chin on her shoulder and put his nose in her back 
 hair while her face wholly visible to the audience re- 
 mains as surely unkissed as that of the old maid in 
 King Dodo. If the embrace and salute are made sim- 
 ply and without hesitation, the audience will like the 
 scene and never think of laughing at the players. It 
 should be remembered that an embrace at arm's length 
 is impossible. There are, of course, many situations 
 requiring merely the laying of the hands on the 
 shoulders, but where a real embrace would naturally 
 be effected in real life, such as the caress between 
 father and daughter, husband and wife, or mother and 
 son, a real embrace is necessary on the stage. If the 
 characters represented are supposed to be lovers or a 
 couple just becoming engaged, the manner of the em- 
 brace or the caress should be much more formal 
 (unless, of course, the scene is broad comedy), but it 
 should not be stiff or unnatural. 
 
 Many people criticize the realistic presentation of 
 love scenes on the ground that it is not safe for young 
 people ; that it leads to unconventional habits, and that 
 the participants of such scenes are liable to think they 
 are actually in love. To this let it be said that if the 
 director is a man of right principles and sound peda- 
 gogy, he will know his players and will not cast the 
 sentimental, susceptible young people in these scenes. 
 Young people of good sense will be taught poise, self- 
 control and dignity through the training offered in 
 love scenes, and later in real life they will use better 
 judgment for having had this systematic training on 
 the stage. 
 
ACTING 79 
 
 The Dress Rehearsal with Effects. — The purpose 
 of the dress rehearsal is to accustom the player to his 
 dress ; to acquaint him with the dimensions of the final 
 set and readjust himself to distances, location of the 
 furniture and the exits ; to gauge the time for quick 
 changes of costume, and to handle the properties that 
 have not hcen available before dress rehearsal, such as 
 swords, shields, guns, etc., which rccjuirc special at- 
 tention. All the business of disposing of hats, over- 
 coats and wraps must be watched carefully for often 
 a slight mistake in removing a coat or placing a hat 
 on the hatrack will ruin the effect of a scene. 
 
 Since the first rehearsals have been conducted on a 
 larger scale of distances than the final set of the 
 scene, all the action now at the dress rehearsal be- 
 comes more concentrated and hence more effective. 
 It is much easier to express power in the rendition of 
 a line while walking three feet than to speak the same 
 line while walking six or eight feet. For instance, in 
 previous rehearsals let us suppose the distance from 
 the firei)lace, left, to the sofa, right, has been 
 eighteen feet. The young man standing by the fire- 
 place has been told to walk suddenly over to the girl 
 on the sofa and speak more intently. He has been 
 practising the speech and the sudden stride over ap- 
 proximately fifteen feet. Now in the dress rehearsal, 
 the distance is but a little over nine feet. What is the 
 result? The sudden movement becomes more abrupt, 
 the speech more concentrated in time and intensit}'. 
 
 The dress rehearsal gives the first opportunity for 
 the actors to work with the staqe mechanic and with 
 
8o DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 the timing of their lines with the actual working of the 
 effects including the light changes and the accompany- 
 ing sounds back of the scenes. 
 
 At the dress rehearsal the prompter should be on 
 hand in the Right Tormentor entrance, and he should 
 be instructed to keep his eyes on the lines at all times. 
 His responsibility should not be divided with the direct- 
 or's or the stage manager's. His work is to be ready 
 to prompt the line that might fail to be remembered. 
 The director should see to the calls, the entrances, the 
 rings and knocks, the light cues and the business of 
 the effects while the stage manager should have the 
 responsibility of the furniture, the scenery and the 
 properties that are to be in place at the opening of the 
 act. 
 
 The dress rehearsal should not be the final rehears- 
 al. There should be at least a rehearsal of certain 
 scenes that went badly at the dress rehearsal. Certain 
 corrections will appear necessary, for the students are 
 unaccustomed to the real stage and its dimensions, and 
 they should have opportunity to work out the little 
 problems that appeared for the first time in the dress 
 rehearsal. Many directors are superstitiously willing 
 to leave the final performances to chance, and quote 
 the ridiculous old saying that "a rotten dress rehearsal 
 insures a good performance." It is much safer to go 
 over some of the scenes that were "rotten" in dress 
 rehearsal and give the students a chance to improve 
 them. 
 
 Final Rehearsal. — The final rehearsal should be 
 held the dav after the dress rehearsal and should be 
 
ACTING 8i 
 
 devoted solely to the correcting of errors made at the 
 dress rehearsal. Old business or directions should not 
 be considered. Words of encouragement when they 
 are deserved should be given, and the director should 
 not feel that it is necessary to curse and swear at the 
 actors who make mistakes at a dress rehearsal. Some 
 directors who do so, make the excuse that it puts the 
 actors on their mettle. As a matter of fact pessimism 
 or loss of temper on the part of the director can do 
 more harm than the lack of a final rehearsal may in- 
 flict. It should be remembered that it is not necessary 
 for the director to make the cast hate him in order to 
 get professional results. Such a conception is the out- 
 growth of ignorance and stupidity. If courteous criti- 
 cisms do not make the student honestly set to work to 
 overcome his faults, it is better that he be dismissed 
 at once from the cast. It is the duty of every director 
 to use the utmost patience in helping the discouraged 
 member to revive interest and apply himself to more 
 difficult work. 
 
 A Final Word. — Before closing the discussion on 
 Acting a final word must be said regarding the literal 
 reproduction of the text which contains profanity and 
 coarse expressions. It sometimes happens that a char- 
 acter is supposed to be unrefined or even downright 
 evil and that his language abounds in epithets and 
 unpleasant phrases. The beginner, if he has been 
 brought up in an atmosphere of refinement, naturally 
 hesitates to use some of the coarser expressions and 
 asks the director what to do about them. At this 
 point the director must use the greatest care and judg- 
 
82 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 ment. Where an experienced actor might carry off 
 the scene without reflection upon his own good taste, 
 the beginner is apt to ruin the scene and at the same 
 time his own reputation by his lack of power to create 
 the character apart from himself. Aluch difficulty 
 may be overcome if the director is a good judge of 
 people, for he will not cast a timid, self-conscious actor 
 in such a part. Plays that abound in profanity should 
 never be selected for beginners. There are plenty of 
 good plays which deal in refined characters and situa- 
 tions so that the director need not feel compelled to 
 choose the type that caters to unrefined tastes. When, 
 however, it seerns necessary to represent a character 
 that is somewhat rough in contrast to the others, the 
 director can almost always reduce the unpleasant ex- 
 pressions to the minimum and still keep the suggestion 
 of the character. One should not be too prudish 
 about the occasional use of 'Mamn" and ''hell/' These 
 words are not actually profane, and although they 
 sometimes have an unpleasant effect on refined ears, 
 they are no worse than "darn" or ''hades" which are 
 sometimes substituted in a weak and ridiculouslv 
 effeminate manner. Either the words should be 
 omitted altogether or else used as they appear in the 
 text. The use of terms referring to the Deity must 
 certainly be viewed in a different light. There is very 
 rarely need of actual blasphemy on the stage, and it 
 may be stated as a well established principle that plays 
 requiring such irreverence should not be accepted for 
 beginners. It is not necessary to remark that vulgar 
 or obscene language is never excusable on the stage. 
 
ACTING 83 
 
 There are, however, false notions as to what are im- 
 proper expressions and it is on record that one prud- 
 ish and falsely modest director of dramatics objected 
 to the words "leg'' and '"nightgown" and asked her 
 students to substitute the words ''limb" and "robe-dc- 
 nuit" in order that the performance might be refined. 
 Common sense and natural purity of soul will discrim- 
 inate between objectionable words and words that are 
 only made wrong by false standards of propriety and 
 culture. 
 
 One of the beautiful features of stage directing is 
 the creating of pictures in the scenes — the grouping of 
 characters so that there is constant balance and at the 
 same time variety in the pose of different groups. To 
 make the groups seem natural and to keep up the 
 action of the scene at the same time while the pictures 
 are ever changing and taking different forms, is the 
 aim of every truly artistic director. 
 
 Finally, let it be remembered that the difference 
 between real amateur productions and the professional 
 student production should exist in the method of train- 
 ing and not in the result at the public performance of 
 the play. 
 
PART TWO 
 Reading 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 GENERAL DISCUSSION 
 
 Definition of Reading. — The art of Reading refers 
 to all that class of presentation on the platform by one 
 person without the aid of special scenery, properties, 
 stai^e furniture, special costumes, make-up or mechani- 
 cal effects of any kind, and is always distinguished 
 from One Character Acting by the absence of these 
 accessories. 
 
 The Relationship of Reading to Acting. — (i.) The 
 Arts Themselves. While Acting has been already dis- 
 cussed as the art of choosing essential details in the 
 production of a realistic impression, /Reading will be 
 considered as the art of choosing from essential details 
 the kind and number necessary to produce an imagina- 
 tive and general impression capable of being inter- 
 preted according to the individual experiences of the 
 auditors^ The number and kind of details chosen are 
 determined largely by the type of reading to be 
 presented. 
 
 In all the discussion which follows relative to the 
 art of the Reader, it is to be understood that but one 
 person is concerned in the rendition of any piece of 
 literature. In leaving the subject of Acting, we have 
 left all forms of ensemble or company performance, 
 and are concerned solely with the work of a single 
 individual, man or woman, on the platform. 
 
 87 
 
88 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 In speaking of ''the platform" we refer to the bare 
 space occupied by the Reader, in contradistinction to 
 the ''stage" which always presupposes a larger space 
 appropriately furnished with tables, chairs, settees, 
 and three walls with doors and windows or back drop 
 curtains and wings representing an exterior scene. 
 The platform may be entirely bare or may have for 
 convenience a plain chair or two and a small stand. 
 These articles of furniture, however, never become an 
 integral part of a scene, and are merely used to give 
 a pleasant, comfortable background for the speaker. 
 (2.) The Artists Compared. There are still many 
 readers and teachers of elocution who make no distinc- 
 tion between the Reader and the Actor or their respec- 
 tive arts, and who are constantly confusing them in 
 the attempt to entertain their audiences. It should be 
 understood that from the very nature of things, the 
 Reader is limited in what he may do in presenting 
 literature which normally requires several persons and 
 a force of stage mechanics to produce. A brief resume 
 of the province of the Actor and the Reader at this 
 point will assist in keeping in mind the relative require- 
 ments of their art. 
 
 The Actor is always one eharaeter, and remains that 
 one character in make-up and appropriate costume 
 throughout the play ; he uses all properties described 
 and indicated to be included in the play, and more 
 often than not, he is assisted by other persons in the 
 performance. The Reader, on the other hand, may 
 represent one or many characters during the rendition 
 of any type of literature, always, however, holding 
 
READING 89 
 
 himself in readiness to change instantly from one 
 character to another, or in almost the same breath to 
 assume direct address or narration in giving explana- 
 tory matter to his audience; he never uses properties, 
 make-up, costumes, etc., and he is ncicr assisted by 
 others in the presentation of literature. 
 
 While it is occasionally true that an actor some- 
 times encroaches on the reader's art, yet it is not 
 objectionable nor confusing to the audience. For 
 instance, the actor tries sometimes to be intensely im- 
 aginative and to do a great deal of suggesting (on his 
 part). This is, of course, perfectly legitimate in his 
 individual work of facial expression and gesture, if it 
 is not obviously inconsistent with the arrangement of 
 the play. When, however, the other actors and sur- 
 roundings are realistic and the atmosphere is realistic, 
 it is not likely the audience will suspect the subtler 
 suggestions, and of course will miss them if they are 
 given. Sheridan's The Critic is an admirable example 
 of the absurdity in overdoing the suggestivencss in 
 the play. Puff, Sneer and Dangle are witnessing 
 Puff's latest play, and as one of the characters enters, 
 shakes his head, and exits without a word, Sneer says 
 to Puff, 
 
 Siiccr: What did he mean by shaking his head so? 
 
 Ptiff: Why, by the shake of his head he gave you 
 to understand that even though they had more 
 justice in their cause and wisdom in their 
 measure — yet, if there was not a greater spirit 
 shown on the part of the people, the country 
 
90 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 would at last fall a sacrifice to the hostile 
 
 ambition of the Spanish monarchy. 
 Sneer: The devil ! Did he mean all that by the shake 
 
 of his head? 
 Puff: Every word of it — if he shook it as I taught 
 
 him. 
 
 On the other hand the actor would be overdoing 
 the realism if he were to indicate by a lir.c Ihat he 
 would sit in a certain spot for two hours, and then 
 straightway do so while the audience waited. 
 
 The reader, in turn, encroaches on the actor's art 
 when he brings in properties, make-up or special cos- 
 tumes in a selection requiring several characters to be 
 represented. A striking example of such an encroach- 
 ment occurs in the case of a rather prominent reader 
 of Wilson Barrett's The Sign of the Cross. The 
 young woman appears in the costume of Mercia, with 
 long flowing hair and a band of ribbon around her 
 head. She carries a crucifix appending from a string 
 of beads hung about her neck. Naturally while she is 
 speaking the lines of Mercia, no great inconsistency 
 appears, but when the audience is expected to see the 
 villain Tigilenus stalk about in that same flowing 
 gown and loose hair, and the next moment readjust 
 its imagination in order to conceive the manly but 
 pagan Marcus decorated by the beads and crucifix, it 
 is liable to be more or less confused in the picture. 
 Such a performance is inconsistent from two points of 
 view : First, it is no compliment to an intelligent 
 audience to assume that it is unable to understand the 
 
READING 91 
 
 character of Mercia unless she appears in full regalia, 
 and second, it is rather unfair to force their imagina- 
 tion to do dotible duty and be obliged to undress one 
 character before conceiving the others. Aside from 
 that, the reader who does her work in this way so 
 confuses realism with imagination that more often 
 than not the audience goes home with a very hazy 
 memory of beautiful tones, a lovely woman of the 
 Middle Ages, a crucifix, and a rather disconnected idea 
 of the story. If the audience is an intelligent one it 
 will understand the story but will feel uncompli- 
 mented. If it is a popular audience, it will be affected 
 by the emotion and the sentiment as well as the spec- 
 tacular display of costume and graceful action, but the 
 literature with its beauty and subtle meaning will be 
 lost upon them. The reader may appeal to the imagi- 
 nation of the popular audience as well as to the culti- 
 vated audience, if he is consistent in his appeal. It is 
 certainly not consistent at one moment to require no 
 imagination on the part of the audience while holding 
 up the real crucifix, and the next moment expect the 
 audience to see Tigilenus with his sword held aloft 
 when there is no sword to be seen! It is far easier 
 to lead the audience to imagine both crucifix and 
 sword. Since both can not be used literally and since 
 a thousand other articles mentioned in connection with 
 the rendition can not be actually shown, it is far more 
 artistic to make suggestion inclusive of everything — 
 costume as well : — and allow the audience to imagine 
 the scene apart from the reader herself. 
 
 The reader should not attempt to be an actor while 
 
 / 
 
92 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 reading. /ThQ danger of inconsistency and even ab- 
 surdity in presentation is too great. It is true that 
 perhaps the majority of people in an audience do not 
 realize the inconsistency, and it is just as true that 
 many who look at a bad painting do not see that it 
 may be out of perspective or inconsistent in its lights 
 and shadows or inharmonious in color. Yet the fact 
 remains that it is bad art. That the audience is not 
 conscious of its loss, is no reason for the reader to 
 keep up the deception. While the reader is calling 
 attention to such accidentals as costume and property, 
 and constantly exhibiting movements which attract 
 the thought to the mode and not the matter, the au- 
 dience is losing all the finer and more subtle distinc- 
 tions in thought and emotion. 
 
 One or two other examples may be given to show 
 how the audience is cheated in such exhibitions. 
 
 Several years ago at a well-known college in the 
 East, a reading of Romeo and Juliet was advertised to 
 be given by the wife of one of the instructors. The 
 young woman was a graduate of a popular school of 
 oratory, and her appearance was anticipated with a 
 great deal of pleasure. Imagine the surprise of the 
 audience when they saw upon the rise of the curtain 
 a rather curious framework of wood covered with 
 white muslin and representing (after a moment's 
 thought) Juliet's balcony in the middle of a perfectly 
 bare floor. The ingenious piece of stage carpentry 
 stood about six feet high. There was a ripple of 
 laughter over the audience and then followed a hush 
 for the young woman in the complete costume and 
 
READING 93 
 
 make-up of Juliet had appeared. To describe her 
 antics would require more space than can be allotted 
 to this illustration, but she skipped from one side of 
 the stage to the other in her attempt to act out each 
 character in his crosses and little inconsequential 
 actions, until she came to the balcony scene. Here 
 she performed her greatest feat in Japanese equi- 
 libration. vShe dodged into the little umbrella-shaped 
 balcony and spoke Juliet's impassioned lines. Then 
 she swung out and around and down on her knees for 
 Romeo — and back again for Juliet's sigh ! When it 
 was time for the old nurse to call her, she put her 
 hand to her mouth (gracefully, of course) and shouted 
 ''Juliet !" in the cracked voice of an octogenarian. 
 Then, as Juliet again, in blissful repose on the rail of 
 the improvised balcony, she sweetly answered, *'Anon !" 
 Later the scene with Peter and the nurse called forth 
 the young woman's powers of literal characterization 
 which she evidenced by waddling clear across the 
 stage (still in Juliet's costume of course) in a repre- 
 sentation of the stupid Peter, seating herself on an 
 upturned pail and holding conversation (using more 
 back-hand action) with the old nurse supposedly 
 behind the scene. 
 
 At the close of the exhibition there were a few who 
 felt it was necessary to congratulate the performer, 
 but be it said to the credit of that college audience, 
 the majority present were disappointed. A year or 
 two before, one of America's greatest readers had 
 given the same reading, standing (as she ought) in 
 the middle of the platform, and scarcely moving two 
 
94 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 steps to right or left during the entire rendition, yet 
 she had entranced her audience. The contrast was so 
 great and the memory of the true reading so vivid that 
 the audience as a whole felt they had been cheated in 
 the later performance. The young woman herself was 
 not so much to blame. She had been taught that such 
 exhibition was art and that such a rendition showed 
 cleverness and versatility. She had not been allowed 
 to use her own judgment and therefore could not see 
 that a reader can not encroach upon the actor's art 
 without serious loss to the audience. 
 
 The reader, on the other hand, may overdo his sug- 
 gestion sometimes, just as the actor in sitting still two 
 hours while the audience waits, would be overdoing 
 the realism. There comes to mind a certain teacher of 
 expression who once offered the amazing suggestion 
 that in giving Dickens' Christmas Carol the words of 
 the Ghosts should never be spoken. The professor 
 said expressive pantomime should be manifested by 
 Scrooge as if he were seeing a ghost and every now 
 and then Scrooge should shudder and say, for instance, 
 "You said your name was Marley?" or "You said 
 you could sit down?" In other words the professor 
 would rearrange the whole scene in monologue form 
 because, since there is no such thing as a ghost, it 
 should be merely suggested! In the course of conver- 
 sation with the professor, one of his interested listen- 
 ers hinted that since he had gone so far in the mat- 
 ter of suggestion, why not merely lie down on the 
 stage and let the audience imagine all of Scrooge's 
 dream ! This seemed to be about the last word in lead- 
 ing an audience to an imaginative understanding. 
 
READING 95 
 
 The reader often makes the same mistake in judging 
 the actor that the actor makes in judging the reader. 
 He says, "The actor's work is simple, very simple — 
 why anybody can do this — make this or that face — get 
 down on all fours, etc., but it_ requir£s_arf to be a 
 reader r The actor in turn depreciates the reader 
 "because," he says, "the reader is too elocutionary," 
 whatever that is. "Anybody," he continues, "can get 
 up and recite with a big voice and graceful gestures 
 Curfciir Must Not Ring To-night, but it requires art 
 to take the point of view of a character totally unlike 
 yourself and maintain it consistently throughout a 
 play." Both are right and both are wrong. Each is 
 right in saying that it takes art to do the work he 
 champions. Each is wrong in depreciating the other's 
 art and calling it simple and easy for anybody. They 
 are two different arts and require different develop- 
 ment, but they are both art. 
 
 In Part Three of this book, methods of study in the 
 two arts will be suggested, and it will be shown that 
 the reader's art grows out of the actor's art. 
 
 The Three Types of Presentation for the Reader. 
 — (i.) Personating. Personating will be shown in a 
 later chapter as the nearest approach to acting a reader 
 may make without encroaching upon the art of the 
 actor. It is not to be confused with the original mean- 
 ing of the term which applied to the actor in his 
 assumption of a character, but is to be understood in 
 all the discussion of the text to refer to the art of the 
 reader and Jiot to that of the actor. 
 (2.) ImpersonatiTe Reading. Impersonative Read- 
 ing is the intermediate step between Personating and 
 
96 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 Pure Reading. Here the method of presentation is 
 very much less reaUstic and correspondingly more 
 suggestive than personating. It is the kind of presen- 
 tation best adapted to all sorts of comedy and character 
 readings and will be discussed in a chapter exclusively 
 devoted to this type of treatment. 
 (^.) Pure Reading. Pure Reading is the highest 
 type of suggestive presentation and will be discussed 
 in connection with the rendition of the classics and 
 all higher forms of literature appreciated for their 
 beauty of thought and composition. 
 
 The Determining Factors in Making the Subdi- 
 visions. — (i.) The Author's Purpose. It has been 
 shown that most literature in play form was intended 
 for acting, for the very nature of the stage directions 
 and the constant mention of properties to be used, 
 demonstrate that the author's purpose was to have 
 actors present a realistic performance with complete 
 scenery and stage equipment. Therefore, in the case 
 of a play, if we follow the author's purpose we shall 
 be obliged to produce it with a company of actors in 
 appropriate surroundings. A reader, however, if he 
 chooses to present a play must frankly depart from 
 the author's purpose since it is obviously impossible 
 for one person to do all that the author requires. By 
 changing the form of the composition from pure dia- 
 logue to descriptive dialogue in the present tense, a 
 reader may present it thus transformed into a Charac- 
 ter Play or a Reading Play, choosing to make promi- 
 nent the mood or the characterization of the piece 
 rather than the scene or the complete action. Ordinar- 
 
READING 97 
 
 ily it is to be understood, then, that the author's original 
 purpose is disregarded when a play is to be presented 
 by a reader. In all other forms of literature, however, 
 the author's purpose should be the first consideration 
 of the reader in order to determine which type of the 
 reader's art is best suited to the selection under all 
 normal conditions. 
 
 There are three key words, or phrases, which may 
 be used to indicate the author's purpose found in the 
 different forms of literary composition available for 
 the reader's art. They are: Literal Action, Eccentric or 
 Comedy Characterization and Mood. If a certain 
 piece of composition shows unmistakably that the 
 author intended literal action to be the most important 
 factor in its delivery, the reader knows that personat- 
 ing is the type of presentation he should use ; if, how- 
 ever, the selection does not indicate that literal action 
 is necessary but that eccentric or comedy characteriza- 
 tion was the purpose, the reader will use hnpersonative 
 reading, but if neither literal action nor eccentric 
 characterization is important, there remains only the 
 expression of mood as the essential feature of the 
 piece, and the reader should present it through pure 
 reading. 
 
 (2.) The Literary Composition. There are seven 
 distinct forms of literary composition which, singly or 
 in combination, help the student to recognize the sev- 
 eral types of selection suitable for the reader. 
 
 Exposition and Argumentation are not adapted to 
 the presentation by a reader so in these pages no 
 further mention of them will be made. 
 
98 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 Narration and Description are already faniiliar to 
 the student of English, and these two general forms 
 embrace the specific forms known more intimately by 
 the public reader a^ soliloquy, implied dialogue, direct 
 address, descriptive dialogue, pure narration, pure de- 
 scription and lyric composition.^^ 
 
 The first three forms are written in the first person 
 and always represent but one speaking character. If 
 the composition represents meditation, or soliloquy, 
 the selection is called a Soliloquy (Personated Solilo- 
 quy, Character Soliloquy or Reading Soliloquy accord- 
 ing to the author's purpose) ; if it is implied dialogue, 
 or composition giving but one side of a supposed 
 conversation, the selection is called a Monologue (Per- 
 sonated Monologue, Character Monologue or Reading 
 Monologue according to the author's purpose) ; if di- 
 rect address in which a comedy or eccentric speaker 
 is represented as talking directly to a supposed 
 audience, it is an Eccentric Address (a normal charac- 
 ter speaking would classify the piece under Declama- 
 tion which really belongs in the field of oratory rather 
 than in reading) ; if the composition comprises a 
 series of eccentric addresses or single uninterrupted 
 speeches, connected by explanatory matter into one 
 theme, the selection is a Character Series. 
 
 The aforementioned three forms of literary com- 
 position are the only forms that may be given consist- 
 ently through personating, and then only when the 
 author's purpose denotes literal action as the predom- 
 
 '''See Appendix for specific definition. 
 
READING 99 
 
 Inating requirement. The other four forms are the 
 forms best adapted to iiitpcrsouatn-c reading or pure 
 reading and may be found in either the first or third 
 person. If the composition is descriptive dialogue 
 (narration containing conversations interwoven with 
 descriptive phrases or paragraphs of pure narration) 
 the selection is either a Character Narrative or a Nar- 
 rative Reading according to the author's purpose; if 
 the composition is pure narration or pure description, 
 it is respectively Narrative Reading or Descriptive 
 Reading, If the composition is in any of the forego- 
 ing forms, but is idealistic and universal in its appeal, 
 representing a universal mood rather than the mood 
 of any particular individual, it is lyric and is called a 
 Lyric Reading. 
 
 Besides the seven forms of composition suitable to 
 the reader, we have already mentioned the pure dia- 
 logue form existent only in plays for acting. This 
 form, however, may be changed to descriptive dia- 
 logue for the reader and the selection is then called a 
 Character Play or a Reading Play according to the 
 author's purpose. 
 
 (^.) Method of Classifying a Selection Quickly. 
 When the reader examines a selection with a view to 
 presentation, he may proceed logically in the following 
 manner : Let us suppose that the selection is a scene 
 from Julius Cccsar. Since the form is pure dialogue, 
 we see at once the author's original purpose was to 
 present it through acting, with scenes and all accesso- 
 ries. The reader, recognizing his limitations, will dis- 
 regard the author's purpose and see for himself what 
 
lOO DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 the next important factors are. Since more than one 
 character is represented in speech, the reader will see 
 that he can not consistently give the selection through 
 personating, so he next asks himself whether the chief 
 characters are sufficiently eccentric to warrant im- 
 personative reading. Obviously Csesar, Brutus, An- 
 tony, Cassius, etc., are normal characters, so the 
 reader decides that after changing the pure dialogue 
 to present tense, descriptive dialogue, he will present 
 the play through pure reading. 
 
 Let us take another example — an arrangement from 
 Hamlet giving merely the meditation speech of Ham- 
 let. The form of composition is soliloquy. Since the 
 arrangement is originally from a pure dialogue to be 
 acted, the reader might be tempted to become the actor 
 for the time and present the selection in a complete 
 setting. There would be nothing inconsistent in this 
 at all. However, in studying the selection further, the 
 reader realizes that in this particular excerpt from the 
 play, nothing but Hamlet's great mood is actually 
 necessary, so he decides to present it through pure 
 reading. 
 
 One more example may be helpful. The selection 
 is Mark Twain's Our Guides. The form of composi- 
 tion is descriptive dialogue in narration and is written 
 in the first person. Since it is in first person, the 
 reader's first thought is that it may be implied dia- 
 logue or direct address. Reading further, however, 
 lie sees that the narrator is not important in a present 
 tense situation or as an eccentric character telling a 
 tale, neither is literal action called for, so the reader 
 
reading; :oi 
 
 decides that personating" will not be necessary. In tlie 
 narration there appear two eccentric characters in 
 conversation and since the narrator himself is so unim- 
 portant that the tale could as well be told in the third 
 person, the selection is immediately classed as a Char- 
 acter Narrative and should be given through iiupcr- 
 sonatirc reading.'^ 
 
 General Limitations in Attitude and in Sex. — 
 (i.) Bearing in Reading (Pure or luipersonative) 
 Compared to Bearing in Personating. The reader 
 while personating is not so severely limited in his bear- 
 ing as he is in reading. He may walk about the plat- 
 form assuming literally the gait of the character 
 represented ; he may sit, rise, kneel, fall, jump, skip 
 or dance ; he may do all the literal and realistic action 
 that an actor would accomplish except to turn his back 
 completely on his audience or to lie down upon the 
 platform. These latter movements are never required 
 of personating, for personating is a shade more imag- 
 inative than acting and requires the constant command 
 of the speaker over the audience, an accomplishment 
 which would be jeopardized w^ere he to turn his back 
 completely or were he to come so far off his dignity 
 as to lie down on the floor — or even on a settee if such 
 a piece of furniture were permitted. The actor is not 
 so limited because the scenery surroundings and the 
 
 *See Diagram A in the Introduction, and beginning at the 
 left, read toward the right, applying the test to each division, 
 eliminating in order the ke3--notes, literal action, and eccentric 
 or comedy characterization, until mood is reached, or stop- 
 ping at the division whose key-note can not be eliminated. 
 
io,2 Di^AMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 other characters present may command the attention 
 of the audience. The dignity of the actor himself is 
 never considered apart from the character he repre- 
 sents, while the reader, even in personating is never 
 wholly separated from his own personality and dignity 
 as a reader. 
 
 The reader while reading, either impersonativcly or 
 purely, is limited in bearing to a standing position fac- 
 ing the audience. All action in regard to carriage and 
 poise is mere suggestion except the actual standing. 
 He never walks but may suggest the initial movement 
 by a mere step or motion of the foot in an oblique 
 forward direction. To suggest a seated position, he 
 merely places the weight on the back foot and appears 
 relaxed. The suggestion of opposition in speech — or 
 two people facing each other in a conversation — is 
 indicated by the slight turn of the body to the right or 
 left of center (never a wide angle) as each character 
 alternately speaks. When the reader gives explanatory 
 matter to the audience his position is squarely facing 
 them as in direct address, while his eyes pass from 
 individual to individual as he talks. When a character 
 is supposed to speak, his eyes do not see the audience 
 but focus slightly to one side of the center as if look- 
 ing at the other character. 
 
 Much could be said about the angles maintained by 
 a reader in suggesting the position of several charac- 
 ters in a narrative or play, but such matters can best 
 be left to the discretion and good taste of a competent 
 teacher. It may be sufficient to say that the reader 
 should never turn squarely to the left and then 
 
READING 103 
 
 squarely to the right (presenting a profile view to the 
 audience) while indicating two characters in conversa- 
 tion. It is enough to suggest their opposition by a 
 slight turn of the head and trunk. Often, if merely 
 the head and not the trunk turns, the reader uncon- 
 sciously gives to the character a suggestion of deceit 
 or indifference, as one who talks over his shoulder. 
 To suggest the position of two people in a car seat or 
 in a carriage conversing, the head and not the trunk 
 will turn to indicate actual talking over the shoulder. 
 In this situation the angle, of course, will be wide. 
 To suggest one speaking from a reclining position, the 
 only indication required is weight on the back leg, 
 head raised rather high and turned slightly to one side. 
 For the reader in impersonative reading or pure read- 
 ing it is never necessary to do more than indicate by 
 the slightest bodily suggestion, the position and rela- 
 tion of characters in conversation. 
 (2. J Sex Limitation in Personating and Reading. 
 Obviously the actor must be of the same sex as the 
 part he is playing unless he is playing a comedy role 
 or is so able to disguise himself in make-up and voice 
 that the audience does not know the difference. 
 
 In personating, however, the reader may be of either 
 sex in any kind of a personation uidcss the literal 
 action of a supposed male character is such that a lady 
 could not accomplish without vulgarity. A male 
 reader may personate either sex, but a lady is some- 
 times limited in personating a man. For example, 
 there are selections representing a drunken man which 
 a man may personate without offending the good 
 
104 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 taste of any one, but which if literally personated by 
 a woman would be coarse and undesirable. There is 
 rarely any action of the most eccentric woman, how- 
 ever, that, if proper at all, could not be given by a 
 man impersonator. 
 
 In impersonative reading or pure reading, the 
 reader is not limited by sex at all. Since suggestion 
 is the fundamental requisite of reading, all that is 
 necessary to be suggested can be done by either sex 
 without a thought being given to the reader himself. 
 
 It is good to remember that the reader in reading is 
 always himself; that the reader in personating is him- 
 self in the background but some one else in the fore- 
 ground, and that the actor is always some one else. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PERSONATING 
 
 Definition Elaborated. — Personating is the most 
 literal and least suggestive form of reading. It means 
 first, literal action without the aid of costume, make- 
 up, properties, scenery or stage accessories of any 
 kind, and second, it means literal characterization in 
 voluntary voice changes when necessary. When per- 
 sonating the reader may walk about the platform, as- 
 suming the gait and movements or the poise of the 
 character to be represented ; he may complete every 
 movement in handling or indicating imagined objects 
 mentioned or obviously connected with the selection. 
 One definite thing to be remembered about the art of 
 personating is that it luust never he employed when 
 rapid change of characterisation is necessary, as in 
 conversation among two or more speaking characters. 
 Only when one character is assumed without interrup- 
 tion through a long speech, whether in soliloquy, im- 
 plied dialogue or direct address, is^JBeri9IL^i[l£. 
 feasible, 
 
 Type of Selection for Personating. — The general 
 t}pe of selection for the art of personating may be 
 called. The Personation, which may be recognized in 
 the following literary forms: soliloquy, implied dia- 
 logue and direct address. It is to be understood, how- 
 
 105 
 
io6 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 ever, that although the selection may be in one of these 
 literary forms, it need not be considered as a persona- 
 tion unless, according to the author's purpose, literal 
 action is primarily essential for adequate presentation. 
 Characterization and mood must be secondary. 
 
 The first form of the personation which enables the 
 reader to be nearest like the actor is the Personated 
 Soliloquy, which Indeed differs from the Acting Solil- 
 oquy only in the fact that it does not require as essen- 
 tial, scenery, properties and stage effects. The reader 
 represents a certain person, normal or eccentric, en- 
 gaged in some particular action while meditating on 
 some subject more or less Intimately connected with 
 what he is at the moment doing. A splendid example 
 of the Personated Soliloquy is recognized in The Irish 
 Girl and the Telephone, by Bailey and Schell."^ Here 
 is represented an Irish servant girl who has never 
 seen a telephone. She is discovered talking to herself 
 while sweeping or dusting the room. Her meditation 
 concerns the telephone which she calls the "little 
 box." As she is meditating, suddenly by her action 
 and speech, the audience is made to realize that the 
 'phone has rung. Then follows her conversation over 
 the 'phone and her meditation on the things she hears. 
 The reader in examining the selection sees that the 
 predominating feature is literal action. He has noted 
 that the business does not actually require the scene 
 nor the real telephone, broom, chair, table, etc., but 
 that the situation does require moving about and ob- 
 
 *Werner's Readings, No. 38. 
 
READING 107 
 
 jective gesture in liandling the iiiiaginarv telephone 
 receiver in order to give the complete comedy effect. 
 If the entertainer is a woman, and she cares to have 
 the costume with the stage scenery and all the proper- 
 ties, she becomes an actress for the time being and is 
 then acting in soliloquy. Careful study of the selec- 
 tion will reveal, however, that none of the accessories 
 is necessary, so the piece may be presented through 
 personating. This particular selection coitid be given 
 through impersonative reading, making the Irish char- 
 acterization the primary essential and eliminating lit- 
 eral action, but the selection would lose much of the 
 effect intended by its author. 
 
 Another example of the Personated Soliloquy is 
 1)1 the Pantry, by Mabel Dixon.* The character rep- 
 resented is a little boy meditating on the advisability 
 of disobeying his mother and eating the mince pie that 
 his mother has left temptingly on the pantry shelf. 
 After considerable wrestling w-ith his conscience, he 
 reaches up, takes down the pie and eats it. The literal 
 action in standing on tiptoe and walking about to view 
 the pie from different angles and the final pantomime 
 of reaching for the pie and eating it add so much to the 
 situation that the reader decides to personate rather 
 than merely to characterize the boy in his child speech 
 and suggest the action through impersonative reading. 
 It is funny if given as a Character Soliloquy, but it is 
 funnier when given as a Personated Soliloquy. 
 
 The second form of the personation is The Mon- 
 
 Anna Morgan's Selections. A. C. McClurg & Co. 
 
io8 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 olqguc. It is written in implied dialogue and always 
 represents a single character in supposed conversation 
 with others while accomplishing literal action neces- 
 sary to the piece. Sometimes these monologues are 
 misnamed Acting Monologues and are given in cos- 
 tume and with properties. Some even go so far as to 
 set a complete scene with stage furniture appropriate. 
 Such a performance is inconsistent and absurd, for 
 if the audience is not stimulated to imagine the scene 
 and properties, why should it be required to imagine 
 the other persons supposed to be in the conversation? 
 This might not be such a serious mistake were it not 
 for the fact that such attempts to create so much 
 realism result in situations impossible for one enter- 
 tainer to present Vv'ithout confusing the audience as 
 to the intention of the speaker. For example, let us 
 take At the Matinee, by Marjory Benton Cooke.* A 
 young, frivolous girl enters the theater and looks 
 around for her friend who has arrived earlier. She 
 soon sees her friend, and stepping over the knees and 
 feet of several people, supposed to be in the same row 
 of seats with the friend, she finally seats herself. In 
 the implied dialogue that follows, the speaker removes 
 her hat and pins it to the back of the man who is 
 supposed to sit directly in front of her. Now if the 
 entertainer should use a real hat and attempt to pin 
 it on the imaginary man in front of her, the hat 
 would fall to the floor and the audience would lose 
 the idea. If, however, the hat removing process is 
 
 "^Monologues, by Marjory Benton Cooke. 
 
READING 109 
 
 done in pantomime with an imaginary hat and pins, 
 the audience is uninterrupted in its imagination of tlie 
 articles and unconsciously follows the speaker's move- 
 ments throughout, accepting the suggestions without 
 question. When the candy boy is supposed to sell 
 the young woman the box of chocolates, it becomes 
 impossible for an imaginary boy to deliver a real 
 candy box without employing legerdemain, so here 
 the reader finds it necessary to pantomime the im- 
 aginary box. A real box, even if it were possible to 
 produce it out of the air, would be in the way and 
 become confusing to the audience when other imagi- 
 nary articles are suggested. Consistency demands that 
 all or none of the properties be imaginary, so in the 
 case of the hat, candy-box, opera glasses and money, 
 and the supposed patrons of the theater, the audience 
 accepts all without question. This selection zvould fail 
 utterly if given by any other method tJian by person- 
 ating. Literal action is all important. There is no 
 particular eccentric characterization or mood changes 
 that are not connected with necessary action, so if 
 given through impersonative reading, the selection 
 would fail to express the author's purpose. Obviously 
 the selection could not be given through acting, for it 
 would be impossible to get all the scenery and prop- 
 erties necessary without also having an audience of 
 real i')eople on the stage and without changing the 
 implied dialogue to pure dialogue in substituting the 
 other parts. Any attempt to offer the piece through 
 acting would be ridiculous, for the sul)joct-niatter is 
 so unimportant that the expense of staging it would 
 
no DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 be unwarranted. Personating is the only form of 
 presentation for this monologue. 
 
 The third form of the personation is The Eccentric 
 Address which represents a comedy orator in direct 
 address to a supposed audience, the regular audience 
 being the one actually addressed. In this type of the 
 personation, the eccentric character burlesques real 
 oratory and creates comedy situations by his greatly 
 overdone action and gesticulation. He is privileged 
 to walk about, or pound an imaginary pulpit, read an 
 imaginary Bible or use any literal movement of head, 
 hands, arms or legs in order to give a complete 
 comedy characterization in overdrawn oratory. This 
 type may be presented through all forms of delivery, 
 but is best given through personating. When the 
 speaker does not choose to employ literal action be- 
 yond facial expression in connection with vocal char- 
 acterization, he may do so, but since in any burlesque 
 oratory the speaker is not limited, we make no special 
 classification for it when presented through imper- 
 sonative or pure reading. When direct address is 
 given seriously it can not be considered as belonging 
 to the reader's art at all. It belongs to the art of the 
 Public Speaker, or Orator. 
 
 An excellent example of the Eccentric Address is 
 The Ship of Faith,'^ a colored dialect sermon. The 
 old colored preacher is exhorting his hearers to "get 
 on boahd de ship ob faith," and his actions should be 
 represented as typical of the race. The more literally 
 
 *Found in Clark's Handbook of Best Readings. Scribner's. 
 
READING III 
 
 he marches back and forth and shakes his head, the 
 more realistic will be the impressioti. The humor of 
 the selection is greatly enhanced by characterization 
 and the action is burlesque oratory. To put on a 
 prince albert coat, wear spectacles and use a real 
 pulpit and book would be inconsistent unless the enter- 
 tainer also blackened his face and "made up" for the 
 part as an actor. 
 
 The Character Series is considered the fourth form 
 of the personation and is really the point in the classi- 
 fication where personating and impersonative reading 
 may be used with equal effect. It is a composition 
 written expressly to exploit several eccentric charac- 
 ters in comedy addresses or anecdotes. Each character's 
 speech is a complete address and is not interrupted 
 by conversation. Explanatory matter is introduced 
 between each address, by the reader, and each 
 successive speaker is assumed in a comedy speech 
 independent of the others, so there is opportunity to 
 make formal transition which is not possible in a quick 
 interchange of speeches such as occur in regular nar- 
 ration with descriptive dialogue. The Character 
 Series, then, is to be considered merely as a succession 
 of eccentric addresses connected by explanatory ma- 
 terial into one complete theme. TJic Debating Society, 
 by E. J. Hall,* is a good example of this type. A 
 number of eccentric characters are engaged in "de- 
 batin' " on the question of ''suppressin' th' press," and 
 the selection offers opportunity for several t\'pes of 
 
 Found in One Hundred Choice Selections. No. 28. 
 
112 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 comedy characters to be literally personated. Here 
 literal action is about equally important with charac- 
 terization, as much of the humor lies in the peculiar 
 movements of several of the debaters in speaking. 
 The selection, of course, may be given through imper- 
 sonative reading as well as through personating. 
 It is for this reason that the Character Series is some- 
 times called the "common ground" for these two types 
 of delivery. 
 
 Vocal Features of Personating.''' — (i.) Voluntary 
 Adaptation of Voice to Characterization. In assum- 
 ing the vocal peculiarities of characters, the reader 
 must be somewhat naturally endowed with imitative 
 ability, for voluntary vocal change requires conscious 
 imitation. There are five general ways in which the 
 voice may be changed for personation, 
 (a.) Conscious Change in the Four Elements: 
 Quality, Force, Pitch, Time. Every true teacher 
 of public speech is familiar with the four elements of 
 vocal expression, and it is assumed that the student 
 who is prepared for professional work in the art of 
 public reading is already sufficiently acquainted with 
 the use of quality, force, pitch and time to make un- 
 necessary any further explanation regarding their 
 fundamental attributes. It is well, however, to offer 
 an explanation of how these elements may be con- 
 sciously expressed for the purpose of personating. 
 
 In order to do more than express the mood of 
 curious or eccentric comedy characters it is necessary 
 
 *See Diagram C, in the hitroduction. 
 
READING 113 
 
 to make some conscious changes in the voice using 
 various combinations of the four elements. If mood 
 alone were all that distinguishes abnormal characters 
 from normal individuals there would be no need for 
 these paragraphs on conscious vocal change. An 
 expression of different moods will result in uncon- 
 scious changes, for nature does not require us to think 
 about the various means of indicating thoughts and 
 feelings before expressing them. In imitation of the 
 physical as well as the mental difference in people, 
 however, a certain kinesthetic power of mental imagery 
 is necessary, and a development of this power requires 
 diligent observation together with countless attempts 
 to transfer (or perhaps translate is the better word) 
 our auditory imagery into a form of motor imagery. 
 To imitate the voice of the child or an old person 
 requires a little attention to quality and pitch in order 
 to get the thin breathy note of the child or the slightly 
 guttural tone of a querulous old man. By observing 
 the difference in quality between the voice of a little 
 girl and that of a little boy, a keen imitator may so 
 reproduce the tone that an audience will know instinc- 
 tively which sex is being represented. In personating 
 the voice of a man or a woman, a difference in the 
 abruptness of force, the depths of quality and the 
 intermingling of breathiness in the vocalization, will 
 leave no doubt in the mind of the audience as to which 
 sex is being personated. 
 
 Besides the characteristics of age and sex, the 
 physical condition of a character results in a peculiar- 
 ity of quality, an eccentric turn or mannerism of pitch, 
 
114 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 or an unusual application of force and time. A per- 
 son with a cold in the head, a sore throat, a ''cracked" 
 or *1iusky" voice or a cleft palate must be consciously 
 imitated. I^>Iere expression of mood will not do. It 
 may reflect the mental condition of one who is sick 
 or languid, or lazy, but a conscious imitation of the 
 tone quality, the time of utterance or the force in its 
 different degrees and manner of application will better 
 present the physical disability. Vocal peculiarities of 
 inarticulate sounds, such as swallowing, hiccoughing, 
 sneezing, coughing, clearing of the throat, drawling 
 or hesitating are effected through the conscious appli- 
 cation of the four elements in various degrees and 
 combinations. The expression of some mental condi- 
 tions requires more than mere mood indication in an 
 attempt at literal characterization. The voice of an 
 idiot, of an inebriate, of an insane person or of a 
 stupid person will require for complete characteriza- 
 tion the imitation of the voice by means of the ele- 
 ments in conscious adaptation. Of course, it should 
 be understood from the first that all this conscious 
 imitation will not be effective if mood and atmosphere 
 are not also understood and expressed. Quality, 
 force, pitch and time are ever present in all speech 
 whether unconsciously or consciously used. They can 
 be recognized in connection with all other forms of 
 vocal imitation and are inseparable from them, but 
 in personating and in impersonative reading, where 
 so much literal characterization is required, these 
 elements serve a double purpose in the unlimited 
 conscious use which may be made of them. 
 
READING 115 
 
 (b.) Conscious Imitation of Speech Mechanics 
 IN Producing Dialects. By the term "dialect" we 
 mean the speech of foreigners who are attempting 
 American or EngHsh speech. This term does not 
 include localisms or provincial peculiarities of speech. 
 A dialect is a recently acquired language imperfectly 
 articulated, misaccented and mispronounced, and 
 highly colored by traces of the native atmosphere and 
 habits of speech. A true dialect can not be written — 
 it can only be suggested by following as closely as 
 possible a spelling which will indicate in a measure the 
 variation of a word from its correct English form, 
 but the most important feature of a dialect, the pecu- 
 liar national atmosphere of a people can not be repre- 
 sented in print. The only w^ay to personate a dialect 
 is to study everything about the people who use it and 
 gradually to absorb the peculiarities of enunciation 
 and pronunciation along zuifh the unusual mood of the 
 people and the atmosphere of their daily life. It is 
 ridiculous for a student to imagine he can personate 
 a dialect by merely pronouncing the words as he 
 finds them in the book of selections. One who has 
 never lived among the Scotch or Welsh or Irish people 
 should never hope to reproduce their dialect until he 
 has at least had an opportunity to study one who 
 s])eaks the dialect naturally. Most people who at- 
 tempt dialect merely give an exhibition of miserably 
 pronounced English. No teacher can teach a dialect. 
 He may be able to correct little faults in the speech 
 mechanics of one who has already studied and ab- 
 sorbed the atmosphere of a certain dialect, but he 
 
ii6 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 should never attempt to teach it until the student has 
 had first-hand study in the national traits and the 
 actual speech of foreigners who have learned to speak 
 English. After one has studied the people he wishes to 
 imitate, a great deal of help may be gained from a 
 knowledge of speech mechanics and the w^ay different 
 nations vary in their combination of English diph- 
 thongs, simple vowels and consonants, but it must be 
 remembered that these variations are secondary. 
 
 Let us take for example the first person, singular 
 pronoun "I" as represented in print for the Irishman's 
 pronunciation of it, namely, **Oi." To pronounce as 
 the English diphthong ''oi' does not give the Irish 
 dialect at all. As a matter of fact the variation from 
 the English pronunciation is Tcry slight and is not 
 caused by a change in the initial vowel of the diph- 
 thong, but rather by a difference in the use of the 
 tongue in articulating the initial broad "a." This 
 can not be arrived at mechanically with any degree of 
 consistency until the ear of the imitator has carefully 
 registered the sound as it has heard frequent conver- 
 sations in the dialect and observed the little distinc- 
 tions of accent, quality, variations of pitch, and the 
 general atmosphere which gives rise to idiomatic ex- 
 pressions. Dialect personations should be attempted 
 only by those who know the life of the people they 
 are imitating. Many excellent imitators are able to 
 "get by" with a dialect from mere imitation of vaude- 
 ville performers or readers w^ho themselves have 
 been able to reproduce the real dialect, but the safest 
 way is to make a study of the people to be imitated. 
 
READING 117 
 
 After having lived in Xew York for a time, the 
 imitative person may acquire a fairly accurate repre- 
 sentation of the New York Jew. To live among the 
 Pennsylvania Dutch is the only way to acquire their 
 dialect. A few of the dialects which it is possible to 
 study in America are: the Scotch, the Irish, the 
 German, the Dutch, the French, the Italian, the Swede, 
 the Chinese, the Japanese, the Russian Jew, the Ger- 
 man Jew, the Polish, the French Canadian and the 
 American Indian. Of course it is possible to study 
 every dialect in the world for a very superficial imita- 
 tion of them but most of the dialects not mentioned 
 above are so infrequently found in the United States 
 that a real atmospheric study of them would be diffi- 
 cult. Only those nationalities which are so numerous 
 in America that they settle in colonies are capable of 
 thorough study. Even settlement study is never as 
 satisfactory as the study of people in their own native 
 land. Their customs and habits of living together 
 and their individual traits of character afford many 
 hints to the personator who would reproduce these 
 same traits in a broken tongue. Just as one who lives 
 in France two or three years will be better able to 
 speak and understand the French language than the 
 student who learns to speak it by studxing a book in 
 school, so the reader of dialect can do his best work 
 if he studies his people in their native environment, 
 (c.) Conscious Lmitatiox of Local and Pro- 
 vincial Speech. What has been said about dialects 
 applies largely to local or provincial speech. One 
 should never depend on the representation in print. 
 
ii8 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 The study should be at first-hand, although there is 
 not so great a distinction in atmosphere as among the 
 dialects, since American ideas and emotions are much 
 the same everywhere in America, but there are subtler 
 variations which the true artist will not disregard. 
 Many forms of local or provincial speech are mis- 
 named "dialects." The speech of the southerner and 
 the negro are not dialects ; they are provincial speech, 
 or sectional variations of American speech just as 
 American speech in reality is a colonial variation of 
 the English speech. The reader of dialect very often 
 finds occasion to imitate the speech peculiarities of 
 the South, the Southwest, the Middle West, the East 
 and of the rural and urban variety of these different 
 sections in the United States. The speech of New 
 York is different from that of Boston; the speech of 
 the southern planter is different from that of the 
 northern farmer, and the speech of the western 
 rancher has its own peculiarities which differ from 
 any of the others. A study of sectional speech reveals 
 the fact that the variation is mostly in speech me- 
 chanics and in the use of the four elements. Pronun- 
 ciation and idiomatic phrases are the principal 
 distinguishing marks. For example the Boston repre- 
 sentative is very likely to say, 'T have an idear that 
 mothah deah will be theah by foah-thehty." The 
 New Yorker from Fifth Avenue would say it in about 
 the same way except that he would not put the final 
 "r" on "idea." The East Side urchin would pronounce 
 the last word, "fo-thuety." In "Nawth Cala-ina" we 
 should hear, "foh-thutty." In Indiana it would be 
 
READING 119 
 
 "foer-r thlr-rty," and so on. In Indiana alone there 
 are six different varieties of speech which may be 
 illustrated by the six ways of pronouncing the one 
 word "going." They are: "going," "gone," "gow- 
 an," "go-in," "gwlne" and "gwan." These are called 
 "localisms." 
 
 The observant reader as he travels about will orient 
 himself to the different customs of the people and 
 will instinctively develop an imitation of them. 
 Further study of the causes of these variations will 
 establish certain marked differences that may be used 
 to great advantage in personating. 
 
 For a comparison of provincial speech with dia- 
 lects, let us return for a moment to their consideration. 
 Side by side with the differences in the use of speech 
 mechanics, exists the differences in the use of the ele- 
 ments, especially quality and pitch. For example, in 
 France the predominating voice quality is slightly 
 nasal, while in Germany it is decidedly guttural. The 
 difference is due, of course, to the predominating 
 sounds of each language which influence the habitual 
 placement of tone. Greater differences occur in the 
 use of pitch than in quality. For instance, the Irish- 
 man habitually asks his direct questions with a down- 
 ward inflection, as if declaring them, while the Eng- 
 lishman has the habit of giving the upward slide to 
 assertions as well as to all questions. The Chinese 
 use of pitch is entirely different from the European or 
 American use in that tlie same words may have dif- 
 ferent denotation when placed in a different key. 
 Consequently, in reproducing a dialect one should be 
 
I20 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 familiar with the native use of the language and 
 observe how the transition to a new language will 
 affect the resulting dialect. Dialects are, therefore, 
 much more difficult to acquire than local or provincial 
 speech, and the student should make his effort in 
 personating apply to his own national peculiarities 
 before taking up the peculiarities of other nations, 
 (d.) Conscious Imitation of Speech Defects. 
 One of the most popular forms of imitation used for 
 personating is the imitation of speech defects, such as 
 stuttering, stammering, faulty articulation (including 
 the use of "1" for ''r" and lisping, the cause of which 
 is a misarticulation in the formation of "s"), and the 
 speech of the hare-lip, or one who has a cleft palate. 
 To imitate speech defect is not so easy as it looks. 
 Many readers attempt it and fondly imagine that they 
 are succeeding when in reality they are overdoing and 
 burlesquing the defect. The mere repetition of an 
 initial letter sixteen or twenty times, or the repetition 
 of syllables in any word that happens to occur is not 
 at all like stuttering. The audience may laugh at the 
 effect it produces but soon tires of it and is no longer 
 amused. There are several reasons for stuttering and 
 when the reader learns the real causes of this form 
 of speech defect, he can reproduce it with a natural- 
 ness that will not grow tiresome or cause the other 
 important feature of presentation to be lost sight of. 
 
 Again as in the reproduction of dialect or provincial 
 speech the teacher can be of use only in explaining 
 causes and illustrating forms of articulation. The 
 student himself must observe closely the accompany- 
 
READING 121 
 
 ing of actions, manners and customs of those who use 
 eccentric forms of speech. Then the teacher, if he 
 understands it himself, can give valuahle hints and 
 suggestions in further perfecting the representation, 
 (e.) Song Imitation. If a reader is not musical it 
 is best that he refrain entirely from imitating singing, 
 but if he has a good "ear" for music with a proper 
 sense of rhythm and time, there are occasions where 
 the literal imitations of the singer add to the humor 
 or comedy of the situation. A reader should not 
 attempt literal singing in the presentation of serious 
 matter. In almost every case the voice in song unac- 
 companied by a musical instrument has a peculiar dis- 
 quieting effect upon an audience, and instead of the 
 serious impression intended it often produces the 
 opposite effect. Imitation of song is dependent upon 
 fixed quality and pitch variation, and may, of course, 
 for comedy purposes include all that has been said 
 about dialect and speech defects. 
 
 (2.) Inz'ohintary Change of Voice Expressing the 
 Varying Moods. It has already been stated that mood 
 changes underlie all presentation, and are a factor 
 of expression in every form of characterization. In 
 personating, however, just as in acting, mood repre- 
 sentation is not sufficient to produce the realistic per- 
 formance intended, so literal or voluntary changes are 
 added to give the realistic touch. Running through- 
 out the speech of the character thus realistically per- 
 sonated, are the changing moods which involuntarily 
 color the voice and modulate the melody, but whicli 
 never overshadow the peculiar or fixed vocal char- 
 
122 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 acteristic assumed in the beginning of the charac- 
 terization. For instance, in The Ship of Faith, a 
 personation of a colored preacher, all the changing 
 moods may be expressed while still keeping the pe- 
 culiar qualities and provincial speech of the negro. 
 These vocal changes due to mood are unconscious and 
 are the result of natural laws. When the public 
 reader wishes to express love, hate, anger, deceit, 
 melancholy, sorrow, joy, etc., his voice unconsciously 
 responds with the proper quality, force, pitch and 
 time, to give emphasis and variety to his thoughts and 
 feelings. The term Public Reader is used to distin- 
 guish from the beginner, or the silent reader who has 
 not been used to audience conditions and can not yet 
 express even moods unconsciously. Let it be said 
 again that in all this discussion of personating and 
 in the discussion of reading which is to come after- 
 ward, the preliminary study of elocution and simple 
 reading is presupposed. 
 
 Actional Features of Personating.* — (i.) Literal- 
 ness in All Action. In speaking of literal action we 
 mean all action including all forms of hearing and of 
 pantomime. When literal pantomime is mentioned it 
 refers merely to literal gesture of the head, hands and 
 limbs, and to literal facial expression, but does not 
 include bearing. When literal facial expression is 
 referred to, it does not include gesture. On the other 
 hand literal gesture excludes facial expression. Bear- 
 ing is either literal in both poise and carriage, or it 
 
 *See Diagram C, in the Introduction. 
 
READING 123 
 
 is suggestive. Later we shall find that in inipcrsona- 
 tive reading we may use literal facial expression, but 
 suij^gcsthr gesture and bearing, while in pure reading 
 we arc limited to all suggestive action. In personat- 
 ing, however, we may use literalness in all action. 
 In bearing w^e pay especial attention to any eccentricity 
 of carriage including the gait, or walk of the char- 
 acter, the peculiarities of reciprocal movements and 
 the oddities in other movements, such as sitting, ris- 
 ing, falling, or the nervous movements of one who 
 has rickets. Saint \'itus Dance, etc. There are pe- 
 culiarities of poise also which must be taken into con- 
 sideration for the complete action necessary in per- 
 sonating. The standing or sitting posture offers many 
 opportunities for personating which a student may 
 readily observe and imitate. Here again as in vocal 
 reproduction, observation and imitation are the only 
 ways to accomplish true characterization. 
 
 In pantomime (action of the head, hands and limbs 
 and of facial expression) w^e have the most frequent 
 literal use. In the great mass of material suited to 
 the reader, there is very little which actually requires 
 complete reproduction of carriage, but in pantomime 
 there is constant need of it. The movements of the 
 hands, first subjectively in indicating a peculiar mood, 
 second, indicatively in pointing out objects and in 
 indicating size, distance, measurements, etc.. third, 
 in peculiarities of movements, such as the trembling 
 or nervous hand and the motions due to diseased 
 conditions in Saint \'itus Dance, rickets, palsy, im- 
 becilitv. insanitv, and drunkenness, and fourth, the 
 
124 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 handling of imaginery objects in which the hands 
 describe the same movements that would be made if 
 the real objects were there — all these motions find a 
 place in making the action real while leaving the sur- 
 roundings to the imagination of the audience. Facial 
 expression, of course, must be consistent with the 
 other indications of peculiarity whether it be merely 
 the unconscious reflexion of mood or the conscious 
 assuming of a peculiarity of feature, such as a protrud- 
 ing lip, a closed eye, a wrinkled forehead, a twist to 
 the mouth or an extended jaw. There are certain re- 
 curring mannerisms — a blinking eye, a moving scalp, 
 a wrinkling nose, or nervous movements of the lips 
 and the tongue, and there are natural movements in 
 biting, chewing and pursing the lips, which are never 
 necessary except in personating, where detailed action 
 is essential to the humor of the selection. 
 (2.) Technique of Action in Personating. The en- 
 tire body must be consistent in its movements in 
 reflecting the word of the character, which, of course, 
 is the greatest factor in any characterization. If the 
 face reflects fear, the entire body must become con- 
 centric in attitude, and show in every line of position 
 the natural bodily response to the emotion. For the 
 body to be erect, or at ease while the face mechanically 
 distorts in fear, the effect is comic, or at least is not 
 realistic enough to be convincing. Since in person- 
 ating, realistic action is the primary requisite, it must 
 be complete in every detail. 
 
 The most prominent feature of action in personating 
 is literal objective gesture. In handling imaginary 
 
READING T25 
 
 objects, the fingers and palm must be careful to keep 
 consistent with the shape of the object suggested. For 
 example, let us imagine a character reading a letter 
 which on the first page gives encouragement to him. 
 but on the back of the page says something that 
 plunges him into despair. The action while reading 
 the letter is important, so care must be taken to hold 
 the imaginary letter as one would hold a real letter 
 and not merely spread out the hand flat. The thumb 
 and finger of one hand will naturally be in opposition 
 at the upper corner of the supposed page. While 
 the other hand will be the width of the page distant 
 and about the length of the page lower down. The 
 eyes of the reader will focus between the hands. 
 When the page is turned, the movement of the hand 
 should correspond. The student in preparing the 
 selection should use a real letter until he becomes 
 accustomed to the "feel" of his movements and then 
 he will find it easy to make the audience see in im- 
 agination the paper which is not there. 
 
 Whenever literal objective gesture is attempted, 
 care must be taken to give the action of replacing the 
 objects assumed to be handled before taking up others. 
 For instance, let us suppose the reader is personating 
 an old woman at a quilting party. She is engaged in 
 cutting squares of cloth and sewing them on the patch 
 quilt while gossiping with the others supposed to be 
 l)resent. From time to time she picks up the im- 
 aginary shears, cuts or trims the edge of a square, 
 replaces the shears, takes uj) her needle and sews 
 again. The failure to replace the shears mii^Jit not 
 
126 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 be noticed by the audience, but it is likely to be, es- 
 pecially if the reader in the act of cutting forgets, 
 and abruptly starts the sewing process. Perhaps the 
 failure to replace a supposed article can be illustrated 
 best in the Monologue, *'At the Matinee/' This 
 monologue has no merit except as a piece of comedy 
 action and if the action has any merit at all it must 
 be in its exactness and detail. In this selection the 
 young woman takes off her hat, first removing nu- 
 merous hatpins which she holds in her mouth. When 
 the hat is off she puts the pins back in the hat and 
 fastens it to the seat in front of her. One young 
 woman while working on this selection spoke her 
 lines at that point in the piece as if the pins were in 
 her mouth, but presently forgetting the pins, she 
 opened her mouth and laughed heartily after which 
 she resumed her speech, mumbling the words as if 
 the pins were still in her mouth. Soon without the 
 pantomime of removing the pins she began eating the 
 imaginary chocolates. Her instructor told her that 
 the audience would be concerned lest she had swal- 
 lowed the hatpins if she should forget to replace them 
 in the hat. As a matter of fact probably nine out of 
 every ten would not notice just what was wrong but 
 there would be a sort of subconscious impression that 
 something was wrong. The greatest harm done, how- 
 ever, is to the artist herself who has failed to imagine 
 completely the objects with which she has to deal. 
 Later in more suggestive work, the student may find 
 that her lack of imagining completely the essential 
 details in personating will make her careless in her 
 
READING 127 
 
 choice of details for suggestion. The matter of re- 
 placing imaginary objects always seems trivial to the 
 novice, but it is the very point on which the success 
 or failure of some bits of personating depend. In 
 inipersonative reading or pure reading, since there is 
 never a necessity for more than suggest iz'C objective 
 gesture, the replacing of the suggested object is never 
 considered. The purpose of literal objective gesture 
 is to make the audience see the object indicated by 
 the pantomime. If the pantomime is consistent the 
 purpose is always realized. 
 
 In the Monologue, the speaker must acquire a con- 
 sistent listening attitude while the imagined character 
 is supposed to be speaking. Plenty of time must be 
 given for these fancied replies, and the facial expres- 
 sion and gesture of the reader while listening must be 
 in keeping with the impression he is supposed to 
 receive. Much of what the imagined speaker is sup- 
 posed to say is understood by the audience through 
 the pantomime of the reader himself during the listen- 
 ing moments. 
 
 The reader in personating differs from the actor in 
 his attitudes and positions on the stage only in the 
 fact that he rarely turns his back on the audience. The 
 actor sharing the attention of the audience with others 
 on the stage may frequently turn his back squarely on 
 the audience and even talk up stage to another, but 
 the reader alone on the stage has at all times the en- 
 tire attention of the audience and can not afford to 
 lose it for an instant. He therefore will arrange his 
 action so that it will never be necessarv to turn com- 
 
128 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 pletely away from them. He may walk diagonally up 
 stage, be constantly moving from one side to the other, 
 but since he is a reader, not an actor, it behooves him 
 to keep facing his audience as much as possible. 
 
 The Use of a Chair and Personal Properties. — 
 By personal properties we mean the incidentals which 
 are a part of the reader's habitual wearing apparel 
 and are never transferred to or from any supposed 
 character. A woman's handkerchief, a man's watch 
 or eye-glass would be considered in the nature of a 
 personal property, whereas a letter, newspaper, book, 
 box of chocolates, hat, gloves, muff, dish of ice-cream, 
 cup of tea, or playing cards would be classed under 
 general or transferable properties. The distinction 
 is here made because there are some readers who in- 
 sist that the use of ''certain" properties are effectual 
 and not noticeably inconsistent to any audience, so we 
 have classified the "certain" properties as personal 
 properties, for it is obviously true that transferable 
 properties can not be used consistently. To be abso- 
 lutely consistent in the appeal to the imagination of 
 the audience, even personal properties should not be 
 used. When the audience understands at the begin- 
 ning of a monologue that it is to imagine the scene, 
 the furniture and the other characters, it is prepared 
 to imagine everything connected with the scene ex- 
 cept the personality and the action of the one charac- 
 ter represented. It does not require the real properties 
 to be present and in many cases it would be confused 
 if some were produced while others were left 
 to the imagination. The mind of an audience once 
 
READING 129 
 
 accustomed to real objects finds it harder to recog- 
 nize imaginary objects during the progress of the same 
 selection, for instance if a reader sits at a real table 
 with real books or real dishes, and engages in implied 
 dialogue with an imaginary companion who in the 
 course of the dialogue passes him an imaginary plate 
 of toast, the audience in nine cases out of ten will 
 fail to grasp the idea. It is inconsistent, to say the 
 least, to expect that the audience will not be able to 
 imagine the table and the other dishes as well as the 
 companion or the plate of toast. It is inconsistent, 
 therefore, to employ any transferable properties at all 
 and it is better to dispense with the personal proper- 
 ties as well, for then there is sure to be no confusion 
 on the part of the audience. 
 
 It is easier to induce an audience to imagine some- 
 thing that is not before it at all than to make it 
 "recreate" a real object and imagine it is something 
 else. For instance, if a reader in personating a wo- 
 man rubbing clothes over a washboard, goes through 
 the pantomime w^ith no articles of assistance what- 
 ever, the audience will see the picture far better than 
 if the reader used the back of a chair for a washboard 
 and a scarf or newspaper in place of the garment to 
 be washed. The existence of anything, unless it is 
 exactly the object represented, is more confusing to 
 the imagination than nothing at all. It is upon this 
 fact that the following principle is based : Unless all 
 properties and furniture can be just what is repre- 
 sented, there should be no properties or furniture em- 
 ployed. 
 
130 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 An ordinary chair should not be considered as a 
 property or special stage furniture. It is a conve- 
 nience. Just as the platform floor is convenient to 
 stand on, so is the chair convenient to sit on, but it 
 need not be a special chair fitting any particular 
 description in the monologue. It is not to be consid- 
 ered by the audience at all. In a monologue or 
 soliloquy to be personated, a chair conveniently placed 
 before the selection is begun enables the reader to 
 sit or rise and continue his literal action. Just as no 
 one ever thinks of the platform on which the speaker 
 stands, so no one ever thinks of an ordinary chair 
 on which the reader may care to sit in order to carry 
 on action representing a person who is seated. 
 
 Treatment of Personation within Personating. — 
 It very frequently happens that in a monologue the 
 speaker is supposed to be reproducing a previous con- 
 versation with some one for the benefit of his present 
 listener. There is a temptation to leave the original 
 character and assume literally the voice and action 
 of the persons quoted. The question arises then, how 
 far is this secondary personation permissible without 
 inconsistency? If the original character is obviously 
 of such a temperament that he would naturally imitate 
 the manners and voice of those he quotes, the reader 
 may go as far as he can idthout losing the identity of 
 the original character of the monologue. In most 
 cases, however, the original character would do just 
 as anybody would do in repeating a conversation ; he 
 would assume the mood and perhaps a suggestion of 
 the manner of those he quoted but he would not be 
 
READING 131 
 
 likely to imitate the voice or the facial expression. In 
 the case of a reader personating a professor of elocu- 
 tion, he would, of course, assume the characters liter- 
 ally, for it would be consistent for a professor of 
 elocution to do so. More often than not the original 
 character of a monologue is either a normal person 
 involved in a good deal of action or else a peculiar 
 individual who would not know how to give a literal 
 representation of those he quotes. It is safe to say 
 that in almost every monologue the original charac- 
 ter merely tells what the past conversation has been 
 and does not even swerve from his own mood. If 
 his mood is purely mental, he will never do more than 
 give the thought of the one quoted, but if his mood 
 is highly emotional it is likely that he will reflect 
 somewhat the mood of the one he quoted. 
 
 In Higher Culture in Dixie the old colored woman 
 is telling "Sis" Mirandy how she cured her daughter 
 of atheism, and in quoting her own words and those 
 of her daughter she unconsciously uses the mood in 
 which the past conversation was carried on, but she 
 will not lose her own voice in quoting the words of 
 her daughter. Negroes are very emotional, and the 
 old lady will live over again in suggested action part 
 of the scene, but she never will completely leave her 
 own character, nor forget her one listener, '*Sis" 
 }^Iirandy. The audience should never lose sight of the 
 old lady herself and "Sis" Mirandy, and they should 
 see the daughter only in the dim circumstances sug- 
 gested by her mother. 
 
 The position of the original speaker in a monologue 
 
132 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 remains In the attitude of spokesman to his original 
 listener. He does not in quoting turn from side to 
 side as does the reader in presenting two speaking 
 characters. Again he would do as any person in 
 real life would do. He would not be likely to employ, 
 or even know about, the elocutionary ''trick" of the 
 side to side movement w^hich suggests two persons 
 conversing. 
 
 In quoted conversations the words "said he," "said 
 she," etc., should be repeated frequently in the charac- 
 ter of the original speaker so that he will remain iden- 
 tified with the character at all times and so that the 
 audience may have no chance to confuse him with the 
 character he is quoting. 
 
 The Treatment of Vocal Imitation within Per- 
 sonating. — In these paragraphs we are using the 
 term "vocal imitation" in the sense of mimicry of 
 nature sounds or mechanical sounds. It does not 
 refer to the imitation of human voice. When we 
 speak of literal imitation of a person in voice or action, 
 we call it personation but the imitation of things not 
 human we shall call merely imitation. 
 
 The question, "What shall we do in personating a 
 character who is supposed to imitate cat-calls, the 
 bark of a dog, etc.?" may be answered in the same 
 way that the question concerning personation within 
 personating was answered. If the original character 
 is supposed to be an imitator or a clown, he would in 
 all probability imitate, but if he is an ordinary char- 
 acter, he would not. The situation would be most 
 unusual in which a character would literally imitate. 
 
READING 133 
 
 In ]\Iark Twain's Jim U^olf and iJic Cats, a rather 
 eccentric old man is telling a friend (or a group of 
 friends) of a boyhood prank played on Jim Wolf. 
 In the course of his talk he mentions the cats "yow- 
 ow-owling." Now the old man would be likely to 
 approach an imitation but he would not be able to 
 give an exact one. For the reader to drop the old 
 man's character and literally reproduce the cat-call 
 would be inconsistent. The important element in the 
 selection is the old man himself and what he does in 
 telling the tale. It is more humorous to see the old 
 man suggesting the cat imitation than it would be to 
 see the reader step out of the character and give a 
 literal imitation. 
 
 The Use of Literal Song irr Personating. — Since 
 literalness in voice and action is the primary essential 
 of personating, and since singing is distinctly a human 
 accomplishment it may be reproduced literally w^ithout 
 inconsistency in any of the four forms of the persona- 
 tion. If the character speaking is telling about 
 another person who has sung, he will not sing. He 
 will merely repeat the words. But if during the act- 
 ing of the original character in a soliloquy or a mono- 
 logue, the character himself is supposed to sing, he 
 may do so literally if he can sing — if not, he had bet- 
 ter content himself with chanting in a monotone. 
 
 In Mammy's Li'l Boy, by H. S. Edwards, since the 
 action of holding and rocking the baby and the as- 
 sumption of the provincial speech of the negro are 
 essential, the reader may croon the "Bye-o, baby boy, 
 o-bye" with prefect consistency. If the reader prefers 
 
134 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 to stand and simply suggest the holding of the hahy, 
 giving the selection as a character monologue through 
 impersonative reading, the singing may be fittingly 
 suggested since the selection is not humorous and the 
 tune is unimportant to the mood of the piece. There 
 are many soliloquies and monologues in which the 
 actual singing of the character is important, and when 
 this is the case the real tune should be employed. 
 
 Relation of Personating to Impersonative Read- 
 ing. — Before leaving the subject of Personating it is 
 well to show its relationship to Impersonative Read- 
 ing, the next step toward suggestion. While in the 
 present chapter we have shown that literal action is 
 the primary requisite for personating, and that char- 
 acterization and mood were secondary considerations, 
 we shall show in the next chapter that literal action 
 drops out of consideration and gives place to vocal 
 and facial characterization as the primary requisite 
 with expression of mood and suggestive action as a 
 secondary factor. Impersonative Reading is the inter- 
 mediate step, therefore, between Personating and 
 Pure Reading. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 I MTERSO NATIVE READING 
 
 Definition Elaborated. — Impersonative reading Is 
 that phase of the reader's art which attempts charac- 
 terization as literally as possible in voice and facial 
 expression, but in all other action gives mere sugges- 
 tion. It is not confined to the representation of one 
 character as is personating, but may represent many 
 in conversation while the reader changes from one 
 character to another and back again to narration in 
 his own person. It is the ''common ground" between 
 personating and pure reading, and is the kind of 
 delivery applied to a great mass of humorous or 
 character readings that seek to portray eccentric or 
 comedy types in conversation with one another. It 
 affords a means of compromising between entire 
 literal presentation and wholly suggestive presenta- 
 tion. 
 
 Type of Selection Suitable for Impersonative 
 Reading. — TJie Character Reading is the name given 
 to that type of literature calling for eccentric char- 
 acterization and is distinguished further by the fact 
 that it may represent more than one character in 
 conversation. Here, of a necessity, complete literal 
 action can not be reproduced because of the limitations 
 imposed on the reader requiring the rapid change from 
 character to character. These rapid changes do not 
 
 135 
 
136 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 permit walking about or pantomiming tlie handling 
 of objects. There is time only for mere suggestion 
 in everything except facial expression and vocal 
 change which can be done instantaneously and with- 
 out attention being called to the means of transition. 
 
 There are two sub-forms of the Character Reading 
 Avhich are just like the first two forms of the Persona- 
 tion except that the need for literal action is absent. 
 Since literal action is unimportant they are called 
 Character Soliloquy and Monologue instead of Per- 
 sonated Soliloquy and Monologue, and should be pre- 
 sented according to the principles suggested for im- 
 personative reading. 
 
 The other two sub-forms of the Character Reading 
 are unlike any of the forms of the personation in that 
 they represent more than one person in actual conver- 
 sation. The Character Play is any piece of dramatic 
 literature in pure dialogue form whose chief charac- 
 ters are eccentric and when given by a single enter- 
 tainer, can neither be acted nor personated, but must 
 be rearranged in descriptive dialogue form and pre- 
 sented through impersonative reading. Here the 
 reader must change instantly from character to char- 
 acter and back to bits of description, a limitation 
 which makes anything like literal action impossible.^ 
 but which may permit the instantaneous changes in 
 facial expression and voice. The same may be said 
 of the Character Narrative which differs in form 
 from the Character Play only in the fact that it was 
 originally in descriptive dialogue form and contains 
 longer and more frequent passages of description or 
 
READING 137 
 
 narration. The technique of dehvcry for the two 
 forms is practically the same except that the converted 
 form of the dialogue in the Character Play gives the 
 descriptive passages in the present tense, while the 
 Character Narrative is written in the past tense, and 
 the reader conforms to the tense in his presentation. 
 
 Vocal Features of Impersonative Reading. — 
 What has been said concerning the vocal features of 
 Personating applies in the same way to Impersonative 
 Reading in both voluntary and involuntary changes. 
 A word in addition may be said regarding the use of 
 the voice in the delivery of descriptive and narrative 
 passages which does not apply to personating. The 
 voice is the reader's own and changes involuntarily 
 with the changing mood and atmosphere of the de- 
 scription. Indirect discourse will be colored by the 
 mood of the one indirectly quoted and the atmosphere 
 of a scene or situation will, in a like manner, influence 
 the voice of the reader as he describes it. If the 
 description is a mere matter-of-fact statement, the 
 reader will simply tell it to the audience almost as in 
 direct address, but if the description is emotional, such 
 as the description of a horse race or a fight with fire, 
 the voice of the reader will involuntarily express the 
 emotional mood of the passage and may even reflect 
 the mood of the onlookers. This is especially true if 
 the emotional importance of the scene is greater than 
 the mere sense, or meaning. Further treatment of 
 vocal features in description will be taken up under 
 the subject of Pure Reading. 
 
 Actional Features of Impersonative Reading. — 
 
138 DRAxMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 Here in the actional features of Impersonative Read- 
 ing we find the greatest difference from Personating. 
 Ahnost all action in impersonative reading is sugges- 
 tive rather than literal. The only phase of action 
 which is employed literally is facial expression which 
 may be changed instantly without calling attention to 
 the mode of transition. A fixed feature, such as a 
 closed eye for Squeers in Nicholas Nicklehy; a recur- 
 ving uianncrisni, such as the blinking eye of ''Blinky" 
 Lockwood in The Fortune Hunter; or the feature 
 motions of the mouth, jaws and tongue in tasting or 
 chewing which once in a while seems necessary to 
 bring out the humor of a characterization — these ex- 
 pressions mav be employed for comedy effect in 
 impersonative reading. All other action is either sug- 
 gested or entirely eliminated. The hearing of a char- 
 acter may be dimly suggested in the standing position, 
 but the suggestion of sitting or reclining must be 
 through a descriptive phrase rather than by any ini- 
 tial motion toward the action. Carriage is eliminated 
 from consideration since it is obvious that no walking 
 about can be done consistently while so frequently 
 changing from one character to another. All the 
 peculiarities of gait are to be suggested through de- 
 scriptive phrases — not by any attempt at initial move- 
 ment. Gesture (head, hand and limb movements not 
 concerned with bearing) may be strongly suggestive. 
 The initial movement of the hand and arm in the 
 act of shaking hands, the suggestion of holding a 
 letter or a newspaper, the suggestive movement for 
 holding up a wineglass in proposing a toast — all these 
 
READING 139 
 
 movements aid in picturing a situation but do not 
 need to be completely carried out. Let us suppose a 
 situation in which a drunkard is in conversation with 
 his wife. The descriptive matter indicates that he 
 lifts a glass while sneeringly taunting her, and that 
 she in reply dashes the glass out of his hand to the 
 floor. If literal pantomime were to be carried out, 
 the reader in assuming the eccentricity of the drunk- 
 ard would hold his fingers literally as if holding the 
 glass and would go through the motions of lifting it 
 high above his head and then back to his lips. Then 
 in rapid change to the character of the woman, the 
 reader would have to return the man's gesture and 
 assume the literal striking motion of the woman as 
 she utters her harsh words. All this would take 
 unnecessary time and would call attention to the 
 vianncr of transition from one character to another. 
 How much more simple and effective is the suggestion 
 when the reader in the character of the man merely 
 lifts the hand a little way with the fingers loosely 
 apart, not attempting literally to encircle a supposed 
 glass, but allowing the audience to create the picture 
 independently? As the reader thus speaks the sneer- 
 ing line, he may instantly interrupt himself in the 
 wife's character and, forgetting the one hand slightly 
 raised, will allow it to relax gracefully while the other 
 hand raises quickly in the initial motion suggesting 
 violence as the wife speaks her line and follows with 
 her eyes the falling of the imaginary glass. 
 
 The privilege of descriptive matter to be given by 
 the reader himself between lines spoken by characters, 
 
140 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 makes possible the suggestion for any kind of action 
 or situation with the very sHghtest movement in ges- 
 ture. Even literal facial expression and voluntary 
 vocal change is unnecessary except in eccentric or 
 comedy roles. 
 
 Stationary Position of the Reader in Impersona- 
 tive Reading. — It may be laid down as a steadfast 
 rule that all forms of selections which require instan- 
 taneous change from character to character or to de- 
 scription must be presented from a stationary 
 position in the center of the platform from which 
 point the reader will not move more than one step 
 in any direction. All that is necessary in action can 
 be suggested from this stationary position. 
 
 In impersonative reading, therefore, the use of a 
 chair is never necessary. The abrupt rising or sitting 
 in changing characters would call attention to the 
 transition and would make an important feature out 
 of what is merely incidental. All action that can be 
 described in narration may be suggested either in vivid 
 phrase or in gesture, but whenever it is obviously 
 incidental and can not be expressed without giving it 
 undue importance, it should be left out. Perhaps the 
 best way to remind the student of the limit of action 
 in impersonative reading is to formulate this prin- 
 ciple: READING, zifhether impersonatize or pure, 
 may he presented zmth the desk and manuscript before 
 the reader zvithout loss of suggestion to the audience. 
 Of course, he may read from memory if he prefers, 
 but he will stand erect, facing the audience in either 
 case, and will merely suggest the opposition of his 
 
READING 141 
 
 characters in conversation by a slight turn cf the face 
 to the right and left. The scene is pictured by the 
 reader out beyond the audience rather than on the 
 platform with himself. The entire scene, characters 
 and all are conceived by the audience as apart from 
 the reader on the platform. In personating, however; 
 the scene is imagined as on the platform directly be- 
 fore the audience, and the one actual character repre- 
 sented moves about in that scene. The imagination 
 of the audience centers about him and not apart from 
 him for a moment. In personating, obviously a desk 
 and manuscript would be in the way and therefore 
 the Personation must always be delivered from 
 memory. The Character Reading, however, may be 
 given from memory or from the page with equal 
 power of suggestion to the audience. 
 
 Treatment of Personation within Impersonative 
 Reading. — By personation within impersonative 
 reading we mean, of course, the attempt at charac- 
 terization which an eccentric character would be 
 likely to make in quoting the words of another 
 speaker in a former conversation. How far would 
 he be likely to leave his own personality in order to 
 assume the voice and manner of the one he quotes? 
 Since in impersonative reading the action of the 
 original eccentric character must be suggestive in all 
 except facial expression, it is clear that the described 
 action of the quoted character will be even more 
 slightly suggestive, for his action must not cause the 
 audience to forget the original speaker and the present 
 tense situation. The facial expression of the original 
 
142 DRAxMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 speaker will in most cases merely reflect the mood of 
 the person he quotes. The voice of the original char- 
 acter should not lose its conscious peculiarity, but may 
 reflect the mood of the person quoted, in unconscious 
 changes of the elements. A good maxim to follow 
 is: Never get out of the original character so far 
 that the audience thinks of the one quoted rather than 
 the original eccentric character. One way of keeping 
 the original character constantly before the audience 
 while quoting the lines of a past conversation, is to 
 insert frequently the words, ''said he," "said she," "I 
 said," or "I say." 
 
 Treatment of Vocal Imitation within Impersona- 
 tive Reading. — Rarely do \ve find occasion for vocal 
 imitation with the speech of an eccentric character in 
 impersonative reading, but when it does occur, it 
 should be treated just as it was suggested for per- 
 sonating. Jiuuny Butler and the Owl offers an oppor- 
 tunity for the Irishman to imitate the owl's ''Who-o- 
 oo" and it should be done as the Irishman zvould he 
 likely to do it, not in literal imitation of an owl's note. 
 It sometimes happens, however, that in a humorous 
 selection, the description indicates in phonetic com- 
 bination certain sounds which the author intended to 
 be literally reproduced. When this is the case, literal 
 imitation may be employed, but in that case the selec- 
 tion can not be frankly classed under a Personation, 
 Character Reading or Interpretative Reading. It is 
 just a "Stunt," or an "Imitation." Fred Emerson 
 Brooks' Barnyard Melodies illustrates this type. The 
 same general rule quoted in the previous paragraph 
 
READING 143 
 
 applies also to imitation within impersonative 
 reading. 
 
 The Use of Song in Impersonative Reading. — The 
 supposition that the character required to sing is 
 humorous or eccentric offers sufficient reason for his 
 literally reproducing the tune. If the reader has an 
 ear for music and a musical voice, he may carry off a 
 humorous bit of singing with excellent effect, but if 
 he can not carry a tune, he had better be content with 
 repeating the words of the song in a monotone. 
 
 In Arauiinta's Ankie, by Myrtle Reed, the old 
 maiden aunt is supposed to sing to the tune of an 
 old hymn certain improvised words calculated to annoy 
 her niece, Araminta, who lies with a broken ankle in 
 the next room. The young doctor who has forbidden 
 the aunt to go into Araminta's room or speak to her, 
 appears on the scene in the midst of the old lady's 
 song. The quick change of words to the words of the 
 hymn when she sees the doctor, affords comedy which 
 is best appreciated in the literal reproduction of tune 
 in the shrill, quaint voice of the old maid. 
 
 Our Baby at Rudder Grange, by Frank R. Stock- 
 ton, offers another opportunity for literal singing 
 when the narrator tells of w'alking the floor and sing- 
 ing to the baby improvised words to the tune of 
 "Weak and Wounded, Sick and Sore." Since the 
 reading is humorous and the tune of special impor- 
 tance, a literal reproduction of the tune will add to 
 the effect and not seem out of place at all. It should 
 be remembered, however, that it is never absolutely 
 necessary to sing. The audience will get the idea and 
 
144 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 much of the humor if the reader suggests the song 
 by the use of a ''one-pitch" tone. 
 
 The Treatment of First Person Narrative. — 
 There are two ways of presenting a narrative written 
 in the first person, and the choice should be influenced 
 by the author's purpose. First, if the narrator is not 
 important as a character in a present tense situation ; 
 if he may be understood as of no more importance 
 than the reader himself in telling a story ; or, in other 
 words, if the selection could a^ zucll be given in the 
 third person, or impersonally, it should be given as 
 a Character Narrative, just as if it were written in the 
 third person. Second, if the narrator is important 
 as an eccentric character or as a normal character in 
 a present tense situation, and it can be seen that the 
 author intended the narrator to preserve his own per- 
 sonality at all times through the story, the selection is 
 a Character Monologue or a Reading Monologue and 
 any quoting of conversations by the speaking charac- 
 ter will remain colored by the personality of the nar- 
 rator. The Character Monologue or Reading Mono- 
 logue can not be given in the third person because of 
 the importance of the present tense situation. 
 
 When the narrator is not important in a present 
 tense situation, the reader will omit the little unneces- 
 sary expressions, "said he," ''said she with a smile," 
 etc., as much as possible, just as he would do in a 
 third person narrative, but in presenting the selections 
 in which the narrator is important in the present 
 tense situations, the reader will retain every one of 
 those expressions and even supply more than the 
 
READING 145 
 
 author did If it seems necessary to the kecpin^^ of the 
 original character. Our Guides, by ]\Iark Twain, is 
 an admirable example of first person narrative in 
 which the narrator is unimportant as a character. 
 The narrative could just as well be given in the third 
 person without disregarding the author's purpose in 
 the least. The characters of the Doctor and the 
 Frenchman may be literally assumed in the voluntary 
 voice change and the facial expression, for the pres- 
 ence of the words 'T' and ''we'' does not affect the 
 situation at all. In Shannts O'Brien, by J. E. Le- 
 Faum, where the narrator himself is a character 
 (shown by the dialect) in a present tense situation, it 
 is obviously the author's purpose to keep him before 
 the audience, and the conversation Shamus reports is 
 all along colored by his own personality. It is there- 
 fore classed as a Character Monologue. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 PURE READING 
 
 Definition Elaborated. — Pure reading is the high- 
 est type of suggestive presentation and is employed 
 in all that class of literature which requires merely 
 the expression of mood in conversation and of atmos- 
 phere in descriptions. Here there is no attempt at 
 realism. The reader stimulates the imagination of 
 his hearers to see the pictures and live the scenes apart 
 from the reader himself or the platform on which he 
 stands. Unlike personating, which seeks to make the 
 picture of one character in imaginary surroundings 
 doing bits of action within the limit of the platform, 
 pure reading carries the mind of the audience away 
 from the platform, out into the world of life, and 
 stimulates the memory and the imagination to create 
 introspectively a complete chain of imaginary pictures. 
 This art is the most subtle of all the arts of the 
 reader in its power of suggestion and requires years 
 of study. The term "pure" reading must not be con- 
 fused with ordinary reading aloud from the page. 
 As used in this book, it means public reading of litera- 
 ture for the entertainment and education of the peo- 
 ple. Almost any person of average intelligence can 
 read a story from a book, but to present a piece of 
 literature formally with all the subtlety of suggestion 
 146 
 
READING 147 
 
 in voice and actions through the varying moods of 
 human life requires years of study first in acting, 
 then in personating, later in impcrsonativc reading, 
 and at last in pure reading, before the highest develop- 
 ment of artistic appreciation will be achieved. 
 
 Type of Selection for Pure Reading. — The Inter' 
 pretative Reading comprises all the forms of literary 
 composition (except argumentation, and exposition) 
 whether soliloquy, implied dialogue, descriptive dia- 
 logue, narration, description or lyric composition in 
 which neither literal action nor eccentric characteriza- 
 tion is of any consequence, but in which the expres- 
 sion of mood is all important. When a selection is 
 recognized as being important for the sake of its 
 moods it may be classified under one of the following- 
 types according to its style of literary composition : 
 The Reading Soliloquy; the Reading Monologue ; 
 the Reading Play; the Descriptive Reading; the Nar- 
 rative Reading; the Declamation; and the Lyric Read- 
 ing. The first two types are in form exactly like the 
 forms used for personating and impersonative read- 
 ing, but are distinguished from them by the lack of 
 necessity for literal action or eccentric characteriza- 
 tion. The Reading Play is like the Character Play 
 except that it has no eccentric characters in the chief 
 role. The Narrative Reading differs from the 
 Character Reading in the same way. The Descrip- 
 tive Reading, however, differs from every other type 
 In that there are no conversations, and the reader is 
 concerned wholly with painting a picture of a scene, 
 event, or a person. Here the reader's art is at its 
 
148 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 best when suggesting the atmosphere of a situation or 
 a scene described. The Declamation is an address, 
 notable examples of which arc, Webster's Reply to 
 Hayrie, Grattan's Reply to Mr, Corry, and the like. 
 The Lyric Reading is known as such because of its 
 idealism and its universal appeal in poetic form. It 
 is essentially emotional. It seems to crystallize some 
 great moment in life that is the common experience of 
 many. The mood is always intense and universal 
 rather than personal. The Lyric may be in soliloquy, 
 implied or expressed dialogue, narrative or descrip- 
 tive forms. Tennyson's Break, Break, Break and 
 Crossing the Bar and Browning's Meeting at Night 
 are good examples of lyric readings. 
 
 Vocal Features of Pure Reading. — In pure read- 
 ing the vocal changes are involuntary and are brought 
 about solely by the changes of thought and emotion 
 representing the mood of the normal characters in 
 conversation or the atmosphere of situations, scenes 
 and events. There is no attempt at conscious imita- 
 tion of quality, pitch, force, or time, in order to repre- 
 sent any eccentricity of character, for pure reading 
 does not deal with abnormal persons. It may deal 
 with humor and the very gayest of moods, but not 
 to such a degree that it makes the character peculiar. 
 There are no external marks of distinction between 
 characters. Nothing but the mood or the descriptive 
 passages in the selection will indicate transition of 
 one character's speech to that of another. 
 
 A word should be said concerning the assuming of 
 moods not assigned specifically to any character in 
 
READING 149 
 
 the narrative. Descriptive matter when niercl}- ex- 
 planatory, should be given in a normal mental mood, 
 but when the atmosphere becomes highly emotional, 
 the reader if properly in the spirit of the selection 
 will feel that atmosphere as the emotional mood of 
 some possible witness to the scene. In the Ben Hur 
 chariot race, for instance, the description becomes so 
 highly emotional that the mere telling of the "whip 
 writhing and hissing about the horses' heads" is not 
 .-sufficient. The reader must express the atmosphere 
 of the scene and tlie intense mood of Ben Hur. He 
 accomplishes this by assuming the mood of the crowd 
 of onlookers, and his utterances will be as intense as 
 if he w^ere representing one of the excited characters 
 in the scene. 
 
 In indirect discourse, if the mood is emotional the 
 reader w^ill unconsciously color his voice to fit the 
 mood thus indirectly quoted, but he will not use cor- 
 responding bodily action except in the most subjective 
 sense. An intense situation, however, even though 
 described in the third person, may call forth bodily as 
 well as vocal suggestions of the atmosphere. Ordi- 
 nary mental description, such as "said he, lifting his 
 hat," or "said she, as she gave a glance from her 
 clever black eyes," do not need intense treatment. In- 
 deed, a great many of the "said he" and the "said she" 
 phrases may be omitted altogether by the reader. He 
 must take care, however, that all descrii)tion necessary 
 to a mental and emotional understanding of the situa- 
 tion should be retained unless such description may be 
 expressed through the subjective action of the char- 
 
I50 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 acter or the tone of his voice. For instance, in the 
 words '' 'Yes,' said Mary, smiHng," all except ''Yes*' 
 may be omitted if the reader smiles as he says "Yes." 
 On the other hand, in the words '' Ts Papa's little boy 
 sorry?' said Mr. Todd as the persistent sunbeam kept 
 stabbing the back of his neck. 'AH right, Papa will 
 stay here in the corner until Robert says he is sorry,' " 
 nothing can be omitted, for the bit about the sunbeam 
 is necessary to an understanding of the humor of the 
 situation. The reader's own judgment if he studies 
 his selections properly, will determine what his voice 
 may suggest and what it will be necessary to explain 
 through description. 
 
 In suggesting the voice of a crowd there is at first 
 a bit of conscious attention to quality and vocal 
 mechanics, in acquiring the suggestive tone. There 
 is no attempt to personate a babel of voices (which 
 would be impossible) but the voice slightly above the 
 normal pitch, wdth placement back in the back part of 
 the pharynx, and with slightly blurred articulation, 
 has been found to suggest the voice of a crowd ad- 
 mirably. In Josephine Preston Peabody's The Piper 
 when Kurtz and the crowd shout at the Piper, the 
 reader has an opportunity to stimulate auditory imag- 
 ery to hear the shout of fifty or a hundred people 
 instead of one. 
 
 Actional Features of Pure Reading. — In pure 
 reading all action is suggesfive, and that phase of 
 action known as carriage is not considered at all. 
 Even subjective gesture and facial expression Is more 
 or less suggestive and at no time does it approach the 
 
READING 151 
 
 literalness of subjective i^esture and facial expression 
 used in impersonativc reading. 
 
 Suggestive action (defined in the appendix) is the 
 initial movement which, if carried to completion, will 
 become literal action. The mere opening of the hand 
 half extended toward the audience is enough to sug- 
 gest the hand-shake. No accent or return is neces- 
 sary, but immediate transition may be made to 
 another gesture. The hand with fingers spread 
 slightly and the palm toward the face is sufficient 
 suggestion for the act of reading a letter — two hands 
 not being at all necessary. In many cases no action 
 at all is necessary, for the reader will merely give the 
 contents of the letter to the audience impersonally. 
 In order to be sure that a given gesture is actually 
 suggestive of the thought to be conveyed, the reader 
 in practising should begin with literal action and com- 
 plete the movements a few times, after which the 
 suggestion will gradually appear and increase as less 
 and less of the complete motion is permitted. It may 
 even be advisable in the case of working out a sug- 
 gestion for an objective gesture to handle the object 
 several times in the manner that the ultimate gesture 
 is to suggest. In The Soul of the Violin, a Narrative 
 Reading, which contains a long soliloquy by the old 
 violin player, it is necessary faintly to suggest the 
 attitude of playing. One who has never held a violin 
 or tried to draw the bow properly across the strings 
 will be unable to give an effective suggestion of 
 playing. His hands will not rest easily in the initial 
 position, and the occasional movements will not re- 
 
152 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 spond to the natural rli\thm of the speech. The most 
 effective way to accompHsh the suggestion for this 
 action is, first, to hold a real violin and get the "feel" 
 of the instrument in the hand. The movement of the 
 bow should be tried a few times, and then, laying the 
 instrument aside, the student should pantomime the 
 action literally. In the final practice, the impulse to 
 continue the pantomime will be checked after the ini- 
 tial movement, and a series of highly suggestive mo- 
 tions will be the unified result. No suggestive action 
 can be successfully accomplished until an experience 
 in the literal action has been had. 
 
 Another illustration is apt: In giving John Burns 
 of Gettysburg the emotive description of old John as 
 ''he stood there picking the rebels off with his long 
 brown rifle and bell-crowned hat," demands a sug- 
 gestive attitude on the part of the reader. One who 
 has never held a rifle to his shoulder will not easily 
 assume the correct suggestive position for his hands 
 and arms. To pantomime literally the holding of the 
 imaginary rifle would be out of place, but a sugges- 
 tion of the pantomime may be helpful, and the best 
 method of acquiring the suggestion is to practise the 
 two preceding steps, first using a real rifle, next giv- 
 ing the literal pantomime, and finally using the initial 
 position in the raising of the rifle and halting the ges- 
 ture at about the waist line, the left hand in front with 
 the palm up and the right hand at the hip, palm in- 
 ward and elbow back. If the weight is thrown for- 
 ward on the left foot and the neck and head pushed 
 forward intensely while the eyes look steadily in one 
 direction, the suggestion is perfect. 
 
READING 153 
 
 In Ben Ilur's chariot race the moment of the win- 
 ning of the race by Ben Hur is intensely emotional. 
 The reader, besides assuming the emotional tone with 
 which he utters the words "the whip hissed," etc., will 
 unconsciously assume the alert bodily attitude, weight 
 forward, one arm elevated to the level of the head, 
 the other to the shoulders while the uplifted hand gives 
 an occasional movement at the wrist to suggest Ben 
 Hur's action or what might be the sympathetic action 
 of any one of the witnesses to the race in following 
 the movement of the hissing whip. The action, 
 as well as the voice, in emotional descriptive pas- 
 sages may suggest the atmosphere of excitement 
 through the mood of some one supposedly present, 
 although the reader may not use the character's 
 own words. 
 
 Treatment of Mood Representation v/ithin Nor- 
 mal Characterization. — When in pure reading it 
 becomes necessary for a normal character to quote 
 previous conversations, no attempt is ever made at 
 complete vocal or facial characterization, and there is 
 very little effort made to reproduce the mood of the 
 persons quoted, There is an occasional instance where 
 a perfectly ordinary character is suj^posed to try to 
 imitate some one in a former conversation in order 
 to express the uuusual mood of the person quoted. 
 \M-ienever the mood is usual, as in the majority of 
 cases, the original speaker in his own mood merely 
 tells what was said. In all cases the action will be 
 subjective in gesture and facial expression, and sug- 
 gestive. In the case of the unusual mood reproduced, 
 the imitation will never extend further than a lolun- 
 
154 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 tary change in the elements of voice. Since mood 
 representation is all that is important in pure reading, 
 the quoted conversations should merely color the m.ood 
 of the person speaking. When Cassius quotes Cesar's 
 '*Give me to drink, Titinius," he is endeavoring to make 
 Brutus feel Caesar's lack of manliness, so he introduces 
 a slight imitation of Caesar's whining tone. The 
 reader must not step formally into Caesar's character 
 with supplicating gesture and anxious facial expres- 
 sion, but rather he must keep Cassius' ironical mood 
 and attitude as he is talking to Brutus, showing only 
 in the voice the suggestion of Caesar's whine. 
 
 Treatment of Vocal Imitation in Pure Reading. — 
 There are many occasions in pure reading where it is 
 necessary to suggest strongly certain nature sounds 
 which are represented for the sake of onomatopoeia. 
 Here the voice by a little conscious change in quality, 
 pitch or time, may often give an extraordinarily subtle 
 suggestion. It is needless to say that a literal imita- 
 tion would be out of place in pure reading, but the 
 suggestion embodied in the phonetic composition of 
 the words themselves adds materially to the connota- 
 tion which the author had in mind when he wrote the 
 selection. Poe's The Bells and Tennyson's Bloii', 
 Bugle, Blozv, are both onomatopoeic and were writ- 
 ten to suggest the sounds so graphically described. If 
 mere thought or explanation of the different kinds of 
 bells had been Poe's intention, he would not have 
 repeated the word, ''bells" in the obvious rhythm of 
 the mood he wished to express. It was his intention 
 to suggest the sounds of the different kinds of bells. 
 
READING 155 
 
 The reading of the Bugle Song does not need a Hteral 
 imitation of the bugle call, but the word "blow" will 
 be given longer time value than usual, and ''dying" 
 will in repetition suggest the dying notes if longer 
 and longer quantity with correspondingly diminishing 
 force be applied to the last syllable. Tennyson, him- 
 self, is the authority for this rendition. Some years 
 ago he was asked by Mr. Ward, the great English 
 scholar and friend of Tennyson, why he always pro- 
 longed the last syllable and subdued the force on the 
 succeeding repetitions of the word "dying," and 
 Tennyson replied that the whole idea "sounded that 
 zvay to him." It is true that authors are not always 
 competent authority on the oral expression of their 
 own works, but when we are fortunate enough to 
 learn at first-hand an author's purpose of connotation, 
 we are accomplishing the ideal of all true reading if 
 we carry out that purpose. Tennyson's purpose, ac- 
 cording to Mr. Ward, was to suggest to the minds of 
 all who hear the Bugle Song read, the vivid audi- 
 tory imagery of the dying notes of a bugle call. Of 
 course there was a deeper and more significant pur- 
 pose in the spiritual suggestion inspired by the notes 
 of the bugle, but Tennyson believed the one suggestion 
 made more powerful the other. 
 
 It is extremely rare that a normal character is re- 
 (luired to imitate, but if such is the case, the reader 
 should only suggest the imitation in the slightest pos- 
 sible way. If the words "bells" and "dying" were 
 put into the conversation of a normal character, there 
 would be no real justification for suggesting the 
 
156 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 sounds, because ordinary people are not likely to 
 express themselves onomatopoeically in conversation, 
 but since these poems are lyrical and hence universal 
 in their appeal, the reader may make the appeal more 
 widely connotative by bringing out the onomatopoeic 
 effect. 
 
 The Suggestion of Song in Pure Reading. — Since 
 pure reading is almost wholly suggestive, it follows 
 that anything which attempts realism, where sugges- 
 tion will do as well, is out of place. Literal singing 
 is not advisable in pure reading. Aside from the 
 fact that the mood of the song and 7tof the tune is the 
 essential thing, an unaccompanied song in the midst 
 of a serious reading has a peculiar disquieting effect 
 upon an audience. Even if the reader has a good 
 voice and is able to pitch it at the right key, the effect 
 is not so powerful as if read colorfully with a narrow 
 range of speech melody. The mind of the audience is 
 almost sure to be drawn away from the thought and 
 the feeling in the words, and become concerned with 
 the tune or the quality of the singer's voice. The 
 reading of the words will be much more impressive 
 and at the same time preserve the situation of the 
 supposed singer in his surroundings. In Dunbar's 
 When Malindy Sings, we have a poem which is more 
 important for its mood than for any characterization 
 of the speaker, who is telling about Malindy's beautiful 
 voice. The speaker here is not even supposed to sing ; 
 he is merely repeating the words of the song that 
 Malindy sometimes sings, and yet frequently we hear 
 readers take Malindy's character and literally sing. 
 
READING 157 
 
 The mood of Malindy's admirer is all that Is necessary 
 for expression. Even the dialect is not necessary. 
 
 In the Burgundian defiance scene from // / Were 
 King, by J. H. McCarthy, Lady Katherine is supposed 
 to sing. Here the reader actually assumes the mood 
 of Katherine while she sings, but he should not at- 
 tempt the tune, for if he does the audience is sure to 
 think more of the voice quality or the melody than the 
 meaning of the song or its place in the story. In 
 comedy readings, especially those frankly eccentric, 
 the introduction of a tune often adds to the comedy, 
 but in serious selections the reader will be more truly 
 artistic if he is able to suggest to the imagination of 
 his audience the beautiful song and the voice, apart 
 from himself. 
 
 ]\Iany readers have a mania for "reciting to music," 
 and are never willing to appear on a public program 
 without an accompanist at the piano to assist in 
 "making effective" Aux If aliens or An Old Szveet- 
 heart of Mine by the synchronous rendering of Hearts 
 and Flowers or Cazalleria Rustieana. From the 
 standpoint of an "act" in vaudeville, it may be con- 
 sidered effective, but as an artistic presentation by a 
 reader, it is not to be thought of. If the piece is effec- 
 tive when accompanied by music, it is the musician 
 who has produced the effect — not the reader. The 
 music has a highly emotional effect, but is vague, and 
 in almost every case so completely occupies the mind 
 of the audience that it can not follow intelligently the 
 thought of the selection. How many people who sing 
 our church hymns know the meaning of what they 
 
158 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 are singing? How many are there who get more 
 than a general impression of the meaning of any song 
 that they hear sung? The melody subtly takes the 
 place of the meaning of the words and the audience 
 is none the wiser. This can be easily demonstrated if 
 the teacher will ask one of his best students to read 
 at sight a familiar hymn. Nine out of ten students 
 will find that the memory of the tune so dominates 
 the reading that the sense is obscured. 
 
 The reader's art should be enough to suggest the 
 situation and the sentiment of a selection without the 
 aid of ''stage effects" in the form of a musical accom- 
 paniment. When these effects are employed, the true 
 impression is often lost altogether. The audience 
 weeps rather indefinitely and murmurs, "Wasn't that 
 beautiful?" while all the real beauty of the lines was 
 swallowed up in a hazy conception of melody — sad 
 melody which conveyed no meaning. Little humor- 
 ous songs, written to be sung, may be read to their 
 own accompaniment, but they should not be classed 
 as real material for the reader's art. The point is 
 that poems, written apart from any conception of 
 music, are best interpreted without it. A GOOD 
 reader does not NEED an accompanist to make any- 
 thing he reads effective. 
 
 First and Third Person Narrative. — Since the 
 reader in pure reading is concerned with no charac- 
 terization of an eccentric or abnormal nature, and since 
 mood alone is the predominating factor, narrative 
 (except narration within a soliloquy, implied dia- 
 
READING 159 
 
 logue, or direct address composition) written in the 
 first person will receive the same treatment as that 
 written in the third person. 
 
 Most of Alark Twain's narratives are written in 
 the first person. They are not to be considered as 
 Monologues or Eccentric Addresses, for the narrator 
 is not in any present tense situation. When conversa- 
 tions are quoted, they may be given as the original 
 conversations without regard to the person of the 
 narrator at all. The rule that "whenever the narration 
 could as well have been written in the third person, 
 it may be given without regard to the person of the 
 narrator*' applies in pure reading as it does in imper- 
 sonative reading. In A Critical Situation, Mr. Clem- 
 ens narrates an incident in which he and his friend, 
 Harris, became involved. He quotes Harris, the 
 young woman, her son and himself all in conversa- 
 tion. It is related in the past tense, and we are not 
 concerned with the situation of the narrator at the 
 time of his telling the tale. We are interested only 
 in the events and conversations of the story. It 
 could as well have been written in the third person, 
 using the words, ''As Harris and Clemens were seated," 
 etc., instead of *'As Harris and I were seated," thus 
 making the narrative impersonal. In delivery, there- 
 fore, since the audience is not interested in the nar- 
 rator as an important person in a present tense scene, 
 the reader may use the first person just as it is written, 
 but still feel free to assume the moods of the young 
 woman, the boy, Harris and 'T" without making them 
 
i6o DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 secondary or reflected in the mood of the narrator. 
 In fact the narrator becomes simply the reader and 
 for the moment makes the story his own. 
 
 In Browning's My Last Duchess, we have a differ- 
 ent situation. Here the audience is concerned with 
 the present tense situation and in the narrator as one 
 immediately concerned in the scene. The selection is 
 a Reading IMonologue, not a Narrative Reading in 
 the first person. The person speaking is the duke at 
 all times, and the audience is interested in the duke 
 as he explains to the messenger the significance of 
 the lady's smile in the painting of the duchess. When 
 the duke says, ''Perhaps Era Pandolf chanced to say, 
 *My lady's mantle,' etc.," he merely quotes the words of 
 the artist; he is not free to assume formally the 
 artist's mood. The audience sees the duke and the 
 messenger and the painting on the wall. It does not 
 picture Era Pandolf in the scene. The selection could 
 not as well have been written in the third person for 
 here the mood of the speaker telling a tale to a sup- 
 posed listener is more important than the incidents 
 of the tale itself. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE VARIED TREATMENT OF TYPES 
 
 Selections for Either Impersonative or Pure Read- 
 ing. — In classifying selections under their proper 
 divisions according to the type of presentation re- 
 quired, it is natural that we shall find some kinds 
 which apparently may be presented as effectively 
 through one form as another. These are selections in 
 which it seems doubtful whether the author's pur- 
 pose was to exploit literal action, or characterization, 
 or mood alone. Rarely is there any doubt concerning 
 the purpose for literal action, for the author usually 
 suggests parenthetically the action intended, so we 
 may safely eliminate personating from this problem 
 and consider only how to determine whether these 
 doubtful selections shall be given through impersona- 
 tive reading or pure reading. Of course, it is under- 
 stood that when the author's purpose is perfectly 
 clear we shall not hesitate to classify according to 
 that purpose, but occasionally there are other elements 
 which may govern the choice of delivery, especially in 
 that large class of narrative literature which was not 
 originally intended for public reading and in which 
 the need for characterization rather than mood ex- 
 pression was not particularly considered at the time 
 of writing. When, therefore, the author's purpose is 
 
 i6i 
 
i62 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 not clear, the occasion, the audience conditions or the 
 readers own mood at the time of tJie reading may 
 determine his choice of presentation. Let us imagine, 
 for example, an informal occasion ; the audience a 
 group of working men and women from the factories 
 and mines ; and the reader himself in a jovial mood 
 arising from the informality of the occasion. The 
 selection to be given is, let us say, Old Chxmis, by 
 Alice Carey. Now in this selection either comedy 
 characterization or mere expression of the old man's 
 mood will be effective, but the tired factory men and 
 women, unused to literary efforts, and loving informal 
 rather than formal occasions, will undoubtedly enjoy 
 more the comedy characterization through impersona- 
 tive reading. If the same reading were to be offered 
 in Boston at the University Club, the wise reader 
 would choose pure reading as his method of presenta- 
 tion. The selection would be classified normally as a 
 Character Monologue, but the audience condition 
 might demand that it be elevated to the Reading 
 Monologue class when given before the University 
 Club. 
 
 Selections Unmistakable in Classification. — There 
 are certain selections which must be given but 
 one presentation because any other way would defeat 
 their purpose. Here the audience conditions can not 
 be taken into consideration as to what delivery they 
 may demand. If the audience is such that it would 
 not care for simple personations, the wise reader will 
 omit them rather than attempt giving them through 
 pure reading. If, on the other hand, the audience 
 
READING i6^ 
 
 is too uninformed to understand Browning's Blot on the 
 Scutcheon, it is better not to give it than to burlesque 
 it through impersonative reading. In most cases, 
 however, unless the selection is too difficult from a 
 literary standpoint, it may be introduced in a varied 
 program not overbalanced by too much classic ma- 
 terial, and the pure reading will be appreciated by 
 way of contrast. 
 
 If Alarjory Benton Cooke's At the Matinee is to be 
 given at all, it must be personated. No other presenta- 
 tion is adequate. It was written for literal action 
 and without it the piece would be a failure. If the 
 Literary Club before which the reader is to entertain 
 is so conservative that it considers any kind of person- 
 ating undignified, then At the Matinee should not be 
 offered at the Literary Club. 
 
 The same thing may be said of impersonative read- 
 ing. Fin de Sleclc should either be read impersona- 
 tively, representing the eccentric dude or it should 
 not be read at all. This type, however, will often be 
 acceptable where the piece requiring literal action will 
 not. Dickens' Christmas Carol requires eccentric 
 characterization, and loses half its charm if read by 
 merely expressing the moods. Dickens, of all English 
 novelists, was a character delineator and his purpose 
 was to picture eccentric types. He often read publicly 
 and it is known that he presented the Christ }nas Carol 
 through impersonative reading. 
 
 Longfellow's King Robert of Sicily should be 
 given only through pure reading. There are no ec- 
 centric characters. The whole theme is dependent 
 
i64 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 on moods, and to impersonate any of the characters 
 would sacrifice too much of the thought and feehng 
 in the situation. Some readers are tempted to make 
 the old sexton eccentric, but careful analysis will 
 show that he is an unimportant character and should 
 not be made at all conspicuous. Impersonative treat- 
 ment would make him so, therefore, the line ''Who 
 is there?" should be spoken merely in the mood of 
 fear, with no attempt at producing a cracked or 
 trembling voice, or drawing in the lips to picture a 
 toothless old man. The audience is not concerned with 
 him except as he opens the door for King Robert, 
 the chief person in the poem. 
 
 My Last Duchess must be given through pure 
 reading. The duke is not eccentric. He is merely a 
 jealous man, and his mood dominates the whole read- 
 ing. To call attention to any external eccentricity of 
 character, or to make the duke walk about and "put 
 aside the curtain" literally would take the mind of 
 the audience away from the all important conception 
 of his mood. 
 
 Selections Impossible to Classify as Readings. — 
 (i.) The Burlesque. There are certain selections 
 which may belong to the regular classification, but 
 when frankly overdone and overacted become the 
 Burlesque. Any selection is capable of being bur- 
 lesqued but there are a great many which can not be 
 so misused without showing gross bad taste on the 
 part of the performer. Some selections are written 
 purposely to be burlesciue ; for instance, F. Anstey's 
 version of Burglar Bill wherein a young elocutionist 
 
READING 165 
 
 is being taught to "render" the old poem by that 
 naiiie. All the laws of elocution are purposely vio- 
 lated in a frank attempt to ridicule the stage struck 
 elocutionist. Here the reader is free to do as he 
 likes, for he is supposed to make the situation as 
 ridiculous as possible. 
 
 (2.) The Inconsistent Composition. Many selections, 
 written for public reading by young authors who are 
 ignorant of the principles of public presentation, are 
 incapable of consistent delivery, for they are them- 
 selves confusing. There are a few so called "Acting'* 
 Monologues in which the author directs the reader to 
 have a suit-case, a scarf, a telephone, a baby and a 
 whole trunk full of stage properties in order to give 
 a ten-minute selection which could be given just as 
 well without the properties. The true reader, if he 
 gives such a selection at all, will rearrange it to be 
 consistent with the actual necessities of the case. 
 Our Folks, by Ethel Lynn, is an example of an incon- 
 sistent composition form. It starts out in implied 
 dialogue and continues until about half-w^ay when 
 suddenly the character whose replies have been as- 
 sumed begins to talk. Then later the reader becomes 
 himself long enough to give the explanatory line 
 "Only the old camp raven croaks." The inconsist- 
 ency of this selection is not serious for the theme is 
 one that is not dependent upon characterization or 
 eccentricity. The only weakness lies in the fact that 
 the audience may be confused when the new charac- 
 ter speaks, for they are introduced to the monologue 
 form and naturally expect it to continue. Our Folks 
 
i66 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 is neither a complete Reading Monologue nor a Nar- 
 rative Reading, so it is not possible to classify it. 
 (j.) Stunts, or Imitations. Selections which frankly 
 exploit nature sounds and imitations may rightly be 
 called "stunts." They should not be called readings. 
 Fred Emerson Brooks' Barnyard Melodies was writ- 
 ten to give opportunity for a versatile imitator to imi- 
 tate the creatures of the farm, and in the hands of a 
 skilled (not necessarily artistic) entertainer, the se- 
 lection is very pleasing. 
 
 (4.) Ventriloqtiisni. Ventriloquism is another enter- 
 taining stunt popular in vaudeville, but not at all 
 advisable to incorporate in a reading. It involves too 
 much mechanical effort to allow its user the freedom 
 of real suggestion. Ventriloquism is to the ear what 
 legerdemain is to the eye — deceit. The ventriloquist 
 by calling attention to a certain part of the platform, 
 behind, outside the wings or at the side, induces the 
 audience to imagine the voice to come from whatever 
 direction has been indicated. The audience is con- 
 scious of the trick and is occupied in wondering how 
 it is done rather than in thinking about what is said. 
 Ventriloquism is a matter of skill, not of art, and 
 consists in speaking back in the throat at various 
 pitches and degrees of force to correspond with the 
 effect which various distances in speech have upon the 
 ear. This mechanical accomplishment, assisted by 
 judgment and tact in persuading the audience to 
 listen for sound coming from different directions and 
 distances, is the whole secret of ventriloquism. Cor- 
 respondingly, the secret of legerdemain lies in the 
 
READING 167 
 
 ability to draw the risual attention to any given point 
 while skilfully palming articles made to appear 
 and disappear. The inadvisability of using ventrilo- 
 quism in reading is illustrated in the case of the young- 
 woman who read Romeo and Juliet. When giving 
 the call of the old nurse, supposedly out of sight in 
 Juliet's chamber, the reader placed her voice in the 
 back of her throat and called "Juliet," trying at the 
 same moment to keep the facial expression of Juliet 
 beatific. The strain on her throat proved too much 
 for her facial control, and Juliet at that moment 
 looked more like a certain famous motion picture star 
 when registering the surprise caused by an unex- 
 pected blow on the head. If the reader had been a 
 skilful ventriloquist, she might have avoided the 
 blank expression, but in any event she could not have 
 avoided the abrupt change of attention on the part 
 of the audience. 
 
 The use of "sleight of hand" in a reading is illus- 
 trated by the work of a prominent reader who intro- 
 duces a large silk handkerchief in the conversation 
 between Othello and lago. It represents the handker- 
 chief that Othello has given to Desdemona and which 
 lago now shows to Othello. At the moment when 
 lago gives back the handkerchief to Othello, the 
 reader in using the real handkerchief is obliged to 
 transfer it from himself to himself and then get it 
 out of sight when lago speaks again. To do this the 
 reader becomes "magician" and makes several quick 
 moves which causes the audience to wonder "how 
 that handkerchief disappeared," a thought which 
 
i68 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 should never occur to a reader's audience. In the 
 first place no handkerchief is necessary. The reader 
 does not even need to suggest the action for the lines 
 themselves are enough. In the second place, the 
 "sleight of hand" movements take the attention of the 
 audience entirely away from the scene. 
 
 In a comedy "stunt" like Siinonson's Baby, in vvhich 
 the principal entertaining feature is the imitation of 
 the crying baby held in the arms of an irate father, 
 the ventriloquism adds comedy which does not injure 
 the purpose of the selection, for the purpose is frankly 
 ridiculous. 
 
 When done frankly for the amusement and curiosity 
 of an audience, ventriloquism is permissible, but intro- 
 duced in presenting a piece of literature worthy to be 
 accepted for its literary value, it becomes another one 
 of those little accidentals which not only take up time 
 but turn the attention of the audience from the im- 
 portant things. Legerdemain makes a splendid 
 novelty for entertainment, but when introduced to get 
 rid of handkerchiefs, watches, or other unnecessary 
 things often brought into a reading, it defeats the real 
 purpose of the reader's art. 
 
PART THREE 
 Method of Study 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 GENERAL DISCUSSION 
 
 Introductory Statement. — Teachers of English 
 and the practical forms of Public Speaking are some- 
 times inclined to minimize the importance of dramatic 
 work and public reading. Many, indeed, ridicule the 
 teaching of acting as a subject unworthy of receiving 
 college credit. They do not realize that genuine 
 dramatic culture is in reality as essential for ultimate 
 success in public reading as the study of mathematics 
 is necessary for success in engineering; that success 
 in practical public speaking depends upon a knowl- 
 edge of people ; and that the best knowledge of people 
 can come only through a study of moods, disposi- 
 tions, and the various means of expressing thought 
 and feeling through voice and action. It is difficult 
 to make the young teacher of public speaking see that 
 something more than intellect is necessary in reading 
 aloud a piece of literature so that it will awaken the 
 imagination of an audience to a full conception of its 
 value. He is surprised that some of his brightest 
 students can fail so utterly in presenting publicly 
 literature that he knows they thoroughly understand. 
 They have interpreted the meaning exactly and yet 
 the audience was not moved. In his college course in 
 "Methods," the young teacher had been taught to see 
 
 171 
 
172 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 that his students ''get the thought, hold tlie thought, 
 and give the thought," but when these same students 
 read for pul)Hc entertainment, someway he finds that 
 getting, giving and holding the thought is not enough. 
 This is the very point. The THOUGHT is not 
 enough! It is not even the first essential in preparing 
 the student for adequate public reading.'*' Thought is 
 not the beginning of wisdom; it is the I'csult of wis- 
 dom. It is the constantly growing result of years of 
 sensory experience and expanding emotional impres- 
 sions ; it is not the foundation of these experiences. 
 
 The purpose of the following chapters is to show 
 that the highest type of suggestive and imaginative 
 presentation, namely, pure reading, can be attained 
 only through the natural and logical development of 
 the student, first, in acting; secoud, in personating; 
 third, in impersonative reading ; and last, in pure read- 
 ing. This logical development corresponds to the 
 natural development of human expression through 
 I physical, emotional and finally intellectual activity. 
 
 In taking up this plan of study, we are assuming 
 that the student is at least fifteen years of age and 
 has had the regular physical and mental development 
 corresponding to his years; that he has already 
 reached the reasoning period and can ''get the thought, 
 hold the thought, and give the thought" of the printed 
 
 *This statement does not, of course, apply to the student 
 of common reading from the page. This chapter is dealing 
 solely with the professional student of public reading who 
 has already passed the stage of intelligent reading from the 
 page, and is at the point of beginning his preparation for a 
 public career. 
 
STUDY 173 
 
 page ; and tliat this (levelopment, of course, has been 
 without conscious thought of the process on the part 
 of the student. In order to develop consciously in the 
 art of suggestion, the student must consciously go 
 back to the beginnings of his experiences and re-liTC 
 them — this time governed by conscious reasoning 
 while registcrini^ their mental imagery. It is easier 
 to teach a child to act than to teach a grown person, 
 but it is impossible to teach a child to understand the 
 art of suggestion. People marvel at the naturalness 
 of the acting done by little children in the movies and 
 on the stage and wonder how it was possible to teach 
 them. They think, of course, that these children are 
 prodigies. In reality they are just normal, healthy 
 children giving expression to a natural instinct, 
 namely to imitate "grown-ups." They have not 
 reached the self-conscious age where the intellect 
 suppresses the instinct because others are watching. 
 If a child is allowed to increase his motor imagery 
 and expand his power of imitation, he may pass the 
 stage of self-consciousness without serious loss, but 
 often the parents are so proud of their offspring's 
 "talent" that they keep urging him to perform until 
 he becomes conscious of his effort and either begins 
 to overdo or else gets self-conscious and suppresses 
 his instincts. Later, when he enters the public school, 
 he begins the systematic mental development which 
 overtops his acting instincts so that by the time he 
 reaches high school, they are completely subjected 
 and often forgotten. 
 
 If in high school the student is having the prcTper 
 
174 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 training in common reading, he is learning to under- 
 stand the thought of the printed page, to hold the 
 thought in mind, and to express the thought orally 
 to the class. He is also learning to express emotion 
 vocally, perhaps, but he does not have training in 
 bodily expression, or action. 
 
 We shall first review the natural order of human 
 development in unconscious expression from birth to 
 adolescence, and then show how the cultivation of 
 cojiscious expression follows the same natural order 
 in progressing from realistic imitation to the fine art 
 of suggestion. 
 
 The Development of Human Expression. — At 
 birth the child is a mere bundle of physical impulses 
 and desires. There is no thought until it is evolved 
 from physical activity and continued response to 
 sensations. As Mark Twain says, "When baby smiles 
 in her sleep, she is not dreaming of angels — it is only 
 wind on the stomach." According to Messrs. Fulton 
 and Trueblood in Practical Elocution the first mental 
 development of the child is merely sentient, or the un- 
 conscious recording of impressions from the physical 
 senses. The first emotional development is sensitive- 
 ness, and the child cries but is not conscious of its 
 cry. Then follows a balance of mental and emotional 
 development : On the emotional side the child be- 
 comes in successive stages, affectional-passional, self- 
 preservative, social, moral and finally spiritual ; men- 
 tally he becomes instinctive, perceptive, memorative, 
 imaginative, and at last a reasoning being. It is not 
 until he has reached the reasoning stage that he can 
 
STUDY 175 
 
 be said to possess thought. Until some time after 
 reason appears all action and vocal utterance arc in- 
 stinctive or imitative in response to mental imagery, 
 and development up to this point is unconscious. 
 When reason manifests itself, it gradually becomes a 
 basis for self-culture, or conscious development ; it 
 begins to record consciously physical and emotional 
 experiences. As soon as the mind is able to take con- 
 scious thought of expression, it should be allowed to 
 follow from the beginning the laws of development 
 and thus make conscious expression natural. 
 
 The first attention should be given to the body in 
 physical culture and voice training. If the early 
 grammar school training in common reading has been 
 neglected (and in most cases, it has) the student 
 should next be given a thorough course wherein the 
 principles of grouping, group sequence, group mo- 
 tive, central idea, denotation and connotation are put 
 in practice. At the end of this course, the student is 
 ready to begin his intensive training for the stage, or 
 the platform, or for practical public speaking in legal, 
 political or business life. A good course in original 
 speech making should be offered parallel to dramatic 
 work in order that the student may acquire a freedom 
 and confidence in his own power of spontaneous ex- 
 pression. So many actors and public readers are 
 slaves to mcniorizLnl lines and are utterly lost before 
 an audience if the memory fails. Training in extem- 
 pore and impromptu speech makes the speaker inde- 
 pendent, not only in cases where the memory fails 
 but in conversation and on occasions when sponta- 
 neous speech is called for. 
 
176 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 In all the subsequent discussion, it is assumed that 
 all preliminary work has been done and the student is 
 ready for his professional training. 
 
 The Development of the Art of Pure Reading. — 
 Just as the child develops from a physical being 
 through regular stages to a reasoning individual, so 
 the beginner in conscious expression develops from 
 literal acting (physical expression) to suggestion 
 (imaginative thought and emotion plus reason) in 
 pure reading. As there can be no thought before 
 there has been bodily sensations and emotions, so 
 there can be no suggestion until there has been an 
 experience, directly or indirectly, of the thing to be 
 suggested. It is upon this principle that the student 
 is to build his power of suggesting scenes, events, 
 moods and actions to his audiences. 
 
 Acting is considered the first step in this develop- 
 ment because it requires imitation of complete move- 
 ments and realistic representation of essential things. 
 It is the easiest and most natural form of public ex- 
 pression and it makes use of the same instincts that 
 govern the early acts of childhood. The student 
 handles actual articles of furniture and real objects, 
 and he converses with real people just as in life. 
 Being with others on the stage, he is less conscious of 
 himself for he realizes that the attention of the 
 audience is not centered wholly upon him. He acts 
 as he has seen others act under similar circumstances 
 or he imitates the director. In any event his work 
 is mostly imitative. He is as a child. He is dressed 
 up and plays he is some one else doing something he 
 
STUDY 177 
 
 has seen some one else do. He is unlike a child in 
 that his reason helps him store up the muscular and 
 vocal impressions for use in subsequent conscious ex- 
 pression. His complete movements and bodily ges- 
 tures g-ivc him the experiences which his imagery and 
 reason will later translate into suggestive movements 
 and gestures. 
 
 Personating is the second step toward the purely 
 suggestive art for it introduces one element of imag- 
 ination through suggestion and correspondingly elim- 
 inates the realistic element of environment, or cos- 
 tume, stage furniture, scenery, etc. Having become 
 accustomed to the real surroundings and the handling 
 of real objects while in dialogue, the student finds it 
 easy, in personating, to imagine the surroundings and 
 to pantomime the handling of objects so that the au- 
 dience may easily imagine their presence. The action 
 is still complete, (or literal, as we term it) but it is 
 in relation to imaginary instead of to real objects. 
 The student has advanced a step toward the art of 
 suggestion but his work is still largely realistic. 
 
 When the student has advanced to Impersonative 
 Reading, he has taken a long step toward suggestion 
 which leaves realism far in the background. Not 
 only is environment eliminated, but literal action is 
 abandoned and the audience imagines the scene en- 
 tirely apart from the reader himself. The only real- 
 istic effect retained at all is the vocal and facial char- 
 acterization of eccentric or comedy characters. All 
 other action has become suggestive. The only excuse 
 for keeping literalness in voice and facial expression 
 
178 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 lies in the fact that broad comedy and eccentricity 
 are much more difficult to imagine than ordinary 
 liuman moods, and an audience deprived of this realis- 
 tic appeal Vvould lose half the conception of the eccen- 
 tricities. Human characteristics that are eccentric 
 are, of course, comparatively infrequent and the aver- 
 ag"e audience is not intimately acquainted with them. 
 Wlien reproduced literally in voice and feature, the 
 eccentricity is at once understood and the imagina- 
 tion of the audience left free to accept the larger sug- 
 gestions of environment and action. 
 
 In Pure Reading the student reaches his highest 
 pinnacle of artistic achievement. Having accustomed 
 his motor imagery to respond in literal imitation of 
 complete movements, and his auditory memory to re- 
 spond in imitation of different vocal characteristics, 
 he is now ready to depend upon an acquired instinct 
 to suggest action and to respond in involuntary vocal 
 change to the changing moods. The experience in 
 complete action and literal characterization in acting 
 and personating has accustomed the student to the 
 feel of different points of view. His motor memory 
 instantly recalls the sensation of the former complete 
 movements and he is now better able to choose gen- 
 eral essentials from the mass of details for suggestive 
 presentation than if he had attempted suggestion 
 before having the literal experiences. 
 
 The Law of Suggestive Action. — The suggestion 
 of a movement may be made in either of two ways : 
 by halting the motion midway between the initial im- 
 pulse and the accent of the completed movement, or 
 
STUDY 179 
 
 by making the accent upon the initial motion itself. 
 In long, stately, sweeping gestures, the suggestion 
 would require the accent to come a little later than 
 the initial motion, while in ordinary gestures, the 
 mere accenting of the initial impulse will be enough. 
 Sometimes, for example, the slightest lifting of the 
 hand and the sudden spreading of the fingers will 
 suggest the complete action of leaping or running, as 
 in King Robert of Sicily when the old sexton had 
 opened the great church door, and 
 
 ... "a man rushed by him at a single stride 
 Haggard, half naked, without hat or cloak 
 Who, neither turned or looked at him or spoke, 
 But leaped into the blackness of the night 
 And vanished like a specter from his sight" 
 
 the sympathetic reader will follow w^ith bodily attitude 
 and suggestive gesture the rushing king and as he 
 says "leaped," his fingers will unconsciously spread 
 as the accent becomes necessary. It will be seen that 
 such suggestive motions are impossible to work out 
 except through actual conscious experience in the 
 complete movements. One who has not thus developed 
 his kinesthetic imagery can never hope to give reliable 
 suggestion to his work. There can, of course, be 
 first-hand imitation of an instructor in suggestive 
 gesture, but to an observing eye such gestures always 
 lack significance and are either over graceful and 
 "studied," or arc awkward and inadequate. When 
 motor imagery is awakened and the memory of a 
 muscular impulse is aroused, the reader has for an 
 
i8o DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 instant the intention of reproducing the complete 
 movement. As the intention is formed the gesture 
 begins, but the zvill halts it and allows the voice and 
 the descriptive material to complete the movement 
 solely in the imagination of the hearers. The develop- 
 ment of more imagery not only makes possible imita- 
 tive action of the body as a whole, but assisted by a 
 corresponding development of auditory imagery, 
 makes possible vocal imitation. Hearing a sound the 
 imitator translates into motor imagery of the vocal 
 chords and of the muscles controlling the various res- 
 onant chambers, an adjustment which reproduces the 
 sound. Suggestive action, therefore, depends upon a 
 thorough understanding and practice of literal action. 
 The Lav7 of Vocal Changes. — Involuntary, or un- 
 conscious vocal change comes from the natural ex- 
 pression of moods in daily life and form the 
 unconscious imitation in childhood of different 
 sounds. Later, as soon as the student has learned to 
 overcome shyness and self-consciousness before an 
 audience, he will publicly express moods in vocal 
 change as unconsciously as in childhood. No atten- 
 tion to the mechanics of these changes is necessary 
 until after the student has had considerable experience 
 in the involuntary changes of voice. Voluntary 
 changes grow out of imitation and the knowledge of 
 speech mechanics. When both auditory and motor 
 imagery are well developed, imitation of sounds is 
 comparatively easy. In acting the student has de- 
 veloped his motor imagery to such a degree that he 
 finds it easy to assume the gait, gesture and facial 
 
STUDY i8i 
 
 expression of the character he represents. Gradually 
 he will grow so used to assuming the character's 
 action that it becomes almost a second nature for him 
 to acquire the peculiar tone quality of age or of any 
 eccentric character. A knowledge of speech mechanics 
 will aid in imitating the dialect, provincial speech, 
 speech defects and other peculiarities. The best time 
 for practice in voluntary vocal change is in imper- 
 sonative reading w4iere eccentric characterization is 
 the primary essential. Here the student has oppor- 
 tunity for conscious imitation of vocal peculiarities, 
 l^nderlying all voluntary changes are always the in- 
 voluntary changes due to shifting moods and varying 
 motives of thought, so at no time in presentation can 
 an actor or reader be without involuntary changes. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 In the Play with Others. — At the very beginning 
 of public work the student is sure to be nervous and 
 painfully self-conscious. It is for that reason he 
 should be given something to do which will enable 
 him to forget himself as much as possible and will 
 give him assurance that the audience is not contin- 
 ually watching him. Putting him in the play with 
 his classmates and letting him keep busy with little, 
 natural actions while carrying on a normal dialogue 
 is the best possible way to get him accustomed to an 
 audience. Here he is surrounded by the scene, actual 
 properties, furniture, etc., and must put his whole 
 attention to details of action with the properties, etc. 
 He does not look at the audience, in fact he is told 
 to ignore it utterly. Pie is to talk and act as if ignor- 
 ant of the existence of an audience and thus half 
 the cause for fear is taken away, for the looking at 
 an audience and being always obliged to face it are 
 two most disconcerting factors in appearing before 
 the public. The actor may at times turn his back 
 completely on the audience and while others are 
 occupying the attention, he rests assured that he is 
 not being criticized. Gradually all nervousness wears 
 away and he does not mind being alone on the stage 
 182 
 
STUDY 183 
 
 in a soliloquy. It is not wise to give an eccentric 
 character part to the timid student. Normal charac- 
 ters in simple comedy afford the best material for the 
 first work in acting. No dialects should be attempted 
 for the student is not yet accustomed to relying on 
 his motive and auditory imagery to such a degree 
 that he will make a good imitation and reproduce the 
 mood and atmosphere peculiar to the dialect. The 
 student should first be taught to handle himself well 
 on the stage. Then he may be put in a sketch where 
 he is taught to handle others — to assist to a chair, to 
 lift another person, to carry one, to embrace, to strug- 
 gle (in wrestling or fighting) to fence, box, etc. In the 
 play with others the student gains experience in all the 
 technique of bearing, including poise and carriage. 
 Every set of muscles is brought into play, and the 
 kinesthetic sense developed to a marvelous degree. 
 He learns how to handle a sword, a rifle, a newspaper, 
 a letter ; how to conduct himself at a table ; how to do 
 a thousand little things concerning which in actual life 
 he might never take conscious thought for personal 
 improvement. Here in the play he is made to observe 
 closely the right and the wrong way of doing things. 
 All this training can not fail to affect his bearing 
 favorably so that when he begins to appear alone 
 before audiences and the attention is centered at all 
 times upon him, he will have confidence in himself 
 and will not be subjected to the criticism that most 
 readers bring upon themselves. 
 
 Acfino; in the play with others, then, is the first 
 step in training for public appearance whether upon 
 the stage or upon the platform. 
 
i84 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 In the Soliloquy Alone. — Acting in the Soliloquy 
 offers the first opportunity for the student to be alone 
 on the stage and the center of uninterrupted attention 
 on the part of the audience. He is still among reaHs- 
 tic surroundings and is busy with minute action, but 
 he has taken a short step toward suggestion in that 
 his bearing must be tempered by a certain abstract- 
 ness which is apparent when one is meditating. He 
 must suggest meditation while in reality he is speak- 
 ing aloud for the benefit of the audience. His moods 
 are expressed with less reserve while in meditation 
 than while conversing with others. All his action may 
 be the same as it would be in the scene with others, 
 but instead of completely ignoring his audience, he 
 talks not to them but as though they were a part of 
 his own mind conversing with itself. His eyes do 
 not look at any one in the audience but stray absently 
 out over the audience or are fixed unseeing on various 
 objects in the scene. The constant attention of the 
 audience helps bring the student into closer harmony 
 with them, and, since in the play he has already over- 
 come his nervousness, this new relationship to the 
 audience does not disturb him in the least. The 
 Soliloquy which is to be acted may be an excerpt from 
 a play, or a soliloquy written expressly as a complete 
 selection to be acted. It should be a normal character 
 who speaks. Dialect or provincial speech should not 
 yet be attempted. One of the best Acting Soliloquies 
 for the student to take up at this time is Leland T. 
 Powers' Pro and Con. Here there is opportunity for 
 splendid expression of various moods while gazing 
 
STUDY 185 
 
 abstractedly out into the audience — the young man's 
 action with the gloves and the letter being seemingly 
 unconscious. 
 
 After the Acting Soliloquy, the student is ready to 
 drop the realistic surroundings and leave them to 
 the imagination of his audience, while he is concerned 
 with action during meditation. 
 
 The Soliloquy for Personating. — In taking up the 
 work of personating, the student has stepped from the 
 realm of the actor to that of the reader. Wherever 
 he may entertain, special surroundings and stage 
 accessories are unnecessary. The soliloquy which 
 requires plenty of action but no properties or scene 
 may be considered the ''common ground" between the 
 actor and the reader as far as the action itself is con- 
 cerned. Great attention is paid to every accompany- 
 ing mood (although the reader, of course, must not 
 appear conscious of his movements) while meditating. 
 The bearing of the reader in personating is the same 
 as that of the actor, except that the reader will never 
 allow himself to recline or turn his back completely 
 on the audience. In pantomime, every motion is 
 literal and his objective gesture must be accurate. 
 When imaginary objects are handled the fingers and 
 hands must correspond to the shape of the object, as 
 for instance, in picking up an imaginary lighted 
 candle, the speaker must see exactly the kind of can- 
 dlestick he is holding and must know how his fingers 
 would close around it. If it is the old-fashioned kind 
 with a little ring-like handle, his fingers will hold a 
 different position and his eyes will look for the 
 
i86 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 flame at a different point above his hand. The only 
 sure way of determining the correct position is to hold 
 a real lighted candle for a moment and practise ob- 
 serving the position and the feel of the candlestick 
 in the fingers. Then after removing the candle the 
 fingers should take the same position while the eyes 
 focus at the point where the real flame was. The 
 real candle in practice a few times will correct errors 
 in pantomime due to imperfect kinesthetic and visual 
 memory. In the final delivery of a personated solilo- 
 quy, the exact pantomime, of course, is not absolutely 
 essential, but for practice and the development of the 
 kinesthetic sense, the student should endeavor to be 
 exact. Another matter which must be kept in mind is 
 the returning of the imagined object to its resting 
 place before taking up another object. Since literal 
 action means completed action, and since action must 
 be complete in order to be realistic rather than sug- 
 gestive, it is necessary to carry out every objective 
 gesture to its close. If the candle is to be carried 
 across the platform and deposited on an imaginary 
 stand before a mirror while the speaker combs her 
 hair in pantomime, the movement of picking up the 
 brush and comb should not be made until the candle 
 has been put down. If the student has properly vis- 
 ualized the candle and feels it in her hand she will 
 not forget, but if her action is mechanical she is liable 
 to drop the candle in mid air in order to scratch her 
 nose and then — presto! — the candle is back in her 
 hand again. When she reaches her imaginary mirror, 
 she picks up the comb and the candle is again forgot- 
 
STUDY 187 
 
 ten. The teacher must watch carefully these appar- 
 ently trivial details and help the student to keep 
 consistent. 
 
 By the time the student has had systematic train- 
 ing in acting, both in the play and in the soliloquy, 
 his kinesthetic imagery has developed so that it will 
 begin to transfer auditory as well as visual impressions 
 into a conscious imitative adjustment of the vocal 
 cords and it is now comparatively easy to imitate an 
 eccentric voice quality or the variations of pitch, force 
 and time. He should not, however, depart just yet 
 from the portrayal of normal characters in action. 
 
 The Monologue for Personating. — What has been 
 said regarding the study of the soliloquy for personat- 
 ing applies the same way as far as the literal pan- 
 tomime is concerned. There is in the monologue, 
 however, an added appeal to the imagination in that 
 the audience is required to imagine other characters 
 in the scene. The subjective action of the reader here 
 reflects the presence of the others, and his conversa- 
 tion has definite direction instead of the abstraction 
 in meditation. The eyes travel frequently to the spot 
 where the other participants in the conversation are 
 supposed to be. The pauses are accompanied by a 
 listening attitude and a corresponding facial expres- 
 sion showing response to the thought of the supposed 
 speaker. The walking about is arranged so that the 
 audience can see the reader's face at all times and 
 every action is literally carried out except reclining. 
 The other characters may be imagined to walk about 
 through the simple trick on the part of the reader 
 
i88 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 who follows with his eyes the supposed movements 
 of the imaginary characters. The monologue is dis- 
 tinctly an advance toward suggestive art although its 
 action is still realistic. The practice of the student 
 at this point should enable him to attempt eccentricities 
 of character in voluntary vocal change of quality, 
 force, pitch and time, but he should not yet try defec- 
 tive speech, provincial speech or dialect. 
 
 Eccentric Address for Personating. — In the Ec- 
 centric Address, the student for the first time directly 
 addresses his audience, not in his own person but in 
 the character he represents. He assumes his real 
 audience to be a part of the scene and himself to be 
 an eccentric person whose style of oratory is ridicu- 
 lous and overdone. The student feeling himself in 
 comedy character free to overdo or to burlesque speak- 
 ing, is not afraid of criticism and therefore can face 
 the audience without self-consciousness. In the pre- 
 ceding steps the student has been gradually getting 
 used to an audience and now, especially since he is not 
 in serious mood, he will not feel embarrassment at 
 directly addressing his audience. He Avill literally 
 assume the character of an orator and will walk 
 about, shout, wave his arms and overdo the delivery 
 in whatever way the selection suggests. There may 
 be no occasion for more than vocal and facial char- 
 acterization, but since the circumstances of comedy 
 oratory do not limit the action of the speaker, this 
 type of selection is classed for the art of personating 
 rather than for impersonative reading. There is very 
 little opportunity for literal objective pantomime, but 
 
STUDY 189 
 
 facial expression together with indicative and subjec- 
 tive gesture as well as the bearing of the speaker may 
 be literal. By this time the student is quite ready to 
 assume voluntary peculiarities of speech and even 
 dialects. This type of selection is not good for the 
 student who is naturally prone to overdo his action, 
 but it is excellent practice for the individual who is 
 concentric and rather negative in disposition. 
 
 The Character Series for Personating. — The Char- 
 acter Series has been called the "common ground" 
 for treatment by personating or impersonative reading 
 because it may exploit eccentric characters in literal 
 action throughout, or it may be confined to literalness 
 in voice and facial expression only. Its value in the 
 sequence of study lies first in the practice of a variety 
 of eccentric characterizations embodied in one selec- 
 tion, and second, in the now serious moments of the 
 direct address to the audience. The teacher must 
 make clear that the Character Series is not a reading 
 in which characters converse with one another, but 
 is merely a number of uninterrupted speeches or 
 stories told formally or informally by several eccen- 
 tric speakers to a supposed audience of two or more. 
 The descriptive matter between speeches is given by 
 the reader in his own person and to the real audience. 
 This is the first finie during his sequence of study that 
 the student becomes HIMSELF during the rendition 
 of a selection and talks directly to Jiis audience. It is 
 also the first time he assumes directly more than one 
 character within a selection. There is here no need 
 for sudden change from one character to another, for 
 
igo DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 it is not conversation. The stories or speeches are not 
 important in themselves. It was the author's intention 
 to have a series of pecuHar characters portrayed and 
 what they say is incidental. Here the student gains 
 facility in becoming completely in voice as well as in 
 action several different comedy characters in succes- 
 sion. The fact that he is not required to make sudden 
 changes back and forth enables him to go completely 
 into the bodily action if he so desires. If the student 
 is inclined to overdo his action, the teacher should 
 require him to present this type of selection through 
 impersonative reading. If he still needs practice in 
 literal action, he should be required to walk about 
 and do all that is needed for personating. 
 
 The Character Soliloquy and the Character Mon- 
 ologue for Impersonative Reading. — In this step the 
 reader strives to perfect single characterizations in 
 voice and facial expressions, paying no attention 
 whatever to other literal action. Great attention is 
 paid to the voluntary assumption of a vocal peculiarity 
 and a corresponding peculiarity in facial expression 
 involving fixed features or recurring mannerism. The 
 Character Soliloquy applies the meditative mood to 
 an eccentric character, and the Character ^lonologue 
 directs the attention to a supposed listener, but the 
 listener instead of being imagined with him upon the 
 platform is indicated in front and a little to one side. 
 The effect upon the audience is to picture the whole 
 situation apart from the real platform and among 
 any surroundings conceived at will by the imagination 
 of the audience. Here is an opportunity for further 
 
STUDY 191 
 
 practice in dialect and provincial characterizations in 
 order to perfect the student's conception of atmos^ 
 phere and his adaptability to the peculiarities of 
 speech mechanics. By the time he has worked out 
 several characterizations painstakingly, the student is 
 ready to take the next step toward suggestiveness in 
 reading. 
 
 The Character Play for Impersonative Reading. — 
 The teacher in asking the student to prepare a scene 
 from a Character Play should first see that the stage 
 directions are properly arranged in descriptive form 
 so that the pure dialogue of the play becomes like the 
 descriptive dialogue of a narrative except that it is all 
 kept in the present tense. The descriptive passages 
 are given to the audience in direct address, and the 
 conversations require abrupt change from character 
 to character. All action except facial expression is 
 suggestive and carriage is not considered, for the 
 reader stands quietly in the center of the platform, 
 never taking more than one step in any direction. 
 Since it has become easy for the student to make 
 voluntary changes in voice, and to assume feature 
 characterizations, he is now called upon to make 
 these changes suddenly and as suddenly return to 
 his own person in direct address and description. He 
 is thoroughly accustomed to his audience now and is 
 never self-conscious. He can drop a character in- 
 stantly and talk conversationally to his audience, or 
 he can suggest pictures and scenes by a mere sug- 
 gestive movement of the hand accompanying a word 
 of description. His art has become highly suggestive. 
 
192 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 The Character Narrative for Impersonative Read- 
 ing. — The Character Narrative offers a Httle more 
 opportunity for pure narration and description inter- 
 spersed among the conversations, and the student is 
 more frequently himself before his audience than in 
 the Character Play. The Narration is written in the 
 past tense, so the reader is more in the position of 
 story-teller than in direct address as in the play. All 
 that has been said relative to the presentation, how- 
 ever, applies the same in the Character Narrative as 
 in the Character Play. The chief characters are ec- 
 centric and require more realistic attention than nor- 
 mal characters, but even those when supposed to 
 carry on action are only represented in suggestive 
 action. The reader must remember that he can not 
 walk about or use a chair in any kind of selection that 
 requires sudden transition from character to character 
 or to description. When the reader drops into a de- 
 scriptive passage he should look directly at his au- 
 dience from time to time and picture his scene not 
 with him upon the platform, but out beyond the 
 audience and back of it. The audience then sees the 
 entire scene imaginatively and undisturbed by any 
 limitations of the platform itself. 
 
 Interpretative Readings Including Sub-forms for 
 Pure Reading. — When the student enters upon pure 
 reading he abandons all effort at realism and becomes 
 wholly suggestive in mood and description. His vocal 
 changes are involuntary and are the result of change 
 in mood. Characters in conversation are distinguished 
 either by their characteristic mood, or by mere ex- 
 
STUDY 193 
 
 planation on the part of the reader. No attempt at 
 Hteral characterization is made at any point. The 
 student should study the best literature in the order 
 of the Reading Soliloquy, The Reading Monologue, 
 The Reading Play, The Descriptive Reading, The 
 Narrative Reading, and The Lyric Reading. The 
 Declamation, or serious speech, may be given as an 
 Interpretative Reading with a good deal of profit to 
 the student, especially if he wishes to develop practical 
 public speaking. Study of the declamation first, 
 however, before he has had dramatic training or at 
 least training in extempore oratory, often makes the 
 student stiff and mechanical. Declamation on the 
 whole is not practical, but may become worth while 
 if taken up after a thorough course leading to Pure 
 Reading. 
 
 After the student has had systematic practice in 
 selections in the order just explained, he is ready to 
 present any kind of literature in a creditable manner 
 for public approval. 
 
 Hovy^ to Work Out any Selection for Public Pre- 
 sentation. — From the foregoing explanation of the 
 way in which suggestive action develops from literal 
 action, it follows that any selection to be given sug- 
 gestively through pure reading can be rehearsed 
 realistically with great profit to the reader. All the 
 suggestive action can be made more surely suggestive 
 to the imaginations of the audience, if the reader has 
 freshened his kinesthetic imagery by realistic and 
 complete action in practice. In preparing Thomas 
 Bailev Aldrich's In an Atelier the reader will do well 
 
194 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 to pantomime carefully and literally all the move- 
 ments of the painter, as he paints, scrutinizes his 
 model, measures distances, and mixes colors. He 
 should visualize the canvas on the easel, the palette 
 with its different colors, the brushes, and the girl in 
 her queen's costume sitting as his model. In carrying 
 on the implied dialogue he glances from time to time 
 to her and back to his work. Later he gradually 
 loses interest in the work and centers his attention 
 upon the girl. At last he puts his brushes away and 
 devotes his whole attention to her. Going over the 
 selection a few times as a personated monologue, mak- 
 ing action the most important feature, gives the stu- 
 dent the exact atmosphere of the situation and enables 
 him to feel in his muscles the little movements that 
 realistically accompany his lines. Later he will put 
 more attention to the mood and will merely show the 
 various impulses of movement which will be manifest 
 in the initial motions and accents suggestive of the 
 whole situation. The selection is readily classified as 
 a reading monologue, with mood alone essential so 
 that in presenting the selection publicly the reader 
 knows it requires only suggestive action and involun- 
 tary vocal changes. 
 
 There are many selections obviously suitable for 
 pure reading only, but they need practice in literal 
 action in order that the resulting suggestive action 
 may be more powerful. Sometimes it is even wise 
 to go back to acting in order to get the situation and 
 atmosphere more thoroughly in mind. In presenting 
 The Soul of the Violin, it is often necessary in prac- 
 
STUDY 195 
 
 tice to have the student handle a real violin a few 
 times in order that his body may realize the feel of it 
 and the different impulses for movement that are to 
 be suggested. Of course, for public presentation the 
 selection should not be personated, for it is a Narra- 
 tive Reading, demanding only the expression of a 
 wonderful mood which can be powerfully suggested, 
 if the reader has tried to practise realistically the 
 action of the old man in the situation. 
 
 In preparing monologues for personating, it is fre- 
 quently necessary to use the actual properties for a 
 time in order to get the objective pantomime consist- 
 ent with the form of the objects to be suggested. In 
 order that the student may pantomime reading a letter 
 and turning a page, he may first use a real letter and 
 note carefully just what he does with his hands and 
 where his eyes focus. Later the pantomime will be 
 so literal that the audience will easily Imagine the 
 presence of the letter. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 CHOICE OF SELECTION 
 
 The Student's Difficulty. — One of the great trials 
 in the course of study is the finding of selections suit- 
 able for public presentation. The teacher who makes 
 a practice of picking out the selections for his pupils, 
 is depriving the student of a valuable bit of training, 
 and is at the same time unnecessarily burdening him- 
 self. The student should be taught to select his own 
 material right from the beginning. It is a mistake 
 for him to start out depending upon his teacher and 
 it is a bigger mistake for the teacher to encourage this 
 dependence. The teacher should stand ready to sug- 
 gest and give general instructions as to what type 
 of selections will be best at different stages in the 
 student's development ; he should see to it that all 
 selections chosen are not beyond the student's grasp, 
 and are in good taste, for good taste is a quality often 
 lacking in the average beginner; he should be ready 
 to assist in abridging, or cutting selections to be given, 
 but he should make the student do most of the work 
 himself; and finally he should insist that the student 
 take time and care in making his choice. So many 
 students get discouraged after reading half an hour 
 in the library and so take up the selection that looks 
 as if it "might do." Then after working on a selec- 
 
 196 
 
STUDY 197 
 
 tion, more often than not ihcy become tired of it and 
 wish they had selected something else. A great deal 
 of time is wasted in working out selections that were 
 chosen hastily. The teacher should impress upon his 
 pupils the importance of hard study in choosing 
 pieces — to say nothing of the work of memorizing 
 and preparation for delivery. It is safe to say that 
 at least one-third of the time to be put on preparation 
 should be devoted to looking over material for choice. 
 *'\Miat kind of piece do I want?" is the query that 
 overshadows the enthusiasm of the beginner when he 
 is told to go to the library and select the first piece 
 that is to be prepared for a public recital. If the 
 teacher has already suggested a number of sources, 
 the student after a hasty search is likely to return dis- 
 couraged and report that everything he read was too 
 old or else something he didn't like. Won't the 
 teacher please tell him something to learn, and he'll 
 learn it whether he likes it or not ! Here is where the 
 teacher must remain firm. Good counsel may be 
 given on how^ to search out material and advice con- 
 cerning new and old selections offered, but he should 
 not yield to the entreaty and allow the student to shift 
 such an important responsibility. A splendid incen- 
 tive toward diligent search for suitable material is 
 the prospect of a public recital. If the student is 
 advised to choose his selections with a view to making 
 up an evening's program, he will have a definite 
 purpose which will aid him in determining the differ- 
 ent types he will neerl for variety and balance. Tie 
 will unconsciouslv bear in mind an audience and as 
 
198 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 he is searching he will choose what he thinks will 
 entertain it. He will visualize the selection as he sees 
 in imagination its effect on his hearers. 
 
 New Selections or Old. — Many students are afraid 
 to chose anything that has been given before, and 
 they waste hours and hours of time in looking for 
 something they have never heard given. While it is 
 commendable to be always on the lookout for new 
 material, yet the old should not be entirely neglected. 
 An old piece of literature may give continued enjoy- 
 ment to an audience, just as an old piece of music 
 may be given over and over again with increasing 
 delight. The wedding march from Lohengrin, or 
 from Mendelssohn's Mid-Siimmer Night's Dream will 
 never grow old, and when played by an artist is always 
 enjoyed. Why should not good literature be given 
 over and over again? The teacher should impress 
 upon the student the value of some of the old read- 
 ings. It is true that there are thousands of selec- 
 tions which are no longer entertaining because they 
 have been overworked, but a piece of real literature 
 can never lose its power wdien presented by a master. 
 
 The entertainer must not, of course, rely wholly 
 on old literature, even if it is classic. He must be on 
 the watch for new material to present with the old. 
 Publishers of Choice Selections, Best Readings, 
 Speakers, etc., are constantly adding to their volumes, 
 but of course the student must not rely wholly upon 
 these works. He should learn to make his own 
 cuttings and read constantly with a view^ to adapta- 
 tion for reading. 
 
STUDY 199 
 
 Where to Find New Material. — One of the indis- 
 pensable books for the school Hbrary is Granger's 
 Guide to Recitation and Poetry, pubHshed by A. C. 
 ^IcChirg & Company. This book gives the title of 
 all popular readings, monologue, etc., that have been 
 published for public presentation up to a very recent 
 date and also gives the sources for finding the selec- 
 tions. 
 
 In searching for new material, the student can do 
 no better than keep up a regular acquaintance with 
 the best magazines and story periodicals, for in these 
 lie gold mines of unadapted material needing only the 
 sifting and washing process to prepare it for the eager 
 market. The student must learn to recognize suitable 
 selections and to know how to abridge and adapt them 
 for the platform. Not only are the current magazines 
 a fruitful field for research, but modern books and 
 plays offer chapters and scenes that may be quite as 
 entertaining as the short story. 
 
 How to Recognize Good Material for Adaptation. 
 — The task of finding new and original material for 
 public reading would seem unjustly burdensome if 
 It were necessary for the student to read thoroughly 
 everything he sees in order to determine its fitness. 
 An Immense amount of material may be glanced over, 
 but only that which passes the first test of hasty in- 
 spection should be laid aside for careful reading. 
 There may be three stages of Inspection which will 
 aid the student In narrowing down his material. The 
 first stage is merely glancing through the pages of a 
 magazine, reading the title and noticing whether there 
 
200 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 seems to be plenty of conversation. If the page pre- 
 sents too many ''solid" paragraphs, the article may be 
 discarded at once, unless the student is looking for 
 a descriptive reading. The page that is broken up into 
 frequent conversations shows a point in favor of 
 adaptation. If the title suggests animation, humor, 
 uncertainty, similarity, antagonism, or affairs of life 
 and death, the student will do well to apply the second 
 test, namely, to read the first two paragraphs together 
 with a paragraph in the middle and the concluding 
 paragraph to see if the story holds interest and pre- 
 sents a suitable climax for a public reading. If this 
 test succeeds, the selection should be read carefully 
 from beginning to end, keeping in mind the necessity 
 for consistency in maintaining the factors of interest. 
 According to Mr. Arthur Phillips in Effective Speak- 
 ing the factors of interest are: the vital, the unusual, 
 the uncertain, the concrete, the similar, the antagonis- 
 tic, and the animate. A story to be really entertaining 
 must embody one or more of these factors : it must 
 deal with matters of life and death ; with unusual 
 situations out of which grows the humorous selection ; 
 with events and situations whose outcome is uncer- 
 tain — the mystery story ; with a concrete rather than 
 abstract, scientific, or philosophical subject ; with ex- 
 periences familiar to every one ; with contending 
 forces ; or with rapid, invigorating motion. Stories 
 that appeal to the reader at once as intensely gripping, 
 with plenty of conversation and movement, or stories 
 of deep sympathy and sentiment, afford much oppor- 
 tunity for adaptation for public reading. After the 
 
STUDY 201 
 
 student has applied his three tests and has read the 
 selection once aloud to visualize the pictures and 
 determine the effect the voice produces, at the same 
 time imagining the effect it would have on an audience, 
 he is ready to ''cut," or abridge it for public use. 
 
 Cutting the Selection. — Much that is written pri- 
 marily for silent reading may be omitted when given 
 orally with the added expression of action and vocal 
 change. Long descriptive passages may be reduced to 
 a sentence, or rewritten in two or three crisp para- 
 graphs. A great deal of the descriptive dialogue (the 
 "he said," "said she, smiling" and the "answered 
 ^lary, as she put her hand over her heart," etc.), may 
 be dispensed with, for the reader himself may suggest 
 the action or the characters without making the de- 
 scription necessary. The teacher with his superior 
 judgment and experience should assist the pupil in 
 cutting all unnecessary parts of the story and such 
 parts of the conversation as may be omitted without 
 injuring the plot or the continuity of the theme. In 
 a short time the student will be able to do his own 
 cutting with very little suggestion from the teacher, 
 lie will soon comprehend the significance of certain 
 passages of description compared to the triviality of 
 others. He will seem to know intuitively where to 
 retain the "he said" and "said she" and where it would 
 be wise to omit them. Practice and observation will 
 develop judgment and a critical standard in viewing 
 one's own work, so that the pupil may soon become 
 independent of the teacher. Self-reliance in choosing 
 and cutting selections should be encouraged by the 
 
202 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATIOISi 
 
 teacher at the very beginning. A teacher who does 
 not present principles on which a student may become 
 his own critic is a mere "coach" — not a teacher. 
 
 Preparing the Selection for Delivery. — The selec- 
 tion having been chosen and arranged for public 
 reading, the question of how to prepare it next arises. 
 "Shall I give it from memory or shall I read it from 
 the manuscript with a desk before me?" says the 
 student. At this point there seems to be diversity of 
 opinion. Some teachers never encourage memorizing 
 and others insist upon it. Some hold the opinion that 
 to present a reading from memory is to descend to 
 the plane of vaudeville, and that reading from the 
 page is the only dignified way of presenting literature. 
 Others maintain that no reading from the page can be 
 as powerful or as impressive as reading from mem- 
 ory; that the reading from the page detracts from 
 the interest of the audience and gives the impression 
 that the reader is too lazy to memorize. There seems 
 to be no common ground for argument. In fact, it can 
 be shown that there is a place for b^h ways of pre- 
 senting literature and that either way can be made 
 artistic. It is obvious that acting or personating can 
 be given in no other way than from memory, but im- 
 pcrsonative reading and pure reading (since no walk- 
 ing about nor literal action is required) may be given 
 at the desk and with the manuscript. The greater 
 part of literature suitable for a reader is of the type 
 requiring either pure reading or impersonative read- 
 ing, so the question of using the manuscript arises at 
 the point where the student finds himself able to read 
 
STUDY 203 
 
 as suggestively and with apparently as powerful an 
 effect with the book before him. He sees at once 
 that he can have a much wider repertoire and that 
 the suggestions he gives are not hindered by the 
 presence of the book. Upon experiment he is told by 
 his audiences that they were not even conscious of 
 the book ; that the story was as vivid as if it had been 
 witnessed on the stage. This commendation of the 
 artist's work may be perfectly sincere, but at the same 
 time it may be misleading to the student of reading. 
 To be able to read masterfully from the page to a 
 public audience is an ideal worthy of great effort, but 
 the student must not be in too much of a hurry to put 
 it into practice. Artistic reading from the page is 
 difficult of attainment and can not be accomplished 
 w^ith any degree of success until the student has had 
 years of practice in memory presentation. To read 
 publicly from the page requires the ability to take in 
 at a glance whole paragraphs. It presupposes such a 
 familiarity with the lines that they could almost be 
 said to be memorized. The work of preparation is 
 almost as exacting as if the selection zvcre memorized, 
 except that the emphasis is put on mood and charac- 
 terization rather than on the mechanics of memory. 
 The student puts the extra amount of time that would 
 otherwise be occupied in the drudgery of memorizing 
 in perfecting his characterizations and making vivid 
 his atmospheres. When the reader has accomplished 
 the art of reading publicly from the page, there is a 
 distinct advantage in this mode of presentation. We 
 shall conclude, therefore, that the teacher should in- 
 
204 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 sist upon his pupils memorizing for public presenta- 
 tion until they have acquired the fine art of reading 
 from the page. 
 
 "How to memorize" is the next question that arises 
 in the preparation of a selection for public reading. 
 
 Professor J. S. Gaylord in an article published by 
 the National Association of Speech Education has of- 
 fered an admirable method of procedure which we 
 shall not take the time to quote here. Assuming that 
 the student has already been made acquainted with the 
 principles, we shall merely add a statement or two 
 which may be applied to any good method of memor- 
 izing. The teacher can not be too careful in caution- 
 ing the student against slip-shod memorizing or the 
 old "conning by rote" method and mechanical line by 
 line study. If the student has been properly trained 
 in the principles of grouping, group sequence, group 
 values, motives, etc., he will intuitively memorize the 
 ideas rather than the words. His greatest trouble 
 will be in memorizing the transitions, or associating 
 the last line of one paragraph with the first line of 
 the next. Here he will have to form deliberately some 
 mental picture or association that recalls the new 
 paragraph immediately upon speaking the last line of 
 the preceding paragraph. Then, he must repeat the 
 two lines several times as he visualizes his picture until 
 they become inseparable. It is rarely within the body 
 of a paragraph that the memory fails if it has been 
 associating ideas rather than words. 
 
 The student should stand by desk and book and 
 work over his selection aloud just as he hopes to give 
 
STUDY 205 
 
 it publicly after discarding the manuscript. He should 
 have his body free for suggestive action which will 
 gradually manifest itself as the moods become more 
 and more a part of the reader. Besides gaining val- 
 uable practice in reading from the page he is memor- 
 izing more rapidly and surely, because he is forming 
 more complete associations. To sit down and mum- 
 ble over the lines of a selection is not only a slow way 
 of memorizing but a harmful way, because it separates 
 the lines from their attendant action and creates men- 
 tal impressions that have to be changed when final 
 preparation comes. Imagining an audience every 
 time the selection is read over helps the student to vis- 
 ualize every situation and put his best effort into the 
 interpretation. The selection should be read from 
 beginning to end a number of times in order to get a 
 complete idea of it as a unit. The single paragraph 
 should not be committed until the entire selection is 
 practically memorized. Then the student may take 
 weak paragraphs — or those which seem more difficult 
 to fix exactly in mind and work over them separately 
 until the difficulty is overcome, but he should never 
 learn a selection page by page or paragraph by para- 
 graph. 
 
 The teacher should remind the student during his 
 practice that he is not to visualize the scene or the 
 characters on the platform with him, but should always 
 see the scene and the characters with whom he con- 
 verses in front of him and a little to one side. The 
 reader will look at his audience in giving the descrip- 
 tive parts, and when assuming characters he should 
 
2o6 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 place them in his own imagination just a little to the 
 right and left of an assumed straight line extending 
 in front of him out through the center of his audience. 
 He need never imagine more than two at a time, but 
 he should always visualize the one to zvhoni he is 
 speaking, reserving his kinesthetic imagery and audi- 
 tory imagery for the character he is assuming. When 
 he shifts to the other characters he merely directs his 
 attention slightly to the other side of the center line 
 and visualizes the character who the instant before 
 was speaking but who now is the listener. Care 
 should be taken not to make the angle too wide. Just 
 a slight turn from left to right and back to left is suffi- 
 cient to suggest the opposition of two people in con- 
 versation. If the situation demands one person ad- 
 dressing at the same time two people, the speaker looks 
 from right to left while sustaining the mood and 
 attitude of the speaker. Then when another speaks, 
 the change may be indicated by a change of mood 
 and attitude or by a word of description. When there 
 are more than three concerned in the conversation, 
 the speaker in addressing them all visualizes them 
 scattered about in front of him and on a level with him. 
 Any two of them in rapid conversation will demand a 
 slight turn from left to right, etc. Bits of description 
 also aid in keeping the characters distinct. There 
 should be no attempt in portraying normal characters, 
 to distinguish by peculiarity of feature or action. Pure 
 reading means to suggest. 
 
 All that has been said about preparing the selec- 
 tion pertains to both the character reading and the 
 
STUDY 207 
 
 interpretative reading. The method of learning a per- 
 sonation is necessarily different. Since action is more 
 important here than the snbject-niatter, the reader, 
 after the first few readings from beginning to end, 
 may profitably work out his action paragraph by 
 paragraph, learning the lines as he proceeds, at first 
 with the manuscript in his hand, and later, as he 
 develops detailed action, laying the book aside and 
 referring to it as he needs. He must, however, work 
 longer on the selection than is necessary on a reading 
 after he has committed it perfectly in order to adjust 
 all action with the lines and make easy transitions. 
 In working over a personation, he should remember 
 that the scene is imagined upon the platform with him, 
 so in speaking to an assumed character he will turn 
 so that the audience can imagine the other character 
 standing there with him. In a reading (whether a 
 character reading or an interpretative reading) the 
 characters are not imagined on the platform at all. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 CHOICE OF PROFESSIONAL TRAINING 
 
 Introductory. — When the student has completed 
 a thorough preliminary course and has acquired an 
 understanding of the breadth of the field of expression. 
 he will instinctively make a choice of profession ac- 
 cording to the particular phase of the work to which 
 he takes an especial liking. If he is practical rather 
 than artistic, he will naturally wish to develop along 
 the lines of original public speaking and will be in- 
 clined to thrust aside any suggestion of dramatic 
 work, as unnecessary and sentimental. If he is artis- 
 tic, his taste will point either to acting or to public 
 reading and he in turn may be inclined to disparage 
 the original public speaking as unnecessary to the ac- 
 complishment of his histrionic ambition. The teacher 
 should make clear that any branch of the field is 
 helpful to the development of the others. The most 
 intensive study, of course, will finally be directed to 
 the technique of the field one is to make his profes- 
 sion. The man who wishes to use his powers of 
 expression in a practical way, as a lawyer, teacher, 
 or salesman, can have no better preparation than a 
 course in acting followed by one in public reading, 
 taking them up in a more general way than his final 
 course in public speaking which should be studied 
 
 208 
 
STUDY 209 
 
 intensively, placing' emphasis on extempore oratory 
 and debating. The artist, on the other hand, parallel 
 with his intensive study of acting or reading, should 
 take up a general course in extempore speech and 
 debating. 
 
 Suggested Course for the Actor. — He who aspires 
 to be an actor is permitted the great joy of plunging 
 at once into his chosen work, but he will have the 
 lesser joy later, of departing from it for a time in 
 order to take up the work of the reader, and the 
 arduous work of making speeches and debating. Be- 
 cause acting, as we have shown, comes logically before 
 reading, it is taken up by the student first as a prepara- 
 tion for reading. Later he goes back to acting for his 
 intensive and permanent study in more difficult roles. 
 His work in reading will have given him experience 
 in suggestion and in creating subtle impressions upon 
 the minds of his audience, so that when he goes back 
 to his larger field of acting, his work Avill have a 
 finish and culture rarely found in any except the most 
 well-known Shakespearian or classical actors, and 
 among those who have achieved world wide fame in 
 our most literary modern plays. Along with his 
 first work in acting the student should take a good 
 course in the forms of public address and in argu- 
 mentation and debating. These courses do more 
 toward making him master of his audience than any 
 other work he can take. Debating develops his logic 
 and his judgment, it teaches him to think quickly and 
 accurately while before an audience, and above all it 
 builds for his interpretative work a common sense 
 
210 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 foundation that lifts it into the rcahii of true art free 
 from hyper-emotionalism and "barnstorming" senti- 
 mentality. The next step in the student's eulturc 
 should be a study of personating, followed by imper- 
 sonative reading, and later by pure reading. After 
 broad rather than intensive study of the reader's field, 
 the student who chooses acting as his profession will 
 take up the more technical phases and work up roles 
 in serious drama and tragedy. 
 
 A brief summary of the sequence of courses lead- 
 ing to the actor's profession would be: Preliminary 
 Courses, Acting (simple comedy and farce) together 
 with Public Speaking and Argumentation ; Personat- 
 ing and Impersonative Reading; Pure Reading and 
 finally intensive study of acting in the serious Drama 
 and Tragedy. 
 
 Suggested Course for the Reader. — The sequence 
 of courses for the reader is the same as for the actor, 
 but the intensive study begins with Impersonative 
 Reading, and continues through Pure Reading, broad- 
 ening and developing the larger suggestiveness and 
 the ability to read artistically from the printed page 
 for public entertainment. The Reader does not go 
 back to an intensive study of acting, but devotes his 
 finishing culture to Pure Reading. 
 
 Suggested Course for the Public Speaker. — Since 
 the i)ractical business man has little inclination for 
 fine art, it may be difficult to persuade him to take up 
 courses in Acting and Reading as a foundation for 
 original public speech. He will want to plunge at 
 once into declamation or some type of speech making 
 
STUDY 211 
 
 that shows promise of developing him along practical 
 lines. He thinks that the preliminary courses in physi- 
 cal culture and speech mechanics arc surely all that is 
 necessary to launch him into his regular field. The 
 tactful teacher will explain that a study of human 
 nature is particularly essential to the practical busi- 
 ness man and that no subject offers a better study of 
 varying moods and their accompanying outward ex- 
 pression than dramatic art. He w^ill shov/ that prac- 
 tice in action and the literal assuming of different 
 types will aid in recognizing the types when he meets 
 them in business life. Of course the practical man is 
 usually inartistic, so the teacher should not attempt to 
 make an artist of him. He can only give the necessary 
 opportunity for the student to get a general develop- 
 ment in that direction so that it may be of use to him 
 indirectly when he takes up extempore and impromptu 
 speaking, argument and debate, salesmanship and 
 promoting, in his intensive study. Dramatic work is 
 helpful as a foundation for any profession for it 
 teaches the student adaptability and gives him keener 
 judgment of human nature. He can not take a course 
 in acting without increasing his kinesthetic develop- 
 ment and he can not work at reading for any length 
 of time without developing a finer sense of values 
 through his cultivation of suggestion. The teacher 
 should therefore strongly urge the sequence of study 
 suggested, for the development is based on sound 
 psychology and experiment has shown reliable results. 
 A Word about the Preliminary Courses. — Before 
 leaving the subject of suggested courses it may be well 
 
212 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 to explain tlie nature of Preliminary Courses neces- 
 sary as a foundation to any proper development along 
 professional lines. 
 
 A good course in physical instruction including 
 calesthenics and esthetic culture should coordinate 
 with a course in speech mechanics and voice culture 
 as the beginning of every student's work in oral ex- 
 pression. 
 
 Following this course the student should have daily 
 drill in common reading from the printed page: he 
 should learn the principles of grouping, group se- 
 quence, denotation, connotation, etc., so that his read- 
 ing may be intelligent without being cold and me- 
 chanically precise. 
 
 A third course immediately preparatory to Acting 
 and Reading may profitably consist in practice in com- 
 mon reading in such well known classics as The 
 Christmas Carol, Julius Ccesar and Enoch Arden or 
 Evangeline. At this point the student ought to be 
 ready to start his public program work in the course 
 of acting. 
 
 When the course in acting, personating, impersona- 
 tive reading and pure reading is begun, the work of 
 practical public speaking should be started and carried 
 on parallel to the dramatic work, the extempore speak- 
 ing and the practice in different types of original oral 
 composition preceding the work in oral debate. 
 
 THE END 
 
APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Definition of Class Types.— It is assumed that the 
 student is already familiar with the underlying princi- 
 ples of elocution including a knowledge of the vocal 
 elements, quality, force, pitch and time, and the neces- 
 sary fundamental laws of action, so the definitions as 
 set forth in the Appendix may be accepted merely as 
 an aid to a clearer understanding of the more technical 
 classifications offered in the book. 
 (i.) The Artists Defined. The actor is trained to 
 assume realistically during the entire time he is in 
 view of the audience a single character in appropriate 
 make-up and costume, surrounded by scenery repre- 
 senting the background, or setting of the play, and 
 assisted by stage properties, furniture, lighting effects, 
 and all the paraphernalia necessary to a realistic per- 
 formance. He works with fellow actors also appro- 
 priately costumed. His art, acting, is the only art 
 that allows more than one actual participant. He 
 may be alone on the stage in soliloquy or he may be 
 with any number who are engaged with him in dialogue 
 and action. The actor always speaks his lines from 
 memory. 
 
 The reader is trained to assume more or less sug- 
 gestively one or many characters during the time he 
 is in view of his audience. His province is not the 
 stage but the platform. He is not assisted by make- 
 
 215 
 
2i6 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 up, costumes or stage effects but appears on the plat- 
 form in conventional attire. The reader may speak 
 his lines from memory or from a manuscript upon a 
 desk before him. 
 
 (2.) The Arts Defined, Elocution is the general 
 term used to include all forms of public or private 
 speech in which voice and action are employed. 
 
 Acting refers to that type of art by which one or 
 more persons in appropriate costumes and make-up 
 and with special properties, stage furniture and scen- 
 ery, present realistically a piece of dramatic literature. 
 
 Reading is a general term representing the art by 
 which one person on the public platform without 
 make-up, special costume, properties or any stage ac- 
 cessories presents more or less realistically any piece 
 of literature. This term includes Personating, Imper- 
 sonative Reading and Pure Reading. 
 
 Personating is that form of reading, here arbitra- 
 rily used to designate the art of characterization with- 
 out the aid of make-up, properties, etc., but with literal 
 action throughout, presenting more realistically than 
 suggestively a certain form of literature which re- 
 quires uninterrupted speech on the part of a single 
 character. In this form of reading the use of proper- 
 ties, etc., is not only unnecessary but inconsistent and 
 confusing to the audience. 
 
 iMrERSONATiVE READING is that fomi of reading in 
 which literal action is not essential except in facial 
 expression, and in which voluntary vocal adaptation 
 and facial characterization are of primary importance 
 for the presentation of eccentric or comedy characters. 
 
APPENDIX 217 
 
 This type may be regarded as the "common ground" 
 between personating and pure reading. The use of 
 properties in this kind of deUvery would be a hin- 
 drance. Here the reader may assume one or many 
 characters in conversation. 
 
 Pure reading is that form of reading which is 
 purely suggestive of characterization, merely reflect- 
 ing the mood of normal characters or describing 
 events and situations which occur in ordinary narra- 
 tion and description or in lyric composition. Here the 
 reader may assume one or several normal characters 
 in conversation. The use of properties in pure read- 
 ing is uncomplimentary to the audience. 
 (3-) Types of Literature Defined. The play is a 
 dramatic composition written in pure dialogue form 
 in which two or more characters are to be literally 
 represented in appropriate make-up and costume and 
 realistic surroundings consistent with the plot. It 
 is intended primarily for acting and when so presented 
 must involve literal action throughout with all neces- 
 sary properties and with attention to the minutest 
 detail for realistic effect. When the Play is to be 
 presented by a reader and not by a company of actors, 
 the form of its composition must be changed from 
 pure dialogue to descriptive dialogue and it is then 
 called The Character Play or The Reading Play 
 according to essential qualifications already discussed. 
 The soliloquy is a composition written in the first 
 person representing a single character in meditation, 
 or talking to himself. No other characters are sup- 
 posed to be present at any time during the speech. 
 
2i8 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 (This statement may not always apply to the soliloquy 
 zi'ithin the Play). The Soliloquy is written for acting 
 and it will be recognized as such by the apparent 
 necessity for costume, scenery or special properties. 
 If these accessories are obviously not essential, then 
 the selection is intended for the reader and not the 
 actor and it will be classed as a Personated Soliloquy, 
 Character Soliloquy or Reading Soliloquy according 
 to the evident purpose of its author. 
 
 Tke rERSONATiON is a composition in the first per- 
 son written in any one of the three literary forms, 
 soliloquy, implied dialogue, or direct address. The 
 public platform, not the stage, is the place for the 
 Personation. Here literal action is of first impor- 
 tance, while costumes, properties, etc., are out of 
 place. The Personation includes four types: The 
 Personated Soliloquy, the Monologue, the Eccentric 
 Address, and the Character Series. 
 
 The character reading is composition written in 
 first or third person and in any one of the three liter- 
 ary forms, soliloquy, implied dialogue or descriptize 
 dialogue. The Character Reading requires eccentric 
 or comedy characterization in voluntary vocal change 
 and facial expression, but does not require literal ac- 
 tion or prolonged attention to imaginary objects. 
 There are four types of the Character Reading: The 
 Character Soliloquy, the Character Monologue, the 
 Character Play, and the Character Narrative. 
 
 The interpretative reading is that class of com- 
 position written in first or third person in which the 
 expression of mood and atmosphere is all that should 
 
APPENDIX 219 
 
 claim the reader's attention. No literal action or ec- 
 centric characterization is required. The thought and 
 emotion of each character and the atmosphere of the 
 narration and description must be the whole aim of 
 the reader here. The Interpretive Reading may take 
 the form of soliloquy, implied dialogue, descriptive 
 dialogue, description, pure narration, direct address, 
 or lyric composition. As sub-forms of the Interpre- 
 tive Reading they are known respectively as the Read- 
 ing Soliloquy, the Reading Monologue, the Reading 
 Play, the Descriptive Reading, the Narrative Read- 
 ing, the Declamation and the Lyric Reading. 
 
 Unclassified forms are those selections which are 
 purely for show or burlesque entertainment such as 
 Vaudeville Stunts, Character Sketches in Costume 
 and Make-up, and Ventriloquial Stunts. These forms 
 do not come under legitimate classification as art. 
 They require mechanical skill rather than artistic 
 achievement. 
 
 Definition of Voice and Action.* — Since Elocution 
 is expression of thought and emotion by means of voice 
 and action, it will be necessary to determine exactly 
 what is meant by these terms and how they are sub- 
 divided. 
 
 The term Acting must not be confused with the 
 term Action. 
 
 Action refers to any bodily expression (except 
 vocal expression) whether in repose or in motion. 
 It includes Pantomime and Bearing and is also given 
 
 *See Figure C, in the Introduction. 
 
220 DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 a separate classification from the view-point of literal- 
 ness and suggesfireness. It should be understood 
 that all action as classified under Pantomime and 
 Bearing may be either literal or suggestive according 
 to the requirements of the selection to be presented. 
 (i.) Action Defined According ta Bodily Zones. 
 Bearing has to do with Carriage, or general bodily 
 motion, and with Poise, or stationary position and at- 
 titude. 
 
 Pantomime has to do with Facial Expression and 
 with Gesture (head, hand, arm, leg and foot). 
 
 Carriage is the Gait, or walk, run, hop. skip, jump, 
 lope, or stride, of an individual ; the Reciprocal Move- 
 mcjits (head, shoulders, arms, etc.), and Other Bodily 
 Movements, such as the acts of sitting, rising, reclin- 
 ing, falling or kneeling. 
 
 Poise is the stationary attitude of the body whether 
 in standing, sitting or reclining position. 
 
 Facial expression has to do first, with manifesta- 
 tion of mood in Subjective facial expression, show- 
 ing fear, delight, love, hate, anger, perplexity and all 
 the various shades of thought and emotion. Second. 
 it has to do with eccentric characterisation in Feature 
 Movements, such as motions of the jaw, tongue and 
 teeth in biting and chewing or pursing the lips in 
 kissing, etc.; in Fixed Features which have to do 
 with the holding of a particular expression such as a 
 prominent jaw, a stiff upper lip, a peculiar twist of 
 the mouth, a closed eye or a lifted eyebrow through- 
 out the characterization ; and in Recurring Manner- 
 isms, or habitual facial movements such as the twitch- 
 
APPENDIX 221 
 
 iiig of the lips, the bHnking of the eyes, the wrinkhng 
 of the forehead or the nose, and movements of the 
 tongue in the cheek. 
 
 Gesture, having to do with the movements of the 
 head, hands and the Hmbs, may be classified under 
 three divisions : Objective Gesture, or that which is 
 concerned with the handling of objects, real or imagin- 
 ary ; Indicative Gesture which indicates objects at a 
 distance or points out directions, dimensions and pro- 
 portions, and Subjective Gesture which is inseparably 
 associated with Subjective Facial Expression, both of 
 which indicate condition of being, or expression of mood, 
 and demand mutual coordination of all bodily agents. 
 (2.) Action Defined According to its Literalness and 
 Suggestivcness. Now that Action has been defined 
 and classified according to the different zones of ex- 
 pression in relation to mood and to external objects, 
 the entire classification may be applied in either of 
 two ways ; through literal action or through sugges- 
 tive action. 
 
 Literal action refers to completed movements in 
 Pantomime or Bearing and demands minute attention 
 to detail. It is the kind of action required in Acting 
 and in Personating when referring to objects real or 
 imaginary or when expressing a mood. The key-note 
 of literal action is completion of movement. 
 
 Suggestive action on the other hand refers to the 
 initial movement of Pantomime or Bearing sufficient 
 to stimulate the imagination of the beholder to com- 
 ]:>lete in his own mind the action thus suggested. It is 
 the kind of action required in pure reading. 
 
222 DRAMATIC LNTERPRETATION 
 
 (^.) Voice Defined, \^oice, or Vocal Expression, 
 refers to the voluntary and involuntary changes of 
 the voice either in the mechanics of speech or in the 
 expression of language. 
 
 Involuntary vocal changes are those infinite 
 shades of color in tone brought about spontaneously 
 by the action of the mood (either mental or emotional) 
 in the unconscious use of Quality, Force, Pitch and 
 Time. This change of voice runs through all types 
 of delivery for MOOD is the basis for all true ex- 
 pression. 
 
 Voluntary vocal changes are the changes con- 
 sciously effected for the purpose of eccentric or com- 
 edy characterizations. These changes are brought 
 about by a purposeful imitation of Dialects, Local or 
 Provincial Mannerisms of the voice, Defective Speech, 
 such as lisping, stuttering, stammering, false articula- 
 tions, etc., and through conscious changes of Quality, 
 Force, Pitch and Time. 
 
 Definition of Forms of Composition. — Soliloquy 
 is that form of composition used to give utterance to 
 the suggestion of meditative thought. In real life 
 meditation is rarely expressed aloud, but for story 
 and stage purposes such expression is given oral form 
 and when rendered from the stage or platform gives 
 the impression of "one talking to himself," It is 
 written in the first person and in present tense situa- 
 tion. 
 
 Implied dialogue is that form of composition 
 found in the Monologue which offers but one side of 
 a supposed conversation, leaving the other side to the 
 
APPENDIX 223 
 
 imagination of the audience. It is always in first 
 person and in present tense situation. 
 
 Pure dialogue is the formal dialogue found only 
 in the Play. It consists of present tense dialogue 
 and detached parenthetical phrases indicating the ac- 
 tion of the play together with other explanations not 
 meant for public expression. 
 
 Descriptre dialogue consists of conversational 
 lines in narration written in either the first or third 
 person, and in the past tense wherever bits of descrip- 
 tion occur. These explanatory phrases are inseparably 
 connected with the dialogue, for example, **'Bah! 
 Plumbug!' said Scrooge, and, finding nothing more 
 expressive to say, said again, 'Humbug !' " The pure 
 dialogue of the play is often changed by the reader to 
 descriptive dialogue by rephrasing some of the de- 
 tached stage directions which are read descriptively 
 along with the dialogue of the play, keeping the de- 
 scription in the present tense, however, instead of in 
 the past tense as in narration. 
 
 Direct address is the form of composition directed 
 straight at an audience, and is found only in speeches, 
 orations, debates, didactic addresses and sermons. 
 
 Narration is composition which tells a story. It 
 may contain conversation in descriptive dialogue or be 
 pure narration w^ithout conversation. It may be writ- 
 ten in first or third person but is always in past tense. 
 
 Description is composition w^hich describes vividly 
 a scene, an event, or a person without including the 
 narrative feature. It is generally written in the past 
 tense but may be written in the present. 
 
224 DRAMATIC LNTERPRETATION 
 
 Lyric composition is idealistic poetry in first or 
 third person which expresses a universal thought or 
 emotion in one crystallized moment of time. It is the 
 most suggestive and imaginative type of composition 
 and may include any of the above forms. 
 
 Definition of Mood and Atmosphere. — Mood is 
 the mental or emotional condition of a person. 
 
 Atmosphere is the mental or emotional state of 
 environment. It is the result of mood or a combina- 
 tion of moods, and may be suggested to an audience 
 by the reader's mood independent of the moods of his 
 characters. 
 
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502779 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY