Tuesday, October 4, 2016


LEST WE FORGET GENEVIEVE WARD
(March 27, 1837 - August 18, 1922)

She was appointed Honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on her 84th birthday in 1921.

"She is the greatest actress I have ever seen, and quite the most artistically faultless."
           Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Born in New York City to Colonel Samuel Ward and his wife Lucy, she was the granddaughter of former mayor Gideon Lee. When she was three years old, she accompanied her parents to Europe. (Imagine being a toddler on a ship in 1840!)   While there she became interested in the visual arts and music, and became proficient on the piano.

At the age of 19 she married a Russian count, Constantine de Guerbel. When the family returned to New York, she met Henriette Sontag who encouraged her to study singing in Italy and Paris.  Her debut appearance under the stage name
Ginevra Guerrabella occurred at Bergamo in the opera Stella di Napoli (1855).  Following appearances were in Lucrezia Borgia (Milan, 1856); Don Giovanni (Paris, 1859); Robin Hood (London, 1861) and her final role in La Traviata (New York, 1862).
          Loss of her voice due to an illness obliged her to leave the operatic stage and for some years she taught singing in New York.

A DRAMATIC CAREER


Queen Margaret in Richard lll


She returned to England in 1873 and began a long successful dramatic career.  Roles include: Lady Macbeth at Theatre Royal, Manchester; The Hunchback with Charles Wyndham; Rebecca in Ivanhoe (1875). Her most popular success was as Stephanie de Mohrivart in H. C. Merivale's and
F.C. Grove's Forget Me Not which she produced at the Lyceum Theatre (1879). She toured with it over 2,000 times all over the world.
       In her later years she portrayed character roles in Shakespeare's Coriolanus as Volumnia and Margaret of Anjou in Richard lll at the Old Vic theatre in London.

What follows are her published thoughts on the essentials and qualifications of a good actor.
I think for the actors who read this blog that you will find them insightful and inspirational.


IN HER OWN WORDS
             "In my opinion the physical attributes of an actor or actress should be a good figure, an expressive face, clear, sonorous, penetrative voice, articulation distinct and unhesitating, and a graceful bearing.  Mentally he or she should be endowed with a keen perception of character, artistic tastes, and above all, the dramatic instinct.
              By dramatic instinct I mean that natural quality which enables one almost intuitively to simulate the effects produced by the various emotions and passions of the human creature, and to understand the workings of these emotions.  This inborn power of controlling the means employed for the simulation of these emotions is the sine qua non in every actor, or in any one who would seek "by action and utterance and the power of speech to move men's hearts." The method to be used in mastering these means will vary with the individual student. The only certain formula I can name is work and observation.
           In addition to natural gifts, all who have reached eminence on the stage of the past or the present have had this capacity for constant and untiring industry. 'There are no gains without pains.'
          With regard to emotion and whether an actress should "feel" her part, I cannot do better than recall the remarks I contributed some years ago to Mr. Archer's symposium on 'The Psychology of Acting'.  Tears come to my eyes in a moving situation, but seldom run over. Sometimes they are unbidden, and sometimes I work on them.  I have been obliged when studying a part (Constance in King John for instance) to stop tears and sobs and would not have attempted to play it until I could control my feelings.    ....I have not found it made any difference with my audience whether I actually shed tears or not (very few see the real tears).  They feel the pathos of the situation and do a good part of the acting themselves.
         Many sad experiences in my life have helped to intensify my feelings on the stage. I have seen a young actress, whose pathos rarely touched her audience, perform one night under the influence of the deepest sorrow, tears rolling down her cheeks freely, and sobs breaking her voice. Yet the audience was quite as unmoved as on other occasions in the same situation.  To my mind this proves that personal emotion, unaccompanied by the power of dramatic expression, is not sufficient to move an audience."

RESOURCES

Sue Young Histories.  Blog: Genevieve-ward-1837-1922

Genevieve Ward.  Both Sides of the Curtain
A volume of her reminiscences.  1918

Wikipedia

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