Sunday, October 2, 2016
MISS ELLEN TERRY was born at Coventry on February 27, 1848. She made her first appearance at the Old Princess's Theatre, then under the spirited management of Charles Kean, playing Mamillius in A Winter's Tale. She has told us how her heart swelled with pride when she learned what demands the part made upon her histrionic powers.
"A small go-cart, which it was my duty to drag about the stage, was also a keen sense of pride, and a great trouble to me. My first dramatic failure dates from that go-cart. I was told to run about with it on the stage, and while carrying out my instructions with more vigor than discretion, tripped over the handle, and down I came on my back.
A titter ran through the house and I felt my career as an actress was ruined forever!"
She later played Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, which had a run
of two hundred and fifty nights at the Princess's.
"I revelled in the impish unreason of the sprite and even now feel the charm of parts where the imagination can have free play, and there is no occasion to observe too closely the cold, hard rules of conventionality and fetters of dry-as-dust realism."
ELLEN TERRY IN HER OWN WORDS
Early training with Mr. Byrn
"Perhaps a word or two with reference to the dear old days when I too was a beginner on the stage may best illustrate my thoughts on the actor's apprenticeship. It was at the old Princess's that I was grounded in the essentials of an actress's education. Well do I remember the lessons in 'deportment' which I received at the hands of dear old Mr. Byrn, the prinicpal tenet of whose dramatic faith was that -----"an actress was no actress unless she had learned to dance early."
He would have had walking and posturing reduced to an exact science. An old-fashioned minuet step--to which he attached special importance--and, "walking the plank," which was to walk first slowly, then quicker, then at a considerable pace, along one of the planks extending the whole length of the stage, without deviating an inch from the straight line, were among his methods of giving an actress ease and grace in her actions. Although we children used to laugh at Mr. Byrn's military orders, I for one have since learned to appreciate the value, not only to deportment, but to a clear utterance, which lies in observing the order 'a chest thrown out, and a head thrown back.'
ARTICULATION LESSONS
In the most essential detail of articulation I learned from Mrs. Kean even at this early period of my apprenticeship; for although that gifted actress mainly directed her instructions to the grown up ladies of the company, I was always a willing pupil at her little lectures.
"A, E, I, O, U my dear 'she used to say,' are five distinct vowels, so don't mix them all up together as if you were making a pudding. If you want to say, 'I am going to the river,' say it plainly and don't tell us you are going to the 'rivah'! You must say her, not har; it is God not Gud; remonstrance, not remunstrance, and so on." As to gesture she would say, 'Use your arm from the shoulder; not from the elbow. Get your action free; don't stand like a trussed fowl"
ADVICE TO THE ACTOR IN HER OWN WORDS
The value of such teaching when the mind is young and impressionable cannot well be overestimated. It has always seemed to me, however, that the best school of acting is the theatre, where students may go and witness good acting for themselves, with their eyes and ears open to the varying shades of expression, the propriety of actions, and interpretation of character.
I consider it is a very important thing that actors should, at an early stage of their careers, come under the influence of the immortal Shakespeare. The Shakespearean drama is the most wholesome of all food for the actor. During my juvenile days at the Princess's, that theatre was almost entirely given up to Shakespeare, and although I was very young then, I am conscious that, even, as early as that, association with the Shakespearean drama was most beneficial to me, and the lessons I learned almost unconsciously at the Princess's have, I am persuaded, been of no little use to me in my career.
One thing which the young actress must always bear in mind is, that no stage effects should be left to chance. Everything should be rehearsed and foreseen. No greater mistake is made than to suppose that because certain effects on the stage may seem to be spontaneous they are due to the 'inspiration of the moment.' The true artist always calculates to a nicety what he or she will do at certain crucial points in the progress of the play, and it is when the action thus prearranged is carried out with the appearance of spontaneity that the art is true. Seemingly accidental effects may thus be, and in a great artist always are, the result of much study and elaborate rehearsal. The beginner may regard the advice, "Always act at rehearsal." as one of the axioms of acting.
Another important thing is to have a reason for every action on the stage. Every movement, every look of the eye should tell to some purpose; there should be no meaningless gesticulation. Repose is at once the most necessary and the most difficult thing to cultivate; but by perseverance the art of appearing at perfect ease under the critical gaze of an audience can be mastered.
RESOURCE: Hammerton, J. A. The Actor's Art: Theatrical Reminiscences and Methods of Study and Advice to Aspirants specially contributed by Leading actors of the Day. Preparatory note by Henry Irving. London. George Redway. 1897
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