ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY S A FEW GENERAL RULES OR CUSTOMS OF ACTING The letters R and L indicate the position of players on the stage facing the audience. R 1, L1 are the entrances nearest the front. Go up means from the audience; go down is toward the audience. RC is the right side of the centre, and so forth. When the characters enter, the person speaking generally comes second. Do not huddle together; do not stand in lines; and do not get in such angles that you cannot be seen by the sides of an audience. Stand still keep the leg nearest the audience back, gesticulate seldom and with the hand farthest from the audience. Do not point to your chest or heart when you say I, my and mine, nor to your neighbor when saying thou, thy, and thine, unless absolutely necessary. Try to reverse the usual acting of the present day and eliminate the personal pronoun 243120 vi RULES OR CUSTOMS OF ACTING as far as possible (Shakespeare does it all the time). Occasionally the pointing gesture is necessary but seldom. Do not try to say more than six words, or at most eight, in one breath. Careful punctuation and accent are harmonious and necessary. Whatever you do, sound the last two or three words of the line or sentence: dropping the voice is the worst fault of our best actors. Do not speak to your audience or at your audience, but with your fellow actors, remembering, of course, that you have invisible listeners, and that the last man in the house wants to hear and see. Do not imitate our star actors. Try to be natural, spontaneous, and original. At the same time, keep control of yourself and your emotions. To appear to be, and not really to be the character you are acting, is, perhaps, the perfection of the art. Don't fidget your hands and feet — forget them, and let them be where the good Lord has placed them. These few hints will be useful for all plays. I shall give more intimate notes as we go along. |