Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/568

* STAGE. 486 STAGE. ■was the feeling toward acknowledged artists, it can be readily believed that the strolling player from Shakespeare's time down to the beginning of the last century M'as looked upon as l)ut one step above the tramp. Within the last fifty years the social status of the actor has vastly improved, because of the more universal interest taken in stage performances, the higher salaries paid to actors, and the better organiza- tion of the theatrical business as a whole. For the first time in the history of England an actor. Sir Henry Irving, has been knighted for his ser- vices to the stage. With the growth of importance of the theatrical business, the character of its management has changed, with a decided loss in sonic <lircctions and a gain in others. The old- time manager from Shakespeare's day to that of Sir Henry Irving in England, and of Lester Wallack in this country, was always an. actor and not a business man. Within the last twenty-five years the management of most Ameri- can theatre's has fallen into the hands of busi- ness men, with a consequent loss in artistic quality and a gain in financial stability. The per- manency of theatrical enterprises, and the fair certainty that contracts will be carried out, have made the profession less of a hazardous under- taking than it formerly was. At the same time, the fact that theatrical contracts are seldom made but for one season, commonly of forty weeks, that few plays please the public for more than a year, and that there are always several thousand unemployed actors and actresses in the United States alone, renders the actor's life, for the rank and file at least, a more or less un- certain one. Among the other disadvantages of the stage as a profession may be mentioned the absence of home life, nine-tenths of the profession having to travel from town to town, and the loss of earning capacity after a certain age. The ad- vantages of the profession are that it requires no capital, and that there is always a possibility of earning a much larger salary than the average man or woman can expect in other businesses or professions. Within the last thirty years the num- ber of theatres in this country has increased from hundi'eds to thousands, and according to trustworthy statistics there are now about 10,- 000 stage performers in the United States, to which number must be added about as many more per.sons employed as musicians, scenic artists, stage hands, costumcrs, and theatrical employees, making an army of about 20,000 persons who look to the stage for support. The people on the stage are employed by 400 theatrical companies, with an average of twenty persons to each company, The Actors' Fund of America, the charitable or- ganization of the dramatic profession in the United States, has a record of 17,000 persons employed in capacities entitling them to its recog- nition. Pew plays are given in Germany and France for more than a few weeks at a time. In England and the United States the same play is performed as long as it attracts a playing audi- ence, and most American companies are organized for one particular play, which is given through- out the season. This system entails constant traveling, which is one of the hardships of the actor's life. Scores of companies play the 'one- night stands,' as they are called, for month after month right through the season, traveling by day and acting at night. Miss Clara Morris, in her reminiscences, speaks of traveling all day without food to get to a town where she had to play the light-hearted daughter of a millionaire in the evening; she had to wear a low-nec'Ked dress upon a stage in Winnipeg, with Arctic blasts sweeping the stage; while a month later in Texas, with the thermometer at 100°, the part called for furs. The number of women stage performers now ex- ceeds that of men. Until 1660 they were for- bidden upon the English stage, the female parts in Sliakespeare's day being taken by boys or young men, which was also the custom in France and Germany. Women so soon became popular as actors that one of Dryden's comedies was pro- duced in 1608 in London with all the parts, both male and female, played by women. With the employment of women greater attention was paid to costuming. A Parisian dancer. Mile. Salle, raised a storm in 1740 by appearing in the ballet of Pygmalion in Greek costume. Paris audiences objected to the innovation, but London accepted it. It was not, however, until Talma insisted- in 1800 upon playing Brutus at the Tli^atre Francais in Roman costume and mthout a powdered wig that classical plays were costumed according to the epoch represented. It may also be supposed that the appearance of women as actors led to a more natural style of acting. So far as may be inferred from the books of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, acting in England and France was then as stilted and artificial as the manners of the time. Talma, Rachel, and Lemaltre in France, Garrick, Kean, and Macready in England, instituted more natu- ral methods. In more recent years wliat is known as 'realism' has made itself felt in acting as well as in literature. The old-time actor underwent a long training in the traditions and technicalities of the art ; he was expected to play many parts. The actor of to-day has usually a narrower range. Whether to trust to study and calculation or to inspiration when on the stage is a question on which experts diff'er. The noted French comedian Coquelin teaches that all acting is a distortion of nature so regulated by stud.y and experience that it will seem to be nature when seen by an audience. The actor, says Bronson Howard, the American playwright, must make the people in the audience, some of them a hundred feet away, think that he is moving, appearing, and speaking like the character he assumes, and to do so he must do something that he would never think of doing in real life in the same circumstances. His talk and gesture must be as false as his complexion in order that they may seem real. Such exagger- ation is an art that must be learned like any other. The foremost dramatic school of Europe has been that of the Paris Conservatoire, whose prize winners are engaged by the Paris Theatre Francais and the Odeon. In the United States the stage is now partly recruited from schools in New York, Boston, and Chicago, which gradu- ate yearly several himdred pupils who have studied elocution, acting, make-up, costuming, etc., and have taken part in constant rehearsals of standard plays. Of these schols the oldest is the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (q.v.), founded in New York in 1884 by Franklin H. Sargent. Many actors who have retired from the stage also make a business of teaching.