ACTORS' PRESENCE OF MIND.

Press, Volume XLVII, Issue 7529, 19 April 1890, Page 6

ACTORS' PRESENCE OF MIND.

An Intervthw with Ma Hermann Vezin. According to Horace the poet is born,no t made. "This most unfortunate phrase." said Mr Hermann Vezin the other day in conversation with a contributor, " should read—'the poet is born and made.' The Eoeric faculties are born with the man, ut to achieve great things they must be cultivated." Arguing from analogy, Mr Vezin holds that the actor must be made as well as born, and it is In this belief that during the last fourteen years he has devoted himself to the work of making actors. "Spending a morning in Mr Vezln's set of chambers just off the Strand," writes our contributor, " I learnt something of the result. One often hears Mr Vezin spoken of as a man who has missed his mark. Sitting in his cosy study, the glow of the fire and the light of the incandescent gas-lamps contrasting with the fog without, I begin to think that the Common opinion is the common mistake. For as Mr Vezin talks of his experiences and explains his views with an elocution I inwardly envy, there comes over the finely-chiselled features the animation and enthusiasm of a maestro of the stage.

"I took to training," Mr Vezin says, " quite accidentally and in rather a curious way. A very old friend of my family came to mc and asked if I would give some lessons in elocution to his son, who was going to the Parliamentary bar. * Well,' I replied, * I am not at all sure that I can teach elocution. One may possess the art, and yet not be able to teach that art to others. As you wish it, however, I will try.' That s how my first pupil came. I have never adverCised, buC the connection, as it were, has widened like a circle in a stream. Just now I have more pupils. I think, than at any time before, and often I give eight lessons during the day. Some are studying elocution merely as an accomplishment, others preparing themselves for the stage. Five of Mr Benson's company at the Globe were my pupils."

THE VAX__ OF TRAINING. Addressing himself first to the value of training, Mr Vezin said: "I believe the time will come when *imasters' will be as esssential in training for the stage as they now are in training for the concert or the opera. No one dreams of coming out as a public singer before undergoing a thorough course of instruction at the hands of a competent teacher. Mrs Kendal saysthat all that has to be learned by an actor can be learned on the stage itself, with the occasional assistance of the stage manager. But is not the advice ot the stage manager itself in the nature of training? Mrs Kendal has been on the boards since she was a child (I well remember her playing with mc at the age of fifteen when I was appearing as Triplet in " Masks and Faces ), but Che casual instruction of stage managers could surely not have been so valuable as the systematic teaching of a well qualified actor. I remember Miss Maude Mtllett consulting mc about 'coming out.' 'She doesnt need any training, her mother declared. 'Indeed,' I replied, 'is no training needed to paint or to sing ?" Some time after Miss Millett came again. She was playing in a piece of Column's then, but thought she would like to take a few lessons, alio had reached a certain point, she told mc, but beyOnd that she could not go. Of course this was a little triumph for mc."

"And at what age can the training be best given r—' 4 That is a question difficult to answer. I have pupils from thirteen to twenty-eight. In the teens, one would.be inclined to say, when tbe mind is most plastic and impressionable."

" Do you favour the French method o-* training T'— " Not altogether, although I mean to visit one or two of the French schools and give the subject more attention when next I visit Paris. It seems to mc too artificial and mechanical a method. The training should be adapted, I think, to the DeculTar needs and faculties of each individual pupil. lam averse to teaching in classes, although classes would, of coarse, be more prolltable Co mc. Some time ago I was asked by Sir George Grove to conduct an elocution class at the Royal College of Music. After some hesitation I consented The class numbered eight or nine pnpils, and ray practice was to hear each read a passaae in succession. I thought that faults corrected in one pupil would be avoided by the others. I was -mistaken; sometimes the same fault M -Id be repeated all through the class. Then I, was too shy to correct a pupil, aad b;ewa3 aly to be corrected in the presence of -is fellows. So I gave up tbe class."

j VOICE-PRODUCTIQN OP THE FIRST [•;.; IMPOBTA-TCB. Among the details which even the ** divine afflatus " should not despise Mr Hermann Veziu gave the first place to voice-production. "There are comparatively few who have even tbe physiological knowledge," he remarked, ** to enable them to make the best use of their voices. In acting or reciting it is essential that there should be no strain apparent; the effect desired should seem to the audience to be produced with the greatest ease. As soon as the effort is shown tbe art is lost. Yet you continually see on the stage a gasping for breath, and many young actors actually copy the 'stars' in this respect, thinking it must be a merit. In -location no breath should be taken during a continuous sentence, but in the pauses breath should be taken, even though It may not always be required) la order to preserve the evenness of the enunciation. Behnke has, I consider, done a great work in studying the physiological aspect of voice-production. Many of my pupils also take lessons from Behnke. I have tried to induce Mrs Bernard Beere, who waa one of my pupils in years gone by, to go to Behnke in order that she may protect and preserve her splendid voice.**—P_B Matt Budget.