A SENSIBLE ACTRESS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 28, 3 February 1909, Page 9

A SENSIBLE ACTRESS.

Miss Lillah M'Carthy, who was leading lady in Australia to the late Wilson Barrett, thinks very highly of the stage as a profession for women. An interviewer writes in the Westminster Gazette: — "As for its being overcrowded," said Mies M'Carthy. "that seems to bo an altogether mistaken idea. Look at the splendid field that ono has. Not London or England only, but abroad — Australia, Africa, Canada — oh, everywhere one finds theatres, and where there are theatres there is the need for actresses." Miss M'Carthy is careful to explain that she means real qualified artists, not the girl_ with the pretty face and figure and an inordinate vanity, who desires to exploit all throe at tho expenso of the public. "An untrained actress is offering an insult to her audience There are a great number of people in thp v;orld who love to get something for nothing, so tho stage becomes a field for more or less incompetents." "A girl does not expect to obtain an engagement without the necessary knowledge of shorthand, typewriting, etc., neither would a girl walk in a court modiste's and expect to bo allowed to make a dress because sho thought she could sew. They .both qualify themselves for their work, and so should the aspirant for the stage." "A thorough stage-training teaches a woman to be a better citizen and wife ; her mind is broadened because her outlook is wider; she learns sympathy, insight into character ; her travelling has made her more dependent on herself than_ the ordinary, stay-at-home, knownothing woman. Her musical training, again, is of equal value in the home circle if she, after all, decides on a domestic career. Of course, every pretty j ingenrfe cannot mature into a leading actress, and for tho3e that are merely such, tho theatre is a ten years' profession. But really that is the worst that can be said of it from the point of view of a suitable, capable novice."