SCREEN VERSUS STAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21396, 20 October 1934, Page 11 (Supplement)

SCREEN VERSUS STAGE

DIFFICULTIES OF ACTING Is it easier to act on the stage or on the screen? Most stage players are of the opinion that there is no comparison. The stage, they say, makes immensely greater demands on the player's voice, vitality, personality, and memory. A screen actor need only master one small scene at a time.

It is taken anything from two to a dozen times, so that ii ho makes a slip, it is of 110 great consequence; and there is no such thing as having to hold the audience's interest through a whole act of sustained emotion or comedy, as every leading stage actor must do if tho plnv is not to tail. Yet, Miss Elisabeth Bergner, one of the greatest stars of the day in both fields, thinks that film-acting is more difficult. "To act for the screen," she says, " 0110 needs infinitely more imagination, concentration and endurance. Not only does tho studio lack a receptive audience, ready to respond and encourage, but the people around 0110 are al! critical and vigilant. The scenes arc so short that it is almost impossible to realise chat one is playing a part. " Most actors who see their work on tho screen arc thankful that such an experience is impossible in the theatre. A screen performance is a standardised 0110, representing you certainly not at your worst and probably, but not necessarily, at your best. " Acting being only one of the factors in films, it also follows that your work will be fully effective only if the best studio technique is available. The finest actor in the world cannot overcome second-rate production methods:, but 011 the stage he can take possession of " 'Phis direct personal hold on the audience is one of the greatest thrills of the theatre, as the playgoer knows. It is what the actor hopes to do. And so 1 say shat acting for the films is neither "so easy nor so pleasant as acting for the stage. " Yet the film actor has this advantage. Once the film is made, and you have given of your best, your performance will live longer than one night, and will be seen by millions. You are in something the same position as the successful dramatist. He does not have to write his play every night, whereas the actor has to give his best on the stage, night after night, throughout, the run, and then is only a memory."