MISS EILEEN SPARKS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19736, 12 March 1926, Page 14

MISS EILEEN SPARKS.

By Phillip A.

As was only natural, the interview with Miss Sparks was begun by a discussion covering the “Masquerader,” which is Miss Sparks’s favourite of the three plays. My first impression as she was speaking was of the simplicity of her character, dominated by enthusiasm and love for her art. There is none of that trick and artifice usually associated with the stage. Her voice is low and sweet, and with something foreign in its tones. Miss Sparks was amused when this was remarked upon; for she is an Australian, born at Newcastle, and has followed her career in that country and in New Zealand. At the age of seven she determined to adopt the stage as her profession, and she persisted in that determination throughout her girlhood, although she received little encouragement. She has now been a professional actress for 14 or 15 ■years, which were preceded by amateur performances in concerts and monologues. During the time. Miss Sparks has understudied Emily Pollini, has been vyith John D. O'Hara, and with Julius Knight, and,' then, six months ago, she visited New Zealand with Moisewitch in “The Outsider.” “It is as the cripple girl in that play,” she said, “that pepole, to. my surprise, all remember me”; and it is in this part that she loves to be remembered. It was a difficult part, one demanding much thought in characterisation. We all remember the critics’ verdict on Miss Sparks’s performance. It was that engagement which led her to becoming Guy Bates Post’s leading lady, and to coming to New Zealand for this, her third visit.. Miss Sparks considers the dlramatic sphere as the most difficult part of the legitimate life; for actors in such plays may never be themselves—they. must be the character they play. This is the secret of true sucess: and with thought, study, and keen interest. Miss Sparks has achieved it. Her memory, “like blottingpaper,” absorbs the lines with incredible quickness, but the part that follows is the part she enjoys, the careful analysing of each speech, each line, each phase, to extract its most delicate shade, to convey its deepest import. Intense concentration, a living into the brain, emotions, impulses of each character is a great strain. Miss Sparks admitted that such scenes as those which held the audience in the “Masquerader,” and still more last night in the splendid "Green Goddess,” are most exhausting. An interesting little side-track here led to the question of the effect of colours op the artist’s temperament. She was very enthusiastic on the subject of colours, to which she reacts at once: but she added, amused, that this was the case with everyone. “ For colour is atmosphere after all, isn’t it?” No doubt the artist is much more sensitive than ordinary people: and they soon learn. to sense the audience. A good audience is of incalculable aid to the actors, for they may forget that it is there, and give" of their best. Miss Sparks said this with earnestness, and explained it by the remark, which is hard, in view of her performances to believe, that she is often nervous, “of myself,” quaintly. The sunlight streaming through the window provoked some remarks about the weather. Miss Sparks loves Dunedin, and is fascinated by Hie Exhibition, where she has spent, and intends to spend, as much of her time as is possible. The most of it is passed in the Art Gallery, among the exhibits of china: and, as relaxation, in the Amusements Park, which she thoroughly enjoys. Amusements are linked to hobbies, and so we came to sports. Miss Sparks is not an outdoor girl; that is, she plays no games. But she is very fond of walking, and also of the much more strenuous mountain-climbing. Her chief pleasure however, is in books. An expensive library lias been left behind in Australia, but she carries many books with her, and ruefully owns to extravagance in buying fresh volumes everywhere. But everything is secondary to her art, which absorbs her every faculty, for, she said with a smile, “ours is a wonderful life.”