THE ART OF ACTING.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 15321, 23 August 1923, Page 9

THE ART OF ACTING.

MR OSCAR ASCHE'S IDEAS.

"BE SINCERE."

Mr Oscar Asche arrived m Wellington the other day from Palmerston N. He played in that town last night, and came on to Wellington in his own motor car. In the course of an interview with this' four-sided pillar of the stage—actor, artist, organiser, business man—the Post ventured the opinion that some young people for whom the stage had a fascination as a career would like to know what Mr Asche thought about it. "Ahl" he replied; "that is no new question. As a matter of fact, ever since I reached Australia, a good many months ago, I have been receiving letters from young enthusiasts who long for a stage career and want me to teD them how to act. Such success as comes to one as a producer lays one open to those requests, and one does not object at all, even though one's professional tasks made it impossible for one to pursue an added voluminous correspondence. "So I may as well put what I thnk in a few words now. It will be understood that lam not dogmatising. No experience makes a man omniscient, and I simply offer you the personal ideas of a man who has f had a good deal to do with producing plays and training players for their parts.

The First Thing. "First of all, let me say this. On the stage, as on the plane of everyday life and affairs, the greatest thing is sincerity. Which is to say that, if you want to succeed, to touch the hearts of your public, you must act every part entrusted to ypu as you yourself- see and feel the part. You must not bo bound by any tricks and gestures of mechanical convention. You must do your utmost to live for a time the character you are supposed to be. You may do well, or not so well; you will, at any rate, be standing on your own legs. "Mind you, there are certain things that are unassailably correct and necessary. You must, for example, train your intelligence and do everything possible to perfect your sense of the theatre. To that end, you will do everything you can to perfect your education. If one is set to play a servant, one must at least know howto behave and speak like a man of distinction in that sense. If one lias tn play a gentlewoman one must not act like a hoyden or a housemaid. For that reason one must learn to speak beautifully, delicately. | If one does not strive always to speak in that way off the stage, how will one/find oneself in a foreign atmosphere when on it? . . . .... .. -•..:.■ . '.; • -:

The Next Thing. "There is another thing I want to . say that I find it not easy to express. . The aspirant for the stage must.go about with his eyes open, striving to learn how different sorts of people behave under various stresses of emotion.- For the same purpose, broadly he must make a constant study of good literature, so far as his leisure allows that. To the intelligent player 'a good knowledge of Shakespeare is a first necessity. In these wonderful plays we have a pageant of all l'fe and we are brought into close association with some of the most splendid, some -of the most tormented and some of the saddest and most tempted men and women that the mind of dramatist has ever conceived. Nor have we yet done justice to the extraordinary beauty of Shakespeare s PF °'Turning from that to ttoe blank verse lam a little embarrassed. I never yet came across a teacher ol elocution who taught his pupils to speak that verse as it shou d be spoken. You see, it must be spoken in such a way that, while preserving its /magnetic reality as conversation oi utafogue, the beauty of this verse as ooctry is preserved. I'm setting a, nardU. ?ou may think, but he student is not prepared to put all his for her) heart and mtad into the wok it is useless to think of the stage as 8 Caie success is not by Flukes. "Again, those who take up the stage must learn to wear clothes so naturallv with such absence of sell-con ; scYousness, that/they will bo at home ; f-i the costume of whatever character

talked or me sometimes as if I lust happened, and somehow d could.bono rao re erroneous idea I ladL yeai so gruelling work. In with a repertory company that had a Repertory of a hundred line plays any one of could he produced aa rHv's notice, m tU.it company thcic and a < name mean nothing Every member was sup think of the stage as a procssion: Sn d le l a^how C to t a"t. If it Is badly acted V wiU see at- whatr points he "ting s bad. and so will learn what ,t vour ease to avoid. I vvas gong to U»e natu-1 But Wia > any »._ alW ays honest with yourscll ... Iw, > .ft a coming dance or wondering what vou shall say to vour tailor! '■»■; arc some of the things I would sa, i those who ask me 'How to Act-