Download File

THE ISOLATION OF ACTORS
fictive material of the theatre. The rule,
to which there have been important but
few exceptions, is that the actor, like the
acrobat, must be caught and practiced
young, in order that the suppleness re-
quired in the mimetic as in the gymnastic
art may be attained ; and, as a result of
the application of this rule, nearly all the
great body of actors are devoid of general
academic and scholastic training. Their
culture is the culture of their own private
stud}^, worked out in the green-room and
on the stage. It is marvelous what acqui-
sitions many of them make with such
handicaps ; but their general narrowness
of mental vision may be inferred. Practi-
cally out of relation, then, with the social,
political, and religious life of the entire
rest of mankind, immersed in the unreal
realities of the mimic life, driven both by
natural impulse and by professional compe-
tition to whet their talent to the sharpest
[ 109 ]