straight at a character on all of your speeches. In a room at home we often say things to another person when we are looking entirely away from them. So in acting, it may be possible, if you cannot get into a position so as to address both the audience and the character, to address only the audience; that is, not talking directly to the audience, but looking off somewhere, and yet facing the audience so that they can hear. Do not overdo this little device. It is especially good in a quarrel, or when the relations of the characters are strained, or when the remark is a careless one, but it should not be used on any speech where there is a call for directness. When your part is a heavy one, that is, when you have a great deal to say, seek the center of the stage and get the other characters in front of you and toward the sides. Be careful not to turn your back on the audience, except on very rare occasions. For this reason, when you pace across the stage, stop with your back foot, the one farthest from the audience, the one farthest "up stage," out, and then turn toward the audience, and around. In making gestures with both hands, let the hand next the audience lag a little, so that it will not get in front of your face. For this purpose, too, allow it to be a little I lower than the other. In turning, you may rise slightly on your toes and swing round on them, instead of taking steps; this is especially good on quick turns. Do not ever cross the feet in turning. Voice. The same holds true in regard to the voice as in regard to the position of the actor, he must remember that, although he must seem to talk to the characters on the stage, he must really talk to the people on the back seats in his audience. It will be difficult for a time to exaggerate the conversation sufficiently, but ability will come with practice and insistence on the part of the instructor. PUB. SPEAK.-II Because the audience must hear, when the actor turns his back, or even turns slightly away, he should increase his loudness. In such cases, the sound waves must, to some extent, reach the hearer by reflection, by bounding back from some opposite wall, and they lose some of their intensity by the process. Crossing. To avoid making a scene appear wooden, there must be constant action, the characters must move about. The following three rules will govern this action. I. Try to cross on a vigorous speech. Action is natural to emotion. When a person is highly wrought, he is much more likely to move about. 2. Let the speaking character cross in front of the others. The reason here is the same as that given above, - the audience must hear, and it is safer to have the speaker cross in front for this reason. Too, the people are interested, generally, in the speaking character, and he should be in the foreground. 3. Let the silent characters have their share of the crossing. If they cross in the opposite direction, as the speaker crosses, he will only have to go one half as far, and the stage, at the end of the cross, will be in better balance. Grouping. About the only direction necessary for stage grouping is that the characters be so placed that they can all be seen by the audience, so that they do not stand one in front of the other as seen from the audience, and so that a view of them is not obstructed by any stage property, such as a bouquet, a lamp, or the trunk of a tree. A semicircle, when there are many characters, is good, but it is better if the large semicircle be broken up into several smaller ones. Do not allow all the characters to look straight at the audience, like so many tin soldiers. Suit the direction of their glances to the momentary suggestion of the scene. Entrances and exits. Do not come on the stage, take a position, then assume the emotion called for, and finally speak your lines. When you enter you should already be in the mood, and the words should follow immediately. Neither, when you have finished your part, should you walk off as if you were all done with your little speech and were now going off the stage. Suit your exit to the mood also. The stage. Below is given a diagram of the stage, with the terms generally used in the plays put out by the dramatic publishing houses. Remember that all directions are written for the actor, for instance, when the direction is "going left," it means to the actor's left, not to the left of the stage as seen by the audience. APPENDIX I. WRITING AN ORATION WITH all the graces of elocution, no speaker will succeed unless he has something good to say. Further than this, a speaker might be able to write a good essay on his subject, and yet not be able to frame his thoughts for a good oration. There are certain peculiarities that go with oratorical composition. Not all subjects are suitable for orations. Not all subjects are capable of good oratorical treatment. The essential difference between an oration and other forms of literary composition is that it makes an appeal. It may aim at influencing the action of men, or merely at getting them to think differently, but it must make an appeal of some sort. From this standpoint, it is evident that no oration could be written on Radium, or The Mechanical Construction of Automobiles. Orations could be written on the Abolition of Child Labor, or Napoleon - The Misunderstood. A man may be held up as the incarnation of some principle which we should adopt in our lives, such is nearly always the purpose of the biographical oration. It might be stated that the best subjects to write on are men, battles (forensic or military), and problems (industrial, governmental, social, etc.) Make up your mind what thought you want your audience to carry away. After you have selected your subject, or while you are selecting it, some one thought will present itself to you as the one you want your audi |