Publications of the Dramatic Museum of Columbia University in the City of New York: Papers on acting. 2nd seriesDramatic museum of Columbia university, 1915 |
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Palavras e frases frequentes
accents of sorrow actor possesses Actor's Art agitations astonisht audience bility calls sensibility-namely character Classicists COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY comedian Corneille counsel of persons declamation emotions enables excess of sensibility exer expressing the passions faculties pre-eminently required feel that sensi French gence gift grandeur without pomp H. C. Fleeming Jenkin heroic stature historical personages ideal imagination imitation impassioned figures created inflexions intelligence kain LADY MACBETH language lessons lives of historical means in review memory ment mind move movements paint painter persons of taste play poet profound psalmody quires rank fate received from nature reciting verse recognized in amateurs Reflexions on Lekain second degree shades sibility Siddons side the faculty sion Sir Henry Irving sorrow which awake soul speak spontaneous talent Talma's essay tears Théâtre Français tho by magic tigued tion tragedian tragedy tragic actor tragic situations translated truth ture understand the words UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN voice Voltaire
Passagens conhecidas
Página 23 - In order that his inspirations may not be lost, his memory, in the silence of repose, recalls the accent of his voice, the expression of his features, his action — in a word, the spontaneous workings of his mind, which he had suffered to have free course, and, in effect, everything which in the moments of his exaltation contributed to the effect he had produced. His intelligence then passes all these means in review, connecting them and fixing them in his memory to re-employ them at pleasure in...
Página 19 - I also call sensibility that faculty of exaltation which agitates an actor, takes possession of his senses, shakes even his very soul, and enables him to enter into the most tragic situations, and the most terrible of the passions, as if they were his own.
Página 21 - He might fall into some errors, but his sensibility would inspire him with those sublime movements which seize upon the spectator and carry delight to the heart. The superior intelligence of the other would render him cold and regular. The one would go beyond your expectations and your ideas; the other would only accomplish them. Your mind would be deeply stirred by the inspired actor; your judgment alone would be satisfied by the intelligent actor. The inspired actor will so associate you with the...
Página 46 - It demands, he says, the endowment of high sensibility and intelligence. 'The actor who possesses this double gift adopts a course of study peculiar to himself. In the first place, by repeated exercises, he enters deeply into the emotions, and his speech acquires the accent proper to the situation of the personage he has to represent. This done, he goes to the theatre not only to give theatrical effect to his studies, but also to yield himself to the spontaneous flashes of his sensibility and all...
Página 45 - ... on his talent and on the art which he illustrated. Lekain had no master. Every actor ought to be his own tutor. If he has not in himself the necessary faculties for expressing the passions, and painting characters, all the lessons in the world cannot give them to him. Genius is not acquired. This faculty of creating is born with us; but if the actor possesses it, the counsel of persons of taste may then guide him; and as there is in the art of reciting verse a part in some degree mechanical the...
Página 19 - ... to add the shades that are wanting, or that language cannot express — to complete, in fine, their expression by action and physiognomy. It may be conceived that such a person must have received from nature a peculiar organization for sensibility, that common property of our being. Every one possesses it in a greater or less degree. But in the man whom nature has destined to paint the passions in their greatest excesses, to give them all their violence, and...
Página 34 - ... and all their movements authority. Lekain displayed superior intelligence and great ability in the varied styles of his recitation, which was slow or rapid, as circumstances required; and his pauses were always full of deep significance. There are, in fact, certain circumstances in which it is necessary to solicit one's self before we confide to the tongue the emotions of the soul or the calculations of the mind. The actor, therefore, must have the art of thinking before he speaks, and by introducing...
Página 7 - The actor, putting himself faithfully in the place of the personage he represents, should perfect the idea of the author of whom he is the interpreter. One of the greatest misfortunes of our art is, that it dies, as it were, with us, while all other artists leave behind them monuments of their works. The talent of the actor, when he has quitted the stage, exists no longer, except in the recollection of those who have seen and heard him.
Página 4 - Let him remember, first, that every sentence expresses a new thought, and, therefore, frequently demands a change of intonation ; secondly, that the thought precedes the word. Of course, there are passages in which thought and language are borne along by the streams of emotion and completely intermingled.
Página 18 - To my mind, sensibility is not only that faculty which an actor possesses of being moved himself, and of affecting his being so far as to imprint on his features, and especially on his voice, that expression and those accents of sorrow which awake all the sympathies of the art and extort tears from auditors. I include in it the effect which it produces, the imagination of which it is the source — not that imagination which consists in having reminiscences, so that the object seems actually present...