STAGE MURDERERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1057, 30 January 1913, Page 4

STAGE MURDERERS.

TRICKS OF JEALOUS

ACTORS

lu the course of an article in the New York Tribune on “Murderers of the Stage,” Mr George M. Cohan describes the methods adopted by actors and actresses to ruin the efforts of other players with whom they are associated. After pointing out that be is not referring to the wicked rascals who take life in melodrama with the aid of sawmills, railroad tracks, and so on, the author proceeds :

“The time, thought, and labour that have been devoted in many instances towards inventing tricks for the killing of another actor’s lines or ‘business,’ i.e, physical manoeuvres incidental to the rendering of the. part he is playing, if employed in another direction, might have created so many new Mansfields and Modjeskas.

A common trick is to do something that will make a player miss his, or her, cue. The system adopted by one “murderess” was as ingenious as it was simple. She carried a fan ; fanned herself vigorously during a particular scene, spoke in a very low tone ; and, by steady manipulation of the fan while she was delivering her lines, deliberately blew the sound of her voice away from the other actress, and also to no small degree up stage and away from the audience’s ears. As a result, the second actress had difficulty in catching her cues, and had to devote every ounce of attention to catching what remnants of these cues she could ; thus in turn having to sacrifice the attention necessary to the finished work of her performances. And, ol course, the audience said she was a poor actress. TURNING THE EACH AWAV, Turning the face awaj from the speaker, too, is often utilised by footlight criminals with good effect in another direction. Some twenty or thirty years ago a jealous conspiritor figured it out that if he turned his face away from a brother actor while the latter was delivering his share of the dialogue the brother actor’s performance would be injured. Why ? Because the brother actor would then be speaking to no one, would be talking to the air instead ot to the ear of the character who who supposed to bear and listen closely to what he was saying. Naturally enough, in such circumstances, the effect of the brother actor's speeches would be ruined. Still another device that has been utilised for their own ends by stage murderers is the plot of anticipating the laugh with a broad smile or grin. This little trick takes the edge off the fun resulting from the other actor’s line, and sort of makes the latter look like a fool in the eyes of the audience, THE “UP-STAGE” CRIME.

Oue of the commonest of practices among murderers of the tootlights is the so-called “up stage” crime. This, in a word, consists in the murderer’s moving up stage, that is, toward the back of the stage, and bringing the victim of his plot back towards him. Very plainly, this causes the victim’s face to be directed toward the back drop curtain and away from the audience. His voice, too, is thus directed away from the audience, and this fact, together with the fact that the movements of his features are not visible to the spectators, spoils his performance.

Another simple way in which a plotter will try to ruin the effect of another actor’s scene is carefully and deliberately to drop something—a pin, a flower, anything at all—when the actor is going through his part. This ruination may not seem possible of accomplishment to the uninitiated ; but the truth of the ease is well known to every actor. The moment something is dropped on the stage, the attention of the audience will go in a flash to the dropped object and away from the subject upon which its attention should be centred at the lime. THE EITTEE WHITE TAIL. Two young actors taking part in a playlet were jealous of oue another, and one of them played the following trick upon the other : In the playlet they were called upon in oue scene to fight a duel with rapiers, the play being of the Zenda “romantic” order. The dud was a realistic affair, and lasted several minutes. In the course of the combat, the demands of the manuscript called upon Henry (as we shall call one of the men* to disarm and slay Hubert (as we shall call the other). The end of the duel always drew the