SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1923 THE MICHIGAN DAILY PACE sEVE
*---- Miss MacLaren's New Art
MILLARD PRYOR
is it humanly possible for one per-l ideal of leaving little or nothing to
son entirely unassisted by stage prop- the imagination.
erties, costumes, curtains, or any oth- In giving a performance Miss Mac-
er of the paraphernalia that usually Laren wears only a simple evening
accompanies a dramatic offering, to frock. And her own personality is
present an entire play, word for word, excluded with a great deal of care
1.and character for character, in a man- as it' could be a serious interference
ner that will result in the entire a- in making the various character tran-
tion being recreated in the minds of sitions, changing from comedy to pa-
the audience? If it is there are rea- thos, emotion to passivity, man's voice
'sons for arguing that the many-per- to woman's. Nor does she need a
- Bsoned play is obsolete and that this gu- to produce the illusion of a pistol
new art form should be adopted ui- shot. The audience "sees" the glint
versally. However, the answer seems of the revolver, and "hears" the clink
F y A to be that so far only one person has of hand-cuts just as you often hear
-'attained this new medium and made athdista st sam of a door in a movie,
complete success of it. And that per 'ven when you know a fash on the
o ichas Sich a curio ' sycho'o icai ere n can t lam.
makeup that it isnot likely 4hat-this The play which miss MacLaren is to
ti k rm will ec-er eois uve rs te "eas one of the numbers on
? - y ? It cannot eiedt ou tha teOra0o cl Asciation Program is
ssCG a tMaar - wo twitl esent n n se1 uie an undertaking for the
te nla "En erMasam CGlda most seandi theatrical troupe. As
Vare i and ADoly Byrn F , in Hi Audior thcharacters in "Enter Madame"
-rt _,;mt th Periaynight, has mae as ysMtcacLa'en uses the caracteriza-
lid - ° ,.h cces11i s rm ia ,that seem s t f one of te joint authors, Gilda
o blie ul, r y r own. _Aenrna r s,afo the title role of Madame
pr _ 'tnprs is al De Lla toia, and it is said by
1 over the U nted ttatss statiate 0 a t - havin witnessed- this number
s'this assertion. vei n shis icaed t iertore a not only was the
sNea -w rcwho ual loo 's a kace , i voice present but that the Var
Znayhn\ esr n nht tmanner lived in her preesntation,
Son s lcr ea pec nc praised Mi ss reov!ac" of the other 'arts from
. M x y\crn's nrk1ghlyoand t ago Geri, t.e Irish husband f Madame,
woais a ,titleescos rva'iv'iher to rchmee,oMadame's chef, and
tastes cave her atwnd tr- ret'on imt'tT ii tio, her husband's servant and
tahen from the original New York
The seccet t M:iss Oaciarei's sue
cess seems to ie in her il to re en in all, this one-girl sho is
itoduce actors rather than to reeproheine hine gifnothin
ce te la its. Se akeo bound to e terestg if nothg
secethelautelf'She gomasnotelse. But more is pronised. It is
secret about the way se goes abou said that the audience will behold a
her work. Every year she spent some
oshme in New York attending truly artistic presentation of a very
the vaios plays. When she finds one entertaining comedy wherein one per-
she likes or rather that she believes son takes all the parts from the leads
down to the voices off stage and even
her audiences will like, she attends .
the curta.
a second time, and by her exceedingly
wonderful ability to photograph every
action of the various actors in her TlE UNOFFICIAL OBSERVER
memory she has the play fairly well (Continued from Page Six)
in hand. Then a third, fourth, and the moment maintain that most "his-
E are showing the close- sometimes fifth visit completes the torical novels" are childish tommy-
Vework and after a week's practice in rot, but' I can't quite see that Mr.
fher studio the play is ready for pre- Masters has greatly remedied mat-
ntting e tesigned sentation. Not once in the course of ters. But that's all a matter of taste;
memorizing does the manuscript enter neither can I read Wordsworth and
t* r h _in. And it is in this way that Miss Tennyson with the slightest appreci-
t ac mm d ee higMacLaren has a repertoire of almost ation, though at the same time I
thirty plays complete; a fact that will maintain that Alfred Kreymborg is
collars on the newer coats. almost stagger those who find it next a great artist.
to impossible to thoroughly master
one single part for one or two plays. "O Lord our God grant us grace to
Hats that are small, -yet most It is also this very peculiar psycho. desire Thee with our whole heart'
logical gift that places Miss MacLaren that so desiring we may seek and find
distinctive; to be had in black or in a class by herself and makes it evi- Thee; and so finding Thee may love
dent that this medium of presentation Thee; and loving Thee may hate those
will never become very common. sins from which Thou hast redeemed
colors, plain or flower-trimmed. In the presentation of a play so us.. Ame."-(Anselm.)
memorized persons who have attend-
ed the original production and then O for a Boke and a sadie nooke,
heard Miss MacLaren's re-creation eyther in-a-dore or out;
have little difficulty in recognizing in- With the grene leaves whisp'ring
dividual characteristics of the original overhede,
to actors. However, Miss MacLaren is or the Street cryes all about.
not a mimic or an impersonator. Her Where I male Reade all at my ease,
assist you in choosing work is something more than that. In both of the Newe and Olde;
addition to the presentation of the For a jollie good Boke wheeron to
very acts, gestures, intonations, and looke
frmorcomplete selection of ____,
ro our characterizations of the original actor is better to me than Golde.
Miss MacLaren puts in something of
d r e s s trimmings something- her own-an addition that keeps the "I believe the future is only the
u production from sounding flat and pst again, entered through another
lifeless, as mere mimicry does, and gate. The only great distances it con-
which will add that alvavs de- makes the audience see every action tains are those we carry within our-
as though it were really consummated. selves. "-Sir Arthur W. Pinero, from
s * *ble*touch o indiidualit . 'l'{ This bit of necromancy in which the "Te Second Mrs. Tangueray."
Slra t h d d hpersonality of the medium and the_
original characterization o all of the "Bare Virtue can't make Nations
parts are blended might be termed tire in Splendour; They tlgat ould
subliminated mimicry, The whole revive a Golden Age must be as free
thing depends upon the ability of tho for Acorns as for ;onesty."-Bernars
Sartit to crate mental images in the dse itMandeille, from "The Grumbling
-'irnds of the audience in the place of Hive or Knaves Turned Honest."
!the actual images that appecar on the
' 'iordinary stage. It is this ability to "i It only were right, how delightful
'i'build up mind pictures that makes the 'twould be
m m a og artT C 'work of Ruth Drape, who appeared To open the breast of a friend;
at the Whitney last winter stand out And peep at his heart, and replace it
so prominently, and it is in this re- again,
# spect that Miss MacLareii resembles And believe in him then without
Specialty H at Shop Mss Draper. This art, as Glen Frank, end." Anon,
editor of Century Magazine, points
out, after having heard Miss MacLar- "itory must from time to time be
Etreet "en, is really a return to the Shake- rewritten, not because many new facts
117 East berty spearean age "of the drama whet, un- have been discovered, but because new
der the influence of good acting the aspects come into view, because th-
Saudiencecould have. the pleasure of participant in the progress of an age
- ----------------------------------------------- -building its.own scenery, with the de- is led to standpoints from which the
. .....:>........_....... ... .s .........-....-- ... .....,--. lightful fabrics of its imagination past can be regared and judged in a
rather than depending on the Belasco novel manner."-Goethe.