The theatre of science; a volume of progress and achievement in the motion picture industry (1914)

ot Science 259 necessary to call upon the actor to use any more movement or emotion in this art than upon the dramatic stage ; but only too often on the dramatic stage we find the actor carried away by the magic of words and the sound of his voice, which prevents him from realizing that the mind should be telegraphing its feelings to every part of the body. "I am glad to say that the dramatic stars I have had the pleasure of directing have at once caught the wonderful possibility and depth of this new art, which is bound to reach a far higher plane than it occupies to-day, and also be a great benefit to the dramatic stage, if for no other reason than that of Bobby Burns' wish— 'Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us, to see ourselves as ithers see us.' "The universal appeal which the drama of silence has for the entire world lies in the fact that each auditor is creating his own emotions and language for the characters before him on the canvas, and they are according to his own mental and spiritual standard. Therefore, the spectator is supplying the thoughts and words of the actor and becomes a part of the performance itself. This, I fully believe, is the reason for the phenomenal popularity of the drama of silence throughout the world to-day." The part that the novehst is to play in the future of the motion picture art is a subject that one may hear discussed in editorial sanctums ever since the sensational success of the Selig serial "The Adventures of Kathlyn," which has awakened the publisher to recognize the significance of a new and powerful medium wherein the novelist may now address an audience so vast that many of the publishers of national magazines, so reluctant to affiliate with the film