My own story (1934)

MY OWN STORY I cannot understand why so many young stage people to-day scorn stock. To my mind, it offers the best possible schooling. In the first place, it teaches the beginner that the play is the thing. Nobody in a well-managed stock company feels too important to play a "bit." Look at the Moscow Art Players of a decade ago, at the Theater Guild, and the Irish Players of to-day, and you will see what I mean. The whole cast is animated by a singleness of aim that makes the individual actor lose sight of self. Thus, the various parts of a play fit together to make a perfect whole. This is art. This is theater! Because our ermine robes were designed for a giantess and because I was the biggest woman in the company, I usually played royalty. As a general thing, I played the Queen, if there was one. But if the King had spent too much time propped against a local bar, I was given his beard and his lines. I was always the Queen, I remember, in "The Bohemian Girl." In "The Grande Duchesse" I played the title role. But I was frequently called on to take the part of the King in "Three Black Cloaks." For some reason I have never been able to fathom, the heavy was usually discovered drunk when the curtain went up on this old favorite. At first, I felt pretty cocky about being chosen 67