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Tkat Mystic Urge to Act
Almost every one feels it, either as a call to the stage, or as a worshiper of a player, according to Lenore Ulric, who gives Picture Play readers a rather surprising explanation of the dramatic instinct.
B$ William H. McKegg
A
FTER spending four hours, in
stead of the expected one with Lenore Ulric, I wanted to rush down the hallway shouting "Eureka!" That's just how I felt. For I had asked and asked, again and again, hut never could any of the players give me a deep enough explanation to the question I put before them.
For a long time I had sought an answer to "Why do people want to act ?"
During the course of the interview, I asked this question of Miss Ulric. Without hesitation she jumped into the topic and fetched to light all her conclusions on the subject.
That's why I wanted to shout "Eureka !" when I left her. I almost told the elevator boy all about it, and felt sure the doorman would like to know. But I calmed down until I got home, and decided to tell it to Picture Play. Everybody who wants to act will understand now, thanks to Lenore, why they have that urge.
You see I went to visit Miss Ulric to obtain, as I thought, just another interview. Her apartment on Wilshire Boulevard was full of light and fresh air.
Miss Ulric entered, wearing a simple white dress and ankle socks. Her large, brown eyes glitter intensely, as if the light within came from tremendous depths. Her black hair, with a coppery glint, is bobbed and thick, making her face seem small, almost childish.
As I said, I intended hearing from her the usual comments ; but as soon as I discovered that here was one player who had given more than superficial thought to her art, I figuratively threw the prosaic interview out of the window.
"Why do people want to act ?" Lenore echoed in her huskv voice. "I'll answer by first explaining why people want to see acting.
The Ulric personality was caught so well in "Frozen Justice" that she was given a contract for two pictures a year.
Photo by Autivy
Miss Ulric believes that in acting she is giving expression to memories of a
former existence.
"Every human self — from drab
being
, wants to get away from him-' surroundings and routine. We all seek some unknown goal, which none of us can explain. All the strange. whispering dreams in the depths our being are overshadowed. That is why people attend the theater. Actors create illusions for them. An audience feels uplifted after seeing a good play, or a picture. You will hear many say. '1 felt quite taken out of myself."
"The church has the same effect on people in taking them out of themselves. A church ceremony, with its throbbing chords from the organ, intonations, incense, and sermon, causes a congregation to feel 'carried away.' Religious beauty draws their minds from troubles and worries.
"Up to that point I think the church and the stage are closely allied. People patronize both places for the inner comfort they derive. Tn ancient days the temples US* stage spectacles for the public. The idea which prompted them was the hope that people would be carried away, or taken out of themselvi "A priest will sway his congregation, just an actor will his audience. Each works for the same resull —to make peopli their surroundings and be swept away by his power."