Do not despond in failure, neither be over-exalted by success.
Remember one success is as nothing in the history of an actor's
career; he has to make many before he can lay claim to any measure of
fame; and over-confidence, an inability to estimate rightly the value
of a passing triumph, has before now harmed incalculably many an actor
or actress. You will only cease to learn your business when you quit
it; look on success as but another lesson learnt to be turned to
account in learning the next. The art of the actor is no less
difficult, no less long in comparison with life, than any other art.
In the intoxicating hour of success let this chastening thought have
some place in your recollection.
When you begin work as actors or actresses, play whenever you can and
whatever you can. Remember that the great thing for the actor is to
be seen as often as possible, to be before the public as much as he
can, no matter how modest the part, how insignificant the production.
It is only when an actor has reached a position very secure in the
public esteem that he can afford, or that it may be his duty, to be
careful as to what he undertakes. But before such a time is reached
his one supreme object must be to get himself known to the public, to
let them see his work under all conditions, until they find something
to identify as peculiarly his own; he should think nothing too small
or unimportant to do, too tiresome or laborious to undergo. Work well
and conscientiously done must attract attention; there is a great deal
of lolling and idleness among the many thoughtless and indifferent
persons who drift on to the stage as the last refuge of the negligent
or incompetent.
The stage will always attract a certain number of worthless recruits
because it is so easy to get into the theatre somehow or other; there
is no examination to be passed, no qualification to be proved before a
person is entitled to call himself an actor. And then the life of an
actor is unfortunately, in these days of long runs, one that lends
itself to a good deal of idleness and waste of time, unless a man or
woman be very determined to employ their spare time profitably. For
this reason, I should advise any actor, or actress, to cultivate some
rational hobby or interest by the side of their work; for until the
time comes for an actor to assume the cares and labours of management,
he must have a great deal of time on his hands that can be better
employed than in hanging about clubs or lolling in drawing-rooms. At
any rate, the actor or actress who thinks no work too small to do, and
to do to the utmost of his or her ability, who neglects no opportunity
that may be turned to account--and every line he or she speaks is an
opportunity--must outstrip those young persons who, though they may be
pleased to call themselves actors and actresses, never learn to regard
the theatre as anything but a kind of enlarged back-drawing-room, in
which they are invited to amuse themselves at an altogether inadequate
salary.
In regard to salary, when you start in your profession, do not make
salary your first consideration; do not suffer a few shillings or a
pound or two to stand between you and work. This is a consideration
you may keep well in mind, even when you have achieved some measure of
success. Apart from the natural tendency of the individual to place a
higher value on his services than that attached to them by others, it
is often well to take something less than you ask, if the work offered
you is useful. Remember that the public judge you by your work, they
know nothing and care little about what is being paid you for doing
it. To some people their own affairs are of such supreme importance
that they cannot believe that their personal concerns are unknown to,
and unregarded by, the outside world. The intensely personal,
individual character of the actor's work is bound to induce a certain
temptation to an exaggerated egotism. We are all egotists, and it is
right that we should be, up to a point. But I would urge the young
actor or actress to be always on the watch against developing,
especially in success, an extreme egotism which induces a selfishness
of outlook, an egregious vanity that in the long run weakens the
character, induces disappointment and discontent, and bores to
extinction other persons.
I would not for one moment advise an actor never to talk "shop"; it is
a great mistake to think that men and women should never talk in
public or private about the thing to which they devote their lives;
people, as a rule, are most interesting on the subject of their own
particular business in life. Talk about the affairs of the theatre
within reason, and with due regard to the amenities of polite
conversation, but do not confuse the affairs of the theatre, broadly
speaking, with your own. The one is lasting, general; the other
particular and fleeting. "_Il n'y a pas de l'homme necessaire_" [No
man is indispensable]. Many persons would be strangely surprised if
they could see how rapidly their place is filled after they are gone,
no matter how considerable their achievement. It may not be filled in
the same way, as well, as fittingly, but it will be filled, and
humanity will content itself very fairly well with the substitute.
This is especially true of the work of the actor. He can but live as
a memory, and memory is proverbially short.