The actor-manager system is liable to impede the progress of dramatic
art through defects of its own, but its most characteristic defects
are not tarred with the capitalist brush. The actor-manager is prone
to over-estimate the range of his histrionic power. He tends to claim
of right the first place in the cast of every piece which he produces.
He will consequently at times fill a role for which his powers unsuit
him. If he be wise enough to avoid that error, he may imperil the
interests of dramatic art in another fashion; he may neglect pieces,
despite their artistic value, in which he knows the foremost part to
be outside his scope. The actor-manager has sometimes undertaken a
secondary role. But then it often happens, not necessarily by his
deliberate endeavour, but by the mere force and popularity of his name
among the frequenters of his playhouse, that there is focussed on his
secondary part an attention that it does not intrinsically merit, with
the result that the artistic perspective of the play is injured. A
primary law of dramatic art deprecates the constant preponderance of
one actor in a company. The highest attainable level of excellence in
all the members is the true artistic aim.
Pages:
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182