xpected nothing) are willing to
believe that if the actor can surprise them with a small part, he
would take the house by storm with a big one._

I will conclude my letter with a few general rules for young actors.

_Say nothing whatever on the stage but your part._ This is a rule for
rehearsals, and if it could be attended to, every rehearsal would have
more than double its usual effect. People chatter from nervousness,
explain or apologize for their mistakes, and waste quite three-fourths
of the time in words which are not in the piece.

_Speak very slowly and very clearly._ All young actors speak too fast,
and do not allow the audience time to digest each sentence. _Speak
louder than usual, but clearness of enunciation is even more
important. Do not be slovenly with the muscles of the lips, or talk
from behind shut teeth._

_Keep your face to the audience as a rule._

If two people talking together have to cross each other so as to
change their places on the stage, _the one who has just spoken should
cross before the one who is going to speak_.

_Learn to stand still._

As a rule, _do not speak when you are crossing the stage_, but cross
first and then speak.

_Let the last speaker get his sentence well out before you begin
yours._

If you are a comic actor, _don't run away with the piece by over-doing
your fun. Never spoil another actor's points by trying to make the
audience laugh whilst he is speaking._ It is inexcusably bad
stage-manners.

If the audience applauds, _wait till the noise of the clapping is over
to finish your speech_.

_Rehearse without your book in the last rehearsals_, so as to get into
the way of hearing the prompter, and catching the word from him when
your memory fails you.

_Practise your part before a looking-glass, and say it out aloud._ A
part may be pat in your head, and very stiff on your tongue.

The Green-room is generally a scene of great confusion in private
theatricals. Besides getting everything belonging to your dress
together _yourself_ and in _good time_, I advise you to have _a little
hand-basket_, such as you may have used at the seaside or in the
garden, and into this to put _pins_, _hair-pins_, _a burnt cork_,
_needles and thread_, _a pair of scissors_, _a pencil_, _your part_,
_and any small things you may require_. It is easy to drop them into
the basket again. Small things get mislaid under bigger ones when one
is dressing in a hurry; and a hero who is f