l-treated old overture dances through your blood, and the rolling up
of the curtain on the audience at night is to you as the magic
blossoming of a mighty flower--if these are the things that you feel,
your fate is sealed: Nature is imperious; and through brain, heart, and
nerve she cries to you, ACT, ACT, ACT! and act you must! Yes, I know
what I have said of the difficulties in your way, but I have faith to
believe that, if God has given you a peculiar talent, God will aid you
to find a way properly to exercise that talent. You may receive many
rebuffs, but you must keep on trying to get into a stock company if
possible, or, next best, to get an engagement with a star who produces
many plays. Take anything, no matter how small, to begin with. You will
learn how to walk, to stand still--a tremendous accomplishment. You will
get acquainted with your own hands, and cease to worry about them.

You can train your brain by studying Shakespeare and the old comedies.
Study not merely the leading part, but all the female parts; it is not
only good training, but you never know when an opportunity may come to
you. The element of "chance" enters very largely into the theatrical
life. Above all, try to remember the lines of every female character in
the play you are acting in; it might mean a sudden rise in your position
if you could go on, at a moment's notice, and play the part of some one
suddenly taken ill.

Then work, work, and above all observe. Never fail to watch the acting
of those about you. Get at the cause of the effects. Avoid the faults,
and profit by the good points of the actors before you, but never permit
yourself to imitate them.

One suggestion I would make is to keep your eyes open for signs of
character in the real life about you. The most successful bit of
business I had in "Camille" I copied from a woman I saw in a Broadway
car. If a face impresses you, study it, try afterward to recall its
expression. Note how different people express their anger: some are
redly, noisily angry; some are white and cold in their rage. All these
things will make precious material for you to draw upon some day, when
you have a character to create; and you will not need to say, "Let me
see, Miss So-and-So would stand like this, and speak very fast, or very
slow," etc.

You will do independent work, good work, and will never be quite
satisfied with it, but will eagerly try again, for great artists are so
constituted; and the