u want to get effective pieces of "business," much
depending upon the brain power and the experience of the coach,
whether he is able to devise effective business or not. Sometimes you
will find it indicated in the script. For a man to make a success at
this business he must have inventive ability. He must thoroughly
understand dialogue, how to time it and set it. They must pick up
their cues, and at the proper moment, and not make "stage waits"
between lines. Sometimes the line is one that calls for a laugh.
Sometimes there is a line preceding it, preparing the audience for
what is to follow. We call that a feed line. Where the period comes
there should be a slight pause. We time that. The actor counts to
himself, "1, 2" before proceeding with the next line, that gives a
laugh a chance to get under way. If you don't give a line like that a
chance, it doesn't get over and the point is lost. It doesn't get the
laugh that you expect, and it would if the coaching is done properly.
Rehearsing dialogue is very tricky work. You must be very strict when
you rehearse it. If anybody on the stage should move, if a chair is
moved or if a door is opened at the wrong time while the dialogue is
going on, it would detract from the line and kill the play. No one can
move while a line is spoken unless it is some kind of a line that
doesn't call for a point. But if it is a comedy point that you want to
put over, or any other kind of an effective point, the characters must
be still and the line must be delivered, and after the period, after
the end of the line, you can break the picture and move.

Many a play is killed because people don't understand how to rehearse
dialogue, don't understand how to get scenes over; amateur coaches
teaching wrong business. I saw wrong business ruin a whole show once
in Baltimore. The chorus was walking up and down stage trying to get a
lyric over, with no sense of direction. They didn't know where they
were going or why. The coach just told them to walk up and down. The
soloist's back was toward the audience at times; she was facing right;
she was facing left; in every conceivable direction except the right
one to get a song over. Of course the number failed. The soloist
should have been in the center of the stage so the lyric could have
been heard and followed by everyone in the audience. Get the verse and
the first chorus over so that the audience gets the idea of the song.
It creates atmosphere for the