IRVINE INTERPRETS ART OF THE DRAMA

"The hardest thing in every field of endeavor, and especially in art, is thinking,--clear, hard, clean thinking. Art itself, impossible to define, must be an 'intelligent abstraction from nature'" declared Harry Irvine, noted English character actor, in the course of an interview with a CRIMSON reporter.

"Acting, like painting, sculpture, and music, derives its value from a judicious interpretation of nature and imagination. Broadly speaking, dramatic art falls into the category of the interpretive and not the creative, which after all is a misnomer, for all art is inspired by things existent.

"Between acting and instrumental music," went on Mr. Irvine, "there is a striking parallel, which most people do not seem to realize or appreciate. Both depend more or less upon action, and what is essential, upon a director. It would be just as foolish for a group of actors to act without a director as for a band of musicians to strike up without a conductor.

"Colleges and schools at the present time frequently obtain dramatic directors who know no more about the art than the students themselves. What is worse, there is a tendency in college dramatic courses, where they exist, to call acting 'self expression'. This it most certainly is not. The one and most important task of the actor is to make himself a perfect instrument through which to express the character and feelings of others.

"Taking this interpretive function into account, it follows that the only possible reason for the existence of acting as an art is to make words more beautiful and expressive to the audience than they would appear in reading."