This by the way is a fascinating newspaper article from 1900 in which she talks about her passion and offers up her 'Laws for an Actress'. She was obviously quite a gal!
HOW TO BECOME AN EMOTIONAL ACTRESS
Miss Nethersole Describes the Processes Through Which the Body and Mind Must Pass
By OLGA NETHERSOLE
First published in "The Lowell Sun" [USA] - 12th March, 1900.
If you are at all timid about your own feelings, I mean if you are afraid to use the extent of natural impulse born in you, there is every hope that you will attain distinction in some other profession than the stage. The stage is no place for timid people. I sometimes think that nerve is better than talent, for it often seems to succeed quite as well.
I hope I have not misled you by saying too much about stage-art as against the value of stage-heart. Perhaps I ought not to say stage-heart, because actually there is no such thing. Our hearts are always that high court to which we women appeal nearly all our best impulse?. I only used the term stage-heart to qualify the value of complete heart interest to the stage. And just here let me tell you there is a tremendous egotism about the stage. It is a masterful, commanding, exorbitant creditor, demanding your body and soul as ransom, a pledge of your ambition to succeed.
Your bodily strength, your emotional nature, all your passionate and tender impulses, all that you can love and all that you can hate is absorbed by that glittering temple of the actors' creed - the theatre. It is not, in the sense that ladylike fiction would describe it, a sweet home life. It is nomadic, restless, anxious, almost soldierly in its characteristic "fighting" qualities. So much of necessary warning to sustain the purpose I wish these lessons to convey. I want you to be quite sure that you are competent to face the difficulties.
We have come to that point in these educational talks which is most important in a self-examination for admission to the dramatic profession. Have you emotional power?
Nearly every one has an emotion or two that they are quite proud of. Nearly every one avoids those emotions that an emotional actress is called upon to impersonate. The emotional motives of great tragedies are exceptional. They do not occur in ordinary lines. They are conceived by men and women who have vigor of imagination. Emotional power, therefore, is not merely a physical strength to sustain the bodily tension of tragedy, but an unusual mental genius for imagining situations. In fact, the most vital part of emotional power is the imagination.
Emotional acting is the torture of spirit plunged into a four or five act tragedy, to which is added physical endurance to survive the torture. Dramatic situations that would kill two thirds of the audiences were they to encounter them in life are the duties set down for an emotional actress. Therefore the question to ask yourself is, "can you suffer the agony of Juliet's mind and heart as she should suffer in the tomb scene without a complete collapse?"
Have you the physical nature or the indomitable will to dismiss your emotions when the play is over?
Can you violate your own intimate standard of good morals by impersonating the character of a woman whose nature has no parallel emotion in your own, and conceive her disposition, voice, poise and passion?
Can you submit your soul to the contemplation of a pathetic death scene and live through it?
These are questions that I put to you from my own knowledge, knowing how they will weigh upon your ambition. I know also that unless you are born with the true spark of intense purpose that they will frighten you into other trades. Of course, I am assuming that you aim to become a leading example of the best emotional acting.
As I have told you, my own emotions on the stage are real for the time being, and I am quite positive that without a degree of actual tragic sympathy with an emotional scene you will never be able to assume it. The theatrical effects of assumed acting are never convincing. They never represent the highest art.
Now do you still think you have emotional power?
If you are quite satisfied that you understand the surrender the stage demands of you, this terrific surrender of all the violent passions and emotions of your nature, then I should say you have emotional temperament and ought to study for the stage. It is only when you are quite sure that you have such a temperament, and that you are equal to the sacrifice it demands, that you should begin to go to a practical school.
I am demanding only the best, that you may reach the best results in art. When you reach a competent teacher you will discover all the crudity of your emotions for stage expression, and you will be shown the first requirement of emotional power for stagework - emotional restraint.
An emotional actress represents the most difficult and exacting calling, and I must persist in reminding you that these lessons will inspire only the few, the very few who are equal to the work. In its highest sense.
Emotional restraint is acquired by a familiarity with the necessary technique of the stage. You learn to speak distinctly, to walk correctly, to grace the stage with a fine ease of manner. Then when you are quite sure of your stage footing, as it were, you can begin impersonations.
Dialect, eccentric speech, old age, and the host of complex details bearing upon characterization. This ground work, which dramatic schools supply, is invaluable. I cannot speak too warmly of the value to the stage of educational schools for dramatic students. And there is nothing will destroy your talent so much as improper technique, that is, incompetent teaching.
There are one or two schools in this city, I believe, which I could recommend to dramatic students, but there are also a great number of very dangerous nomadic teachers of dramatic art, who do the stage a great deal of harm. I believe that the gift to impart dramatic knowledge to the stage aspirant is as rare as the actor's gift of emotional impulse.
Emotional restraint is the only quality that makes emotional acting safe and true. The average expression of deep or violent emotion would be a very clumsy, not to say painful, exhibition without emotional restraint. It is the quality that separates the old-fashioned method of emotional ranting from the suppressed force of to-day.
In these modern times we suggest our sufferings; we let tears speak for us, and we do not make long speeches. The day is passed when emotions were ceremonial. We have dispensed with emotional ceremonies that we may practise emotional restraint.
You see what a difficult art it is - how numerous are the qualities it requires. I hope that I have not discouraged any worthy students by these discouraging details. I am sure I could not do so if there be any one as deliberate in their ambition as I have been. There was a time when my family absolutely forbade me to become an actress. I am happy to say I have since been forgiven. I say this to show you what is to be overcome.
Laws for an Actress
As Laid Down by Olga Nethersole
Conquer your timidity.
Let the at stage be your masterful, commanding, exhorbitant creditor, demanding your body and soul as ransom.
Learn emotional restraint as well as emotion.
Speak distinctly, walk correctly, and obtain an ease of manner.
Learn dialect, eccentric speech and the peculiarities of old age.
Be heart and soul in earnest, knowing no side devotions.
Adopt the stage as an earnest aim rather than a vehicle for youth and beauty.
After you have studied in other schools, let the stage be your first great college of learning.
(Reproduced from stagebeauty.net)