The Rise of the Victorian Actor by Baker Michael;

Author:Baker, Michael;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 3570093
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

7 ESTABLISHING A PROFESSION

In the eighteenth century there had been a large element of private patronage in the organisation of the arts. This had prevented artists from developing as distinct occupational groups, a process which could only be achieved by the growth of a wider public. Such a public was to arise as the nation became more urbanised from the middle of the eighteenth century, with the result that literacy spread, the press and other forms of literature grew in popularity, and ultimately public attitudes towards the concept of leisure and culture underwent a profound transformation. In our own period there is clear evidence that the whole field of art and amusement expanded enormously in popularity,1 and it is under these conditions that artists of all persuasions were able to develop as professionals. As we saw in chapter 1, the rise in the status of the arts was not a uniform process; the stage in particular lagged behind the advances of other creative occupations. However, the importance of this period in English theatrical history lies in the fact that actors showed for the first time an awareness of what was required to transform their standing. If by 1890 their track record was less impressive than that of other emergent professions, nonetheless their actions suggest that they were no less eager to attain the same objectives.

In this chapter I do not propose to explore in great detail the practical efforts made by actors and managers to improve theatrical standards, an indispensable prerequisite to the stage’s acceptance as a profession. Important as these efforts were, they have been treated adequately elsewhere and are now largely familiar to theatre historians. I would only stress in passing that such achievements, like many other Victorian social reforms, had implicit moral as well as technical objectives in view, and it should not be forgotten that the care with which large numbers of ordinary actors and actresses sought to maintain an irreproachable respectability in their private lives made no small contribution to the rising esteem of their calling. It might also be added that the movement to eliminate impropriety and discomfort in theatres was assisted by the total growth of public administration, both nationally and locally, in so far as an increasing amount of parliamentary legislation covering all places of public resort brought theatres within its scope as well.2

The main purpose of this chapter is to show how actors and others concerned with the theatre sought to assert the special claims of acting as an art-form and bring it into line with the accepted criteria of a profession. This was not always a conscious or concerted course of action in an occupation which was organised upon such a disparate basis; petty rivalries and ill-concealed snobberies between individuals, theatres and different branches of the stage served as a constant drawback to attempts to establish national bodies and a professional structure. Moreover, the actor’s resentment of outside criticism of his calling made him slow to respond to movements for

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.