Consult an explanatory dictionary for the meaning of the verb “to make up”.
APRAISING AN ACTRESS
1. Read this conversation from “Theatre” by W. S. Maugham:
The setting: Jimmie Langton, a theatre director, is talking to Julia, a young actress.
Jimmie: I`ve been at this game for twenty-five years. I`ve been a call-boy, a stage-hand, a stage-manager, an actor, a publicity man, damn it, I`ve even been a critic. I`ve lived in the theatre since I was a kid just out of school, and what I don`t know about acting isn`t worth knowing. I think you are a genius.
Julia: It`s sweet of you to say so.
Jimmie: Shut up. Leave me to do the talking. You`ve got everything. You`re the right height, you`ve got a good figure, you`ve got an india-rubber face¹.
Julia: Flattering, aren`t you?
Jimmie: That`s just what I am. That`s the face an actress wants. The face that can look anything, even beautiful, the face that can show every thought that passes through the mind. Last night even though you weren`t really thinking what you were doing every now and then the words you were saying wrote themselves on your face.
Julia: It`s such a rotten part. How could I give it my attention? Did you hear the things I had to say?
Jimmie: Your timing² is almost perfect. That couldn`t have been taught, you must have it by nature. That`s the far, far better way. Now let`s come down to brass tacks³. I`ve been making inquiries about you. It appears you speak French like a Frenchwoman and so they give you broken English parts⁴. That`s not going to lead you anywhere, you know.
Julia: I`ve always thought that some day or other I should get a chance of a straight part⁵.
Jimmie: When? You may have to wait ten years. How old are you now?
Julia: Twenty.
Jimmie: What are you getting?
Julia: Fifteen pounds a week.
Jimmie: You`re getting twelve, and it`s a damned sight more⁶ than you`re worth. You`ve got everything to learn. Your gestures are common place. You don`t know how to get the audience to look at you before you speak. You make up too much. With your sort of face the less make-up the better. Wouldn`t you like to be a star?
Julia: Who wouldn`t?
Jimmie: Come to me and I`ll make you the greatest actress in England. Are you a quick study?
Julia: I think I can be word-perfect in any part in forty-eight hours.
Jimmie: It`s experience you want and me to produce you. Come to me and I`ll let you play twenty parts a year. I tell you, you`ve got the makings of⁷ a great actress. I`ve never been so sure of anything in my life.
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Julia: I know I want experience. I`d had to think it over of course. I wouldn`t mind coming to you for a season.
Jimmie: Go to hell. Do you think I can make an actress of you in a season? Do you think I`m going to work my guts out to make you give a few decent performances and then have you go away to play some twopenny-halfpenny⁸ part in a commercial⁹ play in London? What sort of a fool do you take me for? I`ll give you a three years` contract and you`ll have to work like a hoarse.
NOTES:
1. india-rubber face – a face that can easily assume any expression
2. timing – speed of dialogues or cues
3. come down to brass tacks – come to business; talk about serious things
4. broken English parts – parts where the actress has to speak broken English representing a foreigner
5. straight part – (here) big, central part
6. a damned sight more (col.) – very much more
7. you`ve got the makings of… - you`ve got all the qualities needed to become…
8. twopenny-halfpenny ['tʌpnı'heıpnı] (col.) – worthless, petty
9. commercial play – the play that remains on because of the profit it makes rather than due to its artistic merits
WORD - STUDY
1. Transcribe and read these words:
gesture experience
genius audience
straight publicity
inquiry decent
flatter commercial
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Write out from the conversation the names of theatrical professions and to be ready to define
Them in class. Give their Russian equivalents. Can you extend the list?
3. Read out from the conversation the sentences with the following word–combinations:
to have the makings of, to make up, to have something by nature, to take somebody/something
for somebody/something else, to do the talking, to be (not) worth knowing, every now and then
Translate these word–combinations into Russian. Use them in sentences of your own.
Consult an explanatory dictionary for the meaning of the verb “to make up”.
5. Comment on the meaning of the verb “to make up” in the following sentences:
1. He must be made up; his wig must be found.
2. “You`re not suggesting, are you, Sergeant, that Mr. Grant made this up– about the stool coming flying at him – that he made this up as an afterthought?
3. Martin sorted a great heap of soiled clothes, while Joe started the washer and made up fresh supplies of soft-soap.
4. He had an ability of seeing what he wanted to see in the things which made up his existence.
5. He told Agnes the other day that the best remedy for malaria was quinine, so we are off to get a few powders made up.
6. “Make up with him”, he advised Lizzie, at parting, as they stood in front of working man`s shack in which she lived.
6. Write out the favourable and critical commentaries Jimmy passed on Julia as an actress. Arrange them in these two columns:
| What makings of an actress Julia had | What she lacked and needed to perfect |
| - | - |
| - | - |
SPEAKING ACTIVITIES
Pair Work:
1. Act out the conversation between Jimmy Langton and Julia Lambert.
2. Act as Julia. Say about your conversation with Jimmy Langton and what you feel about him.
3. In the name of Jimmy Langton give your impressions of Julia Lambert as an actress.
4. Classify Julia as a beginning actress (Go over 5).
FOLLOWING UP ACTIVITIES
7. Make the following conversations complete and act them out;
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a) – Well, that`s the end of the first act. Shall we go to the bar and have a bite?
- I don`t want a bite, but I wouldn`t mind stretching my legs.
- Let`s go then. What do you think of the leading lady?
- … I`ve never seen her act before.
- Nor have I, but I bet she`ll go a long way.
- Yes, I think she will … She certainly overshadowed the rest of the cast. None of the others came up to her standard.
- Mm. Except perhaps the old grandfather. He had us all in fits wherever he came on…
- Yes, Wilkinson`s a grand character actor. He …
- There`s the bell. Time to go back to our seats.
b) - I rang you up last night but your mother said you were out.
- Yes, I went to see “ ………………. “
- What was it like?
- I didn`t think much of the play but the acting was very good. It was beyond myexpectations.
- Was it? Now I remember there were some top names among the cast. What do you think of N.?
- ………………..
- … All in all, it was an enjoyable performance.
- The critics, on the other hand, have run the play and the cast down. Some of them wrote than N. ………., the others ……….
- This does not surprise me in the least. I was sure they would.
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