Charles Macklin - How Macklin Trained His Students

How Macklin Trained His Students

The introduction of naturalistic acting by Macklin can best be seen in how he trained his students. Appleton states that “Macklin believed acting a science, founded upon nature. He stressed the importance of a thorough knowledge of one’s role, of propriety of dress, and of attention the business of the scene; the necessity of avoiding monotony of tone”. It was not uncommon for Macklin to advise a student to unlearn all they had learned about acting. According to Appleton “Macklin made this the preliminary condition for all of his pupils. To hesitate was to be instantly dismissed. But one the condition had been agreed to, Macklin proved a dedicated teacher, willing to take infinite pains and often willing to instruct them for nothing”. Most importantly, Macklin wanted his students to speak as they would in everyday life; basically transferring reality to the stage. Appleton portrays how Macklin trained his students to do this: “In the garden of his Dublin house, two of his pupils would stroll down two parallel walks while Macklin walked in the middle. They would walk for ten paces, and then exchange bits of conversation. They would repeat this many times until Macklin was satisfied in every particular”. In this way, Macklin drilled his students until they acquired an ease of speech and manner. To cope with projection in the theatres, Macklin would often recite from Milton’s Paradise Lost or soliloquies from Macbeth or Othello, having his students to imitate him in clarity, speech, and volume. Appleton adds that “while he concentrated primarily on achieving clear and natural diction, he stressed as well the importance of mastering variety of tone and pause to indicate transitions of thought and associations of ideas”. Macklin taught his students three fundamental pauses: moderate, longer, and grand. Each type of pause served an important function depending on the scene.

Macklin was one of the forerunners to stress the need to regularize rehearsals. Appleton states that “actors, compelled by the repertory system to know scores of parts, generally relied on conventional attitudes, gestures, and tones to carry them through a performance and felt little enthusiasm for this discipline. Sometimes they were absent from rehearsals. Often they arrived late, stumbled through their lines and drifted away”. Macklin was not only concerned about his individual actors, but with the whole production, and so everyone had to come prepared and on time. This led to a relentless discipline unmatched in other students at the time. For the rest of his life, Macklin would continue to train his students with such intensity and passion and through them, make an important contribution to the English Theatre.