Put a little "punch" and life into your gestures. You can not, however, do this

mechanically. The audience will detect it if you do. They may not know just what

is wrong, but the gesture will have a false appearance to them.

 

_Facial Expression is Important_

 

Have you ever stopped in front of a Broadway theater and looked at the

photographs of the cast? Notice the row of chorus girls who are supposed to be

expressing fear. Their attitudes are so mechanical that the attempt is

ridiculous. Notice the picture of the "star" expressing the same emotion: his

muscles are drawn, his eyebrows lifted, he shrinks, and fear shines through his

eyes. That actor _felt_ fear when the photograph was taken. The chorus girls

felt that it was time for a rarebit, and more nearly expressed that emotion than

they did fear. Incidentally, that is one reason why they _stay_ in the chorus.

 

The movements of the facial muscles may mean a great deal more than the

movements of the hand. The man who sits in a dejected heap with a look of

despair on his face is expressing his thoughts and feelings just as effectively

as the man who is waving his arms and shouting from the back of a dray wagon.

The eye has been called the window of the soul. Through it shines the light of

our thoughts and feelings.

 

_Do Not Use Too Much Gesture_

 

As a matter of fact, in the big crises of life we do not go through many