linguistic:paraphrasing
The Art of the Theatre

In her final years, Bernhardt wrote a textbook on the art of acting. She wrote whenever she had time, usually between productions, and when she was on vacation at Belle-Île. After her death, the writer Marcel Berger, her close friend, found the unfinished manuscript among her belongings in her house on boulevard Pereire. He edited the book, and it was published as L'Art du Théâtre in 1923. An English translation was published in 1925.

She paid particular attention to the use of the voice, "the instrument the most necessary to the dramatic artist." It was the element, she wrote, which connected the artist with the audience. "The voice must have all the harmonies...serious, plaintive, vibrant and metallic." For a voice to be fully complete, she wrote "It is necessary that it be very slightly nasal. An artist who has a dry voice can never touch the public." She also stressed the importance for artists to train their breathing for long passages. She suggested that an actress should be able to recite the following passage from Phédre in a single breath:

She noted that "the art of our art is not to have it noticed by the public...We must create an atmosphere by our sincerity, so that public, gasping, distracted, should not regain its equilibrium and free will until the fall of the curtain. That which is called the work, in our art, should only be the search for the truth."

She also insisted that artists should express their emotions clearly without words, using "their eye, their hand, the position of the chest, the tilting of the head...The exterior form of the art is often the entire art; at least, it is that which strikes the audience the most effectively." She encouraged actors to "Work, overexcite your emotional expression, become accustomed to varying your psychological states and translating them...The diction, the way of standing, the look, the gesture are predominant in the development of the career of an artist."

She explained why she liked to perform male roles: "The roles of men are in general more intellectual than the roles of women...Only the role of Phédre gives me the charm of digging into a heart that is truly anguished...Always, in the theatre, the parts played by the men are the best parts. And yet theatre is the sole art where women can sometimes be superior to men."