He left home secretly on 22 February 1777; on 15 March he was onstage in the court theater of Gotha, under the direction of Konrad Ekhof, playing the Jew Israel in Johann Jakob Engel's
Der Diamant (The Diamond, 1772). Ekhof was known as a philosophical actor who encouraged a natural delivery, warm expression, and personal dignity--earning him the epithet "the German Garrick"--while at the same time paying attention to the most minute detail of speech and gesture. Ekhof recognized Iffland's talent and became his teacher. Iffland began in roles of servants and Jews, soon proceeding to young lovers, dandies, and comical old men. Apparently he did not fascinate by his looks: he was thickset, in later years even obese; his thighs seemed too slender, his feet too small and delicate for his bulk. His face was round, his nose slender; his voice did not project well but was well modulated. The soul of his acting lay in his talent for mimicry; his expression, projected mainly with his eyes, was always true and psychologically motivated. In spite of his rapidly growing fame his family continued to treat him as an outcast until Iffland forced a reconciliation by visiting his parents in 1779.
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