What does "passion-tearing" mean?

What does "passion-tearing" mean in the following context?

My parents were at the summer theater singing a first matinee performance of "You Can't Take It With You". In summer stock productions they were two very irritable, passion-tearing, perspiring players, and my younger brothers and I rarely went to see them. My mother was especially poor in summer stock. Watching her, even on a cool evening, Kenneth used to cringe in his seat till he was almost on the floor.

It doesn't sound like a good thing, but I cannot figure out what it actually means.

The story is written somewhere around 1947 and full context is available here.

I found the following passages in Emotional Excess on the Shakespearean Stage: Passion's Slaves

More here (without explanation) from The Knickerbocker: Or, New-York Monthly Magazine, Volume 11

Passion-tearing = Dramatic over-acting.
Woe-is-me loud wailing declamations and dramatic expressions of grief / joy / ... .

Google Ngram results help heaps. Click blue year-ranges at bottom of page for source examples

NGrams

Occurrences:

The Musical times, 1920 usage here

Hamlets instructions to actors analysed here