The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-07-09
Play WRITING.
reoPlE OF ALL SORTS AND coNpI
TONS HAVE CAUGHT THE MANIA.
thousands of Plays That Are Never Seem
he Ability That Is Needed In
Order to Write an Acceptable
Dramatic Production.
New York Sun I


full American dramatists IL is moi ~ -.
OIL Trying, SAID the manager Of one of the
ir'' suoeK theatres to a reporter plays
are sent 10 me at the rate of two or three a
uay, ana there are at least six more theatres
!" new York and Boston where the same
average is maintained. Taking a low est.
mate, this would mean about 4. 500 plavs
offered yearly in these two cities, exclusive
OF the works OF foreign authors placed in the
hands OF recognized dramatic agents But
These do not exhaust the bill. for nearly
every local manager throughout the conn
try, although he does not keep a stock com.
pany, Is continually being pestered by some
AMBITIOUS townsman who has a sure fortuna
found up in quarter of ream of foolsc an.
Probably it would be well within the figures
70 say that o 900 plays are annually written
in this country.
From what class of persons do those sent
you conner
People of all sorts and conditions seem to
have caught the mania. Judges of the
supreme court, lawyers, doctors. merchants.
artists, ladies whose names are familiar as
leaders OF fashion, novelists, journalists,
actors, and even hotel porters have sent me
efforts Here is book containing the names
oil the plays sent in this season. 1t has fifty
pages, thirty lines to a page and you see
that 1T isn't very far from full. Yet, from
all that number have found only one that
would venture to produce in the shape in
which 1t was sent Others contain good
ideas, but need practical dramatist to re-
write and reconstruct them.
Il don't believe taking into account all
the stars OF even the smallest magnitude
That fifty new American plays are produced
each season or these fifty, twenty may
succeed and bring their authors liberal re-
muneratlon. Now you can reckon out the
percentage 1t is about Il of per cent
Prol ably no other field of labor would show
such an appalling proportion of failure.
And remember that an unproduced or I'M
producible play is the most worthless thing
imaginable. Let me show you my grave
yard"
The manager led the way to a large room
under the auditorium Opening the doors of
vast cupboards he showed stacks of parcels,
each having the name Of play and its author
On many the dust lay so thick as to show
they had not been di-turbed for what the
manager called many moons
Why do you call this your graveyardP
Because so many hopes lie buried there.
1t always makes me sad to think how much
labor has been wasted and how many heart
burningS have arisen over those parcels.
With what glorious anticipations many of
them have been sent away and with what
anxiety the managers verdict has been
awaited The strangest to me is that so
many plays are never sent for. l suppose
the authors become discouraged at the re-
ports they receive and abandon their once
cherished babies to the mercies of my creche.
All authors, however, are not SO heartlsss.
but demand formal receipts for their
dramas, and threaten dire penalties if any
delay occurs in reading and return Let III
go back to my office; the atmosphere of this
crypt is depressing"
"To what do you attribute the American:
inability to produce good plays, when he i:
| so successful in nearly every other branch
| of lteratureP inquired the reporter when he
| was agained seated in the managers cosy
sanctum
"Io the one important fact that literature
has very little to do with the manufacture
of an ordinarily good play. That remark
makes you stare. but it is true, nevertheless
Except in a tragedy or some little poetic
idyll, the language of a play is of the leas
importance OF course, it must not be posi-
lively bad, but it is all-suffcient if it is JUS
respectable. Plot, situations, and character!
are of infinitely greater Importance thar
| dialogue, and the conceiving, handling
| and development of these for stage pur
poses require a thorough knowledge of The
conditions under which they are to be pre-
sented. An actor who can contrive to writ.
dramatically would be far more likely t.
| put together paying play than would you
most accomplished litterateur who hadn'
| for years made close study OF theatrica
conditions
ITO know how to bring people ON and Of
| the stage naturally and effectively, how L
move them about from pairs to groups and
| vice versa, how TO dovetail situations anl
bring about cimax es, can only be Learned
! in the theatre, not, perhaps, necessarily OF
the stage, but from frequent study of per
formances. Then, too, the value of dialogu,
is rarely understood by those who have no
poken it. There is, or should be, all the diff
erence in the world between writing wha
) to be read and that 70 be spoken. The lat
| ter must be clear, concise couche1 il
Vol SubIJ SGhbolCtS, hitu 81 diTdHSeu Lllh
the emphasis must suit the breathing powers
| Then, too, the position of the climax of
| speech must be carefully considered In
novel the strongest point may he made any
where; on the stage it must be in the las
words, or else the point and all that come
after it will be lost. Then, too the use an,
value of business movement upon the stag
and the use of propertiesl is not understoo,
by the ordinary writer. He will make poo
pie sit down or stand up and hold a loni
conversation without ever changing thei
positions. The practiced dramatist know
that this is very fatguing to the spectators
eyes, so he constantly makes his people NOV
about and turns their conversation arount
some visible object, like the milk jug il
School, the goldfish in Two Roses. tn
the wall paper in Caste, etc. etc"