The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1890-08-27
MAKING A MODERN PLAY.
MONTHS. IF NOT YEARS, ARE
NEEDED FOB IT'S EVOLUTION.
At Least That Has Been the case SINCE
shakespeare Dashed on "The Merry
yvivas,, to Order-Belasco and DE Mile
A., pr,efr Carto-IIouse ~tudy.

/
would have to turn out a play a week to
meet the demands that come 10 him from
plav seekers everywhere, but he gave
"Shcnandoah" into the hands Of its man
ayers complete last Septemberand has done
nothing since. Last April he made con
tract for a new play which will not be
ready for two years Mr.. Howard is now
In tho south Of France, dreaming or study
ing motive ior the drama.
Next to Bronson Howard the most sue
cessful American dramatists are David Be
lasco and Henry c. DeMlle. They are sat
lsged to- produce one play year. Inc
Wife" and "1he harity Ball. were each
the outcome Of several months contriying
and consideration. The new play which
thew have in hand, and which is booked for
production at Pr0ctOr's Twenty lhlrd-strcet
4 Theatre, some time in October. has had their
combined attention since January lst, ana
at the present time only three acts OF The
piece are approaching completion. Inc
dramatists are, of course, in that part OF
their work where nothing remains but the
literary Mobilization Of the play-the polish
ing Of the story.
Mr.. DE Mile owns a farm at Echo Lake,
/ Nd. ffty-fye miles from New Ork, ameng
the Blue Mountains. \ rOomy two-story
/ Dutch farm house stands in the middle Of
/ its 80 acres.
| The dramatists work in study on the
, first flOOr down a few steps from the level
Of the padOr. II Is large room llied with
/ book shelves. soft carpet and tasteful hang.
| ings. Two tables covered with papers ana
/ the paraphornaiia Of writing are in the
middle OF the den and chair is beside
I e q ,f.lfs hf. q rsnunuff-f. write
IN THEIR DEN.
This" said Mr. De Mile to 4 visitor.
/ sis my table and that is Mr.. Belasco's. |
wouldn't sit there and be wouldn't sit here
+ for ANYTHING in the world. The table and
chair Of each is sacred TO himself I'm this
den we spend about five hours a day four
or live DAYS in the week. We work Tues
DAYS. Wednesdays. Thursdays. Fridays and
sometimes saturdays. We come IN here at
/ I'D o'clock every morning. no matter
what the programme may De, aud unless
we yet INTO "a snarl with our
/ characters we sit at our tables
and work until 1880; then we have a
I ,light luncheon and resume work until I
o'clock. when we take horseback RIDE OF
seven 10 ten miles. e. do great deal ot
/ TALKING at our work. We discuss lines and
/ situations. and sometimes for month we
I lldN iNL put iiEu ~ Ifhi|i vi iAtN 90 'tN-i'
word. sometimes Mr. Bela,cOe dictates and
write: then dictate and he writes. We
have no other division OF Our work. Friends
of each have come 10 u- and pretended TO
discover individual excellence Jon oar plays.
but they usually give credit 20 the wrong
man. Some OF the best comedy Of our plays
ha, been suggested by Mr. Belasc0. and
some of the strongest situations have been
conceived by me. We work together on
ever, thing. and there is reallyuo part OF the
work which belongs, strictly speaking, TO
one person.
we BEGIN our PLAYS by getting the CEN
trail idea OF big scene first. We think and
plot and plan Tor weeks until we get n.
When we have it we start i'm 10 build our
story. This again takes long time, ana
all the while we are doing no writing, SIM
DIV making notes and discussing incidents
and situations. In The " ifc' We started
with the scene between John Rutherford
and his wife, the climatic scene of the play.
I'm The Charity Bali we began with the
title which we thought was taking for
play. Usually we do not name our plays;
that has usually been done for lis by Mr..
Daniel Frohman. who changed the title
The Marriage Tie 10 The Witei but in the
case Of The Charity BALI we began with
the title. cur idea was at first to make the
bali the leading feature Of the play. but We
hit upon the scene between the brokers IN
the clergyman's study, and we worked to
and from that point
TIE PLAY-NAKERs At WORK.
II can more easily explain the method Of
our work" said Mr. De Mile, "by describ-
ing the way wc are working on our new
play. Towards the end of last December
we signed a contract with Mr.. Charles
frOhman TO write play suitable to the
stock company which he has organized. lie
did not tell Us what he wanted, and we
didn't say that we had anything TO offer; the
fact is. we had nothing. We began work
early in January 10y making a trip south Tor
three weeks. During this trip we talked Of
the promised play. and tried to hit upon an
idea. We returned to Echo Lake without
ANYTHING that was available. For three
months thereafter We made daily visits 10
our den. and walked and rode and dis
cussed different stories. Not until April
did we reach a point where we knew what
we were going 10 do. Then we had our big
scene-the nucleus Of our drama. Now came
the planning Of the story Itself. This took
Us two months longer. 30 that we were not
ready to do much writing for the first six
months. Now we have three acts IN Mr..
frOhmau's hands, and we are at work on
the last, which will be ready by September
lst.
when writing orr scenes we act out
every line we put down. We arrange the
furniture Of the room rs if il were a stage.
If the scene requires the handling of p0r-
there's by actor or actress, we 20 through
the movements, and every detail of the
action is written out for the players guild
ance. sometimes / act and sometimes Mr.
Belasco acts. We criticIse each other mer-
clessly. He may do something that | will
characterize fcaressly as rot and then
again he may as boldly designate something
Of mine stuff A. unanlmity Of opinion is
necessary before we use our material, what
ever is condemned by either is Immediately
thrown out. We discuss the value OF every
entrance and exit, the quantity Of light
upon each scene, and we know exactly how
every movement and every picture is going
to look on the stage.
sometimes we get TO "A place where we
cannot make our characters talk; then We
pat on our hats and take up our canes and
20 out for walk. We know our people re-
fuse 10 talk because we are irving 10 make
them do something unnatural, and during
our tramp we do our best 10 get them out OF
the snarl. Once on the present play we
were up "A stump, 50 TO speak, for three
weeks: we went into the den at 10 every
morning and talked over the situation, only
to wind up by going out for walk or ride.
Du THESE excursions we carry nOte-DOOk
and pencil and j0t down every idea or sug-
gestiOn that comes TO US. Sometimes we
write a whole scene on horseback. letting
the animal walk rs we write. When Belasco
gets aroused he will act on horseback one
day, in going through particularly eXcit-
Ing scene, | thought when the point was
reached where the heroine throws herself at
her lovers feet that Dave would fling him.
self under the horses hOOfs. and | had 10
take hold of him and awaken him to his
danger.
THE FIRST CRITICS.
"Atter 4 O'clock we put our work aside,
and unless when in the dining-roOm with
my family, we hardly ever revert TO ii.
Every day when we finish writing we read
what we have done to Mrs. DE Mile, who
freely criticises what she thinks wrong or
weak. and she often offers suggestions that
we adopt. She has been the censor of all
our PLAYS and has seen them grow day by
day. Her share of the work enabled us To
present indisputable proof against the
claims of Miss Matthews. who pretended
that she was the real author of The W ile.'
AZ the table we talk of the people Of
the play rs il they were real per-
soaases. We become interested In their
goings and c0mings. their Joys and suller-
inys. aud IN us they are for the time being