Los Angeles herald., 1890-09-19
SLOW WORK, MAKING A PLAY.
Months, Sometimes Years, Required
to Produce Modern Drama.
From the New York World.

Bronson Howard, whose Shenandoah
has brought him over 100000 in royal
ties, would have to turn out a play a
week to meet the demands that come to
him from play-seekers everywhere, but
he gave Shenandoah into the hands of
its managers complete last September,
and has done nothing since. Last April
he made a contract for new play which
viii not be ready for two years. Mr..
Howard is now in the south OF France,
dreaming or studying motive for the
drama.
Next to Bronson Howard the most
successful American dramatists are
David Belasco and Henry c. De Mile.
They are satisfied to produce one play a
year. The new play which they have in
hand, and which is booked for produc-
ton at Proctar's Twenty-third street
theater some time in October, has had
their combined attention since January
1st, and at the present time only three
acts OF the piece are approaching com
petion.
Mr.. De Mile owns a farm at Echo
Lake, New Jersey, fifty-five miles from
New York, among the Blue mountains.
A roomy, two-story Dutch farm house
stands in the middle of its $50 acres.
The dramatists work in a study on the
first floor, down few steps from the
level of the parlor. 1t is large room,
filled with book shelves, soft carpets and
tasteful hangings. Two tables covered
with papers and the paraphernalia of
writing are in the middle of the den and
chair is beside each. At these tables
the dramatists write.
This" said Mr.. De Mile to a visitor,
sis my table and that is Mr.. Belasco's.
In this den we spend about five hours a
day four or five days in the week. We
come in here at 10 O'Clock every morn
ing, no matter what the programme may
be, and unless we get into snarl with
our characters we sit at our tables and
work until 80; then we have
slight luncheon and resume
work until o'clock, when we
take horseback ride of seven to ten
miles. We do a great deal of talking at
our work. We discuss lines and situa-
tions and sometimes for month we may
not put pen to paper or write single
word. Sometimes Mr.. Belasco dictates
and write; then dictate and he writes.
We have no other division of our work.
We work together on everything, and
there is really no part of the work which
belongs, strictly speaking, to one person.
1--WE begin our plays by getting the
central idea or big scene first. We
think and plot and plan for weeks un-
til we get it. When we have it, we
start in to build our story. This again
takes a long time, and all the while we
are doing no writing, simply making
notes and discussing incidents and situ-
ations. In The Wife, we started with
the scene between John Rutherford and
his wife. | can more easily explain
the method of our work by de-
scribing the way we are working on our
new play. Towards the end OF last De-
cember we signed contract with Mr..
Charles Frohman to write play suit
able to the stock company which he has
organized. He 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, by making trip
south for three weeks. Dur
ing 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 to our
den, and walked and rode and discussed
different stories. Not until April did we
reach point where we knew what we
were going to 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 SO that
we were not ready to do much writing
for the first six months. Now we have
three acts in Mr.. Frohman's hands, and
are at work on the last, which will be
ready by September 1st.
when writing our scenes we act out
every line we put down. We arrange
the furniture OF the room as if it were a
stage. Ii the scene requires the hand
ling Of portieres by actor or actress, we
go through the movements and every
detail of the action is written out for the
players guidance. Sometimes | act and
sometimes Mr.. Belasco acts. We criti-
else each other mercilessly. As unani-
nifty OF opinion is necessary before we
use our material, whatever is condemned
by either is thrown out.
sometimes we get to place where
we cannot make our characters talk
then we put on our hats and take up
our canes and go out for walk. We
know our people refuse to talk because
we are trying to make them do some
thing unnatural, and during our tramp
we do our best to get them out of the
snarl. Once on the present play we
were up stump, so 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. On these excursions
we carry note book and pencil and jot
down every idea or suggestion that
comes to us. Sometimes we write a
whole scene on horseback. letting the
animal walk as we write. When Belasco
/ gets around he will act on horseback
''After four O'Clock we put our work
aside, and unless when in the dining
room with my family, we hardly evel
revert to it. Every day when we finish
writing we read what we have done te
Mrs. DeMille, who freely criticises what
she thinks wrong or weak, and she otter
offers suggestions which we adopt. She
has been the censor of all our plays, anC