Telegram-herald., 1891-12-20

Is d the least but thoos who 80
truly and dsspay interested il the con-
ing forward sf Hsw and skroag worken
In It's Asld srs tbs few Americas
Arsmstists thai already exist of
couyss they viii 10 the bes& thsy can -
take s1vantags ef this new asnA.d-
But they are too lev - supply IL now.
or 70 sussaia IL for any lonG tins 10
come. II others Do not ooue % the
front rapidly the demand may simply
die away; and - quickly perhaps - il
arose. To the question. thes--whsre
ere our new drsnstists fsr the eneE-
gency?
They are struggling. sew. against
two things:
Want Of experience.
Difnculty in getting thsir manuscripts
read BY psnsge7s-
The young sspirant who = grinding
his teeth at the narrowing delays he
hes had In finding anyone to % much -
open the manuscript Of his play viii be
surprised. periiApa. - be tsld that the
greater di63culty Of the two above sses-
tionsd u the drst--want Of experience.
A yoyng man who had succeeded In
having . play read and produced once
told me. with giec, of the opportunity
before him. A number of managers
were ready to present his mex, play and
he had concluded = contract with one Of
them congratulated him. adding;
"And the play?'
''Oh. havsn't thought Of that yeii'
In other words he thought he had
overcome the chief obstacles when be
had the ear of the manager. Many .
young man with talent has suffered.
sometimes fatally, from this mistake.
Whatever may be the difficulties Of
getting manager 10 read msnnscrip;s.
the chief difficulty in the production Of
Q successful play is the writing Of IL.
And let no young writer forget that
facti 1t is the last thing young man
learns. but we older ones have learned
It thoroughly.
This want Of experience 10 hundred
fold more IN obstacle in this country
than in France or in any old country
where . school Of dramatic writing sx-
ists and where the young writers avail
tho experience, not only Of their ssn-
iors. but of their predecessors Hun
dreds of petty. but often fatal errors.
are eradieated In their minds before
they attempt TO write play. The pos
ability Of some errors, which would be
committed by highly intellectual men
here. is removed from the minds Of the
ignorant gallery boys in some parts Of
Europe. This comes by the mere force
Of inheritance through generations Of
theatergoers. without any other mental
Light in the individual.
For instance, . poor gallery boy Of
Liverpool. who could not read. nor -
father before him-so poor and ignos
ant that he knew nothing of, and cared
nothing for personal cleanliness-once
told me that he didn't lhec play un-
less what occurred in one act was
properly lead mp to. and came about
naturally on account Of what had oc-
CURED in the previous ects- IL would
be difficult to lay down this most i'm
portant principle Of dramatic writing in
morc clean and simple language than
Yet II is safe TO say that, Of a hundred
''plays" submitted to New York man.
ager, this apparently obvious principle
10 utterly ignored by the writer's Of
eighty OF them. and of these eighty
would-be draaatists not ten have ever
given the question Of what In natural
and true, in dramatic action. the slipht~
<1.~a
want of experience 1t second hand,
which q young author naturally nc
quires Ia q school Of dramatic writing.
How many people who try TO write
plays. in this country, consider the fol-
lowing questions. which every true
dramatist must consider At every mo-
ment as his work progrcsses7 Are my
charackrs doing what every man In the
audience viii think that he. himself. or
some other man, might do in re life
under the same circumstances? No
matter how much one may allow for
''stage exaggcration." this question
must lie at the bottom OF all true
usually Of all successful--work for the
theater. This Is 80 important that r.
applies even In works founded In part
upon imaginary conceits In Bouci-
cault's rip Van winklc." for instance.
the audience Is asked TO believe that .
man meets = company OF ghosts and
afterwards sleeps twenty years. NatAre7
No. But every action Of Rip" every
thought. every word. is exactly what Il
would be II q human being could co
through such experiences. The great
dramatist kept this principle before
him all the time. and II is that only
which enables genius like Jefferson
TO reach the hearts Of the people. The
same is true OF Gilbcrt's work in "Pyg-
malicn & Cslatea-" Here are two os
the greatest dramstis.s Of this century
acknowledging their obligation 70 this
principle in every line of two mere fairy
tales; yet three-euarters Of our young
aspirants who are writing about real
life give II no thought or care whatever.
s~-sss ~ fssor.asssa-
Arabs never eat fish
All trees are evergreen in the tropicA
In Palestine there are now ss.oos
Jews
oniv three species Of reptiles exist b
Ireland
The moon Is said 70 move s.sss feet
Per second
Only one ADevicss m 80 IL over sis
feet In height
The average sire ~ - Americss farm
h sie scr -
II takes -, 80 spuss - make IN ouscs
u sssar ~ rs>es.