The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-03-27


my play. He replied fila j 3 was really
too busy TO see me. Il trie,L. one whole
summer in England togo Inn TO hear
the piece. but 1 couldn = fir mage it. At
last in the autumn. wien ! returned TO
New York, ] wrote him again, and he
replied Jhat | might call any evening
about II 20 O'Clock, after the perform
ance, and see him in his dressing room
Wen, that was not a very pressing in
matter so tar as he was concerned when
L came back TO my study after dining
out one nlSnt. ana seeing the play on
my desk ! made up my mind to stroll up
TO the theatre and see him. I did so, but
dIdn attempt 10 read the manuscript
70 nam then managed TO induce him
TO make an appointment 10 let me have
a Try at reading ii to him the next day
winch ! did; ana before ieft the room
The moral Of which fs?"
spare the other man Consider what
OF his feelings Don't bother people. don't
pore them. and don't set discouraged and
stop work"
g q g
sometimes a young author considers
his play better than il really is?
he can generally obtain the opinion of
an agent In fact, / think the best thing
a man with no experience nowadays can
40 with ms play Is TO give II to an agent.
The latter viii return it quickly enough
If il has not got the right material in It,
because ne or she can't waste any time
MY father was just like most fathers
VINO are not in an aristocratic profession,
ana when told him OF my ambition TO
be a playwright it had rather a depressing
enect upon MIN. He tolc me ! could try
my luck in New York at writing for three.
years, and If at the end of that time l
could not support myself / should. ac-
cordinS to parental law, become an archi-
tecJ- spent nay nrSt year writing stories,
articles, poems anything and everything
4 could think OF, and the end of the
third year had written Beau Brum-
mel and mad a production
And after that
Failures and successes and lots of
work and never say diet
1T was something to have three
years course guaranteed, without danger
Of material cola 9se2
'Of course H. was a great deal, but
didn't go at it with burning sense of
immediate success and I always contem-
Plate failure as possible disappOint-
ment, but not with a sense of absolute
disaster. / believe / thought less of the
business side OF my work than L did Of
the artistic results
Have you dTamatized novels2''
don't care much TO dramatize an
other mans ideas, although I have done
very much prefer TO write about my
own people and describe my own scenes. o.
DO you deliberately select your sub
Ject Tor a play with a view to point out
a general moral or purpose
My plays usually grow from a germ. l
might say. The germ feeds till it grows
into some positive form When I sit down
to write, that germ or seer has become
the trunk of tree and ". - / write the
| least expect them, and the leaves come
last of all, which are the lines. the senti-
ment OF the story
,, .,Yon do not auiz; yourself with prob
Not necessarily. But I like a story
that means something.. After all, a ro-
against the horrors of civil war and
slmple lIttle taiu like Lovers Lane.
least so l am told-to Tighten the heart
No play is any good unless it convinces
the spectator
Have you been influenced by Ibsen?''
''Ibsen is a great realist. and realism on
the stage is a landmark that every sin
cere artist strives for. more or less BUT
nothing is more t1resome than a, weak
imitation of Ibsen. Ibsen can teach a
romanticist as Wen as a realist. 1 tell
you what I think a man wants to really
succeed as a dramatiSt-he wants mag
nation There's the golden wand to touch
the commonplace with.
The sun burst from behind a cloud and
poured ITS searching, brilliant light into
the room and we forgot lbsen and the
psychologist shadow of that strange, wild,
passionate ''Sapho. For there. in sill
Yer frame, was portrait of Julia Mar
lowe. on which was written, From your
grateful Barbara and there beyond was
Maxine Elliott in her colonial grace of.
the days o. Nathaniel Hale" and these
were not Norwegian shadows of the Tb-
sen mood. but romantic heroines added to
the pages of an American national liter
AZURE OF the theatre.
Play writing has its cOmpensationsi L
said, 80 many had grown old in the
blight of its disappOintments."
"Oh. yes. and a man who is over busy
with what he likes to do ought not ever
to complain. I often think of the courage
a lot of fellows have. full of talents for
music, painting. writing, and obliged by
an obstinate fate to work along in banks.
in offices. in various clerical positions
that are most distaSteful to them
There's just q bit of magic, called
luck. in it all. / said.
Yes, very likely, but luck is an Alad-
din's lamp that needs a lot of hard work
polishing to help it perform its mir
acles.
And a, lot of hard mental work.
Work morning, noon and night, al
though lately I.cOnfine my working hours
to the morning and the late hours AT
night, when the days obligations are
over.
Marks Slv Joke.