The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-04-15
POSSIBILITIES Of A PLAY
V PRODUCTIONS ALWAYS
WANT PRUNING.
NEW
James NELL Tells of His Experience in
Handling New Plays-The Value of
a Successful Drama.

little by rehearsng it" recently sad
James Neill the star of the Neill COM
pany to an ambitious author who mad
sought his counsel, and Mrs. Neilrs
comments on the subject of new plays
are well worth reading by all of those
who hope sometime to write a success
full play Most of plays require a
great deal of pruning continued the
actor after the first night business
is the great thing. Plays that read
well, won't act" Other that act well
read poorly.
There is a story told in stage an
nails that the old Drury Lane theatre,
in London, once had a treasurer who
had served for many years in that cap
acity and who had not in the entire
time witnessed a single performance
upon the stage. This man after the
first night of every new play brought
out at the theatre over whose finan-
Ces he presided, would let himself
through to the stage with his pass key
from the front of the house, as if he
sat through the performance and had
just come from the stalls. On being
asked what he thought of the new
play, would take a fresh pinch of snuff,
put on an air of intense reflection and
deliberately utter the sententious opin-
ion; Wants cutting
zone who has had any considerable
connection with the stage does not need
the testimony of tradition to tell him
that in nine cases out of ten he was
right. The making of new plays is
peculiar art and even the most able
and experienced actors, managers and
critics, often go wrong when the at
tempt to predict from the reading of
a play whether it will adapt itself sue
Cessfuly to stage presenting and what
is still more important, attract the
public. The business of the stage,
the gestures, the action, the grouping
and the pauses that must accompany
the dialogue is so diverse, so uncer-
tain of ascertainment, so experimental
even that it is impossible to foreteI
from the number of words to be spok-
en- or the time that it takes to read
it, how long it will require to play
a scene. Everyone who has ever had
any connection with the production of
a new play has been brought face to
face with this difficulty. Even in re-
hearsal one cannot be sure that the
time of representation has been pro-
perly guaged, for with an audience in
front and a flow of sympathy across
the footlights the action develops
more fully and naturally than during
rehearsal and though it may go more
nervously, it takes longer to work out.
No one would attempt to play through
one of ShakeSpeare'S tragedies in an
evening and yet it is not a difficult task
to read one completely inside of a
couple of hours. A play that can read
lily be gone through in an hour in
chamber, will take from two to three
hours to play. This comparison will
give a good illustration of tine differ
ence between reading and acting a
play.
1T is a mistake to say that no play
is ever put on the stage that does not
need numerous and great changes and
generally, curtailment. But the cor
rect guaging of it's length is not the
only difficulty encountered in judging
play A fresh one arises when the
attempt is made to distinguish between
the language of the brilliant descrip-
ton and the language of action. Some
of the finest dramatic works in the
English tongue, considered as litera-
ture only, are lily suited to stage pre-
sentation. Dialogue alone, no matter
how exalted will not bring success.
The first requisite of a play is action;
plenty of action and strong situations
will make a play successful even
though the dialogue be deficient in
merit. By strong situations it is not
meant that there must be the kind of
thing that the sensational melodrama-
fist passes off as such but situations fill
ed with vital suggestion regarding the
relations of our existence
and significant in the development OF
an interesting and consecutive story |
Action is the fundamental fact in play
writing 1t is by the character OF the
action that the play is classlhed IL Is
the situation, not the language, which
terminates whether the play is com
edy or a tragedy, whether melodrama
or farce. 1t is action which decides
whether a play be dull or interesting, |
whether cheap or noble.
"What makes it so difficult to judge
of an untried play is that the quality
of the action cannot always be tolu
from the reading. The language may
be so good, and the dialogue may CON
tain so much vivid description that the
mind pictures to itself series of grand
acts connected with the story, ana
vet when actual trial is made to place
il on the stage, it is found that the
dialogue is only descriptive ana that II
allows of no development in deeds. Such
q nIay is a good reading play, but II
does not belong to the stage. 1t is lite
nature and not drama. Even the man
agerial genius of a daily paper could
not make a stage success OF Iennysoh
beautiful 'Foresters, and RoWells
brilliant and sparkling, Elevator is
on the stage.
con the other hand some exceedingly
bright plays are exceedingly dun read
ing. Very few people could gather en-
joyment from Campbells satirical farce
Saratoga from reading 1t and the
thrilling battle scene from Bouclcaults
Jessie Brown" is as dull as ditch wa
ter, as a piece of literature. The change
that plays undergo after production
are sometimes startling, and it is the
rule that some change VIII
be made. Illustrations of the fact are
so numerous that scarcely successful
one can be named that does not furnish
one. The unsuccessful ones, of course,
all do.
"The Neill company has submitted to
it each year probably $50 plays, mostly |
from untried authors. Our organiZa-
ton being regarded as the most sue
cessful in it's line, ambitious authors