Los Angeles herald., 1905-04-09
- 9 q

ELoDRAMA as one sees it week
M after week upon the local stage
4 is a thing strange and wild,
bidding defiance to all known laws of
dramaturgy and setting at naught the
traditions of four centuries. Given a
small-sized arsenal-and this is abso-
lutely indispensable-some ten people
whom the exigencies of fortune have
driven into nomadic life, little
grease paint and a half dozen thrilling
situations and there is the average
melodrama ready to hand.
The situations do not have to be at
all consequential; in fact logic is the
last thing taken into consideration by
the writer of this class of plays. A
fair heroine, prosecuted by dastardly
always dark complexioned villain, who
has a female accomplice, is rescued and
of course married by the hero who
dares all for her sake.
That is the nucleus of over so per
cent of the melodramas on the Ameri-
can stage. How shall she be perse-
cuted and how saved are about the
only questions that the author has to
ask himself. The more wild and sen-
sational and bizarre the answers he
gives his questions the greater his
melodrama. The rest is easy. He sits
him down and let's his imagination run
riot over reams of paper. All of his
characters are cut and dried for him i'll
the conventional melodrama. A few
"IIists!" and For Gods sake, dont!'
and mot while / am here to protect
her!" and the trick is done.
One never ceasing mirth provoker in
this class of plays is profanity. Used
sparingly 1t never fails to produce the
hit of the evening. A damn" or hell
in the mouth of a comedian always
evokes storms Of applause and laugh
ter. Men and women who would either
be disgusted at Nearing them in private
life or would pass them by without no.
tice break into peals of laughter when
the words are waited out to them from
over the footlights.
Character delneation does not bother
the writer of melodramas. Oh, DEAR
has been, always will be. She is first
and last the essence of refined woman
hood. The hero is manly and noble.
Nothing else can be tolerated in
hero.
So with the villain. From the cradle
to the grave he is black-hearted
scoundrel. No change, no character
development, need bother him in writ
ing his play. He can address his char
acters in the words of the immortal
Persian:
-"Thnk then,
You are today what yesterday you
were;
Tomorrow you shall not be less"
1.-THE distinction between drama and
melodrama," said we'll known critic,
lis that, in reviewing them in ones
mind, drama makes one think of what
the characters were, melodrama of
what they did" That is fair criterion.
But melodrama is popular; it has 81
place in the hearts of the American
people that is a permanent one. Night
after night the houses where these pro-
ductions are put on all over the land
are crowded. The audience comes to
be thrilled, pays it's money and goes
away satisfied.
Now that the Grand has returned to
this form of entertainment Los Angeles
has two theaters devoted to melodrama
and both occupied by star companies.
1t has been the experience of the local
theatergoers that they get as rule
a much better brand of melodrama,
much better acted, when there is a
stock company at the Grand than when
travelling companies make it a week
stopping place. Altogether we have in
comparison to population more stock
companies than any other city in the
country.