The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-06-04
REAL AMERICAN DRAMA
 A THING OF THE FUTURE

Burton T Beach in the New York Com mereial.
 T VERY theatrical season devolens
 new factors or aecentuates old ones
 some are positive. some negative Some work toward saner more wholesome a and more enobling conditions; some lend downward and would drag the stage with them into demoralization and debaueherv Some favor the provincialism out of which they come; others have national and | even an international sweep.
 ] Looking back over the season that will close, so far as New York is concerned l with the withdrawal next week of mosr of the very few attractions now holding. the boards of the legitimate houses what 1 appear to be the things accomplished?
 These chiefiy-a clearer conception of the truth, first enunelated by Ruslin. 'hat Tn modern times no art can succeed as an art unless it succeeds also as a. business; a wider acceptance of the the ory that the great. big American play Tor which the theatre-golng public waits can come only from man all of whose ideas are cast in an American mould: and q more rational estimate of the
 
 stage and the European drama.
 lnternationalism i'll the theatre has more carefully considered during the sea son of l904-5 than in any other since Irv- ing made his American debut twenty years ago. The season has witnessed a more formidable invasion than the ad- vent of English players among us 1t l has seen American players invade Eng land with American plays and seen them welcomed by the invaded with enthu- sasm.
 ! When Miss Rehan presented Shakes peare to Londoners more compellingly than any other woman of the age, the l American side of the triumph was only l partial-it a personal victory. When Richard Mansfield offered "Dr. Jekyll and MT. Hyde" to Londoners, the British ] critic saw in the powerful performance the genius of Robert Louis Stevenson rather than that of the interpreter of the dual role. The Americanism of the thing l was not what impressed him most.
 It needed many years of the most zeal ous effort on the part of Charles Froh- man to prepare the soil of London for the planting so effectually done within the | last three seasons and so handsomely justified during the season now drawing to a close. The all-round American vic tory was not won until play by Richard Hat ding Davis. dealing with distinctively occidental types, was produced by an i American with American cast.
 i Ingenious is the exploit of MT. | F'rohman and MT. Hawks in exchanging 1 William Collier and "The Dictator" for ] Miss Tempest and 'The Freedom of Suzanne" the coup Is more spectacular than substantial To the credit of Charles Frohman belongs far weightier achieve ment-the final demonstration to the l world of the soundness of the view he held and expressed ten years ago that, 1 although for a time English-made plays ] would have a monopoly in America be- cause of the fewness and rawness of i American dramatists handling American ! themes, the day was coming when not only would English plays cease to have 1 this advantage with American theatre goers but American plays would crowd i home products in the London market. If l the season of 1904-5 were noteworthy for nothing else. it would be noteworthy for l an illustration of turning the tables dra- ] matically in the Anglo American field
 Then there is the advance made in pub- i lie opinion. educated and uneducated. re- gardng the duty and privilege of the l American dramatist. No season in many i a year has witnessed greater progress in ] this particular than the season of 1904-5. 1 At last the doctrine is preached every where that the great big American play" l will be dramatic study of an American. l for an American. and by American. 1 founded upon an analysis of American 1 conditions that have been vital in his 1 own exprelnee.
 | Only a few days before he left for Flu i rope Daniel Frohman, a theatrical pro- moter who combines an almost feminine delicaey of intuition with a robust judg-