The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-09-23
A Managers Explanation of the
Scarcity Here
WHAT is DEMANDED NOW
Our Public, He Says, is no Longer In
terested In the Works of Foreign
Authors-clatms that Local
Color Is Wanted.

The manager who had already observed
some of the new productions Of the early
season was philosophical enough to show
no encouragement. He knows the game
too we'll
Il have, OF course, the greatest success
of the London season for my theatre he
said to the Sun reporter, but how in the
world can tell If l will be able to get
more than four good weeks of 1t in New
York and even less on the road7 That
has been the experience of SO many great
London successes that l am quite pre-
pared to have It happen to mine also.
Usually it pays best to keep them in
New York, even at a small business, rath-
er than take them through the country
where the public Is absolutely Indifferent.
This is of course because our Amerl-
can audiences are intensely native In
taste, and 1t takes a local product to
satisfy them. In other countries a good
play has its own power of appeal, wheth-
er 1t be the work of a native or a foreign
author. 1t may deal with any kind of
social conditions. 1t may depend on the
prejudiees of any country. These char
acteristics are of secondary Importance
so long as the piece has real merit of any
kind as a play.
over here we are different. A drama
has to be more than a good study of
character or well done achievement as
poetic play. 1t must have advantages
of an altogether different character.
"One may imagine the American thea
tre-goer speaking in somewhat this fash
ion to an assembly of playwrights OF all
nations:
Must Interest PIaygoers.
If you want to interest me you must
write about just the things | like on the
stage, and you must present them In
just the proper way. If possible, put the
scene In my country and the characters.
which should all be natives, must be
placed In situations that I understand.
Their love affairs must be of the kind [
approve of, and there should be posed no
problem which cannot be settled by
happy solution of the love question. The
nearer you get these characters to my
own home, my own experiences of the
theatre-I don't want to see any expert
ences Of life on the stage-and to the
stage types l am familiar with, the more
certain is going to be the success of your
play.
Then 1 would advise you to leave out
politics-business as well-and 1t doesn't
make much difference about the charae-
tiers In the play 30 long as the love story
Is interesting. This is the sort of play
that we like in the United States, and
that is the only kind that is going to meet
with any great success here"
The New York manager thought that
was the view of the average theatre
goer who sees an American play, and he
was for that reason putting no excessive
faith in the prolonged success of his new
English Importation.
''Sinoe the public of this country has
absolutely rejected all plays but those
that suit 1t in every PARTICULAR he said
the task of filling out a season has
grown more difficult than ever. One need
only think of the extent to which the for
eign stage supplied this country to realize
now exactly our public has suddenly be-
come within the last twenty years The
Union Square made all its historic sue
cesses with dramas that Cazuran adapted
from the French. He did not always find
such bonanzas as d Emery sent him In
The Two Orphans and A Celebrated
Case but In the Sardou and Belot pieces
or that day Mr.. Palmer found successes
enough to make his theatre famous.
Origin Of Famous Plays.
"Augustin DAILY got Frou-Frou,' Miss
Mutton and the ideas for some of his
best plays from this same fertile field
and Dion Boucicault found there more
than Led Astray' which was one Of the
historic successes of the old Union
Square. Alike, Article A. Rose Michel
and the whole emotional repertoire came
from France. These plays generally in
yolyed some point of ethics that was
just as distasteful as the moral standard
of the contemporaneous plays that come
from France. In those days, however, the
public never minded these features of
them. 1t has developed Its squeamlshness
in the theatre more recently.
1.-THE German repertoire made the for
tune of AnRnHffn IO1Iu bal
ian experiments would have been impos-
sible without the profits that the farces
of Blumenthal. Kadelburg, the Won Schon-
thans and, still further back Won Moser
brought to his theatre. Even before the
German stream Of prosperity turned his
way, he could make money out of the
French farces such as Pink Dominoes,
Champagne and Oysters and the others
that he adapted. Now the German sup
ply is as dead as the French
Yet there are comedies in Germany TO-
day as good as ever were translated, Just
as there are as many good farces In
France. 1t Is the taste of our public that
has changed. They will not have them.
DAILY used to make them seem pauslbly
New York, and the French faroes that
were adapted could succeed as late as
the few years ago that William Gillette
made Mr.. Wilkinsons Widows out of
Ecu Topinel.' He also made the last
met with any success. This was the piece
he drew from Pension Schoeller' and call
ed All the Comforts Of Home Are You
Mason Is Its only successor. The prof
II from the German plays in this country
Is so slight now that even the firm of
managers that brings them over docs not
take the trouble in one case out of ten 10
have them translated. In still fewer
cases are they copyrighted, and II takes
the vogue of a great run in Germany and
Austria even to secure a reading for
them. The French importations are prac-
tically limited to the demand of a few
emotional actresses.
English Plays Plentiful.
"Of course there are plenty OF English
know too well how few of them really
meet with success. Yet Lester Wallace
for years ran a theatre of them alone
What he did in plays of continental orr
gin was very little, and they had been
already baptized by English adapters.
Imagine a manager nowadays trying to
run his theatre with only plays by Lon
don dramatists
1.-THE fortune of the American drama
fist consists in writing altogether about
his own people so long as he keeps i'm
mind the preiudices and standards of his
race. George AIDE has done this so far
better than any of his colleagues except
Clyde Fitch. Two of his recent plays are
remarkable evidence of what the public
wants from Fitch. In Her Own Wav,
Maxine Elliott found a great success.
There Is not much doubt that Her Great
Match written for her last year. was
just about as good so far as 1t was to
he considered as n NAV Yet the haraIna