The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-03

stars.
 T have never been able to under stand why she, an author of reputa- ton, deliberately entered a contest, designed for unknown playwrights and having won the award consented to let her play be produced under the circumstances. It was some satisfac- tion to all whose plays were barred out by her participation in the con test to learn when her play was actu- ally produced that all the critics of New York unanimously condemned it.
 Martin Harvey, the well known English actor, happened to be in New York soon afterward and 1 sent him this particular play. MT. Harvey's secretary replied that MT. Martin Harvey presents his compliments and regrets that he cannot consider the production of any new play for the next four years, as contracts already made will provide him with every thing he can possibly use in that pe- riod of time
 Lucky Mir Harvey. He was so sure of success for the next four years that he needed no other plays. Yet not one of the plays he has ever prodpged in America has met with ordinaty commercial success. If he tried rnine he might have taken for tunes back to England with him.
 Having written five plays 1t was easy enough to write three more. AS the eldest Dumas said on a notable occasion when some one asked him how a new play was progressing
 Tt Is almost finished, Everything is done except the dialogue
 At a certain stage of the labor of attempting to write plays the dialogue comes easily, even though it has to be altered frequently, The greatest trouble is to complete your plot. Peo- pie who wonder how Clyde Fitch can write plays in a few weeks should re- member that he has probably thought about them for years and that the actual labor of writing the dialogue is comparatively nothing,
 Mrs Langtry is the only star who 1 ever accepted @ play from me, and i she, alas, has never produced it. One week in St Louis, several years ago, the celebrated English beauty was bored to death and happened to re- mark to me one night that she liked | to read new plays. l, of course, men toned that I had eight of them I ,, would be pleased to submit. The Jer- sey Lily graciously promised to read every one of them, but the next day | 1tffnra,fINr s,, tba 1 ing light, I sent her only two. She afterward told me she read one of them before arising that morning and that it made her laugh. It was a comedy, intended to make people laugh, but it was such a novelty for | her to discover a play at which she could laugh that she purchased 1t on the spot. The matter was settled that afternoon and sold her the play out right. That was three years ago but the play has not yet been produced. When I saw her last winter, she said; '" You know, your play made me l laugh, but 1 haven't yet been able to 1 get manager who thinks it is fun ny Naturally none of them will pro- dnce 1t simply because say It's fun ny, and so I have the play on my hands yet. I really wish I could sell l 1t to some one else, and then 1t might get produced
 After one has unsuceesfully en- l deavored to convince people that ones plays are good there comes g time when the arguments of the Pro- | fessional Play Producers become in- 1 vincible. The Professional Play Pro- ducer is usually an inexperienced gen. | tleman who was formerly a stage manager. and is now convinced that he can instantly detect the faults of all new plays He is the individual | for whom g manager sends when he thinks a play Is of doubtful quality and needs to be whipped into l shape" When such an individual is 1 intrusted with the manuscript and told that he will have the supervision of the production he begins to make queer marks in pencil on the manu- script and suggests various altera- tions If the author Is helpless and is unknown these alterations are very likely to be made by the Professional Play Producer Before doing so how ever, the P. P P. will try to convince the manager that he has play of
 his own which is infinitely superior to the new play of the unknown play
 wright and that his own play ought
 to be produced instead of the untried effort of an amateur.
 "We will suppose, however, that the manager really intends to produce an amateurs play. He therefore di-
 rects the P. P. P. to prepare the
 manuscript of the new play, The P. | P P. takes the manuscript viciously. and when he finishes with the altera- tions the play has been completely
 transformed Then the play goes
 into rehearsal, more changes are made, and when the opening night
 comes the author witnesses a wretch
 ed performance of tho mutilated play.
 with his own name in very small type
 on the program and the words Pro-
 duced Under the Stage Direction of P. P, F. In large capital letters.
 An unknown playwright wishing
 to get his plays produced must sur
 render a half interest to the P. P. P.
 if he wishes to have that individual make a favorable report to a mana
 ger or star. have had one of these
 gentlemen, for instance tell me that a
 certain play had splendid Idea,
 though it was crudely written and
 ought to me worked over by some
 one familiar with stage requirements
 quite agree that many new plays should be worked over In thls way
 by an experienced stage manager, but
 in this particular case resented the