Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-07-20
THE PLAY IN NEW YORK.

dinner, yet the average. Englishman,
no matter how busy he may be or how
important are the matters in hand, will
feel aggrievcd IL he cannot cease from
troubling and enjoy his cup OF after
noon tea. In fact, he won't do with
out it-business may temporarily go to
the dogs. To most of Us the Eng
fish aristocracy, with its dukes and
ducheses and peers, Is a matter OF
secondhand knowledge and of no great
consequence. How can q play about
people whose prototypes we know only
by hcarsay appeal to us vitality and
how can an American play, character
istic of our people, be genuinely enjoyed
and understood on the Strand? To the
Frenchman the eternal Gallo triangle
of the husband, the lover and the wife
Is an everyday affair; to us ii Is es.
sentially repugnant.
These facts, only generally and
lightly suggested here. lead me to be-
lievc that the American people prefer
to see medium American play, which
comes home to them, rather than
very good foreign drama, which has no
appeal to the national idea | think
our theaters bear me out In this, for
when one reflects on successful Ameri.
can plays, very, very few of them APP
proach In technical construction the fin
ished. lnagnificently built plays of the
best foreign playwrights. But our dra-
MAS are AMERICAN, ana lnut IL what
Americans want. When they can't get
American things, they viii accept them
from abroad, but this as Il rule. doesn't
last long, because Americans get to
making the. things for themselves bet
ter for ". h own purposes and desires
than can Foreigners. To cite purely
material example of what / mean, let
me mention the automobile In its Amei-
lean development.
The themes of our American PLAYS
today are clean and vrile.' Mr. Klein
continued periodically, "hecause we
are a young nation. There is no de-
generacy here, as there is abroad for
degeneracy does not come with prog
ress and growth, but only after cen
turtles of achievement. Degencracy in a
nation always begins at the top, among
the leisure classes. Here in the United
States we scarcely have any leisure
classes: they are too new at it,
I'm consequence Of our youth there
is, as have said a healthy tendency,
with an abandonment among American
playwrights of foreign thought and
ideas. Themes for plays-great charac-
teristic pays--are all around us. Amer
lea has established her social indepen-
dence from Europe and with the reall-
zation of our national isolation and Sc
curity has come an awakening, not only
along the lines of our mechanical, in
dustrial and art resources, which are
our very own, but as regards the drama
rs well.
MY enthusiasm for the American
play and its future are not so much for
what II has accomplished, but for what
it Is accomplishing In relation to what
1t can and will do in the future. Tech
nically. we are crude; our faults are the
faults OF youth No one is so wise as
the college senior, but as we grow older
we shall grow in the knowledge of dra-
matte technique, The American play
wright must avoid his tendency to
youthful cocksureness, for it is a fact
that the drama is the most difficult art
In the world No man can be a full
born dramatist; even the most vital
story, the best material go for little
unless they are cast In the proper dra-
maturgic lines and obey essentially the
rules of an art into which admission Is
gained only by ability. great love, ex-
perience and much pains.
The young dramatist, too, must not
forget that intellect is the keynote Of
an American life" warned Mr.. Klein.
This Is an intellectual age Every
thing shows II. Our arts are becoming
more intellectual: our sciences show
the same trend. Telegraphy is becom-
Ing wireless; engineering is becoming
more effective, because clever hands are
busy I'm devtsing shorter cuts and
simpler methpdn Buhiness success
today means more brainwork than
ever before. Literature betrays the
constant application OF more intellect,
as do the other arts The drama must
of necessity and by precedent follow
the other arts.
Our American drama, now and In
the future, must be barred in TRUTH"
Mr.. Klein concluded. There can be
no disputing that assertion. Unless a
play has embodied In Its heart some-
thing big and vital, 1t Is soon lost by
the wayslde, for without truth no play
can gain lasting success. And granted
that the playwright appreciates this
follows the rules of his art and realizes
the wealth of dramatic material in our
life. there can be no sane doubt as to
the future of the American drama by
Americans of Americans for Ameri-
cans