Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-07-13
THE PLAY IN NEW YORK.

Special Correspondence.
Ew YORK. July S,--StagnatIon
M prevails at present in New
York theatricals. only two
plays are still on the boards
and one of these, THE Road to Yes
terday." ends It's seven months local
engagement next week. Two or three
musical comedies and the roof gardens
constitute the remainder OF New
Ycrk's dramatic menu. The season
10 ended. and II has been season ex-
traordinarily successful-more so than
In many years. Yet from a certain
point of view II is not the successes
that command attention, but rather
the fact chat of those who try 70 write
for the stage so small a percentage
really succeed. 1t would probably be
liberal estimate 10 say that there
have been produced this last year not
more than 200 successful plays at
most. yet the manuscripts written
within that period number well into
the thousands. The successful drama~
lists do not run into the iifties so far
as their quantity goes, yet everybody
writes plays, 1t Is extraordinary, the
sen assurance ana SutnuSl~
asm OF this army of playwriters. for
they attempt the most difficult form
of literature without preparation or
knowledge. secure in their belief that
SIS in plenty await them.
It's dlsheartening, said prom
inent manager the other day AS he
gazed at the piles of manuscripts SUR
rounding him, this mass of plays that
pours In on us. Yet we must give
each manuscript attention to avoid
the criticism that We buy plays only
from successful established dramatlsts
and never give the beginner chance.
But believe me. of these unsolicited,
novice attempts, not one manuscript
in 10000 is worth what 1t costs to type
II.
NO one tries to build a bridge or
run a locomotive or practise law or.
design a building without careful
training and q mastery according to
his ability of the technical rule OF his
pursuit. Yet without training and
without technique thousands of mis-
guided persons write plays unwilling
to be apprentices before becoming
masters and with apparently a SUI
preme belief that the only necessity
| for a playwright is a pen q little ink
| and lots of paper. Not one of them, I
firmly believe, would try so simple a
| thing as bookkeeping without expert
| knONltuBF, yel any luleiilSeIl person.
| can become q successful bookkeeper:
| but my experience tells me that not
| one man in 1000 can write q Sue
| cessful play Why Is 1t that a man
whose earning capacity is measured at
| $40 a week for six days OF eight hours
each expects in odd moments to write
| play that will make him $4,000?
you would think" the manager
| continued, that the small number
| of successful playwrights would act
! rs a deterrent 10 the novices, bun
| / Judge from what fellow-managers.
| play readers and play agents have
| told me that there are from 10000
| to 10000 persons in this coun-
| try who have either written a play or
| firmly intend to write one, Yet OF these
| thousands there are hundreds who ac
| tually cannot write proper paragraph
for a newspaper. With them their
genius IL all-sutlicient. Details such as
construction, dialogue, technique, can
! he left safely to the stage manager.
l presume that the explanation of this
extraordinarily blatant confidence must
be found IN the fact that the theater
exercises upon many peculiar and
| dcmoralizing fascination, anG that
these beholderS feel so keenly that they
are led to believe they can execute
1t seems so easy Just to make people
stand around and talk
Take for an example OF absolute IL
literacy the young man who wrote this
letter. said the manager, as he plucked
a grimy sheet of note paper from the
pigeonhole. which read this way: 7
have a play complicated save for the
Like of Langwidge and comedium. 1t
is very fine and would sell same cheap
and you can have play complicated
Il don't quite know" the manager
went on. smiling almost pathetically,
what the Like of Langwidge and
comedium' Is. hut even that with all
its mystery. is not az bad as the man
who In sending me a synopsis of his
play had this one sentence, which
confess j can never forget: Enter the
hero, Il Confederate soldier disguised
as hog Can you see some OF our