Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-01-24
HOW SHAKESPEARE AND HIS FOL
LOWERS HAVE GONE ABOUT
THEIR BUSINESS.
PLAYS WRITTEN TO ORDER.
How Some Dramatists Have Been IN
spired by Watching the Work of
Certain Actors.
YOUNGER DUMAS TELLS OF WORKS

| SodfS ABOVE the commonplace, the crea-
tive faculty possessed by the artist, what
ever his place in literature, painting, or
music may be. must inevitably prove
source of wonderment. How is it done :?
is doubtless the question which again and
again he is tempted to ask of himself
and others. Often as he has heard of
ideas in the air." he would fain know
the precise method employed to catch
them.
! Playwrights, novelists, and poets are in
his eyes people hedged about by mystery,
endowed by some inexplicable means
with the gift of reducing the irreducible
to concrete form. But to the individual
| whose daily bread and batter depend
upon his carrying out that operation sue
cessfully the answer to the enigma comes
more easily. For every artist must have
| in him something of the mechanic; must
before he can arrive at anything like per-
! lection, understand the nature of the
machinery upon which he has to depend.
Familiar with Stage.
This truth the dramatist is constrained
to recognize more forcbly and more
quickly than any of his fellow-workers
in the field of art. Whatever the meas
ure of his creative power, there must al
| technique to back it up.
Prof. Walter Raleigh, in his recently
published volume upon Shakespeare, has
| very clearly denoted two methods, either
of which may be adopted. Referring to
the poet, he writes: His first care was
to get hold of story that might be
shaped to the needs OF the theater. 1t is
possible, no doubt, for a dramatist to go
another way to work. He may conceive
living characters, and devise events to
exhibit them; or he may start with a
moral, a philosophy of life, an atmos-
phere, sentiment, and set his puppets
to express it. But Shakespeare kept to
the old road. The story came first with
him-as it came first with his audience,
as it comes first with every child"
How Pinero Works.
i The advanced school of today appears
disposed to proceed on other lines. 1t
was Mr.. Pinero, if we are not mistaken
who some years ago declared that his
first step in writing a play was to mag
inc number of interesting characters
and then to give to each free rein to
work out his or her salvation as best
beseemed. Such a process may ohvi-
ously lead anywhere - or nowhere.
Every writer of fiction knows, of course,
that characters often have a curious
knack of shaping their own destinies
1t will hardly be contended, however.
that this is likely to lead in the end TO
unity of design or of expression. And
without that particular quality a play
is apt to go very far astray indeed
Playwrights of another school will
devote themselves to the discovery of
a novel and effective situation, either as
a platform of departure or as the cul-
minating point of their piece. The late
Henry Pettitt whose place as a manu-
facturer of thrilling melodrama has new
er been filled, used to tell how he sought
and found inspiration in the pages of
the Illustrated London News. By a dill
gent scrutiny of these he was certain
sooner or later to happen upon pic
ture out of which, with the aid of a lit
tie reflection. would spring a series of
sensational Incidents What that pic
ture was to Henry Pettitt, a stray para
graph in a newspaper, a chance theory
barely insisted upon, may prove to an
other writer. Judicious development is
all that it reqnires. 1t must be remem-
bered. ON the other hand that 900 peo-
pie may read the paragraph in question
without seeing in it the suggestion of
a play; it is the thousandth only who
possesses the instinct to turn it to stage
account.
Play Took Form Rapidly.
Let us take one or two examples Sc
lected from the French theatre. The
authors of 'Miquette ct Sa Mere" NM.
de Flers and de Caillayet, have related
that the origin of their comedy lay in
their having witnessed the charming per-
Torrance of Mile. LaYalliere in the pop
ular operetta, Monsieur de Ia Palisse."
"Observe," said one to the other, how
in addition to the seductiveness of her
fascinating personality, she combines all
tenderness of thoughtful tempera-
ment." What" exclaimed his comrade,
IF we wrote a play for her in which
both these qualities were blended? Think
of the success we should all achieve"
Who hit upon the chosen theme neither
was able to say, but once selected Eve
sat down at the same table, face to face.
pen in hand, and hurled at each other
questions and replies across the inter-
vening space. in this way the work
rapidly took form and substance. until
it emerged completed manuscript. As
against this, place the ayowal of 81
Henry Bataille, author of ''Poliche."
Here is my manner of procedure. Upon
some idea, philosophical or general, upon
upon some comprehensive human sen
timent, | graft upon certain characters
best suited in my judgment for its in
depreciation. From these characters.
from the conflicts arising from their di-
verse views. spring the situat tons.
/ Thereafter | have merely to write. to
observe, to recall past events, and to
permit my people 10 follow the thread
of their own existence. That, il APP
pears to me, is the only way to con-
| Struct a drama IN which situations and
characters form one homogeneous whole
.As to Poliche.' this is how the play
developed itself l had long thought of
writing a piece around the constant
struggle between the life exterior and
the life interiOr-in other words. between
the man as he really is and the man as
he appears to be. As il happened. l
was returning one day from Trouville to
Paris full of the project An unusual ly
stout gentleman Jumped into the same
compartment. He was a sliracle of
studied vet comic elegance. while his ex
preston was strangely candid and frank.
What. my friend, can you beT / said
to myself; what particular enigma do
, vou enshrine that you wear so outra-
geous a lookT' And. taking him as
model for my hero. woye around him
the story of 'Pofche.'
Creates Train of Thought.
Il Consider for a moment another branch
of the dramatist profession. Every day