The San Francisco call., 1908-07-05
HE nILL.ER
IN A TEN EllLE TALK,

misunderstanding w@th regard TO the
entire responsibility for his work. 1t
is not meet that My one should take
one laurel from the wreath rightly his
by reason of his having conceived and
written The Great Divide
While several reviewers in the ut
most friendliness and sincerity have
paid me the high compliment of in
ferring that I made certain revisions
in the play. l wish to say that The
Great Divide is as much Mr.. Moody's
as when produced here tentatively
nearly two years ago under the title of
A Sabine Woman. He and he alone
wrote the drama as it is now being pre-
sented and to him solely should credit
be given.
"As an artist 1 would be proud to
have had any part in the construction
or reconstruction of this splendid play,
but as a man l cannot silently accept
acclaim for another's work. Very sin
cerely yours, HENRY MILLER"
And Mr. Moody writes:
We writers are a touchy race, and
any attack, open or covert, upon the
integrity of our claim TO our own work
reaches at once vital spot. If, in
revising the play in the light of what
the hasty tryout here spring before
last taught me, and in the minor re-
adjustments and prunings of the pre-
lAAnlMdIN AlIee weeks on lIl6 IOdQ last
spring ] had failed to derive benefit
from Mr. Miller's gifted stage manage
ment and trained sense of stage effect
as we'll as from Miss Anglins fine
dramatic perceptions, l should have
been dull indeed. But if l consented
TO pose as author of a piece for which
I was not, in every sentence and sylla-
bic, personally responsible, should be
simply dishonest Sincerely yours.
A A T-TsI
ABOUT NATIONAL THEATER
Mr.. Miller discussed the national
theater movement briefly. 1T is very
fiattering to the drama that wealthy
men should club together in an effort
to uplift it. 1t is too soon to criticise
the movement. though l have been in
correctly quoted as having done so. 1
felt then, as l do now, that the situa-
tion called for no comment as long as
the scheme had advanced no further
than the drawing of the plans of the
building, the expression on the part of
the promoters of their faith in the en-
terprise. and the placing of a bank
account back of the scheme. 1 was
skeptical too, for l feared that it would
develop into a devotion to a cult; to
Ibsen for instance, who is a bane, and
to Maeterlinck and the other writers
Of the so called new school who lend
themselves BldulN TO IlllSS uluRQ move
ments' and assume the pose of revo-
lutionists in art l am told, however,
that the American playwright is to be
given a chance in the scheme, and that
is fine: but money back of a play will
never make it good, if it be bad. Public
approval is. after all. the final test of
a piece, and if play is good enough
nothing will avail to stop it, or hide
it. or keep it away from the footlights
10
back a production and the joy of being
superior TO considerations of profit and
loss arise in the selection of artists to
produce the play. That is what I coVet
money for. To be able to get the best
actors and actresses, and pay them
enough to keep them; that would be
fine, Think of filing even the small
roles with artists of Distinction.
Imagine how fine a play would be ff
even the smallest part in it was as
sumed by an actor of ability. But
there it is again; / am doubtful if any
amount of money would suffice to BRING
together such an ideal cast. The
artists would not consent to play sec
ondary roles. We run at once against
vanity and ambition. two very great
essentials in an actors makeup.
WOULD TRAIN TASTE
IF 1 could have my way L wouldn't
endOW a theater to put on untried
plays: I'd get Carnegie to endow free
theater That would be more like it.
I would surround the securing of tick
cts with enough difficulty to be certain
that the privilege of going would be
appreciated and then I-would give moth
ing but the best plays procurable. Such
an institution would do more to develop
taste and refinement than a hundred
free Libraries; the force for good that
lies back of the theater would be felt
all over the land. The masses would
gradually be educated when they saw
the effect of manners, refinement of
diction, pure English and wholesome
plays. It's so easy to exploit the bad;
it is also easy to exploit the good. It's
man gets accustomed to a three for
nickel cigar, for instance He thinks
they're all right, and he smokes them
all the time. But along comes a fell
low with a perfecto, and gives him
one. Then it's all off with the three
for a nickel brand. He has had a
taste of something better AS long as
commerce is the only consideration
that managers usually are bound to re-
Spect there will be bad plays, and inn
moral ones. But let there be an era
of good dramas and l have faith in
human nature enough to believe that
the good will supplant the bad.
Take this play, Mater by Mackaye,
for instance. I am sure it will succeed
if it does not prove too adroit for the
public taste There would be no doubt