The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1909-05-23
TEACHING The PLAYWRIGHT
RESULTS ALREADY EROM PROF,
BAKERS HARVARD WORK.

An Interesting Experiment In an Educa-
.tztional Field Neglected for Centuries
Ancient and Modern Methods OF Play
: Produouon-The Case OF sheridan.
The craft of dramatic authorship In
this country-or any other for that matter
lis not so little in need Of help that 1t
should turn a leaf ear to good advice
or decline assistance thoughtfully ten
dered from any quarter. Up till very
recently the requirement Of technical
skill in the construction Of pieces Of all
sorts intended for performance on the
stage has been almost entirely a haphazard
matter.
A man started out to write a play
either because he himself or his father
was an actor or because he had heard
that there was a fortune for the successful
pieyurisht or because that form OF
lHsrary expression, il 1t can properly DO
90 described. appealed to him. 1t some-
ties happened that the man who started
eu dong this line had a natural gift
for playmaking. II so his path was
comparatively smooth. If not he had
= long and toilsome journey before aim
before he arrived at anything like pro-
hciency; but he could learn only by
studying what others had done and by
his own mistakes. Nobody took the
trouble to warn him against the pitfalls
that lay In his way or to teach him how
to avoid them. There has long been
plenty of systematic instruction avail
able for the man who wishes to master
other styles Of writing, but none for the
would-be playwright.
Ought this condition to remain II
10, 1t 10 only because the writing OF good
plays Is no to be considered as Of i'm
portanoe coordinate with the writing OF
good novels. essays, short stories and
poems. In our universities, where one
might perhaps expect to see fairly liberal
views held on this subject. little or no
attention has been paid to it up to a very
resent time. 1t has remained for Har-
ward to take the first tentative steps to-
ward properly equipping the man who
: thinks 1t worth his while to master the
technique OF play construction. The
course Of lectures, reading and practice
ID actual playwriting is under the direc-
tion Of Prof. George Pierce Baker. and
1t goes by the catalogue name Of Eng
liah H." At the present time some forty
undergraduates are enrolled in thisc course
and one Of the most tangible results Of
the course, which Is now in it's second
year. has been the formation Of the Har-
ward Dramatic Club for the product ion
Of plays by Harvard men. The clubs
first production was made last winter
in the shape Of The Promised Land
which dealt vigorously with the Zionist
movement. This piece was by Allan
Davis Of P%ittsburg. and it was very favor
ably received in Boston. Its author
10 q jew and hA play had. at least the
one great virtue Of utter sincerity. Very
recently the club also produced four n
act plays. two Of them by Harvard men
and two OF them by men who had received
most Of their training in dramatic author
ship in Prof. Bakers English A. Ed
ward p. Sheldon, who was graduated
from Harvard last year. was among the
students OF English AZ and a good part
Of the technical facility which he eIhib-
tied In the construction OF salvation
Nell which has been produced SUCCESS
fully by Mrs. Fiske in the course Of the
season now so nearly ended. was acquired
under the instruction Of Prof. Baker.
There is no reason in the world why the
cardinal principles Of playmaking should
not successfully be taught. Those who
sneer at the comment OF a critic OF any
Art On the ground that the critic is not a
creator himself will probably ask con-
teunptuously how a man can tell another
man how to write q successful play when
he cannot write IL himself. but this Of
course Is a shallow and empty sort OF
attack. Many Of the best singing masters
In the history OF music have been prac-
tiqally ~voiceless. There are certain foun-
dations in every art. or even trade. that
must belaid il the artist or artisan wishes
orear an enduring STRUCTURE. A proper
foundation does not. to be sure, insure a
lofty or solid structure, but without The
first the second Is impossible.
Anybody who knows anything at all
about the manner in which most plays
ere prepared for the stage nowadays
knows that the changes and alterations
that are made in rehearsal are commonly
very considerable. Tbs lie due largely
TO the fact that the task OF visualizing q
play is most difficult. Things that look
effective on paper turn out to be quite
NhS ~ 4 ViiVb tIo wi oo u hldoC
vital and the characters embodied in the
persons OF living, breathing actors.
Situations that seemed to have all the
elements OF climax or crisis are found to
DO really subordinate to others which
in cold typewriting appeared to be less
important. Thus it happens hat the
playwright, finds after he puts his play
in rehearsal that he has arranged for his
curtain to fall whole minutes after the
height Of interest Of the act has been
passed. This 10 a fatal defect and the en-
tire act hal to be torn to pieces and dis
arranged. Sometimes this can be done
without absolutely reducing the play 10
unacceptable formless fragments and
sometimes 1t cannot; but II the play
wright had been trained in the process OF
visualizing, IL it had been drilled into him
to search tirelessly for the climax and
having found it to drive 1t home he would
have been saved q great deal OF trouble
and possibly a humiliating failure.
The ability TO think clearly and directly
In all lines Is Of course one OF the most
valuable results Of intellectual and
academic discipline. This ability is OF
ell others the most essential in the build.
Ing Of a we'll made play. The lack of i,
In % many writer's for the sta &c 10 the
reason for the presence on our sta 70
Of so many feeble, tentative. insinoere,
half baked plays, Many Of them con.
tain NYoellent ideas which ara -o,ti