The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-11-28

/ leaning against the door jamb of one
| of the stage dressing rooms, looking
rather grim, 1 thought. He shook his
THE houseIl be dark in q couple Of
weeks he replied quietly, thrusting
his hands into his pockets and walking
! away. A dark theatre, of course, Is
! theatre in which nothing Is being
played-and we'd figured on this play
/ of mine running for at least six months
/ at that theatre.
Il didn't ask the old stage carpenter
why he thought as he did. But he was
right. The play had two or three es-
sential weaknesses, and II was taken
off after a dismal two weeks. The stage
/ carpenter had gagged the plays weak
nesses correctly when the folks out In
front were yelling for the author.
Sizing UP Hit.
"On another first night when a play
| of mine that l was in state OF palsy
/ over because 1t didn't come within
| thousand miles of looking good to me
: was drawing to its finish, l asked the
house property man what his idea was
He, too, looked melancholy when I ap-
preached him, but you can't derive any
opinion from the melancholy looks or
stage hands. That's the way they near
ly always look.
~ wish the blamed thing had been
produced at the beginning of the season
instead 81
it" the Old-time property man replied
It's goin to knock the stuffin out OF
trip out into the country that L wanted
to take with my young uns in August
You get that, of course. 1t was then
early in May. Ny play, because the old
chap figured that it would still be run
ming at the theatre in August, was 60
ing to interfere with vacation that he
had 1t in mind to take during that Let
ter month. And ne was perfectly right
1t did interfere with his August vacation.
1t ran, in fact, for solid year at the
theatre where he worked.
'I like the opinion of the young fell
lows in the gallery, too. l don't do II in
recent years, because, you see. 1 have
discovered other ways of getting at the
| right verdict; but / used to make II q
point to go up to the gallery on a first
night and sort of goose around to hear
what they were saying up there about
my new piece. l never knew them to
be wrong.
GalIeryite's Judgment.
THE gaIleryites judge the play as a
whole, but they have a genius for put
ting their fingers on plays weak spot
or spots They made me recast one
play after its initial production. That
is, their pronouncement, overheard by
me, as to one of the plays scenes
caused me to change the piece com
cone of my characters in that play
was a chap who was impelled by
strong sense of duty to sacrifice one of
his close friends by putting him in the
hands of the law. / sought to mitigate
the stern chaps action in thus surren-
dering a pal by giving him plenty Of OPP
pOrtunity to show the audience the mental
misery his action cost him.
But his mental struggle didn't go with
the galleryites. Nothing like it.
That guys bum, heard them
say of the man with the sense of duty
'Soaks his buddy, hey? Well, he's a
tramp
it in for. If it hadn't been in the gal
lery l wouldn't have known their Opin-
ion Of my man with the stern sense Of
duty. But l verified their opinion. After
the play was over and I was having
bite in a restaurant with some friends
who were Overpraising my piece couple
of quiet chaps of my acquaintance
dropped over to my table.
g" Good show one of them said, but
that fellow who hands his former bud
dy. over to the police is a rum, don't you
Think
go all right said the other, but you
make that fellow who swings on his run
ming mate too blamed goody-goody alto
gether, don't you?
so there was the galleryite's verdict
verified by people who had paid their way
for orchestra seats. ] changed the play
completely and it proved a big winner. II
never would have got By for a run if I
had let it stand as it was shown on the
first night
Now, about the ticket Spectator. A
playwright who wants to get an aft but
infallible verdict as to whether his play is
going to be a success OF a failure has
only TO watch the first night moves of a
few ticket spectators whom he may
know by sight, even if he isn't on nOdding
terms with them.
Those fellows know. It's their bust
ness to know. They may not be ac-
quainted with the psychology of the
drama, but you can leave it to them to
know whether a piece is going to hit the
public and annex the dollars or not.
For example, there is one ticket specU-
latOr in New York who is said never to
have made a mistake as to whether a
play is going to catch on after its first
production. ] can we'll believe it and do
believe it. for the simple reason that
when the play proves to be a go this man
always is found to have q stock of choice
seats for weeks ahead. whereas when the
play is a dead one he is in a position to
90 around among his stung cO1abOrers in
his field with grin on his face because
he hasn't ticket to sell for the FROST
bitten piece.