The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1910-07-19
PUBLIC TASTE IN The DRAMA
IT GROES MORE INTELLIGENT.
StIS .iIGI SITS THOMtS
The Publie IIkes Excellence IN Every Was
New Iork Demands some Real Con-
irritation to Thought In Play Naking
EngIIsh DO Not I Rdersiand Is Vet.


Augustus Thomas. the playwright,
who winters In New Rochelle and sum
mers NJ East Hampton. came up To New
York yesterday looking for local color
and consented 90 say something about
the drama. He has two plays which are
To be produced soon. one The Member
from Ozark which the Shuberts will
bring out in Detroit early in September,
and the other The Jew which Charles
Frohman will put on.
Last season seemed 20 he productive,
said Mr. Thomas a. the Belmont. One
interesting thing about Il was the she
cess 81 younger men like Porter Emerson
Browne and winchell smith
Z don't know that the public taste
for plays changes. II gets little faster
all the time. that is TO say IL gets q little
swifter in intelligence A for change
in the kind Of play desired by the public
| should say u likes excellence IN any
department The public Ia not married
To a stencil.
In America I think audiences might
h. div id.d into two classes New York
and elsewhere. In the outside country
they are apt "a take play Of fair merit
demands superlaiive merit II the play
dcals with very elemental subjects. while
II will take a very ordinary play II tho
latter IL sufficiently vaudeville mean
comicAlly novel. New York wants
novelty or II wants the record broken
for something or other. I don't mean
that New York asks Ia he shocked. hat
IL wants YOU to make some contribution
Ia thought on the suhject that Ia tack led
There was q time when the American
stag drew most of it, sIIstenance from
the French. said Mr. Thomas IN answer
to question. hut now I think America
cares very little about the output II the
French stage. because. ~ a matter Vt fact
only about 8 per cent ~ the French sue
ceSses are trdnspl1ntable owing 20 the
difference in the point ~ view of there
and here The elements that GO tn make
mp play are the story. or tho cnmplica
lions. and tho character drawing Amer
lean life IL tho richest there ~ IN both these
things A. for the International play.
all countries have the same sort ~ IN
tsrest IN International subjects they ltke
to -" their own people slorified and the
foreigner CaricaturNd.
The situation IN Engknd in respect to
American plays j. like II has always ts'sn
they don't know enough about us Ia
Ia Interested IN our plays. and those that
have succeeded over there. hk. I'm the
Qli~t. an. tho~e which do not truly rep
resent Amaric4ln life The EnslIshnen
sly. Here they ar. confes-Ing Jud Rment
We Thought they said This and did that
and Looked that wnv. and now we've got
them with the gnosis ut last. such Amer
lean plays - they take e. represent the
least at ractive stratum ~ American life
Is there ~ much paymakinR ont NJ
hooks - 'hare used o. he'' MIR. Thomas
was asked
4 think an Seven Days Was "A book
and II ~ stiC,'essfIl, md there have hasn
several others e bate The truth - there
ara some books th9t are not plays and
cant 10 made int . such. Their" are other
bDoks that are SUCH Ropd plays that they
ain at dramati1e themselves. just such
one was Richard Harding Iavis's Sol.
dier - Fortune
The nurnl,cr nf American rlnywrEhts
- increasing very ropiIly and the Law 81
dcmPud md supply - the r''ason ~ lest
- an extent n for tho form q the Dl1y,
that has pri~tics lly not Change'i In the
lest twenty year II Won have only one
situation you get "A third oct play "
there Er" thr"o 90 four situations. tn" re-
suit IL four acts