Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-31

the work of all promising amateurs
that came to his playreaders.
Nor do you know when an author
with virile dramatic ideas, yet need
ing a bit of guidance, may send in
his first manuscript.
while I believe that great play
wrights may be born, know good
playwrights are made by continuous
prctice, and by the lessons learned in
the hard school of experience. Still,
there are hundreds idly employing
their time seeking dramatists' honors
and rewards. with as much chance of
success ms though they were chasing a
willie '-the-wisp. 1t usually turns out
that the amateur playwrights are men
and women-mostly women-ln walks
OF life as far removed from the theater
and its requirements as they are from
the art of the sculptor the painter, or
the musical composer. Yet none of
these candidates for first night hon
ors try to carve statues, paint por-
traits, or compose symphonies. They
seem to think that technical knowl-
edge would be necessary to do any of
these things, but to write plays ones
only requirement is a bottle of ink.
some paper and pens.
"But by actual calculation the grains
of wheat turn out to be less than one
per cent of the volume of manuscripts
received It is a healthy sign, how
ever, this general habit of playwritng.
IT means that the theater Is interesting
the people as a whole. Everybody at
some time during his life has been an
actor in a drama of real life; there is
material for powerful drama in the
private life of almost any man or wo-
man. Such men and women attend a
play; nothing seems easier than the
process of Its unfolding; its story re-
minds them OF a similar dramatic or
comic incident in their own lives, and
soon they are writing a play. But
the trouble is that the plays they write
are often not much more than them
selves put into the plays they have
seen. This is so true that I can often
tell Just what theaters some of these
unknown playwrights have been at
tending merely by reading their man.
uscrpts. For example, there Is letter
to young woman telling her that I
also like 'Mid-Channel,' Your Humble
Servant and The Bachelors Baby
but that is not sufficient reason for
me to produce her play The bulk of
such manuscripts are straightaway
narrative, arbitrarily cast in dramatic
dialogue, not plots inevitably requiring
dramatic structure. Most often they
had better have been what they really
are, short or long stories in fiction.
How do you test good play as you
read it?" Mr.. Frohman was once
asked.
"If there were only such thing as
an unfailing test of a good play" he
answered, 1.-The Philosophers Stone we
talk of would be so much dross in COM
parison to its value. There is no alb
solute test of a good play, but person.
d. ally 1 always know good acting play
If, when l read it in manuscript, 1 can
see the characters in pantomime; just
as l know that a play which get per-
sonally fond Of is sure to fail. But
am fast coming to believe that failure
is a matter of locality-that what fails
in New York is pretty sure to sue
ceed in London, as Clyde Fitch's The
Truth did, and that what fails in Lon
don is just as sure to succeed in New
York, as was shown when John Drew
made a success of Brother Officers"
Few know that Ethel Barrymore's
real name is not Ethel. but Blythe.
But when she took her first part with
her uncle, John Drew, in 1.-THE Bauble
Shop" she decided that the name her
mother, Georgia Drew, had been so
fond Of was too STACEY" for the
stage SO she changed it for another
family name She was only Is then,
but she still thinks she could not have |
chosen a better one.
News of another surprise in the the
atrical situation came with the an
nouncement that Charles Frohman has |
taken over the conduct of the Bijou
theater this season. This arrangement |
will bring within Mr.. Frohmans in
f1uence the eighth New York theater
directly or indirectly under his man
agement. Machen Arbuckle in a new |
farce, welcome to Our City" will be
the first star to be presented in the |
Bijou. which has been an "open clan"
theater.
That's Magazine, the former Belasco
leading woman, will not appear in
1.-THE Spendthrift" company, which will
be the first attraction at the Mason
opera house in the fall and winter
with the original company, which will
reopen in the Hudson theater, New
season. Miss Magraine will continue
York, August Is.
Marjorie Rambeau will make her
operate debut today in Little Johnny
Jones'" the musical comedy to be pre-
sented at the Burbank this week.
Billy" the clever farce, will be
continued a second week at the Bel
asco.
From every present indication it
seems reasonable to suppose the Ma
son opera house will continue to be
a. Wyatt theater. VIII T. Wyatt, son
and principal heir Of the late H. c.