The farmer and mechanic., 1911-10-03

take himself to a library and pore
over dusty classics, but got a small
part as an actor. That knowledge
is almost essential for successfui
like William Vaughan Moody nave
reached great dramatic success
through the scholarly route, but even
his path could have been made
smoother had he been, previous to
his playwriting an obscure ACTOR
rather than a distinguished professor
of literature.
accessory If as a little girl you ola
not write plays for your dolls, or as
a boy you never longed to organize
a miniature band of Thespians in the
barn, If it wasn't all make~belleVe
once. it will never be a reality now.
The idea must be born in the brain
in it's dramatic body. You can't say.
IN make it into a play; 1t must
come to you unbidden.'
"Do you think the lettered or the
unlettered write the best plays?
II would say the illIterate write
the very best, though latterly the
success of few young classical men
is tending to remove the bar sinis-
ter of education from the drama;
will be, on1ething about the spec
tacled student that obscures the
clear eye Of the dramatist, and to
make people talk in play the way
they do in a book would be dramat-
ic suicide. 1t is possible to touch
the stars without saying very much
about them
why does everyone want to be
playwright:
Simply for the hign remunera-
ton few receive"
"Tney read the one classic legend
of a reporter out of his job sleeping
one night on the benches Of Central
Park with the manuscript of a much
rejected play in his shabby pocket;
in a few weeks he is rolling in roy
alties 1t isn't the miracle it seems
at first nor is there ever such
magical springing to success. That
anne reporter -playwright-as the rest
of us-served a long arduous ap-
premiership in obscurity, and the
prelude to nearly every true dramat-
ic success arc the many failures that
the public never hearing Of believe
never existed"
rs there SO much difference in the
same dramatist between the work he
failed in and that in which he sue
ceeded; and could really great
playwright ever have been SO utter
~ insignificant as to justify such
wholesale reflections as they do re-
ceive?"
',The blame Of the repeated fefus-
ais OF nearly every first great dra-
matte success is due to the lack OF
Judgment Of the managers. They
are crude Encultivated men; merely
commercial agents. This sounds aW-
full from one dependent upon them,
but it is true-and they block the
playwright en- his rightful way to
reaching the public. He gets to it
eventually, because merit like murder
will out, but if they were better
equipped. playwright and public
would come together sooner. If they
had as much artistic acumen as COM
mercia1, dramas like 'KisInet' and
The Great Divide would not be
hawked about for years before pro-
duction / realize that the artistic
and commercial can rarely live in
the same brain, one must kill the
other, but I charge the managers
with being deficient in the one gift
they ought to possess to hold their
job, and that is prescience. They
should foretel1; be the first to see the
light of genius and not the last as
they really are.
'The manaaer looks UPON the pub
lie as a great unthlnking mob, piling
one way TO-DAY and in a totally oppo-
site direction tomorrow. There is of
course mysterious som mething in es-
timating the public that eludes all Of
us, manager, actor and playwright,
but / believe it remains about the
same. Shakespeare and Ibsen will
always have their followers. and
Frou-F'rou will always have hers"
do the young unknown drama
lists have any show?'
IF they have an idea in their play,
and then go about the marketing Of
it in the right way, not hawking it
from manager to manager, and get
ting disnear1ened by always encoun-
tering a stony face, but employing
| a p1ay-broker who will act as critic
and counsellor. After one has the
credit Of a single success, Of course
| the stony face softens a little; for
| nothing aMeS a manaRer as much 40