The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-12

David Belasco has written and adapted more than POO plays. His method or work therefore, and his ideas on the subiect are of interest and may be usetrl to others contemplating career in the theatre.
 How do I make a play?"
 It is MT. Belasco himself who repeats tho question.
 .'stick close to mother nature,' he re- plies. "The great chest to which the dramatist must go is nature. It IS the digger drama from which you pick your smaller pieces of life.
 T first made up my mind what period I want for my play. Let me assume II IS the carly days of California. Very well. then. I get all the books I ever heard Of or that my friends ever heard of which treat of this period and I absorb their contents Not only read them thorough ly. but absorb their spirit. l talk to peo- pls who were familiar with the period, if am fortunate enough to find them among my acquaintances, and If not, go ant and cultivate such acquaintances.
 '"ihen the plot. I shut myself up in dark room, I let no ray of sunshine pene- trate into my seeluson. An excellent thing for man in almost every other relation of life, sunshine is not conducive to the deepest and most complete conceh- tration There in the dark, in the quiet dark I think-just think. think, thihk At last something comes-the merest seri of q plot and from that germ slowly but surely the foundation structure of my nlav grows. Thus far I have concerned myself only with the main plot The stll,-olots come later, though each one or them must lead up to the main plot.
 "Ncxt I concern myself with the mo- tive One reason why such countless numbers of woud-be dramatists go down in defeat is that for their dramatic ac- tion. Their characters do many interest," ing things, most dramatic situatioIls arise in the course of their plays unweav- iry. their men and women say clever ana apropos things-but why? Why? The d-amatist to write a successful drama. must furnish compelling motive Tor eV- ervtliing that takes place on the stage, q motive that is absolutely compelling ana which dominates everything and every body.
 "The hero and the heroine One must dorninate. and both must be clear cut and well limned in my imagination. The other people necessary to unfold my drama | introduce as I need them. and frequent lv after introducing them find l can get along better without them and cut them dead the next time they bob up. A Good rule for the dramatist is to eliminate eV- erybody he possibly can. No matter now interesting OE ttdioSiup 'i
 character, if he or she can be cut out he should be without mercy and without re morse. Ia this way do we get simplicity and directness
 Now we have got the period the plot inc characters, the compelling motive. II now remains to write the dialogue. work myself up until I feel each charac- ter. and then I dictate and accompany everything with business. One stenogra- ,.her takes down my words. another stenographer watches my every move mort and takes down the accompanyins .has:ness' Afterward l change certaif tbinas-but never my loves scenes. Thai uoi,i0 make them seem warmed up, SC to sreak. For forms sake I make some directions in my MSS. but these arr liahlo to change from day to day up anti the final dress rehearsal of the play. II tbis way and in this way only can I ge , snontaneity, grace, naturalness.' | One of the first instances of making