New-York tribune., 1912-02-18
STAGE TRADITIONS

Continued from page 4
ago the stage maid type was established and
no one would dare change it much.
lust as old Jokes go best in the playhouse,
so do the standard character types. For the
Countess and burglar types, as for the law
yer and SOuthcTncr, reasons will he found
| to be the same as in the cited instance Of the
banker type. 1t is a little lesson in outside
world traditions as it is in theatrical tradi-
! tions. Let me illustrate with a test Write
the single word burglar on piece of paper.
! IApropos of nothing, suddenly hand the paper
| TO a member Of your family and ask him or
| her quickly to describe to YOU his or her
mental picture OF a burglar. 1t is a safe
proposition that the resulting description
| will be practically the same as that OF the
stage tradition see statistical table; type No.
! l6).
The same thing will hold true of the three
other types; or, if it does not hold true in
| all. YOU will at least observe that in the de-
| scription there will be included some of the
salient characteristics ordered by playhouse
tradition Thus are the stage characters
mirrored by tradition from the public'S un-
changing mind.
d IGHT here is an important item that must
IN not be overlooked, or rpurpoSclylmiSnter-
preted. bv the reader who may resolve him
self into nv critic. The details of tradition
may change and vary at intervals IN so far
as the characters in the play world are con-
Carncd; but somewhere somehow, down at
the bottom OF the characters, you will usually,
in any year, discover some OF traditions
commanded attributes and qualities. In
melodrama tradition waves Stcrncr SCcp-
ter than in any other avenue of drama. In
recent wears tradition may seem to have
lost part of its grip on some of the stage char
acters; but YOU see that tradition Will be
on deck again when the wheel turns round.
This year, maybe, or last year or next year,
as the case may be, may have been, or maybe
will be- the villain may be a blond with a
pink suit on; but as time passes this anom-
alous evildoer will 90 to his deserved grave
and will be replaced with the whole or at
least part Of the favoritc and time honorcd
villain brand. And with the other standard
characters it is much the same.
Two years ago wrote and with my part
ner produced piece in which these standard
characters were SatiriZCd, in which the VII
lam and nero ana lCIOllt lOJh lllt duN4tlNt
into their confidence and gave their little
secrets away to the people in the orchestra
seats And here is the curious part OF II, as
the newspaper and boXofice records showed
and still will show if Investigated: that, de-
spite the burlcsque Of the whole thing, the
audience was thoroughly interested in the
movements Of their favoritc old characters
lin the "plot," that is just the same. You
see, the average audience wants the charac-
! tiers; it loves them; it remembers and
never fOrgcts them, no matter what the
playwright impcls them to do, even, as was
here the case, to do something to ridiculc
themselves and the traditions that have
made them.
| have since tried out the same scheme OF
satirizing the theatrical traditions in another
plav ! wrote, and incidentally, in another
play from two other pens that my business
partner and | produced. And the audience
kept on loving the traditional standbys as
much as evcr Part Of the proof OF the pud-
ding is to be found, in small way, in these
| tests
T ET me suggest something that concerns one
l. venerable theatrical tradition other than
that relating TO the characters in the play.
This is the "tradition If we may give 1t
that name-of the quivery music played
during certain sad or tense situations OF
/ I. -, ,,,.l a..