The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-01-08
WHY ARE new YORK DRAMATIC CRITICS?
Strange Comments Current Plays Emanate from
the Metropolis-Aborn Opera Company
at Gennett the Fifteenth.
~ ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.

~ ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.
The standards of dramatic criti-
cism in New York are somewhat an
omalous.
Mr.. Daniel Frohman once said to the
writer that theatrical critics in the
metropolis became SO stated that it
was difficult for them to be entirely
just--that it wasn't surprising. Or
words to this effect.
Perhaps this may be So
And then again perhaps it may not.
And IL it is it is not an unusual
state. The professional writer who
haunts the theater is apt to be stated
anywhere. In New Orleans, or San
Francisco. or Chicago. or keokuk or
even in Richmond Indiana.
1t doesn't take long to sift the thing
out, to shake it down. to divide the
from the wheat.
That Is. it doesn't after you've been
at it for any extended period.
Although this, of course, is part of
the business.
II you can't do that why you should
be retired to some other department
the courthouse run, say, or visiting
the undertakers' offices.
1t isn't at all what you may like or
what you may not like-your personal
predictions have nothing to do with
| it.
You've got to put yourself in his
place"
You must be able to get the point
Of view of the author. the actor and
the producer. When you get that you
have basis of operation.
You can then Judge what they are
doing by the general rules governing
dramatic art.
DO or do they not succeed in achiev-
ing the thing they are after? That's
what you want to know and what the
audience wants to know.
The professional writer of average
acumen gets at it by the rules of the
game.
The audience through a certain psy-
chology that hits an average without
knowing it.
These remarks" have been inspired
by looking over the New York papers
account OF 1.-The Grain Of Dust" which
has recently opened a several week.
engagement in that city and was well
received by the public-the critics, SO
far as the writer's perusal of their dia
tribes went. uniting as one man In
deriding the play because 1t included
in its role stenographer.
Nobody thinks. and its producer new
er claimed, that 1.-THE Grain Of Dust
is a great play.
Neither was Phillips novel from
which it was taken a great novel.
The fault, indeed, of the play is that
it is painted in too neutral a tint-the
contrasts are not vivid enough. And
1t lacks in humour of certain sort.
! But to ridicule Miss Izetta Jewel, iI
instance, for her colorless presenta
ton OF the stenographer-after abus
ing the play because 1t has such q
character in it's story-shows a Ger
tain crassness on the part of the cele
brated New York critics one might ex
pect in a graduate Of a college of jour
nalism.
In the first place it Is stated thai
they hadn't read the novel.
! II they had they should know thai
the more colorlessly the stenographel
IL played the more successful is she
depicting the authors conception
original as anyone could-because thu
original cannot be transferred to tn,
stage.
As said the other day the reason TO
this Is that the passion of the hero il
subjective. 1t creates an object which
1t deludes itself into thinking breathe'
the breath of life and love but which
is human dummy. Miss Jewel show
dramatic intelligence in imbuing he
characterization with this subtlety-
as near as she can. No-one could d,
it.
1t is the charm of the book but i
cannot be made the charm of the play
The Gotham critics give 1t the mer
ry ha ha-this is the season of thu
telephone girl and the stenographe-
they say.
The stenOgrapher marries the ricl
man-she always does. she leave
home and then comes back-be sur,
she does that--she leaves to make
climax in the third act-but neve
fear she'll he back at the fnale-ant
stun of this sort
What's the odds who's in a play o
what characters 1t depicts-whethe
they're rich men or poor men, stenog
raphers or society ladies'" telephon.
girls or school teachers. beggars o
capitalists. kings or queens-if the re,
blood of life is injected into its arts
tic veins.
Its life-no matter in what phase.
And If its life-there is truth an,