New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-12-22
DECAY OF DRAMA
LAID TO PUBLIC
Wise Says 1t Alone Leads
Managers to Pander to
Depraved Tastes.
ACTORS WASTE GIFTS
ON INANE THINGS
Stage Will Not Be Transformed
by Church Nor City Hall,
Rabbi Asserts.

Rabbi stephen s Wise dissected the
stage, plays and actors yesterday morn
ing, and declared that sex dramas II
presented TO the public by managers with
high ideals, should not be Objectionable
but he thought there was more frankness
in such plays than seriousness. Even
so. ne said. the moral condition Of our
stage was not anywhere near so bad az
that in some European lands.
DR.. Wise vas speaking on THE Drama
of To-day" at the Free Synagogue, H.
Carnegie Hall
THE so-caled sex drama may be bad"
he asserted. but is not worse than mucn
Of the hyper-sophisticated yellow drama
which has been presented upon the stage
I'm recent wears. consisting Of nothing
more than one hundred and one different
ways OF presenting the facts Of irregular
and dissolute living The so-calle1 tri-
angular plays, the quas!-French domes-
tic plays, are far more damaging to the
moral sense OF our youth than the frank
est sex drama.
There has been too much panderlng 10
the salacious and prurient in the guisc
III SfIiOuS ulSfuSSlOil VI StIlVhs piOpiNi'iS
There has been too much cesspool ex-
poitation minus high purpose and high
art"
In speaking of possible restraint being
placed upon such plays, DR.. Wise said:
THE fact is that we have a certain
form of censorship which takes effect
after the event, and which is in the hands
of the police. Some plays require not the
censors pencil. hut the policeman's club.
We shall have no lettering of conditions
Of the drama until the men and women Of
the stage being TO protest against the
indignty which is offered them in that
they are compelled to waste their gifts
upon the inane and unclean things which
the modern stage too often gives us.
THE stage. moreover, suffers from the
presence Of a considerable number or
half educated men and women, utterly in
capable OF interpreting the great things OF
life and letters
Dr. Wise then mentioned Sir tombstone
Forbes Robertson as a desirable type OF
actor. lie went on:
There are play producers and man.
ayers who are as eager TO make the the
atre clean and wholesome and intellectu-
ally and morally stimulating as any re-
ligious or moral teacher. These are gen
temen and artists. and only incidentally
in the business. Other managers there are
who are neither gentlemen nor artists.
but Just venders-venders Of anything
that the public will stand and the police
will not prohibit.
Three things must be moraized if the
play IS to come to its own again. First,
the stage and the drama itself, including
the players: second. authors and man.
ayers. and third, the public. The play is
not the thing: the plays, the players and
the payers must be uniformly cleansed
and moralized.
Without holding a brief for such man
ayers as deliberately pander to depraved
and diseased tastes. IL must be said that
such pandering would not even be profit
able IL there were not greedy and in
discriminating public 10 which 10 pander.
Before we can hope to moralize the the
atre the public must accept the response
nility Of utterly dlscountenancing plays
that are unclean and unworthy
Men and women must have the
strength and the inward resources which
shall enable them. II necessary. 10 stay
away from the theatre for time. We
must again master the forgotten arts or
thinking and reading, OF managing our
selves for an entire evening without the
help of the theatre, the tango dances and
bridge whist. IL IS our business to be the
patrons of the drama and not the slaves
of the theatre We cannot hope TO use
the instruments Of approval and dis
approval nor stay away from theatres
which present hlthy and lewd plays until
after we have so rebuilt our inner life
az TO be able 10 depend upon our own in
tellectual resources. and not be beggarly
and ceaseless dependents upon whatever
the theatre chooses to offer US"
Dr. Wise said the drama would not be
transformed by the Church or by City
Hall. but through that spirit OF religion
which shall so touch the people that they
shall he innexibly intoerant Of the bad
and nexorable in their demand FOR the
good in the drama of our day"