The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-07-04
YELL ChNHA~ In
"x1ESFELD PIEDMONT
~ F1oL1C" ~

7 Is not possible to read from the
plans which the managers have
so far announced any distinct
characteristic TO the playa Of the COM
ing season, any quality common to
them all. There are TO ne observed
In the lists many qualities common
10 various plays Of recent seasons, but
mo distinctive note in the lot.
Managers of the younger generation
have indeed grown to initiate them
selves in the lack of any dominating
figure in the field. If a manager has
success with a play Of a certain class
he is likely to seek success with an
other OF the same type. lie is much
more inclined to do this than to follow
the example of some colleague who
with more or less of a noyelty has
received the support Of the public. It
seems as II the shadow OF within
the Law was still over the theatre,
especially over that group Of manag-
ers who benefited by the success of Mr..
'Veiller's play. r.
1t seems certain that the American
public no longer is inclined to interest
in a serious war play in spite Of the
new field which the European strug-
gle was supposed to open to play
wrights. II may be that the issue is
just now too fresh to impress our aud
iences. When there is greater COM
mand OF perspective and the differences
have been settled there may be
'greater sympathy for these dramas
than there has been. Then an Ameri-
can as h hero of such a play is not
= so far unknown. But there is no doubt
that to whisper mysteriously about
Der Tag" and to refer ominously to
Wilhe!mstrasse will no longer engross
an audience of American t~heatregoers.
On the other hand succeeding events
go to do much to establish the import
ance of the material which Justus
Miles Forman put into his unfortunate
play The Hyphen." 1t is a striking
proof of the futility of even putting
such a strong story on the stage when
il is not utilized in the terms of the
theatre.
Undoubtedly the managers will feel
10 a degree. although not nearly so
much as they might have a decade
ago, the failure Of the European sup
ply. The foreign playwrights are not
to be counted on. 1t was practically
only the late Charles Frohman who
has during recent years relied heavily
on the output of the English and
French plsywrlghts. But they will this
year be altogether out of the field.
Henry Arthur Jones has written a
play for Otis Skinner. Recently a one
act play by Arthur Wing Pinero was
acted in London, but 1t seems improb-
able that anything else will come from
him. 1t is a singular fact that the in
ability of a playwright to finish a GER
ain piece of work is likely to be a
definite symptom that the end Of his
way that the career of Bronson
Howard came to a finish. He was at
work for more than a ear on a drama
Of social life in New York. He could
not bring it to a satisfactory end. The
longer he worked on it the more COM
plicated 1t became. Finally, at the
suggestion of a. NJ. Palmer. for whom
he was writing the play, he brought
i IN Charles Klein, a young author, who
was flattered by this association.
Nothing came OF this union, how
ever. and Bronson Howard died with
out having finished the play. Arthur
Wing Pinero has a play which is being
completed in just the same fashion
Maybe this is only another way of
saying that II is not being finished at
all Here Is, OF course, a ground for
real regret, since the English speaking
stage has no such brilliant playwright.
oN"rrated as his dramas may some
times have been in the past. In COM
rarlson with his colleagues, however,
II was not easy To speak az sharply
ABOUT him as the best critical iudg-
Nin'nt would have commanded tn he
' h"n", sim II is likely that the loss
"i ms services to the English drama
VIII not he more noticeable than in
'he case Of any other contemporaneous
%rper, II it he true that Bernard
Sfaw has also ceased to contemplate