The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-02-14
EME neMest Forbea comedy. "The

stage dictatorship and gives so
striking an evidence of their skilful
application that Mr.. Forbes, himself
both author and director of the piece
was inevitably asked how he did it,
TO the hearty old haphazard way
Of getting plot and dialogue from the
author, business" from the actor
sets" from the carpenter and stage
direction from heaven and the world
at large Mr.. Forbes gave short shrift
Any observer of his play would have
guessed as much.
But the method he offered in eX-
change. thanked and secured by his own
successful practice of it, took such
a radical turn and presented such a
rigorous picture of the directors
rghtful duties that one imagines
most blithe young playwrights would
sooner 20 to Sing Sing and have done
with it than become a director on Mr..
Furbcs's pattern.
However, he tells his own story
bcst--so enter Mr.. Forbes,
Years before | had ever done any
playwriting of my own | met Clyde
Fitch on the street one day" he be-
gins, land he was the very picture Of
exhaustion | asked him what allied
him and he said he was putting on
play, and added: 1 suppose If | didn't
insist on buying every pin in the
production l wouldn't bc so tired.
Their was my prophecy, If | had
known It. | didn't. 1 didn't think Of
it again for a good many years. But
my own expert, noes brought It back
to me with many times its first force.
1T Is true that | have a definite
four square theory of stage direction,
and it is also true that | hlundercd
onto that theory in trying to conceal
from the first company ! ever re-
hoarscd that not only had no theory
but no practice.
Suppose | tell you my experiences
first and then later how | built up
my system from them.
THE Chorus Lady was the first
play | ever put on. | had watched a
few rehearsals. but casually, and !
knew absolutely nothing about the
reasons behind what | saw the direc-
tors doing | didn't even know then
that in good many cases there
weren't any. II was all mysterious
and awe inspiring TO me But natu-
rally | was bent on hiding that. !
didn't want the actors to lose con-
hdence in me-and | didn't want The
Chorus Lady u be a failure So |
thought It all out and decided that
4 | had the scenery all on the stage
i'm front of me / couldn't go very
far wrong in steering my actors
around in il. Next TO avoid any
hesitation and INDIGESTION in my in
.tructlons took my manuscript off
by myself and planned all the bust
ness for all the lines and mcmorized
it,
You can see that that meant plenty
Of work. even as | first mapped it
out. You can imagine how I felt
when, as the rehearsals went on, |
found more and more details remorSe-
.vssly pling up that | had to work
ont and give directions for.
AS an example for the second act
Of The Chorus Lady which, you
will remember. was a dressing ROOM
went around to the musical come
d cs then running herr and chose
Girls from the choruses. | thought |
could trust them to sit down in, a
dressing room and make up and i'm
pcrsonate chorus girls without re-
curing much direction from me, so
! didn't pan their business | just
turned them into the dressing room,
Put | learned something about
chorus girl right then-whatcVer you
tell her to do she will do, but she will
20 on doing ii and nothing else till
YOU tell her To stop Well, | was hor-
ron struck, | had 10 take that scene
and write cues for every move the
chorus girls mnde If | hadn't one
would have gone on rouging her left
cheek bone and one would have gone
on beading her right eye TIL the cur
tain fen.
Il had. then, this situation facing
mel had to keep those girls moving
as naturally as chorus girls would
move in their own dressing rooms
and keep the makeup progressing
too. and yet could not have a single
movement during the laughs If
you don't know it. learn it now-any
movement on the stage however
slight. will kill a laugh. 1t doesn't
matter how good your line is or how
brilliant your actor or how uprOar-
iously your audience may start to
laugh-one little nibbertigibbet of a
chorus girl reaching for a rouge stick
IN the middle of laugh will distract
the attention Of the audience and
your laugh is gone. My job, then,
was To have these chorus gir.s SEEM
ing to he in constant action and to
conceal the fact that during every
laugh from the audience there was a
dead pause on the stage. finally
achieved it by giving each girl a list
of cues. on such and such line one
of them powdered her nose-on an
other line one of them rouged her
mouth-neXt one washed her hands,
and SO on.
"And considering that 7 was also
trying to keep the chorus girls from
suspecting that | didn't know how Ia
put on "A play you can see that most
Of my work was done outside the
theatre.
And that gets me to the very first
principle Of my stage directing the
Cry-the director must pan his work
outside the theatre. The theatre isn't
the place for working out details
it isn't fair to actors to hold them W
while you rack your brain over what
they'd better do. 1t isn't the place
to decide anything at all except
whether the actor rehearsing in from
of you Is going to be able to do thu