The Detroit times., 1916-02-08
THE B'GOSH DRAMA
ev Or. FRANK CRANE
Copyright. 1915. By Frank Cranel

Answer: The same thing ails it that
ails all other kinds of drama, or novels,
for that matter.
1t lacks that live knowledge of the sub
ject that comes only from love and sim
cere sympathy, together with literary
creative skill.
BY the b'gosh drama we understand to
be meant those plays depicting rural life
in the United States.
From all the dramatic representations
we have seen of this type of life we
would gather that it is unspeakably mar
row, hard, coarse, and altogether to be
fed from.
The conventional playwright sees only
the vulgarity of speech, the shirt-sleeves,
the chawin' terbacker, the by heck and
horn-swoggle side of existence on the
farm or in the small town. So when he
writes it is of these things.
The limited, unimaginative author
catches only the conventional symbols.
All his characters are hand-me-down,
ready made. Every parson is a stiff,
sober, priggish owl. Every farmer wears
chin whiskers and chews plug. Every
mother is fat and fifty. Every grandma
has cap and does knitting. Every villain
is low browed, kissing sneak. And every
decent young man is secret hypocrite.
He has to put those types on the stage
or people wouldn't believe they were gen.
uine The public does not want the real,
ii wants the usual.
A genius is simply one who sees actual
ity and not conventional symbols. The
characters he creates are human beings,
not mannikins. This is exceedingly diff
fuclt. Few do it.
AS matter of fact life is interesting
anywhere. in Wyoming trading post
or an Ohio river village as well as on up
per Fifth-ave., New York, or in the
trenches with the Allies.
Given the seeing eye of a Kipling,
Dickens or an Ed. Howe, and the elemen-
tai interest and vividness of people stand
out.
The trouble. as was intimated, is that,
in the case of the average author, he
writes from barren heart and an un-
seeing eye, and he writes about not folks
as they are but folks he thinks his read
ers think they are.
AS a matter of fact, in Podunk or Tie
Siding the parson often as not is reg
ular- human being, goes fishing and has
a few redeeming vices; the farmer 10
clean shaven, wears necktie, and drives
"a $4,000 motor mother is almost AZ
young as the girls dances and reads the
latest books; grandma runs the woman'S
club; the villain clerks in bank, has
long white cuffs and is highly esteemed;
and the decent young man is real fel-
low and knows all the latest Ford stories.
But where would the drama be IL it
presented real people?
The curse of the stage is the same as
the curse Of everything else; of the
church, of politics and of art; it is the
acceptance of the conventional symbol
for the actual, the substitution of the
formula for the reality. Every depart
ment Of human endeavor goes dry and
and becomes sterile after a while.
The remedy is genius, the soul that
sees realities, the eye that perceives per-
sonalties and not classes. When the
genius appears we all knock him. That
is. while he lives. We poo-pooh and BAH
bah him. After he is dead we put him
on pedestal.
Rural life in America is very strong
and interesting. 1t is rich in dramatic
possibilities. All it needs is an interpre-
ter who can scrapc off the conventional
itics with which the b'gosh playwrights
have overlaid it and reveal to us the real
live folks.