Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-10-23


" MERlcAN drama ~ and we hold
"A up our hands in protest and begin
to talk OF commercialsm and theatrical
trusts. Or We start down the deadly
lane Of parallels and glow in compare
tive praises OF the drama In France, in
Germany. In Russia. anywhere. Or we
irnuynr9te movements, following the
English afar of In pageantry or civic
plays Or, IL we do none of these things,
nj least we start a society proviiing
qualified tasters who visit the theatres
from time TO time and, over late sup :,
per. decide by vote what we should
like and what we should advertise by
our disarproval. Professor George Z.
Baker, of Harvard, did something quite
different from all this, II is now
goolly number of years ago. He start.
ed his "4I Workshop" in q quiet and
Industrious endeavor to foster our
drama, SO far as such thing as drama
con be fostered, by precept and collegiate
guidance. and he has long since justi.
fed his experiment In the turning out OF
several riaywrights whose work Is alike
IL credit t, dramatic craftsmanship and
u practical and accepted success upon
the stage. Under these circumstances
Professor Baker is peculiarly the man
to collect. for the general reader, a
group of American plays which shall
sland ny representative Of our drama In
its present state of development. This
be hns dcnc In q volume with the title
Of Modern American Plays" prefixing
to the text an all too brief introduction
on the plays selected and the reasons
for their selection.
CUCCESS on the stage is Professor
~ Bakers first criterion Of selection,
and his second IL variety. The opening
play Of the volume is "As Man
Thinks" by Augustus Thomas, a com
edy Of contemporary life. which touches
on prevalent feminism, lightly but sure.
ly, with not quite the glib solution which
Is on the lip of the current feminist.
In its essence this play Is didactic. "a
tendenz. DRAMA however deftly con-
one long tried and approved. The
adaptable Mr.. Belasco's Return Of
Peter Grim" likewise touches on topic
Of the hour. interest in that beyond and
her enftcr from the bourne of which we
ere not quite certain whether the trav-
eler can really return. But Mr.. Belasco
cleverly leaves the matter less proved
than suggested. Mr.. Anspacher's THE
Cnchastcned Woman" is notable in that
H. c0ntrives to interest MS In an un-
interesting and unsympathetic heroine
and to leave us at the end with things
continuing and unadjusted very much as
they carry on in life. Mr.. Sheldon's
Romance, by far, one should think,
tho ablest play Of the volume, contains
thu element Of its existence in its title
and realizes at least one character Of
holding personality. And Mr.. Mas
sey's "Plots and Playwrights' is satire
Of plays in a play, time -honored spe-
cies, old when Dryden was ridiculed in
1.-THE Rehearsal and older still by the
time that Sheridan plagiarized that sa
tire in his Critic"
DLAYMAKING in the English Ian
! over in different times. To avoid rising
! out of our topic into the region Of the di-
whites, Dryden. greatest of English sa
! tirists. ablest Of general poets of his
! time, theorist and translator, was once
! the foremost playwright. At a subse-
quent time that post was occupied by
| Nicholas Rowe, poet laureate, who "fol.
! lowed Shakespeare, but long way off
at still another by equally forgotten
| Sheridan Knowles, whose most vcritablG
dramatic asset was his borrowed sur
name. Later times bring us triumvi-
rates and oligarchs in the annals of
| the drama and we become bewildered
among the Barries and the Shaws, the
Pineros and the Joneses OF times which
are now, or were not very long ago.
In America we may be little less
distraught, howsoever there are precious
| few of us who have not written, are
writing or planning to write at the
very least a farce or a pageant. But 1t
would seem that it Is not long since
that our master playwright was the late
Clyde Fitch, and who shall deny that
we are still under the benign and vcr-
satile sway OF Mr.. Belasco? Now, Of
such an art we must at least confess
( that it has had its ups and downs. and
that the amplitude of its vibrations, to
put It in another way, has made various
noises in the world whereof some have
been high and others not so high. Nor
can we expect it to be otherwise. The
drama is. by the most honored Of all
figures. the mirror OF human nature,
however we leave that mirror at times
to tarnish in neglect, however we may