Omaha daily bee., 1921-01-05

characters, and large number of
classical illusions. are some of the
specific charges made by Mr.. Grum-
MAIN.
Professor Grummann's next lee
ture before the Drama league, IAN
uary l8, will be upon "Janc Clegg,"
by St. John Ervine.
Some of the high lights in Pro-
lessor Grummann's lecture are here
given:
The New Art. !,
"The new drama in France as in
America calls for new dramatic
art. A new school of actors less
devoted to tawdriness-and less sus-
ceptible to vulgarity must spring up
before new art is possible. The
new art will not be puritanical and
assuredly it will not be vulgar"
A Mute People.
"A difficulty that besets the French
as well as the American drama is
the fact that we are growing more
and more to be mute people. Visit
with me almost any class and you
will agree that the articulation of
pupils is atrocious. Reading aloud
in the family is almost discarded,
and comparatively rare at school.
I'm the picture show we look, but
we are not enraptured by the SON.
orous beauty of the voice. A genera
ton ago we were glad to pay our
dollars to hear Davenport and
Macready utter their wonderful SEN
tences. Are we willing to drop all
the joy of the spoken word out of
our lives or shall we strive to bring
back some of the vanished glory of
the old stage?"
--Cranks Proverbially Underfed.
"Zealots and cranks are proverbial-
y underfed and under amused"
Art Put To Test.
"If our art. our best drama and
our best music were good for any,
thing, we should have resorted to
them during the great crises IRE
ferring to recent war days.) We
should have gone back to the best
sources of inspiration, to the best
things that the ideals Of the past
could give u.s."
Quotation Weakens Dramatic Force.
"Why are we impatient with the
minister or orator who interlards his
address with quotations? It is be-
cause we have come to hear this
mans message and when he begins
to quote. he divides our attention and
forfeits our interest. j. 1t
is absolutely fatal to characters in a
drama. 1t is more effective
dramatically to say: Thou shalt not
lie!' than to say: Moses in the ten
commandments says thou shalt not
lie However good the authority
may be, the reference to it weakens
the dramatic force"
Great Art is Simple.
"Great art, even Gothic art, re-
veals dominating simplicity amid
a myriad of details. . Whenever
the drama has been simple it has
lived, when it has become compli-
Gated it has lost its force"
Curtural Band Is Strong.
"Not language, nor race, nor trade
can bind a people together as effec-
lively as a common bond of cultural
tradition. Great leaders with their
trumpets and their drums disturb
our judgment for the hour, but when
equilibrium is restored it is the ma
tons art, the flower of its best joy
that endures. and allows it to be
saved or perish"
Only One Dranmatic Center.
II cannot believe that dramatic
activity in Paris reflects the best
things in French character and man
hood. Practically all of our dra-
matte activity is in New York, not en-
tire1y city representative of Amer
ican life at its best. Instead of a
thousand centers of dramatic activ-
ity, only one. HereNthe fate of our
American plays is made or unmade,
by a set of dramatic managers and
host Of players who certainly do not
represent our best national ideals.
+. =. Every community of the i'm
portance of. Omaha and Lincoln
might have groups of local actors"
Flowering Of Art,
"Where whole nation sings there
is some chance for a real>Aowering
of musical art at the top. The same
principle obtains in the drama"
Poet Must Preserve Sincerity.
"A great poet cannot be harnessed
10 a program of action. When poet
turns propagandist he commits artis-
tic suicide. for no one can tell after
that whether he is speaking for him
self or for the cause that he repre-
sents. D'Annunzio, little as I care
for him personally, is the typical
poet in refusing to confirm fright or
wrong) the feelings of his fellow
countrymen. The one thing thar a
poet must preserve is his sincerity.
Because this is true of ROLAND, he
will continue to be of interest to all
true Frenchmen and to civilized per-
sons the world over"