The New York herald., 1922-07-02
Many Obstacles for Stage Writers

the classes.
Many Obstacles for Stage Writers.
In the subconsciousness of COM
mercial managers dwells the con-
viction that a man who cannot pro-
duce his plays-that is. select his
cast, rehearse the actors, inject at
mosphere, regulate tempo-canndt
write money making play. They
sometimes act contrary to this SUBJ
merged conviction, but when they
do and the piece fails they know
where to look for the reason of its
failure. This is why they would
rather put out a play by a theater
hack, a "carpenter-p playwright" than
try to push a piece by writer
who does not know the stage. Thus
it is that the new man with an idea
meets almost unsurmountable obsta-
cles and thus it is that plays are put
out which tread a familiar path.
For managers who have been
burned by failure shy at the new
man and the new idea. In their lack
of cordiality to the man they show
sagacity. Almost invariably the au-
thor who does not know exits and
| entrances, nor how to provide suf-
ficient time for his leading woman
to change her gown, who does not
know, in word, the mechanism of
his piece, will father a failure. And
the manager has to pay costs of it's
birth and its burial.
1t often happens that negotiations
which have gone so far between
manager and author as the discus-
SION OF contract for the production
of play are halted and sometimes
called off when to the managers
question:
will you put on the piece your
self?"
The author answers: "I would not
dare to undertake to do SO because I
have had no experience"
The Countless Writers of PIavs.
There have been almost countless
play writer's in the world, but only
half dozen playwrights. Shake
speare heads the briefer list: he was
an actor (if a bad one); he knew
what an empty stage meant. and he
had the knack of repeating over and
over in his various pieces a popular
bit of business. Schiller collected
wonderful theatrical material. but he
knew nothing about the theater and
couldn't write play. Imagine what
Shakespeare would have made of
The Death of Wallenstein"i
Ibsen began at the bottom of the
stage managing ladder and knew ALL
about theater. front and back" be-
lore he wrote any of the plays we
know him by. How to account for
every minute of a stage story was
as much a study to him as the art
Oh constructing play, Of which he
was past master. David Belasco
began as call boy. But IL is unneces-
sary to multiply instances in order to
prove that a man who wishes to be
dramatist had better learn the art.
The Workshop Has a Real Stage.
The Workshop was started to do
for Harvard students what the actual
stage does for its play writer's. some
times at awful waste and loss. II has
been compared to the dramatic
schools by reason of the quasi inti-
mate stage. but it really aims to do
more than the latter and probably
does because it affords its pupils a
chance on a real stage.
Schools where acting is taught
have existed for a long time. but
they seem to be content to furnish
the stage with its useful" people:
few graduates have attained emf
nence. The Workshop and similar
schools of play writing are of later
date. Already more pupils of Prof.
Baker have been heard of than
might have been expected. The
reason for this is that the school
really teaches technic. But a better
reason for its existence is that it
does not stop at reiterating estab-
lished practices. Says Prof. Baker
in an article on 'The ~ Workshop"
in the Centuru Mnnnziue.