The New York herald., 1922-07-02

somehow reach the stage and con-
sidering also that of thousand plays
written one only may reach the
stage. it is amazing that people gen.
orally think a play is the easiest OF
all fictions to write. 1t is the hardest.
While the physical work of putting
down a hundred pages of dialogue is
about one-sixteenth of that required
to write 800 or 400 manuscript pages
of a novel the mental concentration
needed is at least sixteen hundred
times as great 1t is possible for a
novelist to write about or around
his people and hold the interest of
readers; the minute a playwrighk
does this he loses his audience. He
cannot describe anybody, he must
show everybody.
IL The AZ Workshop and the many
little workshops it has engendered I'm
schools or elsewhere help increase
the stock Of playwrights they need
no other excuse for existing. Even
making the road to production easier
for aspiring dramatists is excuse
enough. What has the Harvard
school Of playwriting done along
either line?
Measuring the Workshop's Merits.
The first thing it did was to give
the public Edward Sheldon. His "SaI-
walton Nell." produced by Mrs. Fiske.
was the first news the public had OF
the existence of playwriting school
in one OF the great universities.
Others followed from his pen. THE
Nigger," Romance" &C., to confirm
the first impression that here was a
writer for the stage with 4 sense of
melodramatic values. In the interim
between his debut and that of Rachel
Butler. the second of The Work.
shops writer's accepted by the gen.
eral public. seven other names of
pupils have been attached to work
able" plays. This in a little more
than year, a more than respectable
record.
Edward Massey. Eugene Pilot.
Hubert Osborne, Miss Lincoln and
Miss Hinkley have each had pro-
fessional chances. The first two
have contributed excellent one act
plays, good enough for vaudeville"
Miss Hiniley's ''The Clam Diggers
is scheduled by its purchaser. Oliver
Morosco, for production next sea-
son. and the same outlook attends
Hubert Osborne's "Shore Leave"
under the direction of David
Belasco.
Plays besides those mentioned
which were first seen on the Work.
shop stage are Ballard's Believe
Me. Xantippe." afterward used by
Manager Craig in Boston: Charles
Kinkead's Common Clay" a popu-
lar piece. and Miss Lincoln's "The
End Of the Bridge" All of them
together are not so many, but they
serve to prove the usefulness of tho
plan, provided their>trip to the pro-
fessional stage was shortened by the
school. And that it was most per-
sons who have had to deal with
managers and producers will believe.
Playwriting Can't Be Taught.
Nevertheless neither this school
nor any other has answered affirma-
lively the question, Can playwriting
be taught? An attempt to answer It
thus was made by William T. Price,
who lately died at his post, the Amer
lean School OF Playwriting, which he
founded in New York and carried on
for dozen years. Having served a
long term as dramatic critic and as
play reader for two distinguished
New York producers. Mr.. Price had
a practical knowledge OF what is apt
or sure to ''go" in a play inferior to
no one in his day. His book on The
Analysis of Play Construction and
Dramatic Principles" revealed that
he had profoundly studied his subs
ject But the name OF any one play.
wright whom he made is yet to be
learned Many whom he helped by
precept, criticism and counsel-very
different things-are known.
A lot of palaver is written and
mr. M Iux