Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-18
STAGE NOTES

ELMER RICE, whose play street
Scene" won the 1929 Pulitzer Prize,
declares that the dramatist who would
be successful must make q liberal use
of hokum in his plays. Speaking to .
I class in dramatic criticism at Columbia
University, he commended that You
will find hokum even in Ibsen, Moliere
and Shakespeare
Hamlet he said, us just full Of
hokum. The ghost scene. the delinea-
/ ton of Polonius, the play within the
play, the duel and the slaughter at the
end OF the play--are all hokum, put in
to get a response from the audience"
Mr.. Rice admitted that Shakespeare
hokum was good.
The author Of Street Scene" further
averred that anybody who has ever
written a successful play is a charlatan,
| though there's nothing immoral or
{ reprehensible about the practice. It is
a necessary part Of the theater, and
this necessity to write down to the
audience is what makes the drama an
inferior art. The border line between
| hokum and art Is very close, however
and really good hokum Is often good
art"
After numerous denials and aff1rma-
lions of the rumor that George M
Cohan would act in his own play
Gambling" it has been definitely An
nounced that he will be q member OF
the company. The play goes to the
Fulton Theater on August 20 after an
Atlantic City premiere this week.
william Gillette, "a years old on July
"a, in planning q farewell tour in
Sherlock Holmes" in the course Of
which he will appear at the National
Theater in Washington, was subject tC
some question in regard to his eligibility
to act, inasmuch as he Is q member
neither Of the Actors Equity Assocla-
ton nor Of the Actors Fidelity League
BY unanimous vote Of EQuity's council
it has been ruled that "in view Of Mr.
Gillette's long and distinguished service
to the American theater" any and all
rules of EQUITY which might interfere
with his appearance on the stage would
be suspended.
Joan Lowell. author OF the much-dis.
cussed Cradle of the Deep" will play
the leading role in The Star Of Bengal.
by Thompson Buchanan. her husband
the play to be produced by the Hoboker
Theatrical Co. at the Hoboken Theatel
September rs, prior to Broadwa!
presentation.
The New York Theater Guild accord
ing to one Of its directors, is consider
ing making talking pictures OF some O
its outstanding productions. The idei
is to send the films around the countr!
to take the place Of the repertory com
pany which the Guild sponsors.
Frieda Inescort has been engaged b!
the guild to take the leading feminine
roles in Shaw's Mai. Barbara" ant
"Pygmalion' when those plays are sen
as possibilities" for Washington visit
to the National Theater.
An expressionistic Irish drama, 9TH
Old Lady Says No." has been performed
at the Gate Theater in Dublin. Mos
of the action Is presented as takin
place in the brain of an unconSciou
; actor who has been felled by an acct
dental blow on the head. The play
fantastic and mystical, has been re
viewed as an artistic and popular sue
cess, in so far at least as the Gate
discriminating audience was concerned
The author, a young attorney. writin
his first play, conceals his identity be
hind the pseudonym OF ''E. w. Tocher.
Walter Hampden has announced hi
new plays by Jacinto Benavente an
, Anton Tchekov. He will also make
| brief tour in "Cyrano de Bergerac."