The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-01-16
IN
New York
BY PAUL HARRISON

New York-The reason Eugene
O'Nelll writes these tensely emo
tional. interpretive dramas about
the struggles of subconscious minds
is because Americas first play
wright has an almost ungovernable
subconscious himself, and knows
what it's like to be bossed by one.
TO be sure, his characters usu-
ally are revealed as warning with
inner devils which are tempting
them to abandon their faith, their
loves or any other high principles
which happen to be at hand
while O'Neills inner devils are
imps of industry. They hand him
ideas and then prod him on TO
work them into plays.
There's the story Of how his two
last plays were written: More than
q year ago O'Nciil finished the first
draft of the modern miracle
play" called days Without End"
and decided to take vacation. He
was living at tho time at his home
on Sea Island, Ga. He thought that
after a few undisturbed weeks of
swimming and fishing he would
take up the play again and polish
1t into final form. days Without
End" had proven a troublesome
piece Of business anyway.
A Playwright ut Work
Well, he went to bed that night
making plans for fishing trips and
beach parties and such. Next morn
Ing. as he was stirring uncasily In
that luxurious, half-dreamy state,
dat OF davvil Subconscious went
into action. A new play began
marching across his weary mind
the plot, the characters, the Sc
quence of scenes. even the final
curtain. Strangely enough, 1t was n
comedy.
When he reused himself, O'Neill
laid aside his fishing tackle and his
bathing suit and grimly went back
to his typewriter. He stayed there
for five weeks. Everything came
smoothly, and the result was the
first draft of "Ah, Wilderness" He
laid that aside and began the tedi-
GUS Job of rewriting "Days Without
Enid" which he still considered his
big play of the year. 1t was six
months before he was ready to
bring the manuscript to New York.
He brought along the draft of "Ah,
Wilderness" too, and on re-read-
ing it was surprised to find that II
was ready for production. The The
alter Guild bought both plays on
the spot, and "Ah, WildcrncsS!"
turned out to be the better of the
pair.
Most OF O'Neilrs stuff comes to
him slowly. Mourning Becomes
Electra" hoated elusively through
his mind for three years, and 1t
took two years more to get the
script on paper :. The plot for
"Desire Under the Elms" arrived
through his subconscious, but Il
required several months for polish
ing.
"Thc Emperor Jones" was
the only one which practically
wrote itself. That was finished
In ten days.
This Theatcr's Free
Not one New Yorker In a thou
sand knows that there's O free the
ater In town, and the rest wouldn't
believe It anyway IL they were told.
It's true, though. The Davenport
theater. on East Twenty-seventh
street, has charged no admission
during its eleven years OF life. It.
Is managed and directed by Butler
Davenport, q Shakespearean actor
who lives In the building. He also
plays most OF the male leads.
The repertory company, recruit
Cd from all over the city, contains
some amateurs and some unem-
ployed professionals. Then don't
get paid, but they seem to have a
lot of fun. Miss Sylvia Shane, q
stenographer, has been playing OPP
posite Mr. Davenport In Erckmann-
Schatrian's 1.-THE BcllR'. The next
presentation will be "A Tale OF Two
During intermissI ons Mr. Dayen-
port comes before the curtain and
talks about the free theater, ex.
planning that II survives on the con.
tributions Of patrons, and makes
Just enough to pay for light, heat
and taxes. Lots OF people In the
audience don't give anything. and
an evenings collection sometimes
has totaled less than n dollar. The
manager used to find buttons and
foreign coins IN the donation bas-
ket. and no finally had 10 announces
that he had plenty OF buttons. but
that any kind OF coins were wei.
como because he had started a col
lection. Tho biggest donation IA
ever had was $4,000. A man eam0
20 the show, liked n, bought the
building for that amount, and gave
Davenport the deed.
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