Show II F Fifty Years in n the Playhouse I I By David Belasco When Dr Eliot said sald The world has been remade withIn fifty years he might have havo added quite truthfully and In no department ot of that world has the reconstruction recon reconstruction been more radically subversive of the old order than In that ot of the the theatre theatre atre and the drama Indeed I am not exaggerating when I say that In one other department ot of modern civilization and In one only have haye the last fifty years witnessed a change so violent so vital as that which has affected all things per pertaining pertaining to theatricals I refer to the theory and practice ot of medicine and to the art ot of surgery It Is to the great power of electrIcity absolutely unknown to our forefathers that the tho stage manager ot of today is S en enabled enabled properly to furnish adequate setting and atmosphere In which the dramatic artist Is enabled to Interpret the master masterpieces masterpieces pieces of the past It Is to the great pow powers powers ers of electricity the possibilities of which are even still so great as to stag stagger ger r the Imagination ot of Is to thIs power and to It alone that most of our great modern modem masterpieces owe their very existence It has always been my deep regret that Shakespeare could not have had the joy of seeing Augustin Dalys production of ofA ofA A Midsummer Nights Dream What a trIumph of the switchboard that was wasAnd wasAnd And what possibilities for the swit h r board are aro the mystical dramas ramas of Ibsen and Hauptman of and Grill Indeed one can hardly conceive ot of the hardihood of any manager daring to translate the symbolism ot of The Lady From the Sea or Into concrete dramatic action without the kindly nay divine aid of the state elec electrician electrician and ail as for the exquisite fantasy Hannele one Is safe late to say that Haupt Hauptman man himself would have despaired ot of putting Its filmy and diaphanous material Into manuscript had he not remembered the wizardry that Is to be evoked from the dynamo The effect of steam upon the stage atago b 11 hardly less direct and certainly not less leu Indeed our present system ot of theatricals Is the direct outgrowth and development of the steam engine and the railroad Without the steam engine and the rail railroad railroad road our present artistic stature never could have been attained Without the steam engine and the railroad we would still be getting our dramatic entertain entertainment meat ment under the old stock stack company and repertory system a very good system In Its day but now passe and obsolete and a aso so to be regarded by every one who Is willing to open his eyes ayes and view the question not from the standpoint ot of maudlin sentiment ot of foolish Idolatry ot of the pat pa but from that which Is sane ane and prattle Ii e though none the less artistic |