OCR Text |
Show Mansfield on Commercialism. In a recent discussion of conditions in the theater, Richard Mansllold summed up with, "Nobody is writing and very few are acting." He also paid his compliments to the commercial conditions which are said to obtain: "I think that a great deal that Is written writ-ten about the modern stage and Its grains of salt. To commence with the decadence should bo taken with many grains of salt. To commence wlh the nccusatlon that theatrical managers have ln this day but ono Idea, namely, to make money. May I Inquire what i Mr. Shakespeare, or Mr. Garrlck. or Mr. Macready, or Mr. Komble had ln view? If I am not very much mistaken, mis-taken, David Garrlck and Mr. Shakespeare Shakes-peare wore both very thrifty gentlemen, gentle-men, with a very alert, eye for tho main chance. Mr. Shakespeare and Mr. Garrlck and all the rest of them worked for money, and that Is what wo aro working for today. Poets and painters pain-ters also work for money. A good painter asks from 53000 to $10,000, and even more, for a portrait. Ho doesn't give pictures away because ho is philanthropic phil-anthropic and wants to educate people up to his pictures. Why should actors and managers be expected to produco plays that are of superfine literary quality, or overwhelmingly poetic, or painfully analytical, or morbidly disgusting, dis-gusting, that nobody wants to see? David Garrlck presented at very slight cost tragedies, melodramas, high comedy, come-dy, low comedy and musical farces, and ho always presented what he thought the peoplo would buy tickets for. Mr. Garrlck never wittingly produced pro-duced a conundrum play, or a play on hereditary diseases, or a play of philosophical argument. His' plays were for actors, to be acted; the acting was of more Importance than the talking. talk-ing. It cost Mr. Garrick hardly anything- to produce a play, and the authors au-thors received the very slightest emolument. emolu-ment. Today It would be almost impossible im-possible to satisfy a public with a play of Mr. Shakespeare's under J1O.O0O nt the lowest figure. When you behold a man wearing long hair and habited In extraordinary garmentB, appearing In a red flannel shirt and overalls nt a dinner party, ostensibly living on cabbages cab-bages ln the sight of man, and sneaking sneak-ing Into obscure eating-houses for a beefsteak. assuming a . portentous frown, an absent-minded manner and a lisp, and gazing Into vacancy; when you sit In the audience and see a man or a woman doing natural things on tho stage, which may be dispensed with, as, for Instance, blowing the nose as an evidence of profound emotion, or spitting, or sitting still for half an hour without saying anything, because a person under like conditions would sit still and say nothipg; Or lying on the floor and bumping one's head to exhibit hysteria, and so forth, nnd so forth know that it Is all for money." |