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Show THE I'UilLIC AM) THE STAGE. OUR SATIVB bltAMAS Ml EETTWl IIlKClUSg OUIt I'UCLIC IS OT CIM.TIVATEU. (Judging the profession bv the av. nuje .1 its mtMutn-p, the fact rein re-in mis ti.Ht i-ntis and ctitics mid novrli.N nuKt ie money Ihun pliyrUht!.;.iud y.t uu havenure Kikh .einsiiii. more goudc:ays and more go.nl iiowl than uehave good play, utiles lviunnl Fuller III UppuioM't Maguzmc for OdoUr. It is obvious, then, that the question of money is not the reason for the failure of our drams as a vital force of art. rs'oris the failure duo to any Lack of material. The Society of American Dramatic Authors, as I hive said, will have no difficulty hi finding pemras eligible for membership, mem-bership, although their names aro unfamiliar to the general public. Furthermore, the plaj s that have never been produced are probably as many as the novels that have neer lieen published. One Jfew York manager confesses to having read and rrietHl 7.H.1 manuscripts. Ills Impossible to be-i be-i Ileve that all of the 70UO w ere worse thau some of the p cces hleh have run hundreds of nights, and still retain re-tain one's resrect fur the human intellect. in-tellect. That condition of mind in which a writer can get below the level of "Natural Gas' or "We-, Us . Co." nouIdoITcra curious opior-tunity opior-tunity foriathological Investigation. I do cot know how mauy new 1 lays are produced nt Kuglhdi aud American Ameri-can theatres iu a year. To facts, however, will help us lo make a I rough estimate. The most iniiortaut of ttiee is that the theatrical business busi-ness has grown to enormous iironor-tfom. iironor-tfom. 111 tilt, fTlltr.i.l ,,. nln..u there aro probably samething like three hundred traveling companies. The other fact i-, that thu great majority of these com allies give employment to modern playwrights. play-wrights. It might naturally I Imagined that under such condi tiuns as thcM) the drama would Lo in a statu of grou th rather than in a state of decay. But few of the plays which are thus written and produced have any serious value, riiey are lolboilers, pure and simple, sim-ple, and they smell vilely of the pot. Moreover, such of them as may have been Intelligently cou-ceived cou-ceived aud eleflly constructed in the first place have been sacrificed tu the exigencies of the moiueuL There may bu n suspension bridge, ora steam engine, or a yacht, or other mechanical device, about w hich some scene must be written; there may be an actor whose ier-sonal ier-sonal eccentricities must be taken Into con-ideratiou. AH this is merely writing to order, nnd Is more a commercial than na arti-tlo matter. Tills Inferiority iu our moieri Engll-h plays does not necessarily imply an inferiority in natural ability abil-ity on the part of tho playwrights Iu originality, Iu freshness of treat, mint, iu literary skill, and, nbave all, iu stage technique, they are, It Is true, Immensely inferior to the J reneh writers; but yet in those w ho show the least amount of training, train-ing, there am Hashes of genuine tower. Our drama, indeed, atlords in the main a painful example of wssted energy, of talent in the rough, so to siieafc, which tho fortunate for-tunate possessor does not kuow how rightly to cultivate. The lack of training of which I have spoken is ouo re iso n for this But a more iniiortant fin my mind an overshadowing) over-shadowing) coiiitueration in the state of the public taste. Water eaunot rise higher thau its source, nnd the drama ciiinol lie sustained ilKive (he hea Is of iIium, t. who. 11 it make- up,nl. W. Aineri.-m-hke slang and vulgarity nnd hor-e-pl iy; an I this Is what uu grtuii Hit stage. Wesymiathlzewithtawdrv 'entimeiitnud cheap pathos; and si we have It served to us, with a native na-tive or a foreign label. I do not know that our playwrights are altogether alto-gether to blrme. It Is well eunush 10 remember the demands of art; but the demaudsof bread nud butter such Is our human weakness-have weakness-have the first claim. Only the for-I for-I tunatefewcau livo to write; otlurs mut write to live. Thus It Is that literature In any form Is In thu main a reflection of the public taste. If then, our dramatic literature is poor and bad and mauy iwrsons think. It la so poor and bad that II docs not ., if .f0 considered as literature stall the primary explanation is found in the Intellectual apathy o' theatrical audiences. I'eorla Journal. |
