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Show ENTIRELY tAGKlNG SiHVS JfiLLIHPIH. CRANE, ACTOR -r .... - ' rietta' was revived for the benefit of the Actor's home and Mr. Eobson, and I took part in it. To my eurpnse, I found it full of 'asides,' and there were many other points too numerous to recall re-call at this moment which have long ago been dropped. Like 'The Senator, it is hopelessly out of date. And vet we used to think these two pretty fair samples of the drama in the old' days. The construction of plays has changed much since their time. , Even Acting Has Changed. "And acting, too, has ehsne'd a deal j from the old school. Time was when the , Ptar sought the center of the stage and j there remained aa long as he bad an important line to speak. That was a hard and fast rule, the sense of which in some instances I could not appreciate, as in the case where the normal action I of the scene suggested a different posi-! posi-! tion. I remember once being reproved bv the manager or standing too. near ! the wings while delivering a speech. He J contended that the audience, wishing to hear the speech, world look for me in ' the most conspicuous p'.ace on the stage. , But I told him if they wanted to see j me very badlv they'd hunt me up on ! that stage and find me all right. "At another time I was playing with ; Miss Paget in' a scene in whicn I deliv-ered deliv-ered a speech with my back to the audience audi-ence ana walking up a flight of stairs to i an exit. Miss Paget, an excellent nc trrss by the war, pleaded with me to face the house, declaring that the audi ence would want to see my face while T was saying the lines. But I protested that my face could be left to the imag ination of the auditors, in view of the fact that they had been gazing on it for two hours and a half at least. Said I, 'When they are obliged to imagine how I look they are doing the acting. Now. if I faced them the chances are 1 might please half of them in their ideas as to what constitutes the correct facial expression for me to wear on this particular par-ticular occasion. Let them imagine it. ' " '. ''Modern dramatists are handicapped. I have no doubt there ara promising ones among them who do not work out tkeir highest ideals because they are obliged to. write to please cheap taste; whims of the moment must be seised JKi embodied in some trilling show Prtca, and,' like the popular song, they flam 0p jj, 4 daT it a season, and then are burled, only to be superseded by others equally non-enduring. ' ' "The "speaker was William H. Crane. no- stopped between acts, to discuss tie - present trend of the standard of Py.' It is natural that an actor who PT "She Stoops to Conquer" should nave decided opinions regarding lighter Productions that seem to hold the center cen-ter of the atage nowadays. School for Dramatists. "There ought to b some kind of fund set aside to support playwrights while they are studying the art of writ-lag writ-lag plays,'" he continued. "To be sure, we have dramatists, but there are not enough of them, and many of these cannot can-not wait for returns because they need the money, so they fall to writing what will bring immediate results, these White Cats and Pink Pearls and Red Mills, with nothing to hold the mind, no plot even, and only that which ap feals to the eye. Tights and spectacn-ar spectacn-ar effects are" the features of the productions pro-ductions which cost anvwhere from $30,000 to $60,iWi to bring out. How much better would it be if the big producers pro-ducers of the country would put a part of. what they spend on one of these shows into a lund for the founding and maintenance of a school for dramatists who need the money. j "Yet, one hears' of remarkably successful suc-cessful plays once in a while, even now," continued the veteran actor, who has been on the stage for nearly two score years and knows a good plav when he sees it. "Take 'The Three of Us' and 'The Great Divide,' now running in New York and likely to keep on running in definitely, with" the houses o!d out for yeeks ahead. But doubtless the authors 4l these dramas were situated so that f wty could write up to their best. They -6oably had the leisure and the means tt work out a consistent play, think out the construction and prmiuce a wrrk that has dramatic value instead of having hav-ing to turn out 'Rich Mr. Higgenham. ' 'Red Roses' and flimsy foundations for the exploiting of chorus girls, and al lurements chiefly for the eye. How msnv of the modern dramas will last like The .School for Scandal," 'The Rivals' and 'She Stoops to Conquer' for two centuries! i BefLned Sense Not Extinct. "And interest is still maintained in 'She Stoops to Conquer.' Trier,- is ,11.1 pie proof that a refined sense of humor is still appreciated. It takes a li-t'e I while to get the thread of the storv. but when the audience grasps the situation and realizes that Marlow and Hastings have come to the home of the pompous and severe Squire Hardcastle, supposing it to be a public inn. the fun go on as fast and furiously as does that of anv of the modern comedies. The old ones are still good, though modern drama has in many of its methods gotten ;iwav from them. "I never realized this so fully as I did several years ago when "The Hen |