The evening world. Newspaper, June 27, 1912, Page 20

The Evening World Daily Magazine, Thursday: June 27, kG Se “How I Write a Pla y” Famous Dramatists Tell for the First Time The Methods by Which They Have Won Saccesi Copyright, 1012, by The Press Publishing Co, (The New York World), “{ Thieis the first of a series of articles prepared for The Evening : World by the foremost playwrights of America, Thousands of people H are trying to write plays, and do not know why they fail, Phe ex ' ; | 4 e e Constant, 1912 t é Ki? Listening (+ cet m ) By Robert Edgren ESTABLISHED BY JOSEPH PULITZER, x Ps SS 0 to Published Dally Bzcopt Gander hed site eee Pobuaning ‘Company, Nos, RALPH PULITZER, President, J. ANGUS SITAW, Treasurer, JOSEPH PULITZER, Jr. Secretary, Pntered at the Post-OMice at New York as Mecond-Cinaa Matter, @ubescription Rates to The Evening) For England and the Cont 64 Park Row, ow. ¢3 Park Row., World for the United States All Countries in the International | end Canada, Postal Unton. . 8.80} One Yoar.....04 .80|One Month.. 2: eeeeesNO, 18,573 perience described in these articles will appeal not only to such ae | pirants but to all the play-going public, The second article wilt be printed to-nprrow, 1—By David Belasco Author of “The Return of Peter Grimm,” &c. | HE most diMcult task any one could set for me is to ask me to how I write @ play. As @ matter of fact it is almost as easy for me write a play as to tell how to do it. . ‘The first essential is the realization an my part of that sense of Paredness without which effective creation of any sort is impossitte other words, I must feel the time has arrived when that particular play to be written. For years, perhaps, the germ or initial idea has been in-@y mind, and through all those years I VOLUME 82... LOOK ALOFT! TWO-HUNDRED POTND block of stone fell from the rail- A ing of an ornamental balcony in Ninety-second street the other day and killed a woman passing on the sidewalk. The mere touch of a lowered scaffold had been enough to dislodge the piece. The police have since declared that an examination of orna-| mental stone and iron woak on hundreds of buildings in the city would | f] eae nme, ter toa ar chan : An architect familiar with building methods horeabouts scaffs | Se ee eee } : he 2 tag and says there need be no fear. “We build well in bat ie Sit, a2 once 00. gta New York. phere, &o, Hi Happen we do. Just the same, this is the third accident of the esa ekcationtta: ‘sehceretoane coun sort within a few weeks. In the Ninety-second street case shook | dislodged the stone. Not long ago, without warning or apparent rea- | sions. Everything in life interests : ) on, a piece of terra cotta ornament dropped from one of the upper | ‘ i and most of all me ind women the motives that move them to action, To mo human life is one endless, ab- sorbing drama, and the writing of & Play represents no more nor fess than Ufting out of this life-drama @ certain cross-section of it. To do this success fully and effectively one must select and reject with infinite care from the DAW O~BELASTO. aimost insuperable mass of materiale that present themselv As to what I may term the “physical writing” of my plays, this pres I can best describe by the statement that my characters themselves write oF rather dictate, thelr respective dialogue. It has for years been my babif.to work with two expert stenographers at my elbow, before whom I myself, out each successive character. If that character is @ villain I am, for time being, that villain; 1f a young girl, I am that young girl; if a bootbfhok, @ merchant prince, a woman of the streets, a murderer, @ gay young Adven- turer, a man returned from the dead, I am that person for the nonce, and out of that person's heart and brain and from that person's mouth I speak. And as I speak I portray each character, with all the necessary action or “Dist ness,” just as consclously as though I were treading the stage before one of my own audiences in one of my own theatres. After I get the germ, the idea, of a play, I think out the principal charaeter to make it suit the star, if the play in mind is to be written for @ @tmr. This is a much more simple task than writing for a stock company, as I) did when associated with the Madison Square, Wallack's and Lyceum theatres. The author of a play designed for a stock company must consider a ber of actors and invent situations that not only sult the different charact t sive each member of the cast an opportunity to stand out, whereas in splay for a star it is necessary ory to consider a single personality. In writ @ star the author {s obliged to make the subordinate characters ‘“f ‘This rule, however, has been modified in recent years in recognition he growing intelligence of theatregoers, who no longer are satisfied with a play constructed solely to display the abilities of a star, As @ matter of fact, the formula of playwriting chang ery season, Year by year the dramatist is allow ss license, His skill must Be greater than that of the “veteran dramatist,” for we have advanced with the years and no longer accept that which once seemed plausible. The new dramatist 1s forced to move far in advance of tho old, to get nearer to the truth, to the facts of life. I am always trying to {improve upon myself. I never allow myself to beco:e old-fashioned. I try to keep ahead of the times, ‘As to my methods of work, I begin by devoting an hour and a half every wenn iene | °F to reading the nowspapers in order to know what ts going on, bles. ; ‘im touch with the world, I read also the important magazines and U p é. Je, history, blography—everything that may have a bearing “a ON! alsy Mr. Jarr Gets Some New Pointers i.e serhs.tny generat seasine ts my teat stop toward waiting pire stories of the Times Building and crashed to the pavement among the crowd. In this case there was no shock whatever. Still more re- cently a section cf stone moulding mysteriously peeled off the West- ern Union Building and smashed into a thousand pieces on the side- walk. ‘Again it was a miracle nobody was killed. A very few ounces of stone rose leafs dropping from the upper decorations of one of our high buildings become as deadly es a can- non ball. Many people who have watched tons of marble being belted around « skyscraper above fifteen stories of bare steel have wondered just how secure the pinning really is. Probably we build well. Still an explanation from experts just why those stones fell from the Times and Western Union buildings and an assurance that there is no particular reason to look for more of the same might be timely and comforting. Ply wae Tune a DO WE CONVERSE? Co caret st is a lost art, according to the President of tho University of Ohio. Recent years, he declares, have made it largely a string of “felicitations delivered in the form of | platitudes interspersed with slang phrases.” | Possibly. Nevertheless in ease, flexibility, spontaneity, givo and take, getting away from preaching and monologue, modern convers.-. tion has developed along exactly the lines recommended hy famous} oa talkers in days of good talk. The best of them had shrewd notiona § of the tiresomeness of conversation as an exhibition. 1 Qne would’ hardly expect to find Macaulay, for example, who t talked a whole generation nearly to death, admitting thi Men ef great conversational power almost universally prac tice @ sort of Hvely sophistry and exaggeration which deceives \ Having mae up my mind as to the subject of my play, I spend weeks, ne for the moment doth themeelves and their auditors, @ Upon the Subject of Refinement tn fact, tm reading every:hing I can find on that subject, then try to angi the main {dea of the play, the pivot upon which the plot tums. This may) be That old tyrant of conversation, Dr. Johnson, declares flatly: HE AMON MRNE eR eee NORE RORERRERE IONS NOOR EON eOeN enmeemenenity |FOMethITas that occurs In the first act, something that happens tn the pe Si i ;, hea act, or it may not take place until the third act, I them decide upon thi There is nothing by which a man exasperates people more and harassed to be a fistic champlon.” 14nd, not having her hair on, she Fats Clara Mudridge-Smith took off five| locale, after which I find the characters that are to tell the story, I thi than by displaying @ ewperior ability or brilliancy in conversa. “Oh, if he were a prize fighter you'd} such a bump on her head Centres 4 sap) doing it,” sald Mrs, Jarr, “She| make up @ rough scenario of the story that serves as a gulde, though I eeléom tion,” They seem pleased at the time, but their envy makes know him well enough,” renarked Mrs. |ahe went out her maid didn’t need to) pute on & heavy shirt and a sweater, | follow it very far. Jarr. “Maybe he hurts himself taking | put her switch on at all; but she b@4/80 as not to get bruised; a arrived at this point I begin to construct my play. The wo: them curse him in their hearts, 4 ; and rolls by Having rk : physical e auso 1 often hear|to wear a theatre bonnet decause her the pret: becomes largely a question of patience, Ono experiment follows another, alf ii i around and] big hat wouldn't stay on by reason o' rT. Jarr was about to suggest that| leading to the climax I am secking. If the play is historical in character I It may be questioned whether our conversation to-day, though for the longest} her not being able to use hat plas/more work and less rolling would be al take the facts at hand and embody them in ech designed to be explane- $t be neither prefound nor elaborate, has not gained much in i tlme, And y r the furniture | through the bump. splendid anti-fat exercise, but feared| tory; if it deals with a legal question I consult a lawyer; if it tal d bl Mai being sho bout listen at) “Oh, don't laugh! Rolling 's grand to} the criticism might be I doct 4 so on. But when {t comes to emotional work I am ie nest b ved about when you laten at) “Oh, don't laugh! Rol ight = precipitate an| turn ‘a doctor, and 80 on. Ir plicity, sincerity, modesty God agreseniences. the alr shaft. But he {s refined, for I| take fat off. In the Highcosta Arms, | acrimonious discussion; when Mra. Jarr, | obliged to act the scene myself, to speak as T feel people would ak under The great secret of succeeding in conversation (says our ! never hear him swear or raise D!S| where Clara Mudridge-Smith lives, tno| who had gone to the nethermost part of | sim¥ar circumstances in real life. Afterward I revive the utterances as own Benjamin Frapklin) ie to admire little, to hear much; al. valoe"t | Women have rolling parties down tho) the Jarr apartments on some errand or|have been caught by my stenographers, I cannot sit down and writer am to distrust Gur Own reason and somett ne Copyright, 1912, by The Press Puviishing Co. Nonsense!" suid Mr. Jarr, ‘How|wide corridor and a Mra, Digett, wife| another, came tiptoeing back and whie-| emotional scene in cold blood. ways 4 7‘ PN gees etimes that of our (The New York World), could a man all marked up that] of a rich Nevada mine owner, whom she | Pered eagerly to her husband that if he| While I have no fixed hours of work, I do most of my reading after friegds; never to pro }, but to make that of others 66 HO Is that pale, quiet man/ way, taking physical cxercises?” 1s separated from, came very near be-| desired to hear Mr. Tulkington rolling he| Midnight. It 18 usually 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning when I get to ded, ir as much as jsibly we can; to hear! Y second| "That shows all know!” retorted | ing killed on account of the elevator | should come to the air shaft When writing a play I sometimes work as many as fourteen or fifteen hoarse appear possibly 3 to what is sata that lives on tho ry t and listen, . end to anawer to the purpose. \ floor of this house? asked Mrs. Jarr, “Mrs. Stryver has beon| hoy leaving the door of the elevator} ‘I think he looks pale and thin|® day, for once I begin a scene I can't stop until it is finished, If I stopped Mr. Jarr, {‘rolling’ to take ner fat off, and twivo|shatt open, and only cfrs. Digett was] enough to be satisfled with his shape,” | for reat I might lose the temro. ‘ age geeavent , We are nearer that ideal to-day than were Johnson or Ma “Ta it the man whose wife wears that she's bumped into a rocking echatr and| so wedged in the door suggested Mr. Jarr, 11s, incidents, dialogue, come to me easily, ave learned, above aulay. | check tallormade sult with the narrow made her nosw blecd. and. once “Well, 8OMBBOD: Ise, the value of the process of ellmination, This | a ry 01 c fi 0 mac ) Nowe Ddleed d c 1 , oa] 11 else, the value o! DP 5 Is {s very necessary ‘he one great rule of modern conversation is simply: Don’t be q|dlack braid so much, the woman With soiled asain there, Zou oan. hear tho. A tn playwriting, When T reach the final curtain there s hardly a shadow ef 9, . Nobody nee ‘ |the auburn hair in Gretchen cotls OveF yade a bru “Tt must be a fine sight, to encounter | furniture bein; usbed r the original scenario left, I usually give a year to the writing of a play, | bore. It’s a good rule. , ly need be ashamed of it. Age keen |ner care and who always wears oxford| dinner plate and when she rose up she/the rolling parties. in the Ifighcosra | choking Pere A 44 rr rida Pe My advice to the beginner {s to do everything in his power to make tie t ¥rench wit put it years ago: |tles with black silk stockings, bumpedher head undernes sald Mr. Jarre. “Come and Listen. “| play reat, simple and atrect: to remember a tho time that ho te dealing with ra) jally with @ ‘run’ in them? questioned ! Mr, Jarr took Ife and that he may find it all about him, First and last he must be honéét The foot only is troublesome, A man of sense perceives Mrs, Jarr in turn. st ook his place at an open| with himself, for only by convincing himself will he be able to convince ax window overlooking the well-s! Harlem dictagraph that is mee [apartment buildings for light, ventila- tion and genera! information, Sure enough, the strangest, smothered struggling sounds were heard ema- nating from th below. when he is agreeable or tiresome, He disappears the very 2 } "ve never seen him with any red minute before he would have been thought to have stayed headed woman"—— began Mr. Sarr. foo long. “T didn't ask you who you had seen him with, Men aren't seen with the'r - own wives much these days,” Inter~ | a t eudience that what he has written {s true to life, he multiply. ‘ sd a rupted Mrs, Jarr, “But that's Mrs. a . Tulkington; and the Tulkingtons are and debt may be mentioned in Congress during Conventi “;|Jarr, “There are refined prizefighters, f J ention Week! n't there? I suppose It's foolish to mich a question, though.” , ‘Refinement is no name for tt,” he are lots of refined prize- | Copyright, 1012, by The Press Publishing Co, (The New York World), said, and he started singing “Merrily said Mr, Jarr, "But they | WwW" the aid of a perpetual smile and a little soft-soap, any woman| We Roll Along’ very refined people, What's the man trude, the Jarrs’ light-running do- HE simple plain NO MONEY, done now?" | estic, came by, grinning, Dlouse that ‘ts - “He must be an automobdlle demon ‘Theye're at it again,” she satd. finivhea with em. © THE Navy-Yards and offices have got to shut down—and per.| strator an} a very reckless driver.” TnOY ce gt a ecloted 3] who tlle me broidered collar and A replied Mr. Jarr, “He's got his arm in @ hour, She cuffs is a prett; haps the Treasury and all other departments of the National |< mins. A few’ weeks ago he hud ht always whips him—she hit him over the dainty one ey ont Government—just because Congress was too mean to pass ‘all scratched. And before that eye a ae Sores very. reaned not mean any by jati i i ' ’ nq ft h terrible mark over his eye.” 'y & lo wot | appropriation bills for maintenance! And nothing sordid like money!) “He may be a prizefighter," said Mrs, ch other, even when they are amount of lebor, This waist will be found } Pretty treated in this way or with collar and of contrasting material or with @ finish of banding on the edges. The sleeves of the slmple ones Kind that are sewed to Unless something can be started before July 1, therefore, 20,000 employees in the various Navy-Yards alone will have to be laid off, g The President says this bad housekeeping is all the fault of the) t Democrats who have been tacking riders and jokers of general legi lation on the appropriation bills. Anyhow, unless somebody dovs|*— BES ek: IBasneel Ene faa ced ube can make her pathway through life one tong, smooth, beautiful ‘ : ai toboggan slide, eam Hedgeville something pretty quick the Billion Dollar Government will be plain The Exception. The old-fashioned girt used to wait until the right man came along | the arm-holes, but the | E a i t io = three-quarter busted. tcfore getting married; the new-jashioned girl marrics first, and then ses ao i 2 SEES |waits untit the right man comes along before getting a divorce, By Joho b. Mebbie Recweg ‘ ed, The mod x lent for the plain blouse HE WAITERS’ STRIKE has come to a sad and sorry end, Now that the results of the Chicago Convention have dengnetrated to i ‘ wi Copyright, 1012, by The Ps Pyblishtng On, Generally liked and Strikes that upset public convenienee have somehow never j}women how little the vote counts for in politics, perhaps they will etop ae Noe Fork Word ‘ for material ¢ : it it in this town. bothering about the Vallot and stick to trading stamps, KE RBYNOLDS says that business een tucked or ; bit it off i | Marrs Door the enly way he can trimmed in any way ta, sult the fancy, In ¢ a _ ot make any money !s to sue some of hiv Why should matrimony interfere with one’s amusements in these nelghdors for slander, \days of selfrocking cradles, self-sufteient children, self-supporting wives, CCORDING to the Federal Census: 3 : . land self-amusing husbands? EV. FROST says that silence only are used, black on New York is the greatest manufacturing centre on earth, | ped, more golden than words beca' color 13 exceedingly } New York mostly manufactures clothing. | Alas, @ summer flirtation must end sooner or later; usuatly sooner {there 1s only about half as much of it DAS pte pein New York nextly prints and publishes, | than one of you anticipated, and later than the other one intended, arml nalsenara Gan teal Ga ane Fie, Mouse will requize: Therefore New York is the greatest, best dressed and best read | ns jen) AV doean't know any better scandal 2, 2 yards 9% or 4] | To the man tho is trying to keep up with his wife's expenses at a|than they do, but she !s able to tell it |fashionable resort, the thought that “there is no pocket in @ shroud” takea|so it wilt sound worse, Jall the sting out of death, | yards 44 inohes wi: city on earth. Pattern No. 7 fh Which didn’t need proving. ut 4 Mi fi Pattern 7493—Blouse or Shirt Waist, 34 to 44 Bust. 4 inches bust measure 38S PAFAUN 18 going to the beach this summer and try to catch a So ERE Call at THE EVENING WORLD MAY MANTON FASHION ‘ : H A young man alwoys boasts proudly of his first flirtation with @|man while he ts under the influence of Bow BURBPAU, nald Bu! etree! y # NOTHER triumph for the Suffragettes. In the namo of Votes \ widow. Later, he cones to see that it was about the easiest thing he ever| salt water. te site aoe Roeee pea ped py eee ese { é for Women the ancient and honorable profession of juggling| ‘Hot weather wilts down every. ‘7i¢t HIB doctore are afraid they will have|$ Obes New Yorks or sent by mail on receipt of ten conte im coin op Taese $2t*™Ds for each pattern ordered, ei IMPORTANT—Write your address pieiniy end always wpectty ee cheques and jumping board bills bas been invaded with brillignt| tine” wares to operate on Mr. Derks, While in i sine wanted, Add two cents for letter postage if in a hurry, “Except the thermometer mer-| las, if husbands were only like hosiery—the kind with wAICR yoUlene presence of his wile yesterday ’ 8 nie! ahaa enw a | Pan Ls Samay Pony ee | receive @ siz months “guarantee-or-eachange” ticket! cone antig, (STOO Bip allen