How to See a Play Part 6

The fact that our contemporary body of drama is making the literary appeal by appearing in book form is of special bearing upon the culture of the theater-goer. Mr. H. A. Jones, the English playwright, has recently declared that he deemed this the factor above all others which should breed an enlightened att.i.tude toward the playhouse. In truth, we can hardly have a self-respecting theater without the publication of the drama therein to be seen. Printed plays mean a claim to literary pretensions. Plays become literature only when they are preserved in print. And, equally important, when the spectator may read the play before seeing it, or, better yet, having enjoyed the play in the playhouse, can study it in a book with this advantage, a process of revaluation and enforcement of effect, he will appreciate a drama in all its possibilities as in no other way. Detached from mob influence, with no confusion of play with players, he can attain that quieter, more comprehensive judgment which, coupled with the instinctive decision in the theater, combines to make a critic of him in the full sense.

For these reasons, the well wisher of the theater welcomes as most helpful and encouraging the now established habit of the prompt printing of current plays. It is no longer a reproach from the view of literature to have your play acted; it may even be that soon it will be a reproach not to have the printed play presented on the boards. The young American man of letters, like his fellow in France, may feel that a literary _debut_ is not truly made until his drama has been seen and heard, as well as read. While scholars are raking over the past with a fine-tooth comb, and publis.h.i.+ng special editions of second and third-rate dramatists of earlier times, it is a good thing that modern plays, whose only demerit may be their contemporaneity, are receiving like honor, and that the dramas of Pinero, Jones, Wilde, Shaw, Galsworthy, Synge, Yeats, Lady Gregory, Zangwill, Dusany, Houghton, Hankin, Hamilton, Sowerby, Gibson, acted British playwrights; and of Gillette, Thomas, Moody, Mackaye, Peabody, Walter, Sheldon, Tarkington, Davis, Patterson, Middleton, and Kennedy, acted American playwrights (two dozen to stand for two score and more) can be had in print for the asking. It is good testimony that we are really coming to have a living theater and not a mere academic kow-towing to by-gone altars whose sacrificial smoke has dimmed our eyes sometimes to the clear daylight of the Present.

Preparation for the use of the theater looks before and after. At home and at school the training can be under way; much happy preliminary reading and reflection introduce it. By making oneself aware of the best that has been thought and said on the subject; by becoming conversant with the history, theory and practice of the playhouse, consciously including this as part of education; and, for good citizens.h.i.+p's sake, by regarding sound theater entertainment as a need and therefore a right of the people; in a word, by taking one's play-going with good sense, trained taste and right feeling, a person finds himself becoming a broader and better human being. He will be quicker in his sympathies, more comprehensive in his outlook, and will react more satisfactorily to life in general. All this may happen, although in turning to the theater his primary purpose may be to seek amus.e.m.e.nt.

Is it a counsel of perfection to ask for this? Hardly, when so much has already occurred pointing out the better way. The civilized theater has begun to come; the prepotent influence of the audience is recognized.

Surely the gain made, and the imperfections that still exist, are stimulants to that further bettering of conditions whose familiar name is Progress.

In all considerations of the theater, it would be a good thing to allow the unfortunate word "elevate" to drop from the vocabulary. It misleads and antagonizes. It is better to say that the view presented in this book is one that wishes to make the playhouse innocently pleasant, rational, and sound as art. If by "elevate" we mean these things, well and good. But there is no reason why to elevate the stage should be to depress the box office--except a lack of understanding between the two.

Uniting in the correct view, the two should rise and fall together. In fact, touching audience, actors, playwrights, producers, and the society that is behind them all, intelligent cooperation is the open sesame. With that for a banner cry, mountains may be moved.

NOTES:

[A] A fact humorously yet keenly suggested in Bernard Shaw's clever piece, _The Dark Lady of the Sonnets_.

[B] When our theater has become thoroughly artistic, plays will not, as at present, be stretched out beyond the natural size, but will be confined to a shorter playing time and the evening filled out with a curtain raiser or after piece, as is now so common abroad.

[C] For a good discussion of this, see "The Genesis of Hamlet," by Charlton M. Lewis (Houghton, Mifflin & Company).

[D] Gordon Craig's book on _The Art of The Theatre_ may be consulted for further light upon a movement that is very significant and likely to be far-reaching in time, in its influence upon future stage and dramatic conditions.