SNAPSHOTS
Middleton, George
SNAPSHOTS BY GEORGE MIDDLETON THOSE who go to see a play seldom have any idea of thfc vast amount of time and trouble taken to bring the performance to life. To the casual spectator things seem to...
...That is, if an actor has made a hit in a certain type of part he is usually cast for it in the following play...
...and only melodramas or the like tend to be accepted...
...Generally they are heart-breaking affairs since, frequently, for the first time, all the lights and "offstage" noises, etc., are employed...
...I know of nothing more difficult, as the method of selection is all so unfair to the actor's art...
...Then the pendulum swings because the manager, in his frantic effort to fee...
...Plays that have .occeeded for a whole season in Chicago may lot last two weeks in New York...
...And then it is liable to fall flat...
...It is on)' after all this effort that the play is ready f-r New York...
...often it requires the most ingenious planning to obtain them...
...The rehearsals, under the director, are now under way...
...the cast may have to be altered and a hundred details to be watched to get the play running easily...
...Spacing and "timing" in the reading of lines as well as all the tricks an actor must instinctively resort to when before an audience...
...One season finds a managci afraid of a costunu play...
...Ultimately, however,' plays find their way...
...Salaries may be too high...
...These are but a few suggested questions which may arise...
...It's all very wrong...
...The main thing, for the two weeks one generally plays on the road, is to get the actors easy in their roles...
...After outline sketches come the little cardboard modelj which reproduce to scale every detail, including the furniture, etc...
...new unexpected values come out in certain scenes that only the test of an audience reveals...
...While the selection of the cast is being made, the scenery is also being planned...
...It is a terrible gamble since it is based on the most capricious of all factors -- public taste...
...All the positions, which the audience later are to see, are carefully planned out...
...After an author writes his play he must market it...
...The cigarette, the book, the bell-rope— everything that is utilized is handled on a certain "cue" so as not to interfere with the scene...
...There is very little way of predicating what ^'ill happen...
...Under this capricious method, some plays ai»-thus accepted at once and others must wait...
...The tendency has thus come to select "types...
...Here is where most of the changes are made: the script is rewritten...
...The opening performance generally takes place out of New York...
...It is this lg chance which makes playwriting such a fascnation and-despair...
...Often the author directs himself...
...Once, however, it is scheduled and the director selected, the question of a proper cast is the next vital problem...
...lines are cut or added...
...Some actresses are "too hard...
...and in addition, every "cross" on the stage as well as all the various other pieces of stage "business" are indicated by the director...
...To the casual spectator things seem to run along very smoothly...
...they laugh at the wrong times...
...or the need of peculiar personal values may impede the final selection...
...but there are many complications...
...From the author and manager's point of view it merely means that they aresure how the part will be played...
...but in the quick methods of the theater today it seems inevitable...
...Only when there are all smoothed out are plays ready for their first performance...
...Amateurs, for example, always talk THROUGH a "laugh": the professional actor always waits JILL the audience laughs before he goes on...
...The "property" man is meantime hustling to get all the properties together...
...ofteH by waiting till new fashions come into the theater...
...It would seem very easy with so many good actors available...
...and the oth'r way around...
...Often big hits on the road come -° the city and /ail dismally...
...the public's pulse, guesses that the time is again ripe for light comedies...
...All kinds of strange things happen...
...Even after the advance royalty is paid the author, all sorts of delays ensue: the difficulty of getting the right people to act, the need of the proper "booking," and all manner of irritating factors—such as the production of some other plays similar in theme and substance...
...Only, if it is bounteously bestowed, can a play any longer survive...
...The audience must play a part, too, and feel, with the girl's problem and thus sympathize with it...
...Further, the mere external physical appearance must be taken into account: there is no heroism in a six foot two hero shaking the life out of a five foot four villain...
...This is no easy task, even for those who have arrived, and many an author of standing has had difficulty in inducing a manager to invest the large amount now necessary to produce...
...The reason is because things never quite go as one expects till tried on an audience...
...Every line in the text and every movement of the actor is now carefully rehearsed...
...a plav may be too long or a situation may need building up...
...actors may not wish to tie up a long period ahead...
...It is necessary to work this out carefully for obvious reasons so that the important moments of the play will not be obscured or blurred by too much freedom of action on the part of each individual actor...
...the curtains to the acts don't "click" properly...
...A cast must be looked at as a whole: that is, if the girl is torn between two loves, the personalities of the two actors must be taken into account so that the story will be persuasive...
...but only those who have been identified with the production appreciate how much detail is involved...
...This is then built...
...And only before an .udience can these places be discovered...
...Everything that is handled on the stage, from a fan to a pistol, must be ready...
...These are full performances without an audience...
...others lack all obvious appearance of moral strength...
...All sorts of odd things are demanded by the text of the play...
...This goes on for three or four weeks till the final dress reheasals come along...
...And so it goes...
...The whole group must work together...
Vol. 19 • April 1927 • No. 4
