Actorviews (1923)

76 Actorviews no other way. I told ’em I’d found my own ideas to be all wrong according to all the books, and I told ’em I couldn’t remember what I’d read in the books — I’m not so quick on the memory as I used to be when I was a young fellow in stock. I told ’em the truth — that is, part of it.” “Which part did you leave out?” “I left out the real thing. They didn’t want the real thing. I left out the very important but unromantic financial part. I talked only of my Art. I didn’t tell ’em how my greatest problem in writing The First Year’ had been to keep the darned thing in two sets of scenery. Scenery costs money, and a playwright in speaking of his Art is not supposed to think of money.” “How’d the lecture go, Frank?” “It might have been worse — very little — and it might have been better — very much. You see, there was a woman in the first row taking notes. And every time her pencil’d begin to fly I’d think to myself, ‘What did I say then?’ So between thinking back and trying to think ahead I didn’t make much progress.” “Did you ever succeed in writing a play for one set of scenery?” “Yes — finally — with ‘Spite Corner.’ There’s only one set in that now. But I didn’t waste any money. The two sets we used for the out-of-town try-out were old stuff. Of course, Johnny Golden gave me carte blanche — but, somehow, I can’t bear to spend even a manager’s money till I know whether people wanted the play. We took an old interior set, and to make it look like a country dressmaking shop wre put shelves on the walls and loaded ’em with paper boxes and notions. And then, after that try-out, we walked out of town, leaving the whole ‘production’ in the little local thea