The billboard (Sept 1910)

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The editor oaa not nndeitalM to tetimi nnsolicited nuuraseri^t; oonaspsndeats sliOBid PANNING THE PANNER There is a tradition that on tiie occasion of the pro- duction of a play by Charles Lamb, the author himself stood up in the jttt £^ Eteice is invaJhrCMi a question of ethics. pro(3ucers had stag^^ the play in good faith, and not evieii the author, whose thought and effort had gone into its literary construction, was justified in iiondemiung it from a persons^ pcant of View. In this case as in all similar cases, the author should have con- stituted himself in mind, as he was physically, a p'£^ of the audience. /The first person singular, when he is identified, and when the ppinion is professedly one per&on point iof view, is sometimes justified, but only is it justified, whien it is tagged and. labeled as the opinion of one person, based upon his judgment, f allacipus as it may be, biased, sub- ject to the petty nuancra of favor or disapproval, incul- cated by relative narrown^ or extent of- education and habit of thought. It is the policy of a good naany of our American news- papers to print dramatic criticisms without identifying their author. When a criticism does not bear a ^gnatm%, it naturally is understood to be the editorial opinion of that organ, and its effect is weak or strong, favorable or deterrent to the production reviewed in ratio to the pop- ularity or disfavor, extensiveness or smallness of the circulation of that medium in which it is printed. On the other hand a signed criticism, is taken for granted to be' the single opinion of its author, without deference to the mental attitude of the theatre-going public. Opinions differ, and there is a corresponding difference in the perfunctory criticism of the paid reviewer and of the theatre-goer who attends the performance for amuse- ment, for recreation, or for study of its literary and technical qualities.- That is why the dramatic reporter, identified with a newspaper should be instructed by his chief of staff to extol or deprecate the merits or shortcomings of a. the- .airieal. performance from the point of view manifested by the auiience in attendance. The single exception to this rule, should be in cases where the critic has attained to that proniinence that the attachment of his name to the soiicle is mj^ficant of personal opinion. Insurgency is the order of the day, in National poli- tics, in civics, economics, etc., but insurgency is only possible as an agent of thie pubUc.as a whole. Therefore insurgency is impossible aait applies to dramatic critidsm< No dramatic critic per se is ever justified in assuniing the position of leadership. His views must essentially be of the people's ideas. It is true that he may, without i^tism, sui^^ the fallacy of pqpul^ opinion as he sees it, in wMch case his views are always postulated as his own> and ho one ever mistakes them ^ be Jrtbfiections of those of the people as a whole. ' : Again, a dramatic critic, as the critic in any other line of literature, is an analyst rather than a builder. He is a follower rather than a leader. In most instmices he sinks to the: insi^ficance of a parasite living off the crea- tive work of his superiors, eaaiiing^^h^ ments upon what these original creators have produced. He is only useful when his skill as a writer (though it must essentially be inferior to that of the man whose work he is roAiewing,) is called into service for the pur- pose of telling prospective audiences what an actual and representative audience thinks of a play. In reality he is not paid for voicing his own opinioti, and his own opinion shoiild be kepit in the bacl^round, and, as far as possible^ thoroughly obscured. ■ The critic who reviews every play from a personal point of view is an error and an anachronism. Most theatre-goers are such from a desire for amusement, rec- reation from the cares of life, for respite from the exac- tions of biKiness. The dramatic critic who reviews every play from one standard of intellectuality is fallacy per- sonified. More than that, he is a living abuse of popular judgment. He exists on ia; false 1±«ory1md^ existence is by reason of this fact ah abomination. When the newspapers of America adjust their editorial policies so that the dramatic reviewer's department will be made up of a; careful report of the public attitude to- wards specific productions there shall ha,ve been accom- plished a great advance in journalism; for after all the reviewer of the drama is a reporter, and his efforts should be confined to reporting not only the theme of the pro- duction he is reviewing, but the sentiments towards that production manifested by the representative audience among M^ch he site;: