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CHAPTER XVI 49 but it is required that you give the players and director some him of the sort of people you have, that their character sketching may be correctly done. 3. This may be accomplished by describing your personages in the cast of characters, as will presently be explained, but it is better to put the character drawing necessary into the action itself. What you write on the cast will be seen by the director and possibly by the players. What you write in your plot of action will be seen on the screen if clearly explained. You may write in the cast that Martin Grimes is a miser. You must do more than this. You must show that he is a miser. This does not mean to pattern after "The Chimes of Normandy" and show old Grimes down cellar try- ing to rob his golden eagles of their tail feathers. You can do it. Hundreds of others have. It is better, however, to get some small but suggestive bits of business that will convey the same impression and be less hackneyed. You can show him turrniiig s®me poor widow out of her home, but then you have to stop and tell all about the widow. You can show him receive the payment on a mortgage that may figure in the plot and then turning to his frugal meal of bread and water. Small but effective bits of business that convey uncon- scious suggestion are to be preferred to scenes that obviously have no other purpose than to establish character. Do not drag Grimes into a scene and virtually say "Look at this man. He is Grimes. He is a miser." Let the spectator deduce the fact that Grimes ii a miser, and while he marvels at his own cleverness he will be willing to admit that the play is good. 4. Perhaps your heroine is a hoyden. To show that she is it is not required that the first five or six scenes shall be wasted to show her climbing trees, playing ball and throwing green apples at tlie minister's silk hat. Show her in a scene in which her character is established while the action is advanced. Perhaps she climbs a tree. The man she is to marry chances along and sits down to smoke a cigarette. He is startled when presently she comes tumbling out of the tree into his lap. If you do not use the tree perhaps she is running a race with her small brother and bumps into and knocks down the stranger. In either scene we get a double value in that we show character without seeming to do so and at the same time bring about the meeting between the protagonist and objective. 5. Character drawing, where character drawing is necessary, is of the utmost importance, but it is not necessary to offer minute details of your leads or more than briefly indicate the minor cast. If you have a maid in attendance on your heroine, and it does not matter what sort of a maid she is, say simply that she is a maid and let her be grave or gay so long as her gravity or gaiety does not conflict with the humors of the more important personages. If the maid must be sympathetic then show in action that she is. In the ap- pendix (A-3, Scene 1) it is shown that the maid is in sympathy with her mistress' feelings. It is just a momentary action, but it makes