Variety (January 1961)

266 LEGITIMATE Fijly-fifth Pj&RIETTY Anniversary January 4, 1961 PUTTING THE CARTE BLANCHE BEFORE THE HORS D'OEUVRES By GERARI) WILLEM VAN LOON Never have so few owed so much to so many. "Where would our handful of theatrical producers be were it not for the hundreds of gloriously crazy girls and boys who gravitate tow ai ds Broadway each year’? What a debt our theatre owes to the foolhardy courage, the absurd tenacity of these youngsters who willingly risk homesickness, humil¬ iation and starvation m order to gain a foothold in the least “se¬ cure'’ of all professions. This never ending ilow of self-propelled egos is as much a natural resource as our tiinberland but, while our for¬ ests are shrinking, this glut of masochistic hopefuls is steadily in¬ creasing. Looking over the many new facts in the ever-expanding play¬ ers' guides I find myself wonder¬ ing. .however, how many of these Always Goad Country For Legit Repertory Scotland Now Frets Edinburgh. ments while making gratuitous j Setting up of new civic theatres reference to Marilyn Monroe. .in Glasgow', Edinburgh and Dundee How to call an agent, director ’is advocated by the Arts Council or producer by his first name on 0f Great Britain as a means of savfiirst meetmg. . . mg the repertory movement in How to arrive at auditions with ^ , ,, , . . out a comb in Hour pocket. thosa cltles Every effort ,hey state How to leave no doubt in any ,m ‘helr annuaI rcPort' should be one’s mind exactly ivhat you think made to persuade the Government of the talent of your contempora¬ ries. How to keep your aaent inter¬ ested, by calling him at home to tell him what your psychoanalyst just told you. How to be seen at Sardi's in a sweatshirt. and local authorities to accept this view'. The report describes as the most disturbing feature of the 1959-60 season in Scotland the "very' se¬ rious decline in audiences” at the four repertory theatres — the Gate Thriving Amateur and Semi-Pro Theatres Boon To Dramatists By F. ANDREW LESLIE To those who are consumed with gloom and despair about the state of the American Theatre, one must point out a very reassuring and hopeful fact. There is, believe it or not, a theatre “boom” in the U.S.A., a lively, thriving market which eagerly snaps up all that Broadway can supply — and Guild, led by Sidney Howard, met with a group of leading play agents to w'ork out the ways and means of combining their efforts to serve the w’riter in this growing field. The Dramatists Play Service re¬ sulted, and its assigned tasks is to publish inexpensive, acting edi¬ tions of the plays it would repre¬ sent, and collect astipulated roy¬ alty for each amateur perform tor in order to prove your integrity kids have .approached the concept as an actor. of an acting career with the same sort of realism required to become j a doctor, an engineer or a lawyer? ! If so. what did they do about it? They may have studied speech and learned to articulate. They may j have taken up dancing or fencing : and learned how to move. They How to use all the four-letter way, Edinburgh, the Citizens’, words in the language when ad ! Glasgow, Perth Repertory Theatre, dressing secretaries or anyone who and Dunde-e Hepertory Theatre. can t answer back. I r men . T j . . . . . I In 1959 the average weekly de How to take a poke at the direc . crease -n number of seats sold was j tres, and perhaps a like amount of W?*™* Theatre and m at I ~ breathes continued life into plays J ance. A uniform contract was which New York has long since ‘ drawn up guaranteeing equal treat _ . _ , . , _ , .. rp. . . .. . ment to all properties, and assur consigned to obscurity. This is the , jng ,he dl.am£tis? of th’ maJor por_ non-professional theatre in Amer j tion of any royalties which his iea, a force which is still growing 1 work might generate. Howard so energetically that it defies at ! Lindsay was elected president — a tempts to analyze it in terms of post which he still holds— and the board of directors of the Service breadth and number. By last count there were some j 5.000 community and “little” thea How to keep switching agents. How to show how much in de¬ mand you are by having an un¬ listed telephone number. How to patronize stage-managers. How to hold up rehearsals by fell by 12rc of the previous year’s ; ^0Up!!‘ the Gateway, Edinburgh. In 1960 audiences at the Dundee Theatre average, while Glasgow' Citizens’ Theatre showed a decrease of 9fc in attendances of their plays. Position at Glasgow Citizens’ disputing the director's suggestions .Theatre was, however, obscured by may have poured over books on in the light of what learned jibout the enormous success of its Christ“stagecraft” — long on theory but short on practical know-how — and thev may have taken courses in acting technique. Does any of this really give them a sound idea what they will be up against once they hit the inhospit¬ able pavement of Times Square? Will anyone have taught them how to walk in off the street and read for a part, how to dress for an the horse and throw their weight audition and, above all, how to arm,nfl hpfm-p tfipvVp lpamoH 'inner motivation ' at Drama mas revue, which played to eapacSchool. ity houses for eleven weeks as Now to convince the folks back against an eight-week run for a home that you decided to give similar revue in 1958-59. IS ! ackZ^Mc^ bCCtfi‘S<! 01 I RpP°rt *«««»* «*»» mor. young its ack of el tic. ' people must be attracted to the As +'6fS^1(1’ 1 an) theatre via "new and exciting plays f°lng 1° out address of on serious themes.” this school where these girls and boys learn to put the cart before Triple this total and you have a fair idea of the additional market offered by high schools, private schools, clubs, church groups, the armed forces, hospitals, was, and is, composed of the most successful and dedicated drama¬ tists and agents. As the list of plays represented, by the Service grew, so did its peripheral contri¬ butions to the field — in the form of window cards, publicity kits, advertising displays, and sound ef¬ fects records— all calculated to air comport themselves as human beings? I doubt it. This they will have to pick up as best they can by agonizing trial and untold error. As a result, many of them never learn it until their faces have faded, their courage has leached away, and they have been forced by economic necessity to retire from the field and give the whole thing up as a bad job. There are those, of course, who have withdrawn with honor, pre¬ ferring matrimony and suburbia to the precarious compensations of a ‘‘career.” There are those who realize, quite sanguinely, that the day the fates gave out the fascinat¬ ing personalities they just didn’t happen to be around or that what seemed like seering talent in the high school production of “Our Town” washed out under the The one-act plays of John Moraround before they’ve learned how . timer, N. F. Simpson and Harold to walk across the stage. When I Pinter, due Jan. 18 at the Arts, do. I’m going to pass it along — to will be staged under the apt, genthe Sunday Bomber. i eric title of “Three.” and even penal institutions — all ■ amateur production and show the giving credibility to the estimate | way to ever improving standards, that better than 100,000.000 Amer \ The “experiment” now keeps its icans attend more than 500.000 , records in black ink. but the reaamateur producions in his counry, ; sons for its existence have never each year. Add in Canada, and the i changed. The idea was, and re¬ rest of the free world and you have : mains, that of establishing a a prospect which should elevate : healthy competition— to benefit the the spirits of even the most nega ' playwright and to stimulate the tive observer of the theatre scene. The Dramatists Play Service is attuned to this flourishing phe¬ nomenon, particularly so in view’ of the fact that the dramatist has been able to reap his fair share of the income which this vast mar¬ ket produces. This was the phi¬ losophy behind its creation in 1936, when members of the Dramatists German Legit’s Biggest Headache: Scarcity Of Contemporary Playwrights By HANS HOEHN indeed one, If not the most signif-!have to worry about financial reicant fact about Germany’s legit turns.today. This is the more remarkable Weak Critics aS^GfImaKny„iS !tiU l,he f(°Un.tr2 Parenthetically, the majority ot Saee iGermln drama critics are not espe ean point to Tennessee Williams^ atrfs have no money troubles The j <““**“* ! lro°m TKb Arthur Miller or William Inge. But; bulk of this country's theatres is, ! £“.• .Wfliis cket stSine methbd w hat do the Germans have to show? , if not in State or municipal hands, i has^esulted in sori of a nonchalant . One of the most surprising facts . more or less generously supported | ?t*St”de on'thS part of both riheaWe I.crnvprpfi hv fnrpionBrs «-hn nnmo heir cnhci/lioc Alcn thorn ic nn fillllUQe On me pari 01 DOU1 mpaire Berlin. The French boast of Sartre, Anouilh and Ionesco, the British have such clever writers as Os¬ borne and Rattigan, the Americans brighter lights of Broadway. But di$^'ered b> foreigners who come by subsidies. Also, there is no lack djrectors and customers. there are also those who have been dropped bv the wayside land some to Germany is the paucity of con ; of customers. ' i t temporary playwrights. iFrederick j Full houses are a common sight, ^ni T mediocre’ production, this is of them have even been prema Duerrematt, the most successful and, by percentages, Germany is }iardjy ever tbe case jn Germany, turelv ‘Marred" for a season’., for German-language playwright, is of probably the country that has the ! Desp^^oor reviews, even a sub couise, Swiss.) What German plays most loyal theatre-going public. t^dPdU ’ ni a are performed, are mostly of el as One has to add, however, that sub , £h critics of course are sical calibre. On the other hand, scription associations play a big LwLov’that tvpe has so little i li¬ the German theatres favor very role in Germany. So the people go ; XenPcf out Xhe modern pieces by French, English to the theatre no matter if the re hpunfii and American playwrights spective play has been acclaimed ' ’£2, The nearly complete absence of by the press or not. Even a medi contemporary German writers is ocre play or a poor cast doesn’t that saddest of all reasons — they were a pain in the neck to have around! In an article in the N. Y. Sunday Times magazine section of Oct. 23, I960, the eminent English director Tyrone Guthrie put the case very succinctly when he wrote: . . . “In the theatre, the pressure of com¬ pel !t;on is ,c(> great that no one. ? not even the most eminent, dare for ; long h* have in an undiciplined, [ up; oop' rafive way. As soon as So j and-So becomes more trouble than j h< . or -he. is worth, that yerv ; mrr.ute So-and-So is through, and j usually f<.r ever.” ‘Methods’ — Typed? j Along with everything else in j ti ls t omit i’v. the behavior ot these j ur« u.rh \able girls and boys has beef mo standardized, it leads mo to suppose that they have all ' taker the sime courses at exactly the ue school. The exact ioea1:<n rl Phis institution is as cliffi(■’it to pin down as Damon Run>< famous Heating crap-game but I ; m su-e. to judge by the inin .the alumnae it annually tuiov; ftu. rhoie is a little man go¬ ing nn ; rd down Broadway hand¬ in'.' out Hu address. Some day I hope 4r spot him and track him to lio bur. There, oyer the door, I o.uct v see. in neon-lettering, SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUD¬ IES PC AC’TIXG-UP. . On f uTcting. I will he handed a P*’< '»'< » tus. ri acling: What do the Lon? ’nave that you haven’t got? Turning the page. I won’t find the onr-wo: d answer. “Genius.” hut I will !ind a detailed list of the ccuim s o! fared. To wit: lb u' To be taken for an actress iri-’-f ::f j r:if trying — to act. Hr c to yiiow un late for ap.polnt market, while giving all plays an opportunity to realize their full potential on an equitable basis. Fancy Take The results are notable. The Dramatists Play Service now’ dis¬ tributes better than 40.000 catalogs each year to all parts of the world, and its gross billings are edging toward the $1,000,000 mark. Many plays on its list have earned in excess of $100,000 and one, has gone beyond the ever-popular "You Can’t Take It With You” 'by Kaufman & Hart. S250.000— all from amateur productions. Best of all. the Service has had the satisfaction of achieving its announced goals. It lias protected dramatists from the danger of let¬ ting their wox%k go for too little; it has guaranteed them the largest possible share in income earned from the amateur field: and it has stimulated the growth and activity of the market itself. Over the years the non-profes¬ sional theatre has risen to its chal¬ lenge, and while touring produc¬ tions dwindled and stock compa¬ nies shuttered their doors, it re¬ affirmed the fact that there is a great need for “living” theatre in America, and the imaginative drive necessary to sustain this. Selfcreated, autonomous groups , formed and flourished, building ' theatres of professional quality, pioneering new techniques in pro¬ duction and stagecraft, and pre, senting the plays they clio^e to present — Broadway .successes and failures alike. Out of th:s has come Season's Greetings PAUL FORD In “A THURBER CARNIVAL" if theatres had cause to fear the critics. One of the few’ new German au vastly increased and intellect professional “cousin” a financial boost. It has also shown that its standards are high — and still mov¬ ing higher. It’s difficult to predict what lies ahead, but one thing would seem to be certain. This L that the ama¬ teur theatre in America will go on expanding, and treating much pleasure, and excitement, as it does so. Ti'.e possibilities can only be encouraging, to all who love the theatre, to all win pour ihoir en¬ ergies into it. and. most important of all. to the No. 1 figure himself — the playwright. is Karl Wittlinger. His piece, “Do . Jfc The l"3'1? stirrert Iheatrc-eoing public., past season. But one suspects that Tlu\ an.a-.eur tmatie has gnen its theatres liked his piece partly be¬ cause it only employs two persons — it is therefore easy to perform, convenient and inexpensive to produce. Artistically. Wittlinger is not yet the playwright this country has been searching for. Ilis latest play, “Two Left — Two Right,” suggests that his abilities are limited. Foreign observers often wonder why it is that postwar Germany has no Zuckmayer or Bertolt Brecht. After all. this country teems with interesting and human¬ ly touching problems as a rcMilt of the war. Some reasons may be given: The majority of ucic Gcr-mm writers dedicate themselves to old and overworked thci ,cs. Their creations may be. a: least in some eases, good c-o >gh ftvr home consumption but rlu ir inter¬ national appeal is practically : cm. Also , formerly authors c<--r( ti¬ trated on the theatre because there were jew other media of ex pn ssion. Today, there are loo ma-ty possibilities: Films, radio, tr.’< vi¬ sion. etc. Authors dabble in tco many things. There's no denying the fart that it’s easier to make money via such media as film or tv. London Critics’ Score London. Ull ’ It) The folloirhut u f1 of the (rd.cal n-.iH Lo don ( r.c nine : The Duchess of Maffi, Aldwyeh Theatre: ( ir. lit faver: b e 'Beuticy, Pictorial: Lt vin. F.\pHc'-: J. Le wis, Reynolds: ..MuFer. A : . i i ; Nathan. Herald; Shepherd. People: un¬ signed Times; V.’c r-lry. Financial Times \. four yes-ant'.-no i Darlingion. Telegraph: lb ne Wallace, Guardian: Richard^. .Mirror: T>nan, Observer) and five pans i Barker, E. News; Conway, Sketch; Hobson, S. Times; F. Lewis. Dispatch; Sliulnian. E; Standard'.