allitis;" it is a mighty |
|good presentation of the "My Hero" theme |
|in actual life. Hilda Hawthorne gives us |
|some high-class ventriloquism with a good |
|puppet song that is truly wonderful. |
|There's a lot of good music, very good |
|music in the sketch executed by "The |
|Three Vagrants," as well as a lot of fun; |
|one can hardly realize what an amount of |
|melody an old accordion contains. Audrey |
|Pringle and George Whiting have a hit |
|that is sparkling with quick changes from |
|Irish love songs to bull frog croaking |
|with Italian variations. |

For the purpose of a more complete study of the subject, however, we
shall consider only dramatic criticism that is not restricted by
editorial dictum or by the requirements of paid-space. That is, we shall
imagine that we can praise or condemn or say anything we please
concerning the dramatic production which we are to report. When we look
at the subject in this way there are some positive things that may be
said about theatrical reporting, but there are many more negative rules,
that may be reduced to mere "Don'ts." The same principles hold good in
dramatic criticism that is hampered by policy, but to a less degree.

In the first place, the one thing that a dramatic reporter must have
when he begins to write his copy after the performance is some positive
idea about the play, some definite criticism, upon which to base his
whole report. It is impossible to write a coherent report from chance
jottings and to confine the report to saying "This was good; that was
bad, the other was mediocre." The critic must have a positive central
idea upon which to hang his criticism. This central idea plays the same
part in his report as the feature in a news story--it is the feature of
his report which he brings into the first sentence, to which he attaches
every item, and with which he ends his report. To secure this idea, the
reporter must watch the play closely with the purpose of crystallizing
his judgment in a single conception, thought, or impression. Sometimes
this impression comes as an inspiration, sometimes it is the result of
hard thought during or after the play. It may be concerned with the
theme of the play, the playwright's work, the lines, the stagi