The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Theory of the Theatre, by Clayton Hamilton

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Title: The Theory of the Theatre

Author: Clayton Hamilton

Release Date: October 3, 2004 [EBook #13589]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THEORY OF THE THEATRE ***

Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Linda Cantoni, and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.

_Uniform with This Volume_

Studies in Stagecraft

_By_ CLAYTON HAMILTON

_Second Printing_

CONTENT: The New Art of Making Plays. The Pictorial Stage. The Decorative
Drama. The Drama of Illusion. The Modern Art of Stage Direction. A Plea for
a New Type of Play. The Period of Pragmatism. The Undramatic Drama. The
Value of Stage Conventions. The Supernatural Drama. The Irish National
Theatre. The Personality of the Playwright. Themes and Stories of the
Stage. Plausibility in Plays. Infirmity of Purpose. Where to Begin a Play.
Continuity of Structure. Rhythm and Tempo. The Plays of Yesteryear. A New
Defense of Melodrama. The Art of the Moving-Picture Play. The One-Act Play
in America. Organizing an Audience. The Function of Dramatic Criticism.

_$1.50 net_

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

NEW YORK

THE THEORY OF THE THEATRE

AND OTHER PRINCIPLES OF DRAMATIC CRITICISM

BY

CLAYTON HAMILTON

AUTHOR OF "MATERIALS AND METHODS OF FICTION"

NEW YORK

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

_Published April, 1910_

TO

BRANDER MATTHEWS

MENTOR AND FRIEND

WHO FIRST AWAKENED MY CRITICAL INTEREST IN THE THEORY OF THE THEATRE

PREFACE

Most of the chapters which make up the present volume have already
appeared, in earlier versions, in certain magazines; and to the editors of
_The Forum_, _The North American Review_, _The Smart Set_, and _The
Bookman_, I am indebted for permission to republish such materials as I
have culled from my contributions to their pages. Though these papers were
written at different times and for different immediate circles of
subscribers, they were all designed from the outset to illustrate certain
steady central principles of dramatic criticism; and, thus collected, they
afford, I think, a consistent