s not in large type on the playbill. All the
credit he gets is contained in the single line which records that the
play has been "produced" by him. Yet he has been responsible for the
entire performance--for the acting and for the costumes, for the
scenery and for the properties, for the lighting and for the incidental
music; not so much indeed for any one of these things as for the harmony
of the whole. If there has been a perfect cooerdination of all these
elements, if there have been no jarring notes, if the spirit of the play
has been brought out completely, if everything has gone right from
beginning to end, if the whole performance has moved so smoothly as to
seem spontaneous, the stage-manager deserves the highest praise for what
he has wrought unseen. Yet his sole reward is his own consciousness of
work well done, and the chance appreciation of the scanty few who may be
competent to estimate the worth of his achievement.

The "producer" of the play, the person who assumes the responsibility
for the performance in all its details, may be the dramatist himself; M.
Sardou and Mr. Belasco have shown surpassing skill in bringing forth all
that lies latent in the inert manuscripts of their plays. He may be the
actual manager of the theater; the late Augustin Daly was a
stage-manager of striking individuality. He may be the actor of the
chief part in the play; Mr. Willard and Mr. Sothern have revealed
another aspect of their talent by the artistic manner in which they have
staged both new plays and old. He may be at once author and actor and
manager, like Mr. Gillette, a past-master of this new and difficult
art. Or he may be simply a stage-manager and nothing else, a craftsman
of a new calling, not author, not actor, yet able on occasion to give
hints to playwright and to player. Here, again, is another resemblance
to the conductor, who can impose his own will on the orchestra, altho he
may not be able to play one of the instruments in it, and altho he may
be quite incapable of composing.

That the task of the stage-manager is more difficult than that of the
conductor is due to the fact that the composer has prescribed exactly
what share each instrument shall take, the conductor having this full
score in his possession; whereas the stage-manager receives from the
author only the spoken words of the play, with but summary indications
as to the gestures, the movements, the scenery, and so forth. He has not
a full score