The L. S. D. of Playwriting

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 780, 28 September 1929, Page 26

The L. S. D. of Playwriting

PRINCELY RETURNS ROYALTIES AND PITFALLS The playwright is the plutocrat of literature. The innocent public thinks of him as an eccentric being caught by the glamour of the footlights. But where the rewards are so princely, J who would not bravely venture for such merchandise? The dramatist achieving a London production will probably receive a royalty of at least 5 per cent, on the gross takings. If the play is reason- j ably successful the takings should ! range, according to the size of the j theatre, from £1,500 to £2,000 a j week. Even in the case of less pros- . perous ventures £4O a week royalties for the author during the run of the , piece is a conservative estimate, and | even in Australia at least one author has drawn more than £IOO a week over a long period. One will probably have to allow a deduction of 10 per cent, from the author's royalties for the agent who has become an essential and most helpful director of the contract. Further, the successful playwright has in view rights for America and the Dominions, touring and translation rights and the possibility of converting his play into a novel or a film. To sell a full length play for a fixed sum is a very risky proceeding and invites mutual recrimination. Exception can be made in the case of a one-act play. Better single act plays are being written now than ever before, and the fashion for them will return. In the meantime they are considerably in request from the rapidly developing groups of repertory theatres—of which there are six hundred in theWUnited States—and the myriad amateur societies, so that many authors achieve a three-figure income from the repetition of a single one-act play. This does not, of course, compare with the profits of full-length dramas, but It is certainly not a negli-! gible consideration. In the early years of the present j century the aspiring dramatist had i

one tremendous advantage that does not now possess —he knew - mediately where to offer his ■ London. play »n Irving at the Lyceum, Tree at u Majesty's, Alexander at the *v, s ■ James’s. Bourchier at the , Wyndham at the Criterion— all | lowed set policies on settled lines, i I cidentally there were definite divi a 'i„, I for Forbes Robertson. John Hare .IS , Martin Harvey, and later the more ?? 1 tellectual entertainment provided s Vedrenne and Barker at the r n „„ Theatre. ourt An author could hardly avoid a,structing his play with one of the, D » "managements” in mind, and it «inf plifled his treatment of his theme. present there seems no settled polirv for actors or theatres; they seem r follow the caprice of the momentex cept in the case of Ben Travers whose plays are always produced at the Aldwych, and who seems to hav made that theatre his own. L But in addition to dramatic intellgence and technique, the aspiran. needs something of the persistent that led Haddou Chambers to chasv Beer boh m Tree into a Turkish bath where he insisted on reading to the nearly nude and quite helpless actor the entire MS. of "Captain Swift” He requires the patience of Alfred Sutro who hawked the “Walls of Jericho' all over London before he induced Arthur Bourchier to produce it. And he should have the confidence of Somerset Maugham, writing play after play with the prescience that when one had been accepted not only that but all the others also would be successful. In “Hold Everything,” the new musical comedy to follow “The Five O’clock Girl” at Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney, Pat and Terry Kendall will play the leading parts. They have several good comedy songs. Mary Lawson will be the sonbrette. and Alfred Frith will, it is said, have a part worthy of him. September IS will be the opening. The organisers of the Remembrance Fund for the Nellie Stewart Presentation Gift from Australian playgoers who have her enshrined in their memory proposes to take the form of a picture. What picture? Only a painting of Nellie as “Sweet Nell.” by Sir John Longstaff, would appear to cover the case. When pretty Nellie passed to her last account it could be willed to the nation that admired her. Some such proviso might be incorporated in the presentation.