Harold Macgrath

Enchantment Harold Macgrath

So much depended upon every one's utter lack of nervousness and embarrassment thatShaw, the stage manager, decided that my presence at the final rehearsal would only add tothe tension, and was therefore unnecessary. The "star" complained that her efforts tointerpret my lines to my satisfaction were wearing her thin, while the "leading man"declared that he could not enter naturally into the spirit of the comedy so long as he knew Iwas watching from across the front. To tell the truth, I was not unagreeable. There were many things I wanted to change, and Iknew that if I once got headway I should have to write the play all over; and that was not inthe contract. My room was better than my company. So Shaw gave me a card to The Playersand left me there in the care of a distinguished fellow dramatist. We had a capital dinner, and our exchange of experiences would have made a book equal inlength to Revelation. What a time a fellow has to get a manager to listen to a better playthan he has yet produced! I'm afraid that we said many uncomplimentary things aboutactors in general and managers in particular. The actor always has his own idea, themanager has his, and between them the man who wrote the play is pretty well knockedabout. But when the play is produced every one's idea proves of some use, so I find. In spite of the good dinner and the interesting conversation, I found myself glancingconstantly at my watch or at the clock, thinking that at such and such a time to-morrownight my puppets would be uttering such and such a line, perhaps as I wanted them to utterit, perhaps as they wanted to utter it. It did not matter that I had written two successfulnovels and a popular comedy; I was still subject to spells of diffidence and greenness. Muchdepended upon this second effort; it was, or it was not, to establish me in New York as aplaywright of the first order.