Dramatic Technique Part 75

[Diagram of setting]

SCENE. _The piazza of a mountain boarding-house. R, practicable door.

L, practicable window. C, practicable step. On the piazza are a number of chairs. The bit of lawn in front is not too well kept._

_Characters_

_Mr. Jones ordinary, well-educated people.

Mrs. Jones / Major Halkit, retired business man, interested in stock companies.

Mrs. Halkit, his wife, an old gossip, prim and censorious.

Mr. Brede young, handsome, "nice."

Mrs. Brede / Jacobus, Yankee boarding-house keeper_.

_Brede and Jones come from the house and discuss the view from the piazza. Brede is enthusiastic and compares it with that from the Matterhorn. Mrs. Brede and Mrs. Jones come from the house in time to hear "Matterhorn" and Mrs. Brede expresses surprise that her husband has climbed it. Mr. Brede, confused, says it was five years ago, and Mrs. Brede gently chides him for doing such a thing during the first year of their marriage. Mr. Jones and Mrs. Brede talk aside while Mr.

Brede explains to Mrs. Jones that he had left his wife in New York some months after their marriage for a hasty trip to Europe and had climbed the Matterhorn then._

_Mr. and Mrs. Brede go down the side steps and off at R.C. for a stroll. Mr. and Mrs. Jones discuss them, and decide that they are very "nice" people. During their talk it develops that while Mr. Brede had been telling Mr. Jones that Mrs. Brede had been in this country when he climbed the Matterhorn, Mrs. Brede had informed Mrs. Jones that her husband had left her at Geneva and afterwards taken her to Basle, where their first child was born._

_At this point Mrs. Halkit comes from the house. She censures Mrs.

Brede for not knowing how to care for her husband and children and it comes out that Mrs. Brede has told Mrs. Halkit that they have two children who have been left with her aunt, whereas Mr. Brede has told Mr. Jones that they have three children at present under the care of his mother-in-law._

_Enter Major Halkit from the house. He criticises Mr. Brede, who purports to be looking for a business opening, for his failure to take a fine chance the Major has pointed out to him._

_The party come to the conclusion that there is something queer about the couple and are about to call Jacobus when he appears, coming from the left. Before any of the boarders have a chance to speak, Jacobus asks some question about the numbering of streets in New York and the fact is brought out that Mr. Brede told Mrs. Jacobus, when he was engaging the room, that he lived at number thirty-four of his street, and that the day before Mrs. Brede had informed Mrs. Jacobus that their number was thirty-five...._

A reader struggling through the paragraphs of this scenario finds very little that is dramatic because the dramatic values the writer feels in his sentences cannot be the reader's till he learns that Mr. and Mrs.

Brede are a newly married couple who wish to conceal the fact. Re-read the quotation with that in mind and all confusion disappears.

On the other hand, it is not always easy to convey needed preliminary exposition interestingly. When much is needed, there is always danger that the opening of the scenario will be talky and referential rather than definite and full of dramatic action. The following is by no means as bad an example as might be found of a slow opening caused by need for much historical exposition, but it certainly lacks gripping action:

SCENARIO OF CONISTON

_When the curtain is raised, Millicent Skinner is working about; a second later Chester Perkins comes slinking in, looking back as though pursued by the Evil One, and close on his heels, another local politician, Mr. Dodd, of the Brampton prudential school committee, enters with the same stealthy and hara.s.sed air. Millicent twits them with having run away from Bijah Bixby who is at Jonah Winch's store.

They deny that they are afraid of Bije or any one. It is brought out in a sentence or two that Jethro Ba.s.s, Cynthia and Ephraim Prescott are away on their Washington trip, and that Bijah, knowing of Jethro's absence, is not likely to come here, which is why the two men have chosen the yard for a refuge; as they have been planning petty treason against the political control of the town by Jethro Ba.s.s. Millicent laughs at them and goes in the house. Mr. Dodd and Chester recover their swagger and begin to discuss Bijah and his sneaking ways. Bob Worthington enters, goes to the porch and calls Millicent. She responds from a nearby window. He enquires when she expects Cynthia to return. She tells him they will be here today. Bob announces that he will return, a little later, and goes out. Chester and Dodd discuss Bob's attention to Cynthia and how furious the elder Worthington will be if his son marries the ward of Jethro Ba.s.s. Then they drift back to their first topic and are soon absorbed in their wordy revolt against Jethro Ba.s.s and Bijah._

_Chester._ This town's tired of puttin' up with a king!

(_Behind them Bijah enters silently and stands at their elbows unperceived._)

_Bijah._ Leetle early for campaignin', Chester, leetle early.

(_The other two stand aghast._)

_The scene which follows between the three men gives their characters, the Coniston political atmosphere, Jethro's position as boss of the State and his character, the c.u.mulating antagonism between Jethro Ba.s.s and Isaac Worthington, the relation between Jethro and Cynthia, his ward. Bijah confides to the two that a new era is dawning; that "the railroads, represented by Worthington, Sr., are tired of paying tribute" to Jethro and are about to turn and exterminate him. Bixby says that Jethro's power is gone, that a greater than he has risen, that Isaac Worthington's campaign, brought forth under cover of a great reform movement, will sweep the State in the next few months and leave Jethro politically dead. Bijah brings out a copy of the last issue of the Newcastle Guardian (leading newspaper of the State), and reads them "The scathing arraignment of Jethro Ba.s.s ... showing how he had debauched his own town of Coniston; how, enlarging on the same methods, he had gradually extended his grip over the county and finally over the State; how he had bought and sold men for his own power and profit, deceived those who had trusted him, corrupted governors and legislators ... how he had trafficked ruthlessly in the enterprises of the people." Bijah tells them that the whole State is in a stir over this article, that it is the open declaration of war against Jethro._

_Here Alva Hopkins and his daughter Ca.s.sandra enter. Hopkins has read the article and come post-haste to see Jethro. He and Bijah discuss the situation and Bijah tells them that the postmastership which Jethro has promised to Ephraim Prescott (and which it is surmised they have gone to Washington to secure) is to go to Dave Wheelock; that that will be the first tangible sign to the public of the fall of Jethro Ba.s.s...._

The cardinal principle in scenario writing, as in the play itself, is that not talk but action is basal. In a scenario, however, action is described rather than represented. As we have just seen, the lengthy historical account of what lies behind the opening scene is hard to convey without talkiness. Many would-be dramatists dodge this difficulty, indeed the whole task of making clear the emotional significance of the action which the play involves, by writing scenarios which are little more than schedules of the entrances and exits of their characters. There was something of this in the "Coniston" scenario. The difficulty is still more marked in the following:

THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR

SCENE: _The Maletroit Entrance-Hall_

[Diagram of Setting]

_Characters_

_A Priest.

The Sire de Maletroit.

Blanche de Maletroit, his niece.

Denis de Beaulieu.

Retainer._

_Discovered, Retainer finishing work on the door, C. Enter Priest, L.U.E. Slight exposition suggesting that a trap is being set for a girl's gallant. Exit Priest. Enter R.U.E. the Sire. Commends the workman's results, increasing the suspense regarding purpose. Rope outside window R, examined without explanation. Retainer, questioned as to news in the town, remarks the presence of a dare-devil young French soldier under safe-conduct who is likely to get into trouble with the troops quartered in town, unless he keeps a civil tongue in his head. Retainer dismissed R, with suggestion that he understands what is expected of him._

_The Sire calls Priest, questions him regarding Blanche, furthering the exposition._

_Blanche enters, dressed as bride, and bursts forth in troubled questions as to the meaning of her uncle's orders regarding her appearance at this hour in such costume. The cause is hinted at as an intrigue, and Blanche is ordered to retire and wait in the chapel._

_The Sire indicates that the hour is approaching for the "arrival" and the lights are extinguished._

As has been pointed out already,[10] entrances and exits are of the slightest possible consequence except when they count in characterization or dramatic action. It is what takes place for the characters between an entrance and exit which a scenario must bring out as briefly yet clearly as possible.

This fault of over-emphasizing entrances and exits is closely related to the "referential" treatment of possible dramatic material. The method for this is: "Mr. and Mrs. Brown enter and talk pa.s.sionately about their future." "Anne and Sarah now have a tempestuous scene in which Anne discloses to the full her agony." Such scenario writing is all too easy, for the value of the scenario, like the value of the play, will depend upon the ability of the author to make the first scene pa.s.sionate and the second tempestuous and agonizing. A scenario which constantly states that at a given point something of interest will be done or a very powerful scene dealing with the emotions of one or more of the characters will be written is both useless and exasperating. n.o.body wants to buy such a dramatic "pig in a poke." Compare a referential scenario, the first of the three which follow, with the other two. They may, as parts of scenarios, have faults, but at least they move, not by references to "sarcasm, a horror that transfixes, violent threats,"

etc., but by definitely roused emotional interest.

THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR

[Diagram of Setting]

SCENE. _A baronial apartment in heavy polished stone. At the back a large doorway hung with rich tapestry leads to a small chapel. At the right are two doors also with tapestry. In the left back corner is a huge fireplace carved with the arms of the Maletroits. At the left is a large open window looking over the parapets of the castle. A heavy table and a chair or two are all the furnishings_.

_Place: Chateau Landon.

Time: Fourteenth Century._

_Dramatis Personae_

_Blanche, orphan niece of Sire de Maletroit.

A Priest, chaplain to Sire de Maletroit.

Sire de Maletroit.

Denis de Beaulieu, a stranger._

_As the curtain rises Blanche is seen in the chapel kneeling as the priest is finishing the chanting of the vesper service. At the close she rises and walks toward the window, glancing hastily about to see that no one is in the room. As soon as the priest has left she draws from her breast a letter which she starts to read. She is soon interrupted by the entrance of her uncle the Sire de Maletroit, whose keen glance detects her hasty crumpling of the note which she has not had time to conceal. He greets her jovially and starts to walk hand in hand with her. Forcing open her hand, he finds the note, which he reads in a bitterly sarcastic tone, while Blanche stands transfixed with horror. It is a note asking her to leave the house door open at midnight so that the writer may enter and exchange words with her on the stairs. With cold sarcasm, ill concealing his rage, the Sire forces from her the story that a young captain has met her in church and given her the note. She denies that she knows his name, and the most violent threats will not induce her to tell it. She is then sent to her room to dress in sackcloth of repentance and told to prepare to spend the night in the chapel._

THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR