Excerpt from The Play Produced, an Introduction to the Technique, of Producing Plays
I Esteem it a great privilege to write the foreword to Mr. Fernald's excellent book.
You will find, as 1 did, in reading this book, that it makes explicit many points of technique which you may have known by experience or instinct, but which you have not been able to formulate clearly. This is exactly what the producer requires, for he must have a definite and thorough knowledge of every branch of the theatre.
In every art, you must know all the rules existing before you can break them with impunity. This book, without being dogmatic, gives you most of the important rules of our day. It is the producer's business to know the "works," but he should never let the audience "see the wheels going round." Mr. Fernald very clearly shows us the "works" of a play, and its production. His analogies and similes are particularly helpful.
A play must make an instantaneous appeal. It is not like a book, where, when you have forgotten some detail, you can easily refer back to an earlier chapter ; each point must be made clear to prevent the audience's impressions becoming blurred. Mr. Fernald rightly insists on clarity and simplicity in a production. A good production looks so easy and the acting so spontaneous, that I have known quite intelligent people to be surprised that you have to rehearse a play, or that you require a producer. Indeed, the fact that there is a technique in making the audience laugh or cry is something in the nature of a fraud to them.
An actor may have all the emotion in the world and never make people cry, and a great sense of humour and never make them laugh, and so technique, the building of a scene, becomes all important.
The chapter on Form in production is of great interest, and an answer to those who think that actors can "produce" themselves.
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