Word: plays
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...theatre has two peculiar characteristics," he continued. "First? the big shots have little real knowledge of theatre. Second? everybody, no matter how little experience he's had, can suggest how to rewrite a play; but few people can or will tell the director or producer what to do once casting is completed...
...usually the first person to adopt a realistic attitude toward theatre, and this is the reason that theatre groups run by writers tend to last longer than any other type of theatre organization." Among theatres formerly or presently run by writers, Johnston cited the Abbey Theatre, the Provincetown Play-house, and the Poets' Theatre here in Cambridge...
...Ideally, however, this happy combination never takes place," Johnston said. "What inevitably happens is a compromise. The director never gets the ideal cast, so the play has to be tailored to fit the existing one. The great actor seldom gets the role he has talent to interpret, or even a chance to visualize the role except in terms of his own part...
Discussing thet role of the director, Johnston said, "Fifty years ago there were only actor-managers and stage-managers, but nowadays the director's business is to comment on the play. Actually most people are very quick to assimilate new ideas, except actors--who have a certain thickness of perception which prevents them from being able to comment as well as they should...
...realism in the theatre is one of the biggest illusions of all. The slice of life is no more real than melodrama, which is considered outdated. To tell the actor to go out on the stage and imagine he's wrestling with an alligator is useless except in a play such as Peter Pan, which is not in the Stanislavsky tradition...