left out, as well as in the descriptions of scenery and moods of
character that everyone knows cannot be expressed in a play by
words.

Furthermore, the playwright is working with _spoken_, not _written_,
words, therefore he must know something about the art of acting,
if he would achieve the highest success. He must know not only
how the words he writes will sound when they are spoken, but he
must also know how he can make gestures and glances take the place
of the volumes they can be made to speak.

Therefore of each one of the different arts that are fused into
the composite art of the stage, the playwright must have intimate
knowledge. Prove the truth of this statement for yourself by
selecting at random any play you have liked and inquiring into the
technical education of its author. The chances are scores to one
that the person who wrote that play has been closely connected
with the stage for years. Either he was an actor, a theatrical
press agent, a newspaper man, a professional play-reader for some
producer, or gained special knowledge of the stage through a
dramatic course at college or by continual attendance at the theatre
and behind the scenes. It is only by acquiring _special_ knowledge
of one of the most difficult of arts that anyone may hope to achieve
success.

3. A Familiar Knowledge of Vaudeville and its Special Stage Necessary

It is strange but true that a writer able to produce a successful
vaudeville playlet often writes a successful full-evening play,
but that only in rare instances do full-evening dramatists produce