stage.

[2] The word _material_ in vaudeville means manuscript material.
To write vaudeville material is to write monologues and playlets
and the other forms of stage speech used in vaudeville acts.

But not only is there a vast difference between the material and
the art forms of the legitimate and the vaudeville stage, there
is also a great difference in their playing stages. The arrangements
of the vaudeville stage, its lights and scenery, are all unique,
as are even the playing spaces and mechanical equipment.

Therefore the author must know the mechanical aids peculiar to his
special craft, as well as possess a familiar knowledge of the
material that vaudeville welcomes and the unique forms into which
that material must be cast.

4. What Chance Has the Beginner?

The "gentle reader" who has read thus far certainly has not been
deterred by the emphasis--not undue emphasis, by the way--placed
on the value of proved ability in other forms of writing to one
who would write for vaudeville. That he has not been discouraged
by what has been said--if he is a novice--proves that he is not
easily downcast. If he has been discouraged--even if he has read
this far simply from curiosity--proves that he is precisely the
person who should not waste his time trying to write for vaudeville.
Such a person is one who ought to ponder his lack of fitness for
the work in hand and turn all his energies into his own business.
Many a good clerk, it has been truly said, has been wasted in a