Writing For The Stage
PEOPLE would be astonished if they were aware of the cart-loads of trash
which are annually offered to the director of a London theatre. The very
first manuscript (says George Colman) which was proposed to me for
representation, on my undertaking theatrical management, was from a
nautical gentleman, on a nautical subject; the piece was of a tragic
description, and in five acts; during the principal scenes of which the
hero of the drama declaimed from the main-mast of a man-of-war,
without once descending from his position!
A tragedy was offered to Mr. Macready, or Mr. Webster, in thirty acts.
The subject was the history of Poland, and the author proposed to have
five acts played a night, so that the whole could be gone through in a
week.