SAYS COLLEGE MEN LIVE ON ONE STREET

"College men are living too much on one street," said Frank Craven, author of the "First Year," in which he is now acting in Boston, when questioned by a CRIMSON reporter. "And that is the only possible reason why they should not be able to write successful plays.

"You can't know life from the college yard. Young men think they are seeing "life" when they make their excursions into the world, but they are wrong. You must know life and people before you can write good plays."

Says Playwriters Need Experience

Mr. Craven was seated in his dressing room back-stage at the Hollis Theatre. He has been connected with the drama all his life. "You need experience," he continued. "You can't write plays from books. You have to live in the workshop. That's why Professor Baker's 'English 47' is so valuable. Great things will come out of that workshop, because he teaches by experience.

"In writing a play you must please yourself. Men who write plays to order are mere hacks. They cannot write good plays because they are writing for some manager and not for themselves. You must have a novel idea that you like and that holds your own interest. Then it may hold the audience.

Never Mind Critics, His Motto

"If the audience is pleased with a play, never mind the critics. They are only individuals who want to be pleased as much as the audience does, only that they are more technical. Some critics are so easily pleased that they hail the "American play" every few weeks, just as you say that William Lyon Phelps hails the Great American Novel three or four times a month.

"I once knew of a young man who came to one of the New York producers with his first play and said 'Here is a play that cannot fail. It has all the ingredients--15 per cent love interest, 20 per cent tragedy, 25 per cent action and 40 per cent comedy. It's a 100 per cent success.' He was writing from the rules of some professor at some college,--but I'm sure it wasn't at Harvard."