THIS IS A BOOK for people who wish to know something of dramatic
art. Of course, everyone knows something about it already: for
everyone has been to the movies. The habit of theater-going (if we
may follow American usage and call a cinema a theater) was never
more widespread than today. Can one, then, take cinematics as some-
thing already understood, and proceed to the question: what is the
relation of the art of the screen to that of the stage? One would have
to be very optimistic to think so. People indeed see the movies; but
are they conscious of the art that goes into them (art, good or bad)?
On the contrary we--the modern public--are more passive and imper-
ceptive during the hours we spend in the movie-theater than at any
other time during our day except when we are actually asleep. No-
body can be alert and observant all the time; we need to set aside
certain hours for inactivity, for laziness; and many of us pass these
hours--and these hours only--at the "theater."

Some say that the Hollywood movie-makers are responsible for
this situation, in that they direct their movies to the sluggish, un-
thinking, half-conscious mind. Others say that the public itself is to
blame, since it demands what the movie-makers provide. It's a vicious
circle. The upshot, insofar as it concerns us here, is that people are
no more conscious of film, which they have seen so much of, than
they are of stage drama, which they have seen so little of. Often, in-
deed, their notion of stage drama is clearer and more to the point.
What little they know, they know. If they have put on a bit of a play
at school or have seen a famous actor on tour they know the phe-
nomenon Drama and in all likelihood they have gone to meet it in
a more active spirit than that in which they go to the movies. Putting

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