INTRODUCTION



THE first two or three of these "plays" (I retain
T     the word for lack of a better one) began them-
selves as short stories, but in each case I found that the
dramatic element, speech, tended to absorb the imper-
sonal element of comment and description, so that it
proved easier to go on by allowing the characters to
establish the situation themselves. As I grew conscious
of this tendency, I realized that even for the purpose
of reading it might be advantageous to render the
short story subject dramatically, since this method is,
after all, one of extreme realism, which should also
result in an increase of interest. As the series devel-
oped, however, I perceived that something more than
a new short story form was involved; I perceived that
the "read-aloud" play has a distinct character and
function of its own. In the long run, everything human
rises or falls to the level of speech. The culminating
point, even of action the most poignant or emotion the
most intimate, is where it finds the right word or phrase
by which it is translated into the lives of others. Every
literary form has always paid, even though usually un-
conscious, homage to the drama. But the drama as
achieved on the stage includes, for various reasons, only
a small portion of its own inherent possibility. Exigen-
cies of time and machinery, as well as the strong influ-
ence of custom, deny to the stage the value of themes
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