The dramatist had not imagined that he would be such an extremely superfluous person in the theatre. All the work is laid upon other shoulders than his. The producer has formed his own conception as to how the play should really be produced, and finds himself in a difficulty when he sees clearly that the dramatist, with his text, is hampering his free, creative talents. For the producer visualizes an ideal play, which the dramatist, butting in quite inconveniently and harmfully with his text, often seriously threatens. So that, perhaps the best play of all would be the one without dramatist and without text, and, perhaps, without actors, too; for they also tend to threaten the success of the production. The producer’s creative work is, therefore, extremely difficult and tragic, for he struggles all the while to create something better than that which is written, acted, and produced. Thus the producer is a man under a kind of curse, doomed to plait ropes of sand. But he does not let anyone notice this fact.
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