“I maintain that the great thing, the essential thing, for a producer is to create _Illusion_ and _Effect_. The supreme object in all my work has been to get near to nature; to make my atmosphere as _real_ as possible, when I am dealing with a drama or a comedy of life. In mounting a fantastic play there is but one thing to do, and that is to be as fantastic as possible. And so, in a realist play to be as realistic as possible. And by this I mean to create the _illusion_ of reality. To do that every scene must be treated as a separate, a new, problem,--and the setting of it so as to create illusion is a problem that will never be solved by the ‘new art.’... When I set a scene representing a Child’s Restaurant how can I expect to hold the _attention_ of my audience unless I show them a scene that _looks_ real? They see it, recognize it, accept it and then, if the actors do their part, the audience forgets that it isn’t looking into a real place. In ‘Marie-Odile’ some benches, chairs, tables, a pot of carrots and a few other things, with the bare walls of the convent, were all we needed. But suppose I had tried to put ‘Adrea’ on in the same way? Let us cut our cloth to suit our pattern. Do not let us attempt to ‘suggest’ a Child’s Restaurant by setting up a counter with a coffee cup and a toothpick on it, nor try to picture the court of a Roman emperor with the same bare simplicity that answers for a lonely convent in Alsace!...” “After all, hard work, a little love, courage to go on, strength to fight the daily battle,--what more can a man ask?” [Illustration: Photograph by White. Belasco’s Collection. DAVID WARFIELD AS _VAN DER DECKEN_] APPENDIX (By J. W.) “VAN DER DECKEN.” Belasco’s romantic drama of “Van Der Decken” was first produced at The Playhouse, Wilmington, Delaware, on December 12, 1915, with David Warfield in its central character, that of _The Flying Dutchman_, and it was acted during the balance of the season of 1915-’16 on a tour which embraced Washington, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and many other cities of the Middle-western States. It has not yet been presented in New York. Belasco esteems it as in some ways his best work. Mr. Winter did not see it. The following comments on “Van Der Decken” and its representation are quoted from an article by Charles M. Bregg, a respected journalist and dramatic critic of “The Pittsburgh Gazette”: