Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5806] [Yes,
we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This
file was first posted on September 4, 2002]
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** Start of the project gutenberg
EBOOK, the pot boiler ***
This eBook was produced by Charles Aldarondo and the
Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.
Will ............................. The author
Peggy ................Joint author and critic
Bill ..................... Their son (aged 8)
Dad ............................ Will’s father
Schmidt......................... The grocer
The Policeman.
The Landlady.
Characters in the “Play-play”
Jack ........................ The adventurer
Bob ............................. His cousin
Dad .............................. His father
Jessie.............................. His sister
Gladys .......................... His fiancee
Belle ............................. A waitress
Dolly ............................. Her sister
Bill .........................A street gamin
Schmidt ................ A restaurant keeper
The Policeman.
The Landlady.
A snow shoveller.
A butler.
Note: The characters of Dad, Bill, Schmidt, the
Landlady and the Policeman are the same in the Real
and the Play-play. The character of Jack is played
by Will, and that of Belle by Peggy.
Scene.—A transparent curtain of
net extends across the stage from right to left, about
six feet back of the foot-lights. Throughout
the text, what goes on in front of this curtain is
referred to as the Real-play; what goes on behind
the curtain is the Play-play. Upon the sides
of the curtain, Right and Left, is painted a representation
of an attic room in a tenement house. The curtain
becomes thin, practically nothing at center, so the
audience sees the main action of the Play-play clearly.
At Right in the Real-play is a window opening on a
fire-escape, and in front of the window a cot where
the child sleeps. At Left in the Real-play is
a window, an entrance door, a flat-topped desk and
two chairs. This setting of the Real-play remains
unchanged throughout the four acts.
