"The first law of the stage,

whether in writing a play

or playing a part, is to
convince the audience of
the truth and logic of the
work." --David Belasco
Go to.... < Enter! Actor's Equity Association, SAG, AFTRA

A Glimpse of
Theater
History

DAVID BELASCO
(1854-1931)
Regisseur, Actor, Playwright
Son of a Jewish clown who emigrated from London,
David Belasco was born and in San Francisco at a
time when that city had a growing theatre community
following the gold rush of 1849. Facing hard times as
the Gold Fever subsided, the family moved to
Victoria, British Columbia where David's mother, a
devout Roman Catholic, placed him in a monastery
school. He received an excellent education at the
monastery under the tutelage of one Father Maguire,
but young David literally ran away to join a traveling
circus where he learned bareback riding and
clowning. He wrote his first plays by the time he was
twelve: Jim Black, or The Regulator's Revenge, and The Roll of the Drum. He wrote this
latter shortly after Lincon's assassination, and it was acted a number of times outside San
Francisco. William Winter reports that even as a boy, Belasco kept writing materials by his
bed so he could write down ideas that might be useful to him in the theatre that would occur
to him at night. He goes on, "I have not encountered a person more downright daft, more
completely saturated in every fibre of his being, with passion for the Stage and things
dramatical than was young David Belasco."
As David grew into manhood, he took on more and more
responsibilities for various productions in and around San Francisco.
He acted, rewrote plays, wrote plays, and worked as "stage
manager," which we would now call a producing director. He took
roles of all sizes from Uncle Tom and Fagin to Armand Duval;
Mercutio to Hamlet. He acted in support of a whole laundry list of
traveling stars including John McCullough, Edwin Booth, E. A. Sothern, Laura Keene,
Mme. Modjeska, James O'Neill and many others.
One of the most important influences of this period was Belasco's association with the
indefatigable jack-of-all-theatrical-trades Dion Boucicault.
In the following few years he joined companies barnstorming through the mining camps. In
Virginia City, Nev., he served as secretary to Dion Boucicault, who inspired Belasco to try
playwriting again. From 1873 to 1881 he was associated with several San Francisco theaters.
His first play to attract attention was a collaborative effort with James A. Herne, Hearts of
Oak. At 29 Belasco left for New York City, having acted more than 170 roles and written or
adapted more than 100 plays.
His first position in New York was as a stage manager of the Madison Square Theater. In
1886 he became dissatisfied and joined the Frohmans as stage manager and house
playwright. In 1890 he became an independent producer; his first real success was his own
The Heart of Maryland, a melodrama inspired by the poem "Curfew Must Not Ring
Tonight." Belasco took unknowns and turned them into stars. The first of these, Leslie
Carter, had suffered through a sensational divorce. Penniless and a social outcast, she came
to Belasco, who trained her and then starred her in Maryland. It played for three seasons and
was then taken to London.
During the 1890s the Theatrical Syndicate gained control of the theatrical world and
individuals who refused to join found themselves with no theaters.
In Washington, D.C., Belasco was forced to rent the barnlike Convention Hall, leaky roof
and all, for his production of Andrea with Carter. During the fourth act there was a violent
rainstorm, and the audience observed the play from under their umbrellas. In 1902 Belasco
gained control of the Republic Theater in New York. In 1906 he began work on a new
building on West 44th Street, which eventually became the Belasco Theater. It was here that
he made some of the most lasting technical contributions to the theatrical art. Committed to
the aesthetic of naturalism, he spared no effort to make his settings and effects as true to life
and nature as possible. He particularly excelled in creating spectacular effects and in
perfecting amazing mechanical devices. His advances in realism were in technical aspects of
theater; his settings were accurate to minute detail, for rather than recreate a specific setting
he preferred to buy it and then move it on stage.On one occasion, he even bought an entire
restaurant and transported it onto his stage. He developed in his workshops new lighting
techniques and hardware that were themselves enough to draw people to his theatre. In
lighting, he pioneered the use of color silks and gelatin slides, loving to create "real" sunsets.
Also, in a day when productions were hurriedly put together, Belasco took time to perfect his
work; even his most severe critics admit a "tidiness" not often found on the American stage.
In addition to Carter, Belasco elevated David Warfield (a vaudeville entertainer), Lenore
Ulric, Frances Starr, and Blanche Bates to stardom. Most of these stars had natural ability,
but Belasco was also a master at handling publicity campaigns. Certainly Carter's past was in
part responsible for her success, but Belasco had taken an active part in in her training. The
great advocate of naturalism's views on actor training are somewhat surprising. In a Saturday
Evening Post article dated December 24, 1921, Belasco wrote, "the notion that instruction in
acting cannot be given, or rather that it cannot be received, is a mistaken one. ... It's grammar
or mechanism can ... be taught, and must be learned by all histrionic aspirants, if ever they
are to become true and worthy artists of the stage." After describing what he regarded as an
actor's fundamental attributes, he wrote, "In acting take Nature as your model-- but never fall
into the error of attempting to present Nature in the stead of art. The speech of the stage
should seem to be the speech of Nature. I say "should seem to be" because it is one of the
paradoxes of acting, that it cannot seem to be and never has seemed to be the speech of
Nature, when actually it is so." to the question, "Does the actor feel his part?" Belasco
concludes "an actor ... must at all times be complete master of his resources and implements.
Otherwise, though he may perhaps greatly affect himself, he will not all affect his audience--
unless it be to make it on easy or excited its ridicule. Nowhere are complete self-control,
Dominion, poise, while Dorothy Moore absolutely essential to success than they are in
acting, and they cannot exist where sensibility is permitted to hold sway. ... The actor who
aims at being, and not seeming to be, real always also aims at being natural; the two things
go together in his mind. The result of being natural is that an actor becomes merely
commonplace and that most fatal of all things -- uninteresting. ... if you do not master the

technique of acting, personality will never make you a true actor -- though it may make you,
as it often has made others, a popular success." He goes on to say, "but if you have not a
personality of vivid, notable quality the most perfect mastery of stage technique will never
make you a great actor or even a popular success. If you have not a message to transmit --
what signifies it that your method of transmission may be perfect?"
Belasco claimed to have been associated with the production of nearly 400 plays, most of
them written or adapted by himself; but his writing, in a time when lbsen, Strindberg, and
Chekhov were introducing realism, remained filled with sensational melodrama or maudlin
sentiment. His plays have virtually no lasting value. He excelled in creating a mood and
tension in his crowd and mob scenes. Moreover, whatever was seen on stage was Belasco
and the other artists were the instruments of his will. Belasco also preferred to work with
unknown playwrights. He collaborated with John Luther Long to write Andrea, Madam
Butterfly, and Darling of the Gods; and with Henry C. DeMille on Lord Chumley and The
Wife, among others. Madam Butterfly and Belasco's own The Girl of the Golden West were
later adapted as the librettos for the Puccini operas.
He died in New York on May 14, 1931.