In the “art” of the playlet there are, to be sure, the same three “schools”—­more or less unconsciously followed in nearly every vaudeville instance—­which are to be found in the novel, the short-story, painting, and the full-length play.  These are, of course, realism, romance, and idealism. [1] These distinctions, however, are—­in vaudeville—­merely distinctions without being valuable differences.  You need never give thought as to the school to which you are paying allegiance in your playlet; your work will probably be neither better nor worse for this knowledge or its lack.  Your playlet must stand on its own legs, and succeed or fail by the test of interest.  Make your playlet grip, that is the thing.

[1] Should you wish to dally with the mooted question of the difference between realism and romanticism—­in the perplexing mazes of which many a fine little talent has been snuffed out like a flickering taper in a gust of wind—­there are a score or more volumes that you will find in any large library, in which the whole matter is thrashed out unsatisfactorily.  However, if you wish to spend a half-hour profitably and pleasantly, read Robert Louis Stevenson’s short chapter, A Note on Realism, to be found in his suggestive and all-too-few papers on The Art of Writing.  In the collection of his essays entitled Memories and Portraits will be found an equally delightful and valuable paper, A Gossip on Romance.  A brief technical discussion will also be found in Writing the Short-Story, by J. Berg Esenwein, pp. 64-67.

But do not confuse the word “romance,” as it is used in the preceding paragraph, with love.  Love is an emotional, not a technical element, and consorts equally well with either romance or realism in writing.  Love might be the heading of one of those tables we have agreed not to bother with.  Into everything that is written for vaudeville love may stray.  Or it may not intrude, if your purpose demands that love stay out.  Yet, like the world, what would vaudeville be, if love were left out?  And now we come to those broad types of playlet which you should recognize instinctively.  Unless you do so recognize them—­and the varying half-grounds that lie between, where they meet and mingle quite as often as they appear in their pure forms—­you will have but little success in writing the playlet.

In considering the broad types of playlet you should remember that words are said to denote definitely the ideas they delineate, and to connote the thoughts and emotions they do not clearly express but arouse in the hearer or reader.  For example, what do “farce,” “comedy,” “tragedy” and “melodrama” connote to you?  What emotions do they suggest?  This is an important matter, because all great artistic types are more or less fully associated with a mood, a feeling, an atmosphere.

Webster’s dictionary gives to them the following denotations, or definitions: