"Fewer Hidden Meanings, More Fun," Is Frank Cravan's Prescription for Theatrical IIIs--Deplores Morbidity

"Fewer plays with a hidden meaning and more fun for the people will improve the stage and the public health," said Frank Craven, when interviewed yesterday. Mr. Craven, author and star of "New Brooms," has a national reputation for comedy portrayals and creations.

"I feel that I speak as something of an authority on comedy," he continued, "and I have made it my aim to write good, clean comedy. It may not draw big crowds, but my own satisfaction is worth more to me."

"The other sort of play, which draws the great crowds seems to me dangerous to the public health. The people who go to such plays are morbidly introspective. They don't want to laugh. They don't even want Shakespeare's morbidity. They want their won particular brand. It may seem narrow of me to refuse their brand. But I have my ideas, and others have theirs. To my mind the excitement, the neuroticism of it all is dangerous to the health of the theatrical public. They world be immensely benefited by a good hearty laugh.

"It was in comedy that the theatre had its beginnings. It is through comedy that the stage will return to health. The stage appears to be in an unfortunate state, from the reports that come out of New York.

"I have seen very few of the plays under condemnation by District attorney Banton. I have not seen O'Nell's 'Desire Under the Elms,' rated as the most serious of all the plays under this ban, but I know O'Neil's work well. I recognize his extraordinary ability, but I feel it is misdirected."

"Miss Jane Cowl, I understand, has praised 'Desire Under the Elms.' She declares it to be a great play, and that it teaches a great moral lesson. You know the plot, I suppose. That plot is typical--all too typical of the sort of thing that is being exploited in New York. Producers insist on neurotic plays, plays that means something. The public or a very definite part of it, supports them.

"Don't make the theatre such a refection of the minority that you show only one-sided life. Whatever artistry there may be in the best of your morbid plays is obscured by their ugliness, and, worse, they breed more spread plays, lacking even in the serious purpose of the forerunners.

"The play jury composed of citizen playgoers seems to me an excellent innovation, but I am sorry the Theatre cannot clean up its own precincts. I shall go on urging clean plays, writing clean plays, and acting clean plays as my contribution. And I shall count every laugh as valuable."