 Three years later, on September 18, 1886, "Main Line, or Rawson's Y", a Western melodrama written in collaboration with Charles Barnard, opened at the old Lyceum Theatre.The play, a love story set at a remote railroad way station (complete with authentic RR tracks) and telegraph office, received warm opening night reviews.A short while later de Mille would join forces with David Belasco in a collaborative effort that would prove to have a greater box-office appeal with the theatergoing public.