PLAY-GROUND THEATRES

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LXIV, Issue 6578, 20 October 1939, Page 3

PLAY-GROUND THEATRES

SUNBEAMS FOR FOOTLIGHTS

In several countries of Europe and in America playground theatres are figuring impressively in well-planned policies for children's recreation. A strong supporter of this movement is the American Recreation Association.

"Sunbeams for footlights, grass for the stage floor, the sky for a canopy, and perhaps the leafy limb of a tree for the proscenium arch— these are nature's contributions to the theatre of childhood," writes F. Ellwood Allen in ' the Association's magazine "Recreation". "It is in this •secret spot, a new world of the playground, that dreams become pulsating realities. To understand children is a prerequisite to understanding the design of the playground theatre. Old formulas must be thrown away and we must become as children if we are to overcome successfully the obstacles that confront the designer.

"In the general classification of o\itdoor theatres, ranging from the gigantic stadium bowl to the simple naturalistic hillside overlooking a level clearing in a fragrant woods, the playground theatre seems somewhat removed except when introduced as a facility in some of the larger and more extensively developed playfields. The small playground theatre differs fundamentally from other outdoor theatres in its functional use. Here the emphp.sis is placed upon the participant rather than on the spectator. Plays are produced not so much for the purpose of entertaining an audience but primarily for the value of creative dramatic expression. In the playground theatre a simple charade prepared on the spur of the moment may constitute the dramatic high, point of the day. •

"It is obvious that, the playground theatre need not rely on . elaborate settings and 'properties' for stage effects,, and as its use is confined almost entirely to morning and afternoon hours, there is no problem of artificial, lighting, for sunbeams are the footlights.

"The .. typa of. playground theatre depends on a number of factors; size and topography of the play ayea; extent, size and arrangement of other facilities; arid the need as demonstrated by. the .enthusiasm and interest of the community. The playgrgiwid theatre may be one of three : •.distinct types which, fo;: want of a better descriptiono can be classified as informal, semi-formal and formal."