THE AMATEUR STAGE

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 68, 13 December 1932, Page 7

THE AMATEUR STAGE

The Importance of Drama in Schools

(By

Victor S. Lloyd.)

At tlie prize-giving ceremony of the Wellington East Girl’s College last week, Sir James Parr, a former Minister of Education, said that he considered English the most important subject in the school curriculum. “Know your English well, and you are educated,” said Sir Janies. He also had some remarks to make regarding the tendency toward the development of a.New Zealand accent, with broadened vowels and slurred consonants. It is very important to speak clearly, intelligibly, and pleasantly, and there is no better method of developing these desirable qualities than the addition of drama, to the curriculum of our schools, where it is not already included, and as much care and trouble should be taken with drama as is taken with mathematics. In addition to teaching the child how to speak properly, acting in plays under the supervision of a teacher with a sense of beauty and some knowledge of playproduction, helps the child to move gracefully, and to express himself adequately. The object of education is, I suppose, to fit the child for a place in the life of the community. It is not enough to pump facts into him, he should be trained to express his thoughts, his ideas and his emotions in a. coherent and convincing manner. How many adult persons are there to-day who can Walk into a crowded drawing-room without feling ill-at-ease? How many of them are there who, when called upon to express themselves before more than one person, do not long for the earth to open and swallow them up? Drama develops the education of the emotions, which is just as important as the power of thought and reason. The development of the power to express and to control one’s emotions is fundamental in character training. Gustave le Bon, in his “World in Revolt,” pointed out that “very few people understand that the education of the character is much . more important than the education of the mind, and that the reading and repetition of textbooks is not enough to transform the soul of a generation.” ‘The future, ’ says le Bon, “will belong not to the -people whose-intellect is greatest, but to those whose character is strongest. The report on the teaching of English in England, published a year or two ago, not' only urged that education should be fundamentally, based upon the ability to speak and write English, but it strongly advocated the use of poetry and drama in life: “It was no inglorious time of our history that Englishmen delighted together in dance and song and drama, nor were these pleasures the privileges of a few or :i class. It is a legitimate hope that a national use of the drama in schools may bring back to England an unashamed joy in pleasures of. the imagination and in the expression cl’ wholesome and natural feeling.” Nunn, in his book “Education: Its Data and First Principles,” goes even further. He says: “The comparative fruitlessness of so much educational effort is mainly due to neglect of the feelings which are the proximate source of human energy, the real springs of educational progress, whether in learning or in conduct; and where there is not only neglect but repression, the harm done may, as we have seen, reach the dimension of a disaster.” The importance placed by the Greeks on the spoken word is gene- • rally regarded as one of the direct

causes of their artistic achievement. The reincarnation of thought and emotion by the speaker must remain the simplest, most direct, and most universal means of the employment of aesthetic principles in education. All of the foregoing is an attempt to prove the great importance of drama in schools. Elocution is not enough. Elocution as a rule does not attempt to develop in the student the ability to express his own feelings, hut to follow a series of hard and fast rules for the expression of emotion. I do not go so far as to agree with Seymour Hicks, who says: “I never knew a teacher of elocution who was not a very bad actor.” I should be glad to see the day Avhen we have no teachers of elocution, when we have instructors in dramatic art instead. Any producer will agree with me when I say that it is far harder to prune away the affected mannerisms and the stereotyped delivery of one who has undergone a really thorough course of elocution than to coax a convincing piece of acting from entirely “raw material.” Most people have a desire to act, and it is not terribly difficult to achieve satisfactory results from a group of people who, although entirely without experience, are keen, so long as their natural power of expressing emotion is not fixed with a varnish of elocution.

Voice training is not elocution ; voice training is a most desirable thing, but, as Bernard Shaw has said: “If your ability to act is not ninety per cent, natural, all the training in the world will never make an actor of you.” Seymour Hicks says: “Either you speak distinctly or you don’t. If you don’t—well, become a politician or a candle-stick-maker ; and as for reciting, which is a disease, though unfortunately not a fatal one, may I entreat all amateurs to avoid indulging in this unpleasant pastime Reciting has no more to do with acting than has elocution. . . . Again, the study of voice production would kill the greatest actor who ever lived. . . You may think that to be -distinct you must elocute. Not at all. Nearly all the greatest actors in the world have been content only to be distinct, for they knew full well that pedantry is no part of passion, and that comedy is anything but aided by over-perfect diction.” Great stress is being laid by many people to-day on the importance of vowel sounds.' In my opinion, it is more, important to. see that consonants are correctly used. Of course, flat vowels are unpleasant to listen to, but when consonants are dispensed with here and there, speech becomes almost incoherent.

The notoriously bad speech of those who have been educated in State schools forced upon the English authorities some years ago the necessity for some training in the sounds of the language, and. the study of phonetics was introduced, and . is, by many people, still regarded as the best means of improving speech. But phonetics does not affect the voice, nor the intonation: nor does it develop powers of expression in speech. It is true that the importance of stress and inflection in its bearing upon the meaning of a phrase is conceded, but stress and inflection are not the fundamental part of intonation. The art of expression through the speaking voice is the most living, direct and subjective of all the arts. It is fundamental in its importance _ in the development of personality, which is the purpose of education. I have deliberately avoided mention of the great value to school children

of acting the plays of Shakespeare as against the generar study and reading of them, because I wished to set forth the importance of drama in our schools as a means of fitting them for a place in the conununity, without unduly stressing the great literary value of the proper study of drama in schools. But I may as well remind teachers that Shakespeare was himself an actor and his plays were writen to be acted, not read.

Next week. I hope to go more or less into detail on the production of plays by children, and the acting of children’s plays, which are, by ■ the, way, two entirely different subjects. “The Old Lady Says ‘No!’”’

A few weeks ago I reviewed a play by Denis Johnston called “The Old Lady. Says . ‘No!’” Those who were sufficiently' impressed with my eulogies of it to have obtained a copy of the play will probably have wondered, as I did, how on earth the play received its extraordinary title. lam indebted to Mr. E. N. Hogben, of Dannevirke, for enlightenment. An article in an English library journal which he has sent on to me says: “As soon as the play was written the author sent it to the Abbey Theatre (Dublin) for consideration as a production. He waited a long while in vain for news, and finally went himself to the theatre to try and discover what was happening. There he learned that the play had been very well liked and, the director told him, it so happened that the committee was at that moment in session and was finally considering whether the play should be accepted or not. ; If he.w.ould wait a moment, the director ~ continued, he would go upstairs and'ascertain what the verdict of the committee might be. Now the committee at;, that time consisted of Lady Gregory, so that Mr. Johnston understood . perfectly well what was meant when in due course the director came downstairs with the words,‘l’m awfully'sorry, but—-the Old Lady says “No.".’ . Incidentally the play was later submitted to the Dublin Gate Theatre, where it was produced with sensational success. Village Drama. ' I

A small group of Cambridge men and women in England recently arranged a six-week dramatic camp on the Downs near Guildford, in Surrey. They wrote their own plays, and their main ideas were to experiment in production under village conditions, to try out some of their own theories, and to make contacts' with the village drama movement. A pastoral which was a satire on the present political situation, a translation of a Latin comedy, a revue, a masque and a few one-act plays made up their repertoire. After a week or so of rehearsals, they gave four performances a week at the camp or in the village hall to invited audiences. There were about fourteen people-iu the group, all of them able to take part in the acting, and all of them also making some other contribution to the productions. Lady Catherine Balfour composed the music for the masque.

Drama and the Church. Centuries after the old classical drama of Greece ami Rome liad died, surfeited with uncleanuess, and forgotten by all save the scholarly few, tlie New Drama was‘ ushered Into tlie word on the lap of the Church. In the fifth century human tableaux enacted by the junior clergy had a place in the Church service. Dialogue was introduced much later. Dramatic action followed. Several plays were written especially for clerical use. Miracle plays such as “St. Nicholas” were frequently 'performed, together with mystery plays . based on Bible stories. Later a move was made from the Church to the open air. The manuscript of a play, “Adam,” of unknown authorship, but probably Norman in period and contemporaneous with “St. Nicholas,” was found at Tours, in which careful directions are given for staging and acting. These

plays.drew increasingly large congregations. The audiences became too‘large to accommodate near tlie Church, but as clerical actors were forbidden to play in the streets, the plays were performed by the laity. Soon they assumeda gross. nature, and eventually bishops rose and denounced public plays as instruments of the devil." "" Now, after a lapse of centuries, the breach between the Church and the stage is being bridged. All over the world there are amateur dramatic groups attached to churches, and in several churches some of the old mystery and miracle plays are once again' being performed aS a part of the service. In addition to <which poets such as John Masefield have provided new and very beautiful material in the way of plays full of reverence. Such a play is Masefield’s “The Coming of Christ,” which, was performed; at the Terrace Congregational Church last Sunday, and again last night. Gustav Holst has written incidental music quite in keeping with the lofty theme of this play.

This Week’s Green Room Story.

A certain man went to see a doctor because he was feeling depressed. The doctor examined him and, finding him suffering from, acute melancholia; recommended him to go to the circus and see the great Italian clown, Grimaldi. “He will cheer you up,” the doctor assured the miserable man, who smiled sadly and said, “But I am Grimaldi."

Amateur Activities. The Wellington Repertory Theatre held its last reading for this year last Tuesday, when "Charles and Mary,” a play based pu the'life of Charles Lamb, by Joan Temple, was read. The monthly readings will recommence in February, 1938. “The Countess Cathleen,” W. B. Yeats’s eerie and beautiful play, was performed recently by the pupils of Solway College. This was followed last Saturday with a presentation of Sir James Barrie’s little masterpiece, “The Old Lady, Shows Her, Medals.” Incidental music was provided for the first play, and was specially composed, played and sung by Miss Ruth Perry, the producer. That athanasian farce, “Charlie’s Aunt,” is to be produced in Christchurch in February next year by the Marjorie Alexander Committee. Bernard Beeby will be in charge of the production and will also play “Charlie." Others in the cast are Audrey Cotterill, Agnes Richardson, Mavis Ritchie, Pessy Hollander, Alan Brown, Harold Shaw, Cyril Collins, and:Fred Hale. At the annual meeting. of the Hawera Operatic Society a proposal for amalgamation with the orchestral .society was discussed. Mr. IL Cl A. Fox, who outlined the proposal, said that his scheme would lead to'more assured finance as it would be possible to secure a number of associate'members whose subscription would really be an advance payment for seats. Several speakers commended the proposal, which is being investigated by the committee.