DRAMA LEAGUE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 168, 20 July 1935, Page 14

DRAMA LEAGUE

ITS COMMUNITY APPEAL. WANGANUI AULA FESTIVAL. Tiic g'rowili of the amateur drama has in rewul years iiceu \v ual is there to account ior Lins universal aclivtiy.' Jhe answer is not simpiu—but uue of the most consideruulu laclurs is the widening and quickening of iile U-al Lhc participants (be they author; player or audience; g< t from il. Ontf’s understanding of lite is undoubtedly' enlarged through one’s own outlook being temporality • superseded by the outlook in aautucr type of individual. The work calls ior pleasant mental activity, for lhc character portrayed must be understood. it also calls for cult i vat ion and control of the emotions —the vital part oi il. After we have decided, lulcllecl tually, what emotion we need we have Io learn to call it up at will. Dame •Sybil Thorndike claims that this gives us emotional releases and experiences, and actually sublimates the bad ones, i’vople can temporarily revel in emo lions both beneath their own moral level and above it. They find they <ue released for some of the many overmhibiting effects of civilised iilo, and they have a wider ami more synipathetic understanding of the characters of others, btudents of sociology ail beat witness to the force of the drama in the development of society’s life and soul. Nowhere is there a better opportunely to share in these joys than al. the varied programmes to be presented in the local area's August festival in the Opera House*

“The Call of the Wild,” starring Clark Gable, is based on Jack London's story of Alaskan adventure, which Gene Fowler and Leonaid Prashins have adapted to the sureen. Madeline Carroll, star of the British stage and screen, will play the leading feminine role.