The Waikato Times. With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. TUESDAY, JULY 2, 1929. DRAMA IN SCHOOLS.

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17752, 2 July 1929, Page 6

The Waikato Times. With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. TUESDAY, JULY 2, 1929. DRAMA IN SCHOOLS.

The reading of drama in character Is a part of the curriculum of some of the Hamilton schools. Occasional performances of plays and operas by school pupils are arranged with considerable success. But the possibilities of this form of education are not generally appreciated. Many teachers still drag their pupils through the tedious study of old-time plays, leaving an impression that the essence of learning is to know the meaning of the slang phrases and allusions of centuries ago rather than to enter into the living action and receive the vital truths that every drama true to life conveys- By the end of the year very possibly the one play chosen for study will be left unfinished. The story is told of a successful Briton who, meeting his master years after leaving school, remarked, “I’ve always wondered how that (mentioning a play they had partly read in the school class) ended.” By such methods is the youngsters’ interest in the literature of life dulled and destroyed. On the other hand those who read or act good plays not only learn to appreciate the art and the message but get the basis for a growing culture. The philosophy of today reaches the people very largely through the drama and the novel. The drama is a splendid medium, with its action and its human feelings. The young have a capacity for entering into the spirit of the play, whether as actors or as audience. A hindrance to the full use of this very, valuable means of education is the shortness of the periods allocated to various subjects in the school curricula. Longer periods would help the pupils to a far better sense of the continuity of action. One would hardly suggest that more than one play should be actually staged during the year, and only the few selected actors would take part in such a performance, but quite numerous read-

ings might be arranged with one pupil to each character for at least a considerable part of the play. The ability of young people to act has been long recognised. In the middle period of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the power of the stage was at its zenith, the companies of boy actors had attained such proflclenoy and popularity that they obtained a far greater number of Court prizes than did the ordinary playing companies.- Later on, the great Macready, came from Rugby; Sir Nigel Playfair and Sir Gerald Du Maurier are the products of Harrow, while Eton has given Arthur Bourchier to the world of dramatic art. In each case definite school training had much to do with the success of these great exponents of the art in after life. The coming of the cheap theatre — the cinema and the talking film—make it dpubly necessary that people should learn in their childhood to appreciate good drama. Negative restrictions are needed and parents, theatres and public authorities should unite to see that good films—both silent and sounding—are offered to the children. But the strongest safeguard is an education that will so impress on the mind the value of what is good that people will simply ( refuse to see the rubbish that is sometimes presented, turning from it with a feeling of disgust. Herein is an additional reason for encouraging drama in all its vivid action in the schools. The adult population of Hamilton is showing increasing interest in plays. The readings of the Shakespeare Club are very popular, and a Little Theatre Society has been formed and will probably receive good support when its work becomes known. This trend gives reason for hope that popular opinion will approve the increasing study of drama in the schools.