Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-19
Benefits From
School Dramatics
By MARGARET E. sANGsTER.
Copyright 1905. by Joseph B. Bowles.1

ssss:}s n
wy FHEN was a schoolgirl We used
to look forward with great an
NAf ticipation to our annual school
wv exhibitions. do not know
why the powers that were then
In authority made a distinction between
girls reading her own essay anu girl .
reeiting a poem by somebody else, but TINS
they did. Boys were required to deciaim, ana
great stress was laid in their education on
the cultivation of ease before an audience.
But we girls. as rule. sat modestly IN the
front seats of the chapel. in our Whfte
frocks. while members of the school COM
mittee or local elergymen read our COM
positions for us. In the ideal of that day
woman's place was in the sweet shelter
and beautiful background of her home, and
young girls were not encouraged to take
part in public exercises OF any kind. The
exception was in favor of the smaller girls.
who were dressed like fairies and came
tripping out to sing solo or recite a bit OF
verse and who were taught to curtsey
deeply in response to applause from the
listeners.
In my later school days there came
change. 1 remember very well the first
time 1 stood before what seemed to me a
position of my own. The subject was
Temperance" and It was treated with
great force by the fourteen-year-old girl
who had chosen so big a theme. In the
middle of the reading she became fright
ened, lost her place and her voice, and
could hardly have gone on but for kind
gentleman who came and stood by her side,
saying: Never mind them, my dear. Read
straight ahead. I'll stay right by YOU" L
still remember that man most gratefully.
Still later we had in our school what to-
day might be called a venture In school
dr'amatics. We of the senior class decided
that we must have May Queen with
court attendants. fairies, eiyes trolls,
queens of flowers and of grains. a Ceres,
Flora, a Persephone and a train of people
representing different phases OF the earth
and the sea. Our scheme was SO ambi-
tious that we could not find anything in
print by which we could carry it out, and
the girls with one consent turned to me,
saying: You must write play for us or
else our May Queen will be a failure
Looking back, I have always been sur
prised at the way the teachers acted in the
matter, but our lovely principal when APP
preached was really most gracious. why,
yes" she said Miss NJ may be ex-
cused from all her classes for the next
week while she is writing the May Queen
play
l wish I had it now. but ii fong ago was
lost in the limbo of forgetfdlness. The
thing I can see with my eyes shut is the
school as Queen of the May. and every one,
from the oldest to the youngest taking
some part in her coronation, either singing
a song or making an address, while the
whole school, drilled by the musical direc-
tor, broke forth into frequent chorals.
School dramatics are very common now.
| They afford a great deal of diversion to
| those who form the cast to the rest OF the
class interested, and to the spectators. In
| our colleges an event of the year is the rem
dering of a play of Shakespeare, such as
Midsummer Nights Dream or Much
| Ado About Nothing The properties are
usually simple, and the stage setting is
| necessarily whatever the girls can manage
| with screens and portieres and their own
| clever wits. But there is far more than d.
version secured in the care and pains with
| which the characters are selected. In the
| many rehearsals under the supervision of
| teachers, and In the fidelity with which
| the girls repeat the lines assigned them
| Whatever part girl may take, she is ex-
| pected to prepare for 1t with diligence and
accuracy and to regard it important,
| whether it be that of leading lady or OF
| q maid in waiting. On the mimic stage of
| the sehoolroom there must be respect for
| the work for the works sake; there must
be due consideration of the honor OF the
| school as a whole, and there must be also
great patience and forbearance among the
| girls themselves, because when a group of
| people are rehearsing for play there may
| be impulsive criticisms of those who blum
| der and little frictions which for the mo-
ment hurt the sensitive and annoy the
| quick-tempered. Girls rush to superlatives
| at such times. We have to put temper
wholly aside whenever we are working to-
| ward common end.
One of the most important lessons in
| life, one that girls need to learn is how to
| work in harmony with others. In this life
we are all somehow bound in one bundle,
| and IL anybody declares that she is going
| to stand all alone and do her work ali alone
and have her pleasures all alone, she is
| making q great mistake, one that she will
| find out to her cost after awhile
| A girl who takes her little share in school
| tess In her home, and II the opportunity
/ arises, she will be able easily to entertain
/ her friends and to arrange pleasant even
| ings for little social groups. In her church
| her guild. her league, her Christian En-
4 deavor society, or her club, she will hold
| her own.
1t was said of Queen Victoria that she
| never was afraid of vacant space In front
/ of her have seen girls who hesitated and
| shrunk from crossing drawing-room filled
| with people The bane of any Mfe the
| thing that makes one awkward shy and
| clumsy, is self-consciousness. 1t Is at the
root OF the hampering diffldence which Is a
very different affair from modesty.
For many reasons, aside from present
| Strengthening of memory and from obtain
| Ing familiarity with good literature, school
| dramatics are an approved portion of our
| school system
| wish the girls who read this would take
| the trouble to write and tell me some of