El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-05-24
ShaksPere Outdoors

The FL Paso School for Gins bas
been living out Of doors with Shakspere
( these bright May days. Between the
recitatiOns and examinations which a
cruel fate prescriDes, the girls have
been dancing or -rehearsing the scenes
of next Mondays commencement play.
As usual the commencement is the di-
. rect OutgrOWth Of part of the years
work During the spring term all the
English classes have been STUDYING
SnakSpere'S comedy. "A Midsummer
Nights Dream" the little children have
had the story from Lambs Tales. the
older girls have wandered with Shak-
spere himself through that wood near
Athens where the mortal lovers Her
mia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena.
come near to making such a tangle of
their fates that the fairy folk them
selves must come TO the rescue with a
fairy spell that makes smooth the trou-
bled course of true love.
From this play, then, the scenes are
CHOSEN Tor the outdoor play that has
come to be the beautiful ending of
each year at the Girls school. They
have not aspired to give the whole play,
as that would be too great a feat for
skilled players but. using the Ben
Greet acting edition, selection has been
made Of the fairy parts, and of the
Play Within the Play" The court
scenes Of acts one and five form a
stately frame for the delicaCy Of the
the comic interlude-
The girls enter into the spirit OF the
fantasy, remote as it is from the prose
Of common everyday This is especially
noticeable In the farce of acts two and
five. The "MeChanicals,' hardhanded
labOring men Of Athens, who never
labOred in their minds till now" at
. tempt to give a play before the duke
Of Athens in honor of his marriage to
AlppOlyLa IA, queen OF the AmaZOnS. The
play they select is the ancient tragedy
Of Pyramus and ThiSbe- Bottom. the
weaver pOmpOus, selfcOnfident under
takes to play the part of Pyramus. the
noble knights. Flute, q bellows men
der, takes the part Of the lady; Thisbe,
who, frightened by a lion from the
trysting place, is thought TO be dead,
and who returning and finding Py-
ramus dead, kills herself amid loud
lamenUing- The triple representation
here, the attempt 10 portray Shak-
spores idea OF the Athenian peasants
idea of a character in a tragedy, would
be a task for no unskilled actor; but,
making all allowance for absence OF
technical skill, ii is surprising to see
how fully these girls Of the first years
of the upper school enter into the hu-
NOR Of the scenes, and, without undue
eXaggeratiOn, yet render the episode as
broad farce. one realizes how near
akin to the Spirit of youth is the large
and not over delicate humor of Eliza
bethan England.
There is less surprise in the faith
fitness with which the fairy scnes are
given by the little girls Of the primary
and the intermediate. Real children
live so much of their time in fairyland
that it is only a special sort of frOlic
when they let their elders have a fleet
ing glimpse into the charmed region.
Surely no Oberon on grOwnup stage
ever let mOrtals see so clearly the
quaint and teasing mischief of the
fairy king; and no artist ever dreamed
lOvelier dances than the fairies weave
to the spell of elfin music.
One modern stage device has been
admitted, the ASS head for Bottoms
transformations except for that the
stage and its properties are as simple
as the traditional stage of Shakspere's
time, where a placard or an announce
ment makes the sole change of scene
between the place of the duke, a room
in Ounces cottage, and a wood near
Athens