creative personalities." 16 Even then, the techniques of the creative art must be thoroughly understood; and the best way to learn them is at a college or university where good courses are offered.

It looks easy when one sees a demonstration in creative dramatics by a skilled teacher. One is aware that the leader creates a relationship with the children that is friendly and confident; that she both enjoys and respects them. One admires the natural way the teacher leads into what she has planned to do, and the vitality with which she presents it. It is wonderful to see how enthusiastically the children. respond.

17

The teacher does not talk much. In place of expressing opinions of her own, she draws out the children's ideas by skillful questions. She appreciates their replies. Sensitive teachers encourage children to create in their own way. They know that a creator cannot breathe with strange lungs. When the children fail to make suggestions necessary for the improvement of work, a question from the leader can bring about the keenest thinking of the group. Children are encouraged to believe in themselves and their abilities, and in so doing help themselves to reach the outer rim of their capacity to experience.18

Rewards of Creative Teaching. The rewards for guiding young people in creative work are great. Teaching, to a very large extent, is a creative profession, and many teachers outside the arts are remarkably creative. There is likewise a great opportunity for exercising the imagination in creative writing, drama, dance, music, and the graphic arts. As teachers grow in creative ability, they are constantly building inner resources which make their present life rich and provide for later years when they may not have so many people and activities on which to count.

In guiding children in creative drama, encouraging results do not come at once. It is a slow and sometimes discouraging process. Ideas often do not get off the ground. However, in rare moments something happens which provides the thrill of accomplishment. Remember the mechanical bird in Andersen's "Nightingale," which played its little waltz tune perfectly every time-and the real nightingale whose song was unpredictable because it came from the heart? This always has been and always will be the way of creativity.

16 Mearns, Hughes, The Creative Adult. New York, Doubleday Doran & Co., 1940. p. 10.

17 Lowenfield, Viktor, Creative and Mental Growth. New York. The Macmillan Co.. 1952. p. 4.

18 Mearns, Hughes, Creative Power. New York, Dover Pub., 2d ed., 1958. p. 258.

PART III

MARK

Children's Theater

[ARK TWAIN WROTE to a Chicago school principal, "It is my conviction that the children's theater is one of the very, very great inventions of the twentieth century, and that its vast educational value-now but dimly perceived and but vaguely understood-will presently come to be recognized.” 1

This conviction is shared by many people in this country. If all children's theaters were of as much educational value as the one with which Mark Twain had experience as board president-the Children's Educational Theatre of New York-the cultural value of children's theaters would be generally recognized today.

The Children's Educational Theatre was the first real children's theater in the United States and had a definite cultural influence on the entire underprivileged neighborhood in which it existed. Founded in 1903 by Alice Minnie Herts in a New York settlement house, the Educational Alliance brought much that was beautiful into the lives of children whose only entertainment had been the cheap adult picture shows in the vicinity.

The year The Tempest was presented, families who had never read a page of Shakespeare in their lives were inspired by the enthusiasm of their children to acquaint themselves with the play. Sometimes a lecturer explained the plays to be given in the language spoken by the parents of the children. Every effort was made to bring about a general appreciation of whatever drama was to be produced in the playhouse. The theater was so highly esteemed that it had other distinguished supporters besides Mark Twain: William Dean Howells, Brander Matthews, George Pierce Baker, and Otto Kahn.

1 From an undated letter published in the Chicago Record-Herald.

2 Herts, Alice Minnie, The Children's Educational Theatre. New York, Harper & Bros., 1911.

Present-day children's theaters have few illustrious champions to give them prestige, but their standards are rising, thanks to the quality of many of the people who are working in this field of the theater. The National Children's Theatre Conference has been steadily carrying on an educational program since its founding in 1944. Playwriting competitions are stimulating young authors to try their hands at writing children's plays. Many colleges and universities are producing and touring one children's play each season, and child audiences in the older established children's theaters are growing more discriminating with each season's experience.

If and when children's theater production reaches a high artistic level and at the same time never loses its appeal to the child— more gifted writers will be attracted to this field just as distinguished authors and illustrators have been entering the field of providing fine and beautiful books for boys and girls. Children in the middle and upper grades could appreciate more mature plays than are now offered them; and authors who can write plays with depth of meaning underlying their easily understood plots contribute not only delight in entertainment to a child audience but help to build a worthy philosophy in the lives of the boys and girls.

This is the most urgent need of the children's theater today. Good scripts always interest the best directors, designers, and actors, both professional and amateur; and when they are well produced, they arouse an enthusiastic response from the parents and children who see them. Great theater for children can only come about with great plays. Both organizations and individuals over the country are working toward this end. They are offering prizes in play competitions, trying out new plays, experimenting with interesting techniques, and arousing a wider and wider interest among adult theater people.

Developing Plans for a Children's Theater

If a community is convinced of the need of a children's theater and is willing to work for one, it would seem advisable to study how such an enterprise has been successfully accomplished in other communities. Some community groups have organized children's theaters with full seasons of plays. Others are merely sponsors who present one or more productions each season. The examples given below a few out of the many which might be named in each category-show something of the wide range of children's theater activity over the country.

Types of Sponsors

Civic Theatres.-Portland, Oreg.; Kalamazoo, Mich.; Tulsa, Okla.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Pittsburgh, Pa.

Colleges, Universities, or Professional Schools.-University of Minnesota at Minneapolis; Goodman School of the Theatre, Chicago, Ill.; Northwestern University (co-sponsor with the public schools), Evanston, Ill.

Parent-Teacher Associations.-Wellesley, Mass.; Anderson, Ind.; Detroit, Mich.; Hartland, Wis.

City Recreation Departments.-Washington, D.C.; San Diego, Calif.; Richmond, Va.; Boston, Mass.

Junior Leagues.-Flint, Mich.; Shreveport, La.; Rochester, N.Y.; Albuquerque, N. Mex.

American Association of University Women.-Chattanooga, Tenn.; Rapid City, N. Dak.; Crystal Lake, Ill.; Lawton, Okla.

Community Children's Theatres Sponsored by a Combination of a Few or Many Participating Organizations.-Seattle Junior Programs; Nashville, Tenn.; Palo Alto, Calif.; Kansas City, Mo.; Omaha, Nebr.; Oakland, Calif.; Birmingham, Ala.; Spokane, Wash.; Milwaukee, Wis.

Plans for Organization

A community group, wishing to found a children's theater, may begin by seeking to interest all organizations concerned with children. Since there is often no trained theater person in the community to initiate a children's theater, it is possible to solicit the cooperation of parent-teacher groups, recreation departments, public libraries, elementary teacher groups, Junior Leagues, the American Association of University Women, and Scout and Campfire leaders. The public school administrators should be among the first to be contacted. Any or all of these community groups may be invited to make up a planning committee for a children's theater organization. From 20 to 30 representatives is a good number with which to start an organization of this kind. Such groups are usually enthusiastic, but uninformed. One of the first steps is to give them some background concerning the value and purpose of a children's theater.

The manual written by the Seattle Junior Programs could be very useful. This group is a strong and efficient organization and may well be emulated by other communities. This particular manual suggests that board members be chosen from a variety of organizations; and that many active members be enlisted for the actual work

of such committees as finance, program, theater facilities, tickets, promotion, and the many educational aspects connected with establishing a children's theater.

Choosing Sponsors. If the theater is to be a truly community project, a sponsor or sponsors should be representative of the whole community. A single organization, if deeply interested, can manage the project alone, as so many Junior Leagues have done. The citizens, no matter how appreciative, will not consider the theater their own unless it is a community organization, such as a city-wide parent-teacher association, a community theater, or a city recreation department.

It is advisable in organizing a community children's theater to contact all representative community groups especially concerned with the welfare of children in order to ascertain the degree of their interest. The first of these will be the elementary school administrators. If a vital interest is established with them, they will be the most valuable sponsors of all. Indeed, without the cooperation. of the public schools, it would be unwise to attempt a children's theater.

Selecting Facilities.-A suitable auditorium and stage will be one of the first requirements for a children's theater. An ideal place would be a beautiful little theater with 500 or 600 seats, with checkrooms for coats, rehearsal space, workrooms for making and storing costumes, scenery and properties, an efficient switchboard, exhibit rooms, and a large foyer. However, an auditorium or a community theater is usually available. Perhaps, at some future time, some beneficent citizen will offer a theater built especially for children's plays, as was the case in Palo Also, Calif.

Lacking any adequate auditorium, a large room with no stage at all has been found to be entirely satisfactory. In fact, it has some very real advantages over an auditorium with a stage. A considerable number of children's theaters now present all their plays "in the round." These arena stages are often only the floor space in the center of a circle of seats. If plays are given for an audience of not more than 200, it is possible for all children to see if some sit on the floor in the front circle, others on small chairs, and the back rows on ordinary chairs. For a large audience, platforms are necessary to raise part of the seats to levels where every child can easily see the play.

These theaters are much more intimate than the picture-frame type, and children like to be close to the players. Several of the new designs for children's theaters with stages have a semi-circular seating arrangement which brings the whole audience near the stage.