Sometimes the director asks a group to play a short scene creatively, using improvised dialog as well as action. This kind of tryout gives the director a good idea of the player's understanding of the role, as well as his imagination in working out his action and dialog. Children, especially, need to be watched for voice projection and clean-cut speech. Rehearsing a Play The direction should be planned so that the players can tell the story in action insofar as possible.10 All action should, of course, be naturally motivated. In fact, it should seem inevitable. But it should never be necessary for the characters to carry on any conversation for more than a few moments at a time without some kind of action. A new director soon finds that his audience is lost if he does not observe this rule. On the other hand, pantomime will hold a child audience in utter silence for minutes at a time if the children are wondering just what a character is doing and why he is doing it. If they are afraid that he will not get it done before someone else comes (as, for instance, when Zar and Zan, in The Emperor's New Clothes, are trying desperately to get the cupboard doors to stay shut before Han returns), the audience shows audible excitement, shouting with laughter, every muscle working to help them. Comedy in business is enjoyed far more than comedy in lines. An adult cast that has keenly anticipated throughout the rehearsal period the response to Alice in Wonderland has often been disappointed because the cleverness of the lines has gone perfectly flat in performance. In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the comedy business of Quee washing the faces of the other dwarfs is much funnier to children than the very amusing lines in which the dwarfs solemnly rebuke Quee for stealing, and in the next breath give him directions about the absurd things he is to collect the next night. Very careful enunciation and voice projection are more important for an audience in which there are young children. Lack of experience makes it very difficult for them to get the meaning if they do not hear every word. Emotional tension should be of shorter duration than for adult audiences. Children enjoy suspense, but the play is so real to them 10 Ward, Winifred. Theatre for Children. Anchorage, Ky., The Children's Theatre Press, 1958. pp. 198-201. that they become overexcited unless they have frequent relief. The graveyard scene in Tom Sawyer, so full of suspense and violence, is relieved by the humor of the superstitions and the elaborate vows made by the boys. Most children consider romance "very silly," so a director should make as little as possible of any romantic scenes. It is acceptable to the children for the prince to take the hand of the princess, but it must be only her hand. In spite of all the television and movingpicture shows children see, they will jeer at love-making on the stage. This shows how much more real the story is when the players are within the same four walls as the audience. Pictures can never be so real as live performances. Fights and duels are very much enjoyed by older children because they are exciting. They love to see Peter Pan defeat the swaggering Captain Hook, and they like the violence in Treasure Island. At best, there is danger in duels, but when they are necessary, a skilled instructor should be called in to teach the actors a few simple techniques which, if carried out in varied positions and parts of the stage, appear to be much more complex than they actually are. Laugh lines are very difficult to estimate until the first performance of a children's play. Players should be especially sensitive to this because a child audience often laughs when you least expect them to do so, while remaining entirely unresponsive to what most adults would consider funny. If the dialog continues while the audience is laughing, those who are eager to hear will "s-sh" the others, and the players will be forced to stop after they have passed the laugh lines. A Occasionally even a children's play contains something which offends parents who attend with their children. It may be that someone who represents the law is evil or ridiculous. Sympathetic characters sometimes tell lies or are involved in drinking scenes. director should give careful thought to the ethics of any play for children, for in spite of the fact that these things may be authentic, most of such scenes can be omitted without any real loss. "Goodygoody" plays are not desirable, but a theater takes more responsibility when plays are produced for impressionable young people than when they are played for adults. The good director considers carefully the ethical standards of a play, and if he feels, for example, that Robin Hood, who had so many qualities which the children admire, has characteristics which are open to question, he may (a) take care to make clear the situation in England which caused Robin to be an outlaw; (b) emphasize his fine qualities, such as courage, good sportsman ship, and gentleness to the poor and weak, and make little of his custom of relieving travelers of their gold. Friar Tuck is usually just a jolly and lovable friar rather than a tippler. Curtain Time And now comes "A play is never a living thing until it is shared.“ 11 the expectant audience of boys and girls to share it. rewarding part of children's theater. This is the Saturday afternoon. Children pouring down the aisles-lively conversations-sometimes a greeting to a friend half way across the house-here and there a friendly tussle. The lights begin to dim, and if a shout does not burst forth, it is there, wanting to come out! The mascot appears from between the curtains and talks in a friendly and intimate way with the children. He may be a puppet held in the arms of a grownup; he may be a clown or a character in the play. Sometimes it is the director, who greets the audience and introduces the story. Then comes the mood music, sometimes gay and lively, sometimes soft and beautiful, to take the children away from the reality of the theater and everyday things into the magic world of "once upon a time." A breathless moment of expectancy, and the curtains begin to part. The play is on! And if the playwright has done his work well; if the director and designer have given it "the quickening touch of radiance"; if the characters really live in the players, the spark ignites and once more the miracle of the theater happens! 11 Mitchell, Roy. Creative Theatre. John Day Co., 1929. P. 5. Selected References Creative Drama and Related Arts ALLSTROM, ELIZABETH. Let's Play a Story. New York, Friendship Press, 1957 174 p. ANDREWS, GLADYS. Creative Rhythmic Movement for Children. New York, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1954. 198 p. BATCHELDER, MARJORIE. The Puppet Theatre Handbook. New York, Harper & Bros. Publishers, 1947. 293 p. and COMER, VIRGINIA LEE. Puppets and Plays; A Creative Approach. New York, Harper & Bros. Publishers, 1956. 241 p. BEATON, MABEL and BEATON, LES. Marionettes: A Hobby for Everyone. New York, Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1948. 186 p. BROWN, CORINNE. Creative Drama in the Lower School. New York, AppletonCentury-Crofts, Inc., 1929. 226 p. BROWN, JEANETTE PERKINS. Storyteller in Religious Education. Boston, The Pilgrim Press, 1951. 165 p. BURGER, ISABEL. 199 p. COLE, NATALIE. 143 p. Creative Play Acting. New York, A. S. Barnes and Co., 1950. The Arts in the Classroom. New York, The John Day Co., 1940. DIXON, C. MADELINE. High, Wide and Deep. New York, The John Day Co.. 1938. 300 p. Yellow The Power of Dance. New York, The John Day Co., 1939. 280 p. DURLAND, FRANCES CALDWELL. Creative Dramatics for Children. Springs, Ohio, The Antioch Press, 1952. 205 p. 181 p. FISK, MARGARET PALMER. The Art of the Rhythmic Choir. New York, Harper & Let's Act the Story. San Francisco, Calif., Fearon Pub lishers, 1957. 38 p. HAAGA, AGNES and RANDLES, PATRICIA. Supplementary Materials for Use in Creative Dramatics With Younger Children. Seattle, Wash., University of Washington Press, 1952. 97 p. LEASE, RUTH G. and SIKS, GERALDINE B. Creative Dramatics for Home, School, and Community. New York, Harper & Bros. Publishers, 1952. 306 p. LOWENFELD, VIKTOR. Your Child and His Art. New York, The Macmillan Co., 1954. 186 p. MEARNS, HUGHES Creative Power. (rev.) New York, Dover Publications, Inc., 1958. 272 p. MERRILL, JOHN and FLEMING, MARTHA. Play-making and Plays. New York, The Macmillan Co., 1930. SAWYER, RUTH. 1942. 318 p. 579 p. The Way of the Storyteller. New York, The Viking Press, Inc., SIKS, GERALDINE B. Creative Dramatics: An Art for Children. New York, Harper & Bros. Publishers, 1958. 472 p. SLADE, PETER. 379 p. Child Drama. London, The University of London Press, 1954. WALKER, PAMELA PRINCE. Creative Children's Dramatics. New York, Hill and 150 p. Wang, 1957. WARD, WINIFRED. 1930. 304 p. Creative Dramatics. New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts, Playmaking (rev.), 1957. 341 p. With Children. New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts, Creative Education APPLEGATE, MAUREE. Everybody's Business—Our Children. Evanston, Ill., Row Peterson and. Co., 1952. 310 p. DEWEY, JOHN. Art As Experience. New York, Minton Balch, 1934. 355 p. GESELL, ARNOLD and ILG, FRANCES. The Child From Five to Ten. New York, Harper & Bros. Publishers, 1946. 475 p. HARTLEY, RUTH E., FRANK, LAWRENCE K., and GOLDENSON, ROBERT M. Understanding Children's Play. New York, Columbia University Press, 1952. 372 p. and GOLDENSON, ROBERT M. The Complete Book of Children's Play. New York, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1957. 462 p. HERRICK, VIRGIL E. and JACOBS, LELAND B. Children and the Language Arts. 524 p. HUIZINGA, JOHAN. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Boston, The Beacon Press, 1950. 220 p. LOWENFELD, VIKTOR. Creative and Mental Growth. New York, The Macmillan Co. (rev.), 1952. 408 p. MANWELL, ELIZABETH M. and FAHS, SOPHIA. Grow. Boston, Beacon Press, 1946. 201 p. Consider the Children-How They MEARNS, HUGHES. The Creative Adult. New York, Doubleday and Co., Inc., 1940. 300 p. |