Courtesy in listening is instilled both by the example of the teacher who gives respectful attention to whatever is said or done, and by her insistence on constructive evaluation: not "what is wrong?" but "how can we make it better?" This requires really careful listening.

Reading and Writing. The other two language arts, reading and writing, enter into creative drama in a less direct way. When children are working on a dramatization, and if they expect to share their play and make special properties, they often need to read extensively about a country, the period, customs, coins, or names. Classroom teachers say that the best incentive for research is a creative play.

Some creative writing is necessary for almost every shared play. It may be a bit of verse such as the one cited from the play about time. It may be a prayer, or a spell, or a song.

Thus, all the language arts play an important part in creative drama. This art, in turn, has a rich potential in providing a child with vicarious life experiences from which he learns much-experiences which he could never hope to have firsthand. It gives him a strong incentive for forming the habit of creative or independent thinking, and for organizing and expressing his ideas as he builds with others toward a common objective. Creative drama helps him to grow toward emotional maturity because the strong emotions he expresses are controlled by his study of the characters he is playing. Along with the development of the play and the discussion it entails, there are many opportunities for helping the child build attitudes and appreciations which lead toward a worthy life philosophy.

To realize these potentials, the child must have the guidance of an adult who is understanding and creative. His own playing is usually unselective and formless until he has acquired some skill, and it will seldom develop into an art form without guidance. He needs a discriminating teacher or leader who recognizes his best efforts, encourages him in his unique contribution, and by a skillful use of questions to stir thinking, helps him to see the possibilities in a situation. As in every other kind of teaching, the role of the teacher is a vital one.

Developments in Creative Drama With Children

Supervisors or consultants in drama, comparable to supervisors of music and art, are needed in the elementary schools to teach techniques to the elementary teachers who have had no special training, to help them in their more ambitious projects, and to give real status to this art. Some public elementary schools have had specialists in

drama for many years. But in most schools, it has been left to the individual teacher as to whether or not drama had any place in the school program. The result has been an uneven and haphazard use of drama, not to be compared with the superior programs in other arts. As a springboard for the introduction of such a program, a teacher skilled in creative dramatics might well be brought in for inservice workshops with teachers.

There are two reasons why it is difficult to convince school authorities of the need for a specialist in creative drama. The first is the present trend away from specialization toward the self-contained classroom. The second is the great emphasis now being placed on science and mathematics education stemming from the public's demand for more and stronger courses in these subjects.

However, it is gratifying to note the number of educators who see clearly that we must have perspective in our education; who realize that if we are to produce people who have imagination enough to do scientific research, as well as to work with others to maintain a selfgoverning state, emphasis on science must be balanced by a corresponding emphasis on the arts, the humanities, and the social sciences.

If an impressive number of parents, teachers, and school administrators become convinced that creative drama is as vital a part of the education of children as music and the graphic arts, it will be given a comparable place in the curriculum.

Recreation Programs. Both formal and informal drama are included in recreational programs. Creative drama has been found to be especially suitable in children's activities because the playing of a story follows naturally the hour in which a story has been told or read to the group; it requires no equipment, can be used indoors or out, and it does not depend on the same children from day to day.

Many programs are handicapped by the lack of trained leadership, but as the recognition of its value and appeal to the children grows, many recreation departments are bringing in skilled teachers of creative drama to give lectures and demonstrations to their workers.

Parents in many cities have arranged for extracurricular classes in creative drama for their children, but these classes reach only a fraction of the children who would most profit by them. Furthermore, so much of the value of creative drama comes from its use in a unified study program that it needs to be in the curriculum rather than outside of school.

Religious Education. Many religious education programs have revealed a strong trend toward the use of creative drama. Although vacation church schools have greater opportunity for such experiences than Sunday schools because of the time element, church school classes

in rather large numbers are being given experiences in dramatizing Bible stories, using puppets, originating worship services, and participating in role-playing.

Recognition of the need for training leaders is evidenced in workshops offered in various parts of the country under the auspices of many churches. The Interdenominational Religious Drama Workshop sponsored by the National Council of Churches, offers sessions for a week each summer at Lake Forest (Ill.) College. Other workshops for training leaders are sponsored locally by city councils of churches.

Drama for Children: Children's Theater

The child audience, pictured on the cover of this bulletin, is utterly entranced with what is happening on the stage. Observe that in some instances even the hands of the children are reacting to what is going on in the play.

This is drama for children. Here, it is the audience which is of first consideration, not the players. Regardless of whether the play is being acted by children or adults or both, or whether the players are amateur or professional, the value of the experience to the actors must be secondary to what the experience means to the boys and girls who see the play. The success of the project is judged by the joy and the cultural value it affords the child audience.

What a magic experience it can be to a child to see several live plays each year instead of having to rely solely on pictures! To go to plays written and acted by people who know and respect boys and girls, who do not distort their favorite stories by changing the character of the people in them, or add satirical and love elements which have no appeal to children.

To be able, instead, to see, at a real theater, truly childlike versions of The Emperor's New Clothes, A Christmas Carol, The Snow Queen and the Goblin; puppet shows of Ali Baba, Winnie-the-Pooh, Paul Bunyan; and, for older children, perhaps, the Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Annis Duff writes of this kind of theater, "The three dimensional vision of folk and fairy tales, all alive with sound and color and movement, is of the very essence of enchantment, quickening the liveliest imagination, and leaving an ineffable impression of beauty and wonder."

Duff, Annis. Life in a Looking-Glass. The Horn Book, February 1954.

p. 24.

Why a Children's Theater?

The beliefs and objectives of present day children's theater sponsors may well be studied by any group proposing to establish a theater for children.7

First, and most important, the theater gives boys and girls the joy of seeing good stories come alive upon a stage. Beautiful experiences are not for one day or one year, but for a lifetime; and, although very few children will ever have really great opportunities, even lesser experiences in the theater can bring a joy that is lasting.

Second, a higher standard of taste can be developed in children, since taste always improves with true art experience. The culture of tomorrow begins with today's children; and children who are steadily exposed to good theater care less and less for cheap and inferior plays. Hughes Mearns writes: "Nothing so surely disgusts one with poor work as a goodish experience with something better." 8

A newspaper editor in a small city which had had a children's theater for twenty years wrote of it, "The Children's Theatre here through the years has unquestionably played a leading part in influencing the tastes and the thoughts of the younger generation.” 9

Third, the sponsors of children's theater believe that from the human experiences a child sees on the stage he will grow in the understanding and appreciation of life values. His own experience is necessarily limited, and he may have to wait for years to know the result of any given action. In plays he sees the outcome almost at once, and from these vicarious experiences he learns much about life.

The following summarizes this belief: "The material with which the dramatist works consists of conflict situations in which human beings face emergencies, become emotionally involved,... and literally do not know what to do. In their attack on the problem, they run through their repertoire of behavior techniques, some amusing, some unprincipled, others admirable. A direct outcome of the presentation of such behavior techniques is a substantial amount of learning on the part of the audience.” 10

The late Charlotte Chorpenning, director for 21 years of the Goodman Children's Theatre in Chicago, wrote, "My purpose is that the

7 Adapted from An Interpretation of Terms. Educational Theatre Journal, May 1956.

* Mearns, Hughes, Creative Power. New York, Dover Publication, 1958. p. 238. Lovelace, Walter, in the Evanston Review, August 3, 1944.

10 Anderson, John, in the Educational Theatre Journal, December 1950, p. 285.

Goodman plays shall give to the audience in entertaining form helpful experience true to life values." 11

Fourth, a good theater will build in children a basis for becoming a discriminating adult audience of the future. One play a year will not do this; but three or four each season, if they are well done, will be a strong cultural influence, especially if an educational program goes on as an integral part of the theater.

Any Community Can Have a Children's Theater.-Hundreds of cities and towns over the country have found ways of satisfying their children's insistent love for drama by providing good plays suited to their age and interests. Communities lacking trained leadership will inevitably meet certain problems, but there are many ways to solve them. Every year there is an increasing number of theaters for young people both in the United States and in other countries. Many parents believe that a good children's theater helps to make a community a better place for boys and girls.

In towns where there is no theater for children, an organization such as the Junior League, the American Association of University Women, a parent-teacher group, a high school or college drama department sometimes produces one play a season or imports a touring company so that the children may at least have a taste of children's theater. Along with the growing awareness of the importance of the arts in our country's culture is more leisure time and the means to fill it with something constructive.

Any community can have such a theater where live performances of good plays, dance dramas, and puppet shows are presented for child audiences, and where the charm of fantasy alternates with the thrill of adventure tales and the realism of modern stories.

Is entertainment in the typical American community contributing to the enjoyment and cultural development of children? Do parents feel as comfortable when their children see "Morton of the Homicide. Squad" as when they attend a play based on Stevenson's great adventure tale Treasure Island? Is there genuine concern with the way human life is cheapened in many movies in which the hero picks off one character after another with his ever-present gun?

Dissatisfaction with the kind of entertainment now provided for boys and girls can unquestionably lead to the establishment of a children's theater in any community. Here children may see the best available dramatizations of favorite classics, historical events, folk tales, and modern books, played by live actors.

11 Chorpenning. Charlotte. 21 Years With Children's Theatre. Anchorage, Ky., The Children's Theatre Press, 1954. p. 53.