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.” 6

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. 8 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.

Courtesy, Conservatory of Creative Dance, Salt Lake City, Utah

Opportunities in dance drama both for the audience and players. The children are wishing to be something else an ant, a butterfly, or a grasshopper. From the Italian folk tale, White Patch.

Opportunities in the Arts. Many city and suburban children hear great music played by symphony orchestras in an annual concert series for young people. Television and radio have contributed immeasurably to their education in music. Children are taken to visit art galleries and museums. But where can comparable dramatic opportunities for child audiences be found in this country?

There are many adults who still look back with a warm feeling of happiness at that memorable occasion when as a child they saw Maude Adams in Peter Pan. Many of today's children will grow up to tell that one of the most thrilling experiences of their childhood was seeing Margot Fontaine in the Sadler's Wells Ballet of The Sleeping Beauty. Theater of this caliber is rare in America, nearly nonexistent.

Children who live in England, however, have professional theater. at Christmas time at least, in the "Pantomime," that glorified vaudeville tied together with a fairytale, which the whole family attends. Professional companies in other European countries present plays for children either at holiday time or for a longer season. Russia has one of the finest professional children's theaters in the world, with companies that play during the winter in the cities, and far in the hinterland during the summer months. Believing in "education through art," the government subsidizes these theaters, and sees to it that standards are kept high.

Most of the children's theaters in America are amateur, sponsored chiefly by parents who feel a responsibility for providing entertainment of good quality for their children. Several hundred communities produce from one to five or six plays for young people each season. These productions are supplemented by plays from touring companies, most of which have their headquarters on the east or west coast.12

Developments in Children's Theater

The Children's Theatre Conference. The national organization for the children's theater movement in the United States is the Children's Theatre Conference, founded at Northwestern University in 1944 as a Division of the American Educational Theatre Association (AETA).13

The membership of the association (1,500 in January 1960) is drawn from all types of children's theater groups, both amateur and professional. The purposes of the conference are to promote the establishment of children's theater activities in all communities; encourage the raising and maintaining of high standards in children's theaters; provide a meeting-ground for children's theater workers

12 For information concerning these companies, write John C. Walker, Executive Secretary. American Educational Theatre Association, Department of Speech, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.

13 A brochure explaining membership and activities in the Children's Theatre Conference may be secured from the Executive Secretary of the American Educational Theatre Association, John C. Walker, Speech Dept., Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.