It is a curious fact that that which is the easiest form of dramatic
expression to young children is the most difficult to adolescent young
people, namely, the pantomime. This is explained by the fact that
little children enter so unconsciously into action without the use of
words, while the older ones are rendered more self-conscious by being
restricted from the use of speech. Of pantomime for little children,
the very simplest form is that of “statues,” in which the children
pose, either dressed all in white with powdered hair or with no change
of costume, to represent scenes from life, familiar people, common
trades, form of action, famous people and well defined thoughts or
feelings.
The next dramatic step is the tableaux, in which the children are
grouped at least in pairs, arranged in a frame or behind a curtain,
dressed in costume. Here, as in the statues, their own inventiveness
may be largely depended upon, as they pose to represent characters in
story-books, characters in poems, scenes from history, people of other
lands and famous pictures.
The third variety is the shadow play, in which with even simpler
properties but with more careful rehearsal the children pose as
silhouettes and employ a few dramatic gestures. In Miss Perry’s When
Mother Lets Us Act the details of all these pantomime performances are
given quite adequately.
The next step in dramatic performances is story-playing. The easiest
kind consists of simple character sketches, in which a child may
portray quickly with language as well as gesture such characters as the
father, an old witch, a newspaper boy, a school teacher. Animals may
also be imitated. Miss Perry describes a lovely acting game, which she
calls Playing Garlands.
“Garlands,” as she describes it, “is a little group of plays acted
one after the other, all a part of the same idea and each one acted
by one child only. When grandmother comes, you can have the garland
of greetings. Encircle grandmother, hand in hand. Then let each child
represent something that is glad to welcome grandmother. One represents
the chickens and struts and flutters, one represents the flowers--this
one spreads her skirts and acts like a flower; and so on. A garland
of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poems, each child taking one poem and
speaking, or singing, and acting it, is charming.”
Doctor Gesell describes the way this activity develops in the
elementary schoolroom: “Very soon the class will not be content with
one player. The boy who is trying to represent the monkey will suggest
that he have a hand-organ man; the hen will want chickens, and the
scene will go naturally and easily without dictation. It is interesting
to see how the children grow in power of representation and suggestion,
and how naturally language begins to be the necessary accompaniment
of gesture. The language of the children will be pictorial and full
of unexpected terms and phrases. At this stage of the work it will be
found helpful to put a screen between the player and the class. Such a
device adds a little mystery to the play. The effect that such work may
have upon voice culture is most significant.”
The next step will be stories with simple plot. In performing these it
is not necessary to memorize, and it is undesirable to do so. Miss Fry
in her Educational Dramatics describes in a vivid way how a story-play
evolves. Here is a bit of her monologue, in which we can easily imagine
the interruptions of the children. The play is a variant of the
Cinderella story:
“Good! Let’s begin with the Market-Place! And the crowd is there, as
the story says. What will the crowd be doing? Buying and selling, and
walking about and gossiping, as crowds always do anywhere! Yes! We can
have chairs about, to be the shops, and Cicily will be in the crowd, of
course, shabby and shy, because she is poor, and no one notices her.
O, no! Not unhappy, because she is a merry creature, even if she is
poor! Barefoot? I s’pose so! Rags? O, let’s plan the whole story first
and what they _do_, and then think about clothes and other things,
or we _never_ shall be through and doing it!
“Now what happens? The Bellman’s bell can sound outside the Square
just as in the story, and we can hear him calling, ‘O, Ye’s! O, Ye’s!’
and the bell _really_ ringing. _Then_ what will happen? The
Bellman will march in, yes! Ringing and calling, all the people of the
place will ‘come running,’ as the story says. What a lot more fun it
will be to be _doing_ it than just hearing about it! O, yes! of
_course_ they chatter at him. The story does not say _that_,
but any one would know it.”
Mrs. Braucher recommends for story-playing the following stories, some
of which lend themselves to a more permanent form of acting:
Cinderella.
Sleeping Beauty.
Hansel and Gretel.
Jack and the Beanstalk.
Snow-white.
Elves and Shoemaker.
Eleven Wild Swans.
Red Shoes.
The Cat and the Parrot.
The Golden Goose.
King Arthur and Excalibur.
The Hole in the Dike.
We come now to the performing of memorized plays by adolescent young
people. Before adolescence memorizing is of little value in dramatic
performance, unless it be of poems to be acted, because it tends to
hamper the freedom of original speech and action. Here Frederica
Beard’s sensible statement is memorable: “The dramatic instinct is
not utilized primarily by the seeing of plays, but by self-expression
in the acting out of plays suitable to a particular age.” It is the
children who have been surfeited by the drama and the moving-picture
show who regard dramatic play as tiresome. Those who are leading in
the Junior Drama League, instead of encouraging theater-going among
children, are strongest in their insistence that _children ought
to be kept from the playhouses_. Neither is it believed that the
development of dramatic expression among children is likely to increase
the number of young who go into that profession.
Development through patient drill of some capacity in the taking of
parts, on the other hand, tends to help a child to discriminate between
good and poor acting, and to appreciate all his life that which is
truly fine in this great and ancient art. But the greatest difference
between the spirit of the mother or teacher who coaches some young
people in their amateur plays and the teacher of dramatic art is that
the latter works almost entirely to specialize the actor for his
business and art of acting, while the leader of amateurs is concerned
chiefly with the results of the acting in developing the characters of
the children through this exercise of the dramatic instinct.
Something more than the dramatic instinct may be exercised through
these amateur home plays. One writer describes how once he started out
with a group of young folks to give a pantomime of Hiawatha. The boys
were to do the acting while he read part of the poem aloud. This seemed
to be such an easy thing to do that they had not planned to have the
preparations last more than a month, but they took all winter. The
boys got so interested in making the costumes and painting the scenery
that they worked enthusiastically week after week in doing so. They
made their costumes out of brown cambric or denim, which was easily
fringed. Their moccasins were made of the same material, and beads were
liberally used on the moccasins and the bracelets. “Scalps” were made
of old switches of false hair, and the blades of the tomahawks were
very realistic with red paint. They secured old Christmas trees from
the public gardens, they set up a tent of their own devising, they had
a camp fire, lighted by red electric bulbs, they had scenery of their
own painting and they even had a moon of their own which rose more or
less spasmodically.
When the boys put on their warpaint and performed their dance, to
an Indian chant of their own invention, under red fire, they were
positively gruesome, and the dramatic climax of Hiawatha’s wedding
was glorious in the extreme. Evidently, in these exercises it was not
the dramatic instinct alone that counted, though that was central
throughout, but the gang spirit was behind it all, and the handicraft
instinct became involved, while music, art and the love of literature
all found their place.
Miss Cora Mel Patten, who has had a varied experience in coaching
young people in connection with the playgrounds and social centers
of Chicago, advises that for the best results the leader should deal
only with small groups. She believes that intensive work carried on
patiently and for a long time with a moderate-sized dramatic club
is more effective than the ambitious endeavor to deal with a large
company. As in all social work that amounts to anything, it seems
better to get somewhere with a few than merely to start with the many.
In the small group the mob spirit is entirely absent, and if it be a
selected company, everybody is in earnest. These statements suggest
that the pageant, which is becoming so popular, is worth while for its
patriotic and inspirational rather than its dramatic opportunities.