PN 1701 .S7 Copy 1 PN 1701 .S7 Copy 1 ^ m AMA LEAGUE OF AMERICA EXECUTIVE OFFICE: 736 MARQUETTE BUILDING, CHICAGO ^he Study of Drama in the High School 3u ALICE HOWARD SPAULDING January 19 13 m Copyright 1913, by Drama League of America m <^\n Drama League of America Executive Office: 736 Marquette Building, Chicago Telephone Randolph 3622 PRESIDENT Mrs, Charles Howard Besly - Hinsdale, 111. SECRETARY Mrs. Harry P. Jones - 5529 Cornell Avenue, Chicago TREASURER Mr. William T. Abbott Chicago Vice-President Central Trust Co. of Illinois VICE-PRESIDENTS Mrs. Herman Landauer ----- Chicago Chairman Finance Committee Dr. Richard Burton ----- Minneapolis Mrs. E. P. Sherry ------ Milwaukee Mr. Louis K. Anspacher ----- New York Mr. Frank Chouteau Brown ----- Boston Mrs. Otis Skinner ------ Philadelphia Chairman Drama-Study Department Prof. Brander Matthews, Columbia University, New York DIRECTORS Prof. George P. Baker ------ Boston Mrs. Enos M. Barton ----- Hinsdale, 111. Mrs. A. Starr Best - — - - - Evanston, 111. Chairman Publicity Committee Mrs. Wilbur F. Blackford * ■* - - - Chicago Mrs. John H. Buckingham / '- - - - - Chicago Mrs. George B. Carpenter" ----- Chicago Mr. Hobart C. Chatfield-Taylor - - - - Chicago Mr. S.H.Clark Chicago Mr. Theodore B. Hinckley Chicago Chairman Educational Committee Miss Alice M. Houston - - - - Evanston, 111. Chairman Playgoing Committee Mr. Eames MacVeagh Chicago Mrs. Ira Nelson Morris - Chicago Mr. John C. Shaffer Chicago Mrs. Paul Shorey ------- Chicago Mr. John E. Williams Streator, 111. This article in briefer form was first published in the leaflets of The New England Association of Teachers of English ©CI.A3307 The Study of Drama in the High School AVING always been extremely fond of the theater, and having retained in my memory delightful recollections of reading in school The Merchant of Venice and Mac- beth, in preparation for seeing them produced, I was attracted during my college days to a course bearing the title, "History of the Drama." From the first day that I attended the course I found it a delight — and a wonder. Why had nobody in school ever told me that there had been other play-writers besides Shakspere? Why had 1 never read Goldsmith, Sheridan, and others ? With much hesitation, and ashamed of my disloyalty, 1 came to the conclusion that my course in high school, which I had deemed so broad, was peculiarly narrow. I wondered why it was. Two years later I began to teach, and then I saw a few reasons why: there were so many other things to do; there was so much the tendency in the teaching of English to keep The Study of Drama in the High School along the beaten path; there were so few books available; and there was so much of the old prejudice against anyone or anything con- nected with the stage. By frequent friendly talks with pupils then and since, I gradually learned much concerning their acquaintance with theatrical matters and their tastes; and I came to see that my own interest in the sub- ject was the least important consideration. The schools which paid elaborate attention to in- struction in the laws of embroidery, music, and art were doing nothing to inculcate in future citizens equally high standards of the drama. Boys, and sometimes girls, were going once a week, or oftener, to see vulgar musical come- dies, lurid melodramas, or so-called "problem plays" with little or no claim to truth or artistic merit. If something really good came to town they stayed away; they inferred, from expe- rience in school, that anything which could by any chance be called artistic or literary must be "something stupid that you picked to pieces," as one of my pupils once denned a classic. The parents of these pupils were no help either. They felt secure with a Shakspere play, which they might attend with the feeling of perform- ing a sacred duty, but beyond that they merely "knew what amused them." The Study of Drama in the High School Here, then, was an opportunity which the school was failing to grasp: the theater, a powerful force in society, was being absolutely ignored, and the drama, containing some of the noblest work in all literature, was being treated as unworthy to take its place with the other arts. Following these observations have succeeded five years of experimenting in the formulation of a course in the history and technique of the drama, which would meet the needs of high- school pupils. Even yet, the plan is not en- tirely satisfactory — but each class helps me to come a little nearer an adequate working plan, and each of the last three years I have enjoyed the inestimable privilege of courses in history of drama and playwriting under the instruction of Professor G. P. Baker, of Harvard, whose interest and co-operation have been of the greatest aid in all my problems. Without these courses, or their equivalent in individual research, I do not see how it is possible to do justice to work in the drama, an art which is so much misunderstood. The course, as it stands at present, consists of two parts: I, History; II, Technique. These two parts, carried on partly by lectures, The Study of Drama in the High School partly by class discussion have a threefold aim: (i) to give the students a cursory view of the development of the drama, and the forces con- tributing thereto, from the fifteenth century to the present; (2) to give the students enough knowledge of the technique of dramatic art to enable them to discriminate a little more correctly between what is true and beautiful and what is false and inartistic in the plays which they read or see; (3) to make them so much enjoy what is good that they will cease to be satisfied with anything lower. Hence, it is evident that the two subjects, while con- sidered here under two separate heads, must be carried on more or less at the same time. The textbooks which can be used for systematizing and illustrating the subject are: Mario Borsa, The English Stage of Today (Lane) Clayton Hamilton, The Theory of the Theater Montrose J. Moses, American Dramatists Brander Matthews, The Study of the Drama (Houghton Mifflin Co.) Manly, Specimens of Elizabethan Drama (Ginn) The "Belles Lettres Series" (Heath) Certain volumes in "Everyman's Library" The Study of Drama in the High School Dr. Elizabeth Woodbridge, The Drama; Its Laws and Technique Dr. Alfred Hennequin, The Art of Play-writing William Archer, Play-making The plan of the course, accompanied by wide supplementary reading and frequent dis- cussion of current plays as illustrative material, is as follows: I. Technique: i. What Constitutes a Play. 2. Characterization — Interest, Truth, Value of Char- acters, Variety and Contrast. 3. Plot and Story — Definition of Terms; Action, Exposition; Unity, Clearness, Emphasis, Proportion; Suspense, Cli- max, Interest. 4. Dialogue — Truth, Value, Inter- est. 5. Theme — Novelty, Interest, Fitness. 6. Set- ting. 7. Kinds of Drama — Comedy, Tragedy, Mediated Forms; or, Story Play, Character Play, Play of Ideas. II. History: 1. Lectures on Classic Drama and Theater. 2. Antigone, Agamemnon, or Medea, and one comedy. 3. Lectures on Tropes and Miracles. 4. Sacrifice of Isaac, Noah's Flood, and Secunda Pastorum. 5. Lecture on Moralities. 6. Discussion of one ancient and one modern morality. 7. Ralph Roister Doister. 8. Lecture on Elizabethan Theater. 9. One play each of Lyly and Kyd; two of Christo- pher Marlowe. 10. Lecture on Shakspere and his accomplishment, n. Discussions of six plays of Shakspere. 12. Lectures on Restoration Period, The Study of Drama in the High School Heroic Drama, Great Actors. 13. Lecture on Goldsmith and Sheridan. 14. Two plays each of Goldsmith and Sheridan. 15. Lectures on Drama of Early Nineteenth Century: Romantic Period and Closet Drama. 16. One play each of Lytton, Tennyson, and Browning. 17. Lecture on Robert- son and His Influence. 18. One play of Robert- son. 19. Lectures on Modern Drama: Gilbert and Sullivan; Ibsen and His Influence; Pinero, Jones, Wilde, Shaw; The Irish and Manchester Movements; Theories of Reinhart and Craig. 20. One play of Ibsen. 21. One play each of Pinero, Jones, Wilde; two or three of Shaw, Yeats, Synge, and other modern writers. 2 2 . A long paper : criticism of a current play, exposition of a move- ment in field of drama, or other assigned topic. In adapting this outline to his own special case, the reader should bear in mind several points. In the first place, the outline is not followed rigidly: two lectures may be ex- panded to five, if the class is interested enough to interrupt and ask for the application of cer- tain technical principles to a concrete case. The pupils' questions are always given prece- dence over the planned work, and the freest discussion of plays with which the class is ac- quainted is urged. The class may be one whose highest ideal is Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl; in which case the discussion The Study of Drama in the High School starts with that as a basis. We look at the play honestly and without any spirit of derision to see where the plot is old, where the incidents are forced and unreal, where the characteri- zation is inconsistent and untrue — or where, perchance, it is right. Under no circumstances is any individual's opinion ridiculed, even though he may rate nameless melodramatists on a plane with the immortal William. By thus giving each pupil confidence in his own judgment, we get the frankest statement of tastes. And one of the delights to the person conducting the course is to observe the gradual — and unconscious — change of the pupils' tastes, as manifested in the written papers or personal conversations. Finally, the plays discussed formally in class represent but a small portion of the pupil's reading. The supplementary reading, however, I do not take into consideration at all in marking the pupils. They understand that it is for pleasure and to furnish a source from which they may choose plays for frequent written discussions. Of course, too, the reports, consisting merely of the amount read each week, serve the instructor as a sort of thermometer for measuring the en- thusiasm. It is the rare pupil who does not report at least four extra hours a week. The Study of Drama in the High School The written criticisms I consider of the ut- most importance to the students as a means of clarifying their thought; and I find that the students themselves agree with me, since their comments on last year's course expressed almost unanimous desire that the number of review papers and essays discussing the prob- lems in technique be increased. These criti- cisms, from four to twelve pages in length, are generally built more or less closely around the following outline, which I dictate early in the course. This scheme the pupils may apply to any play which they read or see within the next twenty-four hours. They realize that the outline is merely suggested as a help, and is not intended to hamper or restrict them; so, as their knowledge and discrimination in- creases, their own individuality covers the bones of the skeleton more and more adequately. Outline for Dramatic Criticism I. Characterization i. Are the characters types or individuals? 2. Are they equally interesting? true to life ? necessary ? 3. Is there contrast and variety among them? 4. What roles offer special opportunity to the actor? The Study of Drama in the High School II. Plot and Story i. Statement of Plot (Formula: A desires to accomplish .... but is opposed by B. The result is X) 2. Interest and novelty a) of material b) of treatment 3. Clearness a) Exposition b) Action 4. Emphasis or Proportion — Right or Wrong a) Plots b) Incidents c) Exposition and Action 5. Unity 6. Contrast and Variety 7. Suspense and Climax 8. Denouement — is it inevitable result of what has preceded ? III. Dialogue 1. Interest 2. Truth to Life 3. Value — is it useful or merely literary? IV. Theme 1. Appeal — is it general or special? 2. Novelty and Timeliness 3. Ethical Value 4. Dramatist's Attitude toward Theme^ — is it partisan ? The Study of Drama in the High School V. Setting, or Environment i. Degree of Interest 2. Relation of Setting to Plot and Characters 3. Devices for Acquainting Audience with Setting VI. Classification of Play, and Arguments There- for VII. General Remarks 1. Interest, Novelty, Literary Merit of Play as Whole 2. Relative Importance of Plot, Character, and Dialogue 3. Timeliness, Truth to Life, Ethical Impor- tance 4. Acting Parts This outline indicates also the line of thought followed in general in the class discussions. Of course, there come in all sorts of related questions the discussion of which we never postpone, for they are generally suggested by some interested student. Some of those raised last year were: What is there in Every- man which makes it grip even a modern audi- ence ? Wherein lies Shakspere's superiority as a dramatist over his contemporaries ? What is there in The School for Scandal and The Rivals which makes them still so popular? Why were Tennyson's and Browning's plays The Study of Drama in the High School failures when produced? Could not a good play be made out of The Lady of Lyons if a less sentimental writer did it over ? Is it true that Ibsen is an immoral writer? What makes a play moral or immoral? Don't you think Wilde's wit is very self-conscious ? Are Shaw's later plays as good technically as his earlier ones ? There is another way in which the technical side of the work may be made to appeal to the more enthusiastic pupils. At the beginning I say to the class that if there are any who would like to try their hand at writing a one- act play, I shall be glad to help them. I urge nobody to write — the attempt must be vol- untary — but I get some very interesting results. Of course, the greatest difficulty is to dissuade the more ambitious from a five-act tragedy in the Shaksperian mode, so confident are they at first. The first year in which the oppor- tunity was offered I received one long morality in blank verse and a delightful little mediaeval drama also in verse; but these were the work of two very unusual girls and do not by any means represent the average. The following year I received a farce which was presented by the seniors at their annual social. It was crude, of course, but it compared favorably The Study of Drama in the High School with many which we have obtained from the play-dealers; and the important point was that the author learned a vast deal about drama construction in the writing, revising, and re- hearsing of his own little play. The next year I received three plays, one of which was revised, and given at the senior social. Last year I had a little humorous play in the morality mode, interesting for its atmosphere. This sort of work is, of course, done entirely out of class by means of conferences with the teacher. I am aware that some of my co-laborers in this very exigent field are beginning to wonder how I manage to get this amount of time to spend on an "extra." In the first place, I do not consider the work an extra, but, rather, of prime importance; in the second, I am merely concentrating my attention for four or five months on a subject which, in most schools, is treated four or five times, one month at a time, during the four years. Moreover, assum- ing that out of the forty months available we devote fifteen to rhetoric and composition and twenty-five to literature, it does not seem to me disproportionate to spend four consecutive months in hard study of drama, when we have twenty-one remaining to devote to the novel, The Study of Drama in the High School the essay, and poetry. In detail, however, the four years' course in literature is arranged as follows : Freshman Year. First half — Gayley's Classic Myths and Old Testament Narratives; second half — American Literature and one Shakspere comedy. The pupils' attention is directed to the story, the characterization, the comic relief, and the beautiful poetry, some of which is committed to memory. The pupils grow very much interested in planning stage sets and costumes and in deciding how certain scenes should be acted, drawing the evidence for their arguments from the text. Again, as in Midsummer-Night's Dream, they like to know that it was probably written for a wedding celebration, and to find out for themselves the various ways in which Shakspere has handled his material to suit the occasion. In this way they come to perceive the right emphasis of the plots and the purpose that each serves. Here, too, of course, will enter inevitably questions and discussion concerning the com- parative merits of this and other plays which they have seen. Sophomore Year. Rapid readings illus- trating the literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Sheridan's Rivals and The Study of Drama in the High School Goldsmith's two plays are suited to this year and may be read with sufficient thoroughness in ten recitations, studying especially emphasis of plot, type-figures, and varying excellence of dialogue. Junior Year. The nineteenth-century poets and novelists. Senior Year. Burke for five weeks; Milton for six weeks; and Shakspere, who is treated merely as one — even if the most important — figure in the development of the drama. His w r ork is illustrated by pretty careful study of the three tragedies listed among the college requirements, and more rapid reading of three of the comedies. In all we spent about four months. Some, doubtless, wonder how we get along with so little attention to the philological side of the text. It seems to me that the teaching of literature is a matter of proportion and of judicious omission. I suppose that much of the text does go by my pupils without their succeeding in grasping its full meaning, but that disturbs me little. Of course, matters of text that affect the pupil's appreciation of the play as a whole must be explained; but I prefer to omit minute dissection and devote my time to making the pupils so interested The Study of Drama in the High School in the book or play that they will care to read it over and over, finding for themselves more perfect understanding with each reading. Indeed, I measure the value of the course to the special class chiefly by the degree of my success in accomplishing this purpose; also by the amount of supplementary reading done and the independence of the comments there- upon; by the degree of the pupils' ability to discuss intelligently, in writing, any drama from their outside reading; by their eagerness to discuss the subject with me and with each other, and, finally, by their comments on what they have gained or failed to gain from the course as a whole or in part. As a matter of fact, my classes are my severest critics in the matter of the efficiency of the course. They know perfectly well when I have handled a point in such a way that they fail to get the most from it, and they tell me so with perfect courtesy — and frankness, both of us under- standing that it is for the sake of the next year's class. This feeling of responsibility for the success of the experiment is one of the things which I work hard to rouse at the be- ginning of the course; and the assistance I have gained from past students has been invaluable. The Study of Drama in the High School BOOKS OF REFERENCE The English Stage of Today, Mario Borsa American Dramatists, Montrose J. Moses The Theory of the Theater, Clayton Hamilton The Study of the Drama, Brander Matthews The Drama: Its Law and Technique, Elizabeth Woodbridge The Art of Play-writing, Alfred Hennequin Play-making, William Archer PLAYS (♦Signifies for use only in classes * Agamemnon, Antigone, *Medea, Sacrifice of Isaac Noah's Flood Secunda Pastorum Everyman Ralph Roister Doister, Endimion, or Alexander and Campaspe The Spanish Tragedy, The Jew of Malta, Tamburlaine Macbeth, *Hamlet, or *Othello, or *Romeo and Juliet Julius Caesar Henry V beyond high-school age) Aeschylus Sophocles Euripides N. Udall John Lyly Thomas Kyd Christopher Marlowe William Shakspere The Study of Drama in the High School Merchant of Venice The Tempest, or As You Like It *Much Ado About Nothing , or * Taming of the Shrew Midsummer-Night 1 s Dream *Love and Honor , or The Siege of Rhodes *Aurengzebe, or The Conquest of Granada The Critic, or *The School for Scandal The Rivals The Good-Natured Man, She Stoops to Conquer Caste, Virginius, Richelieu, or The Lady of Lyons Masks and Faces, The Cup, or The Falcon, or The Foresters *Queen Mary, or * Harold, or *Becket *Colombe , s Birthday, or Strafford, or *The Blot on the Scutcheon, or In a Balcony William D'Avenant John Dryden R. B. Sheridan Oliver Goldsmith T. W. Robertson Sheridan Knowles Bulwer-Lytton Read & Taylor Alfred Tennyson Robert Browning The Study of Drama in the High School A. W. Pinero G. B. Shaw *Chastelard, or AC. Swinburne *Mary Stuart The Silver King, Henry Arthur Jones The Case of Rebellious Susan, or The Manoeuvres of Jane *Mrs. Dane's Defense The Magistrate, or The Cabinet Minister *Sweet Lavender, or *The Second Mrs. Tanqueray The Princess and the Butterfly You Never Can Tell, Arms and the Man The Devil's Disciple Caesar and Cleopatra ^Candida Captain Brassbound's Conversion *Major Barbara The Dark Ladie of the Sonnets Fanny's First Play The Importance of Being Earnest, Herod, *Paolo and Francesca Strife, ^Justice The Land of Heart's Desire, *Countess Cathleen Cathleen Ni Houlihan The Hour Glass The Shadow of the Glen, Riders to the Sea Oscar Wilde Stephen Phillips John Galsworthy W. B. Yeats J. M. Synge The Study of Drama in the High School The Playboy of the Western World The Birthright, T. C. Murray Seven Short Pl-ays, Lady Gregory *Nan, John Masefield plays (aiierican) The Witching Hour, Augustus Thomas *As a Man Thinks The Faith Healer, W. V. Moody *The Great Divide Jeanne D'Arc, Percy Mackaye The Scarecrow * Tomorrow The Servant in the House, C. R. Kennedy The Winter Feast Everywoman, Walter Browne *Marlow, J. P- P. Marks The Piper PLAYS (CONTINENTAL) Le Cid, Corneille Athalie, Racine UAvare, Moliere Le Misanthrope Les Femmes Savantes Les Precieuses Ridicules Ruy Bias, Victor Hugo Hernani Les Romanesques, E. Rostand La Princesse Lointaine UAiglon 20 1913 The Study of Drama in the High School Cyrano de Bergerac VOiseau Bleu, M. Maeterlinck An Enemy of the People, H. Ibsen Pillars of Society Peer Gynt The Lady from the Sea *The Doll's House *Ghosts Egmont, Goethe Iphegenia auf Tauris Wilhelm Tell, Schiller Jungfrau von Orleans Maria Stuart Nathan der Weise, Lessing Minna von Barnhelm The Far-Away Princess, Sudermann Thea *Heimath (Magda) The Sunken Bell, Hauptmann Hannele LIFE OF G. P. A. HEALY BY HIS DAUGHTER MARY (Madame Charles Bigot) WITH AN INTERESTING SELECTION OF HIS LET- TERS WRITTEN FROM AMERICA, SPAIN, AND ROUMANIA <* # <*