The Play's the Thing: the Need for Some Critical Perspectives in Children's Drama

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AUTHOR Gay, Carol TITLE The Play's the Thing: The Need for Some Critical Perspectives in Children's Drama. PUB DATE Nov 74 NOTE 8p.,; Paper presented at the Forum on the Criticism of Children's Literature\ at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Modern Language Association (St. Louis, Missouri, November 1974)

EDRS PRICE MF-$0.76 HC-$1.58 PLUS POSTAGE DESCRIPTORS Childrens Books; *Childrens LiteratUre; *Drama; *.Education; Language Arts; Litera;Ey Criticism; Literature; Literature Appreciatio Theater Arts

ABSTRACT In spite of the fact that there has been aninterest in children's theatre since after World War I andpractically everyone--from the Junior League to theeducationist--recognizes the need for and the value of good drama, there is adearth of good drama of 14terary worth for children. It is true thatchildren have been , exposbd to drama of some kind--there is intense interestin creative drama (especially on the part of educationists),there are anthologies of children's plays which ra from mediocre to poor in literary, quality, and there is a videsprea practice of adapting literary works for juvenile thadtre audiences. However,good drama must become part of children'slit&zature because (1) it belongs there as an accepted literary genre;'2) teachers should be able to deal with it critically and practicably on alllevels; and (3) an art form needs an active and viable body ofcriticism in order to grow in stature. (3M).

ti .- U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO DUCEO EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FkOM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN A: INC. IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED 00 NOT NECESSARILY REPRE SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY The Play's the Thing: Perspectives in Children's Drama The Need for Sane Critical pi iiMiSSIONIt)III l'I401111111 III!,COPY RIGHTED MATE RIM HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Carol Gay Carol Gay (1PI HA TIM TO I RIC AN() OFIOANIZA I H1!i1 NA I tofiAt IN UNDE MIRE I N CD Youngstown State University SMUT' OFE DU( A1tI1N F uli It+( HE PRO DUC HON OUTSIDI IHE ERIC: SY5IIM 141 THE COPYRIGHT ()LANESPEPNIi,,SION OF C:S OWNER LIJ The'intent.of this paper is toeXhort, survey, analyze, and decry: It attempts, indeed, to do too much, but solittle has been said aboutchildren's drama as a. literary art that too much needsto,be said. I would like principally to comment on some of the possible causesfor the neglect of,drama inthe field of children's literature, and by so doing, toocusattention on the need fordeveloping. critical interest in drama as a literary art, Fifty-three years ago, M. J. Moses wasdismayed at the difficulty he hadgather- ing together an anthology of plays which were writtenwith areal sense of drama and which were clothed in language oflasting literary worth. He was seeking plays that "were not written to prove anything exceptthat the more one is brought in contact the life with imaginative literature, the moreis imagination fed; and the wider adventures of fictitious characters, the morewide does our own experience'become." But though he found that "thelibrary shelves are full of story playsfroth history, material along and biographical plays. there, isstall a poverty of real dramatic Material is lying loose and no onewill use it as it should be these lines. . . . discovered that "the writing of playsfor used."Surveying the field of drama, he such plays in children has mostly been done tosatisfy the sparse means of producing the classroom, in the churchhall, or in the assembly -roan ofsettlement houses. story, on. Perfunctory courses are given in normalgrades on how to dramatize a simply how to produce it along lines ofpractical stage directing. But somehow the spirit, is being the beauty, the depth of thetheatre is missing. . . .1 am fearful that joy is driven from the plays writtenlorthe schoolroom. Remember, 'perfunctory dialogue not drama!" But w3 have notremembered.Unfortunately, in the fifty-three years with real lite- since Mbses urged us to turn ourattention to the creation' of plays no one followed his lead. rary value , briefly in his One voir:e was raitied in 1971when Dewey W. Chambers pointed out artist (alonCv Children's Literature in the CUrriculum:"The playwright is another language effectively in yet anotherform. Viiihrifie novelist andrire-TFeTTligrals The The playwright uses language in adrimatic form to communicatehis ideas. when script is the technique he employs totell his story.- It is a rare occurrence The whole issue of a language orreading text will offer a goodscript to children. authors of some of 'our the script and drama seems tohave been neglected by the ren,have little opportunity .better textbooks. The result, of course,s that child to interact with thisform of literere.' experiences of real Is there an explanation forthe dearth of exciting dramatic failure of all the major literary worth for children? Is there a reason for the to include drama as a texts and anthologies usedin Children's literature courses legitimate literary genre? children's literature At a recent conference ofpeople interested in approaching of children's from a scholarly and criticalpoint of view, someone asked a panel Two editors of well- editors why so few qualitydramas are published for children. that there had been known publishing houses statedthat attempts had been made but that no one was interested in no response fromthe public. One ventured the opinion market for them. It is putting on good plays forchildren and wherefore there was no that r, attempt' true that these remarks werecalled forth on the spur of the moment, was made to present them ascareful, soundly based explanations;however, they are worth considering at least to determineif there is any basis to the complaintthat no one is interested in putting ongood children's plays. The evidence would seem to indi:atethat there is no justification to thecharge. As a matter of fact, it is paradoxicalthat while children's drama as aliterary form is almost non-existent, children'stheater is now at a peak. Interest in the Children's Theater movementdeveloped in America after World WarI. We began to realize that "No art canbecome a vital, moving force in a countryunless the children grow up in it, umless it is partof their lives from the time they are very young." These are the words of Winifred Ward, oneof the voices in children's theater that made us realize this'(that is, those of uswho do). There were many organizations and many individuals that made children'stheater a reality. Junior Leagues throughout the country played an active part (andstill do) in founding and maintainingtheaters for youngsters. Many universities, such as Rifts andNorthwestern and the California colleges, not only founded children's theatersbut began dramatic programs totrain the actors and crews to staff them.Theaters were founded and fundedin a variety of only) ways. The Nashville Children's Theatre was thefirst (and perhaps even yet the one to be funded by amunicipal bond issue._ There is even onesupported by the Community Chest. There are touring companies, amateurcompanies, and professional companies. There have been important names in thehistory of children's theater in Northwestern University and America: Winifred Ward, for instance, for many years at the author of many books; and CharlotteB. Chorpenning, who breathedlife into the Goodman Children's Theatre in Chicago. Probably the most significant indicationof the importance and widespread interestin children's theater was theChildren's Theatre Conference first held in 1944under the auspices of the AmericanEducational Theatre Association. The annual conferenCe serves as aclearing house and mediumof communication for all thoSe interestedin'providing an active theater forchildren, and grew out of the Children's TheatrePress, which was founded in 1935. beneficiaries of It has been estimated that overfive million children are, the it is important the Children's Theatre in America.As impressive as this figure is, it is still the to note that no matter how manychildren the theater groups can reach, The teacher is teacher in the classroom who reachesand touches the most children. lead him to appreci- 'the one who must first kindle aspark of interest in the child and with ate and love and understandquality drama. Those who are dedicated to working children's theater in this countrydeserve the support and theintelligent, educated literary point help of the classroom teicher whohas been introduced to drama from a rof view and who can help children torespond to it in the theater. children's litera- Nor can we blame the absenceof any consideration of drama in will not have the ture textbooks and anthologies onthe supposition that the teacher recent opportunity to deal with it in theclassroom. Paradoxically again, many of the and junior high class- basal readers and literaryanthologies used in the elementary rooms include sections ondrama and at least one formal playfor each reading level. the few quality plays To their credit, the editorshave chosen relatiVely wisely among available to them. They have either stuck to thefew artists of proven literary you've men- worth--like A. A. Milne--who have writtenplays for children (and after that are at tioned Milne, the list dwindlesdrastically), or they have picked dramas exclusively, void of least adequately written,although on the whole, indeed almost seeking in children's the "spirit, the beauty, thedepth of the theatre" that Moses wns drama. League to the educa- Why is it, then, thatpractically everyone from the Junior drama--practically everyone, that tionists recognize, the needfor and the value of good is,except those in the fieldof children's literature?And why, with more of a and in market--in the form of an activechildren's theater throughout the country before, why is there television, commercial and public --than, drama has ever enjoyed such a dearth of good dramaof real literary worth forchildren? inappropriate for children, or Some might answer that dramaby its very nature is at hest is appropriate only in certain forms--farce and melodrama, for instance. After all, comedy, in its traditional definition, is socialcriticism with an !,ye on indicating the ludicrousness of the individual trying to adapt tothe illogicalities and immoralities of a mad world, and tragedy deals with man'sdefeat by the forces ranged against him--both supposedly beyond the ken of the child. But if we ;accept as valid the critical approach outlined'sby C.S. Lewis in "On Three Ways cif Writing for Children," there is no reason why weshouldn't expect, even demand, children's plays of significance and literary quality. Lewis admonishes: Nothing seems to me more fatal, for this art, than an idea thatwhatever we share with children is, in the privatl sense, "childish" and that whatever is childish ii somehow comic. We must meet children as equals in that area of our nature where weare equals. Our superiority consists partly in commanding other areas, and partly (which is more relevant) in the fact that we are better at telling stories thanthey are. The child as reader is neither to be patronized nor idolized; we talk. to him as man to man. But the worst attitude of all would be the professional attitude which regards children in the lump as a sort of

raw material which we have to handle. . . . We must not imagine that we are Providence or Destiny. I will not say.that a good story could never be written by someone in the Ministry of Education, for allthings are possible? But I should lay very long odds against it.° Perhaps our failure to remember Lewis's words is one explanationfor the lack of children's plays of any literary worth. It is only the playwright who has. forgotten them, however; the novelists have not.And of course the children have taken to their hearts those works written from this persptive and conceived on this basis:books The Upstairs Roam, Man Without a. Face,, like Charlotte's Web, The Hobbit, ;01.9rWe , Sounder, lbw 14' 7files ,toliTylbn FrTif7g eng y AriatiEig from the merely competent to t iITTNnt--but the point is that the. best children's writers write L- children because, as Lewis. states, "a children's story isthe best art-form". for wkit they have to say; he ventures further and speculates that"this method-could apply to other kinds of children's literature besidesstories."' It's time to start applying it to children's drama. In this genre we find statements such asthe following to put beside Lewis's: "Of course you can always make your dramatization of some familiar story. However, writing a good children's play, evenwhen it is an adaptation, takes time--easily from two to four Weeks. at fulltime M. J. Mbses, in the same introduction that I cited previously,:dismayedat the lack of dramatic quality in play offerings fifty years ago,concluded in words that are significant today and thatecho Lewis's: whenever.an art becomes the hand-maiden of education, itsuffers by reason of the fact that it is cramped into shape to prove sometheory,

to demonstrate some principle. . . With the discovery, of "dramatic instinct," "expiession as an aid to reading," "gestureas a way toward grace and fr eedom "- -anti the other symptomsgrouped under the one head of "educational dramatics," a mushroom growth of playshas sprung up to illustrate certain reactions todramatic stimuli, forecast by the educators. They are now running to the drama as a catch-alland a cure-all for every 3ocial evil; plays for social betterment,for nationalization, ...or farm and fireside, for group consciousnessand community pride, are bein7 written plentifully, but they areeither too local or so timely tht they arescarcely suited for print, since the cause for them qtly vanishes. Drama, in other words, has bf.N.:41 all too eagerlyembraced by educators. And with the advent not only of"educationl iramatics" but also of "creative dramatics" and "psychodrama," the problem l5 ittknwified. Creative drama (it,has beceme so popular and sowidespread that the term needs little definition) differs frxt literarydrama in that the emphasis is not on the result or on the creation of Krt but. on the encouragementof creathity on the part

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of the child. Its purpose is to involve the chil to get him to participate. It is a sound and worthy educational technique and can heextremely successful., Most of those who are knowledgeable in the field encouragestarting with a good book, and thus it is a vehicle for getting the childinvolved in good literature. Winifred Ward, for instance, states that the child gains much morewhen he works from.the plot and characters of a masterfully told story thanwhen he attempts to create from scratch or when creative drama is used only as avehicle for learning, say, a history lesson.luThus, creative drama is a way of gettinginto literature. The beklefits. of creative dramaare so many that there is adanger-IY-Might blind us to the benefits of formal drama as a literary art. Indeed, a widely used children's literature text summarily dismisses. formal drama and states that ithas no place in the elementary classroom.11 But there is danger, I think, inbecoming so utterly caught up with creative drama or educational dramatics thatWe use them as substitutes for formal drama. Encouraging the child to articulate his ownideas is a worthy goal, the value of which should not be underestimated; but it isimportant to remember that the more the child adapts a story, the more he puts of himselfinto the story, the further he moves away from the story as aunified work of art. The story's style, of course, is the first thing to go; its mood, its tone,the careful balance of elements that make up a work of art, flee soon after.All that remains is the plot line; the theme becomes nothing but 4 moral tagwithout the other elements which give it significance and depth. Further, thereis a danger that the childwill come to think of a '.'play" as only a matterof dialogue, that in a novel words arearranged one way, and in a play, another. The thousands of so- called adaptationsof favorite children's works and cf folk tales are all too frequently built onthis notion. In other words, there is no idea of the play as a formalworki-artwith a form and a technique that go far beyond a simple arrangementof words, a changing of "John said" to"John:". Creative drama, then, must have an important placein the elementary curriculum; its benefits are too many to be ignored. Creativedrama must be encouraged; it must be used in the classroom, but it should beused by teachers who have a firmgrounding in literary'principles, who know that creativedrama is not drama and who can lead theit pupils not only to be creative andarticulate and involved but to appreciate the glories of the written work of art as well. The intense interest in creative dramahas not totally wiped out interest inthe printed word, although the interest seams tobe mostly on the part of the educationists. The fact is that there are many booksof plays available. Without' any available body of criticism, withal* any standards, or even,indeed, any interest exhibited in creating or upholding standards of literaryquality, there is quite a large biblio- graphy of children's plays. The quality is extremely uneven, rangingfrom the mediocre

. to the shockingly bad. We can make no attempt here at criticallyevaluating the whole range of children's drama; it is something, however, thatbadly needs doing. Critical attention should be focussed on anthologies that include such a"play" as Pert Wise, which closes with these inspiring lines: Rack it up and stack it up, And stash your cash away-- Sunshine's daylight saving time Before that rainy day.

In a row the dollars grow, The bankbook says how many, But every dollar crisp and green Started with a penny:12 The purpose of this play, lest youmistake, is to teach the childthe value of money; its subtitle is "A Play about moneyand thrift." Or there is TheWonderful Circus of Words: A Play about the its ofspeech. Very up-to-date and`TriBENEWTREFi-- qunity,-but just as matt c, ritheHtecent WalkTopther: Fiveplays on Human Rights. Gay S

and senior high school An advertisement for a recentanthology for use, in junior wildly impro- ingredients for successfulcomedy are found here: states that "All the impre- bable situations, such as ameeting between Shakespeareand a tough theatrical Zeke and Zack, a pair of sario (Avon Calling); crusty,tight-lipped characters like (A Couple of RightSmart ,Yankee farmers with a knackfor outwitting city slickers lovelies wieldingcriTE, in Fellows;; uproarious onstageaction, featuring cave-girl Miss Stone-A4e!)"13 It hardly needs tobe said 5Faistoric beauty pageant (Meet further, they are that plays of this sort arecoigaiirliaiiig in literary value; They are, indeed,quite usually sexist, racist, andstereotyped in every respect. dangerous. perhaps, is the widespreadpractice of"adapting." Also to give us pause, Juliet has,been adapted for juvenileplay-goers from Romeo and Practically everything endless-.---WITFtime a and Tolstoi. The list is depressingly to Nathaniel Hawthorne Shakespeare that he child is an adult, he has seen so manywretched "adaptations" of theater only as a place to"relax" and turn can react only toparody, or he sees the powerful drama, eithertragedy or comedy. off his mind rather thanhave it engaged with "palatable" form, we encouragethe In our anxiety to bringliterature to children. in a succeeds only indestroying the transforming of novels andstories into dialogue which into the beauties ofdrama original work of art and infailing to initiate the child anxious to use drama as.anintroduction as a true artform. We are frequently too important art form in its ownright; the to literature ratherthan viewing it as an failure to deal withanother. We result is the destructionof one art form and.the though it were somethingautomatic, talk pompously about the"magic of the theater" as the theater" is the creativespark struck by the a thing initself. But the "magic of and'the weience creatingtogether. In actors and thedirector and the playwright playwright is a crucialelement that no theater for adults, thedramatic art of the of doing without.MUst it be different forchildren? one would dream frequently blindlysought.' The values of drama arewidely recognized and all too with the phrase "Educa- And blindness leads toexploitation. One publishing house that over three hundredand seventy tional Book Corporation"in its title advertises include, as a sellingfeature, an school systems use itsdramatic offerings, which The "play" opens with abrief adaptation of the O'Henry story,"A'Service of Love." introduction: both come to New York tomake Joe Larrabee andDelia Caruthers had Delia was a singer. They met, their fortunes. Joe was an artist. happy. Their fell in love, got married,and for a while were very study art only trouble wastheir lack of money. It takes money to That and study singing, and very soonthey had no money at all. artist, and each wasambi- were they to do?Each was an ambitious tious for the other. it won't pay But ambition won't payfor art or singing lessons; So did Joe. the rent or buygroceries, either. Delia had an idea. But a little trick of They kept these ideas secretfrom each other. them how close their fate (the usual 0. Henrysurprise ending) showed And isn't that the wayit .ideas were to each other. Really close. with etch other?14 ought to be, with twopeople-who are so much in love O'Henry never turned outsuch hackneyed As low as his positionis in American letters, is, of course, not a play atall but a mere this. The play that follows prose as minus O'Henry'sdescrip- transcription of O'Henry'sdialogue, edited and simplified, added to provide transitionand setting. The tive passages. An "announcer" has been that result destroy theflair for form that 0!Henry possesses, imbalance and distortion in- literary worth the taleitself Mks. Advertised as "easy and and blur what little from written in living speech tointerest any young person viting to read . . . , the ." such plays can onlydeaden a student's ear to fifth grade throughtenth . . rich and varied cadencesand rhythms of hislangUage. child's attention and thathave been To be sure, there areplays that are worth a and power of languageand who created by writers whohave an awareness of the range 6 Gay 6

know what they are about. But it cannot be denied that there is a great need for some critical perspectives in children'sdrama. It is absolutely essential for drama to be taken into the fold of children's literature. It is necessary, first, because it belongs there as an accepted literary genre; second, because the teacher is ex- pected to be able to deal with it critically and practically in the classroom onall levels; and third, because anartform needs an active and viable)body of criticism in order to grow in stature. Children's drama needs children's literature and children's literature needs children's drama.

Youngstown State University

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Footnotes

1Mbntrose J. Moses, ed., A.Treasury of Plays forChildren (Boston, 192.1), p. 542.

l.,bses,pp. 543-45.

3This statement is based on a survey of books andperiodical articles of the last fifty years. The survey was made more difficult sinceVirginia Haviland's excellent Children's Literature: A-Guide to Reference Sources does notinclude drama in its variouscategories cMaren'TirteTattTtiT;nor do any of 'the majorchildren's literature texts or anthologies. (Arbuthnot; Nelson;Johnson, Sickels, and Sayers; Huber; Andersonand Groff; Gorgiu). All the major critics in the field (L.Smith, Townsen4 Egoff, Hazard, Heins, Haviland) are silent ondrama. Anextensivebiblio- graphy could be compiled of the works available oncreative drama, pSychodrama, and practical play production. Such works are not concerned with the play asliterary art and, if they approach the matter at all.deal with it only briefly in sections on play selection; theirapproach isoutlinedmore fully in the bodyof this paper. Encouraging, perhaps, is the recent birth of Drama, anEnglish periodical edited by Nancy Davis; "encouraging" because it is theTOYthing on the-,horizon, "perhaps" because it remains to be seen how much emphasiswill be placed on a critical approach to formal drama. I should also mention two unpublisheddissertations which are valuable, but of course, notof much use to the ordinary classroomteacher: Kenneth L. Graham, AnIntroluctoryry of Evaluation of Plays for Children's Theatre (Utah,19527 andWilliam FF. ings7y, HappyEnd's,PoeiTEJUalre-Wid the pl221h.and Stren th of Characterization in American Analysi7(.ittsrgET INS).

41Jewe) W. Chambers, Children'sliterature in the Curriculum (Chicago,1971), p. 122.

SWinifred Ward, quoted in Theatre ArtS, 41 (May 1947), 66.

6C. S. Lewis, "On Three Ways of Writing for Children," in Only Connect,el: S. Egoff, G. T, Stubbs, L. F. Ashley(New York, 1969), p. 219.

7Lewis, p. 208.

8Robert C. Kase, Children's Theatre Comes ofAgE, for School, 221s12. and L!xrCararlit Theatres(New Yorke, lgS6), p.3O.

Noses,p. 543.

"Winifred Ward, Pla ms.akinwith Children from Kindergarten to High School. (New York, 1947), p.

11Charlotte Huck and Doris A. Young, Children'sLiterature in the Elementary School (New York, 1961), p. 424.

12Claire Boiko, Children's Plays for Creative Actors (Boston, 1967), p.

13Plays, 33 (January 1974), back cover.

14Henry Gilfond, American Plays forReading(New York, 1966), intro.