The aims of the Educational Dramatic League are exactly those tut v.ai LhAl by Miss Herts and Mrs. Sheridan Fry when founding the Children's Educational Theatre, with the advantage of extended scope. The League does not encourage the making of actors, but seeks to guide the existing dramatic instinct of the child, for the profit of all concerned, both intellectually and emotionally. The visiting side of the work is being developed, and various charitable and other institutions gladly welcome the merriment that these youngsters are able to carry with them from outside. When cast for a part in a play a child refers to the history, geography and customs of the country or locality in which the play has been set, builds tip the particular costume, studies the lit erary and elocutionary values of his or her part, to fit into the ensemble, and directly and indi rectly absorbs many a lesson in an entertaining way, the work not being without its difficulties at every step. So that, far from the child lying in danger of finding it:elf drawn into the net of that fell disease, "stage-struckness," it has been very properly urged that our little hero or heroine receives such a foretaste of the difficul ties of the actor's lot, robbing it of all glamour; that the experience proves an almost unfailing antidote — except in the case of either the elect or the incurable — not to be prevented or gain said under any system.
Nothing is more popular or more fruitful Of good results in the settlement and neighbor hood and recreation centres of the large cities than this dramatic activity of the children. In the Little Theatre of Hull House special pro-, ductions of children's plays are given every year. The Boston Women's Educational and Industrial Union has established an association, •The Children's Players,* organized from among cdllege and private dramatic clubs. At the House of Play, a little theatre in Washing ton, D. C., the best plays for young people are regularly given by children for children, under the auspices of the Drama League. In such ways (and volumes of instances might be quoted) highest art appreciations are formed and the taste educated against inferior work.
Aside from the foregoing types of plays and playing, the readiest means found by children throughout all history for the expression of the dramatic instinct has been by dances, action songs and games. In the natural sequence these have, as times and occasions permitted, de veloped into the festival and the pageant. In the olden pastoral life of civilized, and even uncivilized peoples, it was usual for the young to join with the adults in the sports and pas tithes of the festal days. The only concern the schools of organized communities had with these till lately was in the granting of holidays to the children. Then came the rise of machin ery and factories, the spread of large cities and the consequent depopulation of the rural dis tricts (particularly in Anglo-Saxon countries).
With the introduction of these conditions the old-fashioned revels were gradually forgotten, and the natural instinct of the people for shows and showing was kept aflame only through *ectatorship, fatuous and empty enough, for the most part. It could hardly be a matter of surprise that the sober-sided Puritans resisted these stupid entertainments, not realizing causes. But since it has been clearly demon strated that there is no more refining influence than where the people of all ages are freely encouraged to play in common, especially where that play has a picturesque and emotional and intellectual tendency, our Puritan friends have been among the staunchest supporters of this community art. Meanwhile, it became the cus tom for the schools to initiate more or less formal celebrations on state occasions, on fes tal and commemoration days, and at the com mencement or close of the school year. These, however, were only a little less severely dis ciplined than the regular lessons. John Ruskin, himself of Puritan Scotch descent, is said to have been the first to instigate ;t Mange from these methods in his suggestions for the revival of the ancient spirit of May Day. Since then the growth of the genuine festival cheer, both in and out of schools, has been in the ascend ant. Commencement exercises and other such functions have partaken of the freer spirit of olden time revelry; and a wide appeal for the use of dramatics, even during lesson-hours, for the sake of a fuller and richer education, has met with pronounced success in • Europe, the United States and the English colonies. Decla mation, dramatization, singing, dancing, histori cal and fancy costume-making are now being treated as integral parts of the curriculum of the finer sort of school, where formerly these subjects were accounted mere "fads and frills,* appropriate only for the overtime or teachers and pupils. )f distinc tion are now generally of the opinion that the various branches of children's dramatics co ordinate all other subjects (language, literature, history, geography, etc.), that they considerably augment young people's power of understanding all other lessons by visible and tangible aids and supply the fundamental test of all literature die oral. Then, again, not only does the pupil gain a lively impetus in his general work by study and rehearsal on his own account, but also by the spontaneous and often stimulating co-operation with other performers. At every point do the enthusiastic teachers descry some gain resulting from these methods, not the least gain being the world-wide demand for a more intellectual theatre, with which the chil dren's dramatic movement has been con current.