In the Middle West, the interest in dramatic work in colleges and universities is almost un bounded. Ohio University, the oldest seat of higher learning in the °Old North West? finds that no department of the university evokes a broader and deeper concern than the school of oratory, of which the Players Club is the out growth. There is a course in dramatics giving a full knowledge of stage technique, with a view toward preparing young high school teachers and others for the demand for trained stage directors in the schools.
Oberlin College, Ohio, ever since ifs founda tion in 1833 has held consistently that the fine arts are essential factors in a liberal educa tion, and the drama came into ,its own here somewhat more thoroughly than in the majority of American colleges. Actual work is required for the Oberlin degree; and, in keeping with this fact, plans have been drafted for an even more fully .equipped theatre than the college has at present. Greek, Shakespearean and tnodern plays are presented with completeness and integrity. Every detail, even to the most approved electrical equipment, is carried through by the undergraduates; some of these students having had professional training in the scenic studios of New York and elsewhere. Through the enthusiasm of Dr. Phitip D. Sher man, the head of the department of English, Oberlin is kept directly in touch with the most advanced movements in the world's theatres; and all touring art-theatre companies are en couraged to malce a stand here.
Butler College, Indianapolis, within the last three years has developed a sound taste for theatricals, and particularly for opera, under the auspices of the I. T. S. Club, a secret order, now a chapter of Duzer Du. In the spring of 1916 Butler, DePauw University and Allegheny College united in what is hoped will be a move ment for a national dramatic fraternity.
The department of English at the University of Minnesota, under the leadership of Prof. Richard Burton, is in close touch with the three undergraduate dramatic clubs of the university. These present a number of °worth while) plays during the college year. A professional trainer is employed; and the college sends out over the State, as part of the extension work, several good plays yearly. This work is recogrnzed to be so vital that the actors are excused from examinations because of it. In 1915 this uni versity opened a little theatre on the campus. It seats 300. Playwriting is taught in class, and the product of the students tried out in the theat re.
At the University of Nebraska in 1915 a de partment of drama was organized which has shown extraordinary vitality, and is somewhat unique in its methods. Forty public productions were given in its own theatre and on the road. When expert in their work in this department the students are elevated to another company, the University Players. This is operated on the plan of a stock company, and a new play is shown every month at the Temple Theatre. The most successful of these plays are taken on the road for trips of from 2 to 10 days. Each branch of dramatic work has its group of students; and an original play, with music written entirely by the undergraduates, is pro duced every year. Nothing is more notable in the intellectual life of the Northwest than the theatre craftsmanship of the University of North Dakota, under the guidance of Prof. Frederick H. Koch of the English Department. Two original contributions to the movement toward a new drama are claimed by this centre: The first, a plan of communal authorship, by which a masque, 'Shakespeare, the Playmaker,) was designed and written by a group of 20 students to commemorate the tercentenary of the death of Shakespeare; and, the second, the establishment in 1914 of a new form of the open-air theatre, the Bankside Theatre,— a narrow stream running between the sunken stage and the amphitheatre; the desired effect of distance being gained, while the acoustic properties are intensified by the frontage of water. The communal masque has been pub lished in book form by the university. The dramatic movement at North Dakota has had an all round steady growth of 10 years. The Sock and Buskin Society is the focal point of the work and supplements the university courses. They have also an indoor theatre on modern lines, °The Little Playhouse.) In the colleges and universities of the South ern States the new movement has begun, as it invariably begins everywhere, with masques and pageants, many of these being carried out on a grand scale; the Shakespearean Tercen tenary celebrations in the spring of 1916 serv ing.to initiate many Southern institutions into various forms of community drama. Perhaps the most conspicuous of the lcinds were those of Greensboro College, N. C., and of the Uni versity of North Carolina. The universities of Texas, of Tennessee and of the South are rapidly growing into centres of modern dra matic art on the scale of the great Northern academies.