Woman's work in municipalities

by Mary Ritter Beard

Women are working on the elevation of the drama generally, too. Sometimes they may be excessively Puritanical in this endeavor; again they see in the presentation of such plays as “Damaged Goods” by Brieux the highest use to which the stage can be put. This difference of opinion is bound to exist but the important thing is to have women care what is produced, as the first step toward superior drama.

Investigation of five- and ten-cent theaters in Chicago by the Juvenile Protective Association and the presentation of complaints to the building department, the Board of Health, the Chief of Police and the State Factory Inspector have led to important changes in the physical conditions of this grade of theaters in Chicago. Mrs. Bowen of this Association finds that one grave evil in connection with these theaters is their location, which takes many boys and girls and men and women into sections where they would probably not otherwise go and brings them thus into close contact with disorderly houses, saloons, and boarding houses. The phrase in Chicago “A Five-Cent Theater Hotel” has become current because of the general location of these theaters in transient rooming houses. The menace of this thing to young girls may readily be imagined. Mrs. Bowen and her association approve of an ordinance licensing the place rather than the person who operates it, as is now done in many places with dance halls. They would also prohibit amateur nights and extend the censorship of plays to advertisements and posters.

In order that the taste of school children may be educated to seek good drama, the Educational Dramatic League and other similar organizations have been started by women. Mrs. Emma Fry, the organizer of the Educational Dramatic League of New York, has met with enthusiastic response from women and teachers and her movement is well launched.

The Drama League of America is a women’s and men’s organization with Mrs. A. Starr Best of Evanston, Illinois, as president. Its object is to support the drama that manifests a high level of art and morals in order that the theater may assume its rightful place as an educational and social force.

The Pageant

The pageant is a recent development of the drama in the open-air. The Deerfield Historical Pageant and the Duxbury pageant were directed by Margaret MacLaren Eager. In the great pageant of nations, devised by the People’s Institute in the East Side of New York in 1914, women worked with vigor. Rose Rosner, a Rumanian girl, now connected with the People’s Institute, was one most effective organizer, and all the settlement leaders coöperated with enthusiasm.

The Founding of New Harmony, Indiana, a historical pageant presented by the school children of that community in June, 1914, was also unique in its purpose. Mr. W. V. Mangrum, the superintendent of schools, was the manager and Mrs. Mary H. Flanner the director. Miss Charity Dye who wrote the “Book of Words,” in her prefatory note explains the object of the pageant:

The school children’s historical pageant is a distinct division of pageantry in itself, demanding special considerations of time, preparation, choice of material, and adjustments to the age and development of those taking part. It should be borne in mind that children have no large background of experience and hence the methods used with adults cannot be used with them. The evolution of the school pageant has been in response to the play spirit along educative lines, and marks a difference between the mere spectacular performance, which is gotten up in haste and dies as soon as it is born, and the one that makes permanent impression of what is valuable to the development of the pupil, and is presented in conformity to the known laws of education. Under the wise management of Mr. Mangrum, the superintendent of the schools, who began five months in advance, the New Harmony pageant soon proved its educational value. It has made community interest and coöperation a living reality; it has telescoped the history of the town and the region in the minds of the children and taught them of people and events more vividly than could have been otherwise possible; it has united the entire school system of the place by giving every child some active part in preparing for the great historic event of celebrating the founding of the town. The very least ones have been cutting with the scissors the pageant scenes, outlined by the teacher, and making silhouettes; others have been drawing the outlines; some naming the birds of the district; others, the trees; and still others noting the procession of wild flowers, all to show the nature of the region. Older ones are making maps of the town and the topography of the land, or drawing posters, and the prominent buildings of historical note. The higher grades are using the scenes in original composition work of character study and the dramatization of events. Music has been a feature all the way along. Boys have been heard singing “Lo! I Uncover the Land” from the pageant, with happy loud voices. New Harmony is a rural community with only three hundred school children; what has been done there is possible to some degree in every community in the state. The pageant lends itself especially to rural regions wherever there is a school or several schools to unite in a festival for honoring those who have helped to make public education possible. The near approach of the centenary of the statehood of Indiana in 1916 furnishes the psychological moment that makes it both a privilege and a duty to arouse in every school in the state, a new interest in its own environment or local history, thus leading to a wider interest and conception of historic growth. The work of the historical pageant in the schools of Indiana should begin next September so as to give ample time without interfering with the regular work that must otherwise be done. Richmond, Vincennes, Fort Wayne, LaFayette and many other Indiana cities are especially rich in pageant material, to say nothing of the wealth in this respect in the rural communities on every side.

Through historical pageants, the dramatic play spirit of whole communities of people has been aroused and developed and democratic coöperation achieved. It is only within the past five or six years that pageants have been held in this country on any large community scale, but within that time some remarkable performances have been given, and in all of the pageants women have taken a leading part, in some instances directing the whole affair. In the future many interesting pageants are to be held like the one in Redfield, California, which was suggested by the Contemporary Club of that city.

The pageant given by the town of Arlington, Massachusetts, recently was started by the Woman’s Club and a guarantee fund of $1,000 was secured by it. Several hundred of the townspeople participated in the presentation of the drama.