The time for preparation will depend upon general ability of the cast, previous training, the kind of play, the amount of leisure for study and rehearsing.  In most schools a full-length play may be crowded into four weeks.  Six or seven weeks are a better allowance.

During first rehearsals changes and corrections should be made when needed.  Interruptions should be frequent.  Later there should be no interruptions.  Comments should be made at the end of a scene and embodied in an immediate repetition to fix the change in the actors’ minds.  Other modifications should be announced before rehearsal, and embodied in the acting that day.

The acting should be ready for an audience a week before the date set for the performance.  During the last rehearsals, early acts should be recalled and repeated in connection with later ones, so that time and endurance may be counted and estimated.  During these days rehearsals must go forward without any attention from the director.  He must be giving all his attention to setting, lighting, costumes, properties, furniture, and the thousand and one other details which make play producing the discouraging yet fascinating occupation it is.  Such repetition without constant direction will develop a sense of independence and cooeperation in the actors and assistants which will show in the enthusiasm and ease of the performance.  Stage hands and all other assistants must be trained to the same degree of reliability as the hero and heroine.  Nothing can be left to chance.  Nothing can be unprovided until the last minute.  The dress rehearsal must be exactly like a performance, except that the audience is not present, or if present, is a different one.  In schools, an audience at the dress rehearsal is usually a help to the amateur performers.

Results.  A performance based on such principles and training as here suggested should be successful from every point of view.

The benefits to the participants are many.  They include strengthening of the power to memorize, widening of the imagination through interpretation of character, familiarity with a work of art, training in poise, utilization of speaking ability, awakening of self-confidence, and participation in a worthy cooeperative effort.

In a broader sense such interest in good, acted plays is an intellectual stimulus.  As better plays are more and more effectively presented the quality of play production in schools will be improved, and both pupils and communities will know more and more of the world’s great dramatic literature.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

Additional Exercises in Exposition

1.  The value of public speaking.

2.  How Lincoln became a great speaker.

3.  Studies in a good school course.

4.  Purposes of studying geometry.