$1.50
With PUPPETS MIMES and SHADOWS by MARGARET K. SOIFER
The purpose of this book is to explain how the rich world of Folk Literature may be used as material by children from which to create plays for puppets, pantomimes, pageants, ballets, tableaux, and shadows. The character of each of these dramatic media is described in turn and the technics of group play writing are discussed. There are ten original plays and scenarios in the book, each molded from a not too familiar folk tale, and each play is in a different dramatic medium. Prefatory notes, covering problems of choice, construction, staging, etc., accompany each play. An extensive list of carefully selected and recommended books in the fields of stage technique and folk literature concludes the volume. K. SOIFER has had a rich and varied experience in working with children of all ages and with adults in the manner she describes in this book. She is a teacher of English in the Abraham Lincoln High School, Brooklyn, N. Y., the author of Firelight Entertainments, and numerous published plays. MARGARET
T H E FURROW PRESS 7/5 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, N. Y.
WITH PUPPETS MIMES AND SHADOWS
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• T H E F U R R O W
P R E S S
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Publishers
COPYRIGHT,
1936,
BY THE FURROW PRESS All Rights Reserved The plays and scenarios in this book, are fully protected by copyright law, all requirements of which have been complied with. No performance, professional or amateur, no public reading, nor any radio or television broadcast may be given without the written permission of the publishers, The Furrow Press, 115 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, N. Y.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS
FOLK LITERATURE AS PLAY MATERIAL I. MATTER
3
II. MEDIA
6
III. MANNER
13
BIBLE LORE I. IN THE TRADITION OF MR. PUNCH
L8
Esau Gets the Soup: A Play for Fist Puppets II. TRANSLATING A STORY INTO MOTION
31
Joseph: Scenario for a Ballet GREEK M Y T H AND FABLE I. SOME GREEK DRAMATIC DEVICES
41
Persephone: A Pantomime with Mask^s II. CHARACTER IN SHADOWS
The Lion and the Mouse: A Shadow Play
50
2
CONTENTS T H E ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE
I. THE BALLAD IN ACTION
58
Robin Hood and Little John: A Human Shadow Play II. STAGING AN ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT
70
Arthur: Five Tableaux III. PUPPETS IN FAIRYLAND
87
The Three Wishes: A Play for Marionettes T H E LORE OF THE REDMAN I. PLAYING INDIAN
96
Scarface: A Pantomime with Drums II. A STRICTLY ONE-MAN SHOW
101
Pink Eyes: A Puppet Play for a Tray Stage T H E AMERICAN SCENE TOLD BY FIRELIGHT
108 RECOMMENDED BOOKS
I. DRAMATIC MEDIA AND TECHNICS
IL8
II. STORIES BALLADS AND SONGS
123
INDEX
I3I
FOLK LITERATURE AS PLAY MATERIAL
I . MATTER
THE eager desire of modern educators is to arouse any latent creative ability in children and to draw it forth into expression. They start with the little ones in nursery school and continue with their method all through the high school. Now the young go to school not to drill and con lessons which may possibly be of use in the future; but to live presently—to know the joy of real work and the satisfaction of achievement. Youth need no longer be wasted in dullness and artificial discipline; the tax of making and doing things by high standards of achievement is in itself sufficient inherent discipline. Noble theory! And the results under the right conditions have been gratifying. Children, under the care of sympathetic, gifted, and highly skilled teachers, are given clay, paint, wood, metal; they are taught to handle brushes and tools; and thus they work wonders with their hands. They are taught to make and to use elementary instruments like shepherd's reed pipes, drums, and simple psalteries, and they soon make excellent music. They are encouraged to let their bodies move in response to beautiful rhythms, and behold, they dance. Such a worthy and happy life is led by children in the new schools of today. 3
4
FOLK LITERATURE AS PLAY MATERIAL
Like every other ideal, alas, this type of modern education has suffered debasement. It has become a fad. Teachers who have been working along the older methods successfully for years, but who, because of differences in personality, adaptability, and training, are not meant for informal group work with children, feel they must be in style. They rush headlong into projects for which they are unprepared and for which the children are unmotivated. Sometimes even a tense feeling of rivalry enters between teachers of neighboring classes or schools, and this is communicated to the children, so that instead of learning quietly through their own activity, they are engaged in a strained and empty contest of making a better windmill than the neighboring class's tepee. It has also become "cute" to make things with pipe cleaner, match sticks, and all manner of discarded materials, so that children cannot possibly regard their work as real and worthwhile. Besides, commercial firms have come in for their share of the current fad, and have been turning out ready-made accessories that look pretty in an exhibition but have taken the educational value out of the children's work. These are some of the evils that have crept in upon the new education. The right teachers and worthy materials and tools are unconditionally necessary for the success of the new education. Thus it is, too, with the active study of literature. Children not only read stories, but also do things with them— they play them. To a child, play is a real thing. Through the medium of play, he extends his life in any direction he wishes, and, because of his youth, he does this at will, with
MATTER
5
ease and assurance. The material and imaginative live close together in the life of a child. The literature he studies, therefore, must be fully worthy of playing and living. What could be more worthy than his own folk literature? By the active study of his folk literature the child comes into his rightful cultural inheritance. It is the means by which can be passed on to him the color, design, and wealth of imaginative and spiritual experience which the many generations before him have so carefully stored, enriched, and left for him. Through these stories, he will come to recognize a certain essence, a particular character that dwells within his people and himself. He will discover what is beautiful, just, and honorable according to the standards of his people. He will learn what is pitiful, chivalrous, humorous. The folk literature of the American people has sprung not only from our native soil. Some of its roots are in foreign lands and are of different ages. So devious and numerous are these strains that they cannot all be determined and identified; but among the many that are plainly recognized and generally known are the five that are utilized in this book. Surely the Bible, besides its religious aspect, contains much that is folk literature. Through its stories the child learns our code of social and individual morality and justice. Our aesthetic appreciation of nature and the works of man springs largely from the culture of the ancient Greeks as it is expressed in their mythology. The misty Faeryland of the English countryside, the gleaming towers of Camelot, and the dramatic ballads of
6
FOLK LITERATURE AS PLAY MATERIAL
medieval minstrelsy, have all been woven with shining strands into our character. We are still fresh on our own soil; we have only begun to understand the mystery of our land; we are first beginning to acquire the Redman's legendry through the offices of patient white men and tolerant Indians. It is important to make the children familiar with these stories, to strengthen their love and understanding of our land. The adventures of our doughty pioneers like Daniel Boone and Kit Carson, and the tall tales about our halfmythical giants, like Paul Bunyan and John Henry, have the characteristics of the robust life, as we Americans envision it. They can be told only by ourselves, about the preposterous heroes of pioneering, industry, and enterprise that people the multiformed, stupendous landscape that is America. The Bible, Greek mythology, English ballads, English fairy tales and stories of chivalry, the legends of the Redman, and American hero stories—these, roughly, are direct sources of our folk literature and cultural identity. Here is worthy material for children to work with. Its genuineness both for serious study and gaiety must find a response in the children. There are so many good, standard works in which the stories have been collected that it is easy to have the books on hand, and the stories themselves challenge the children to new interpretations and adaptations. I I . MEDIA
How are children taught their folk literature? Obviously through story-telling. From the very beginning of the be-
MEDIA
7
ginning that has always been the way. And the stories told over and over again never grow dull with repetition, but rather acquire a new gloss. But children are not satisfied with the mere telling. They must play them. In the playing, the stories receive new interpretations, new twists of plot, and they infuse themselves into the beings of the children so that play and player are one. There are numerous ways of playing stories; devices that are as old as the stories themselves. The most frequently used is acting, whereby each player assumes the role of a character in the story. Other mediums, more ingenious and often more suitable to the action of the story are to be considered in this book. They are the various forms of pantomime, puppetry, and shadow play. Work with puppets—both the fist and string varieties—and with shadow cut-outs requires a degree of technical skill. The modern revival of interest in these fields of the drama has been so active that many valuable books are easily available to guide the unskilled, though willing. Pantomime. The art of miming is ancient and illustrious. In China it was developed so exquisitely that every bend in the joints of the actor's fingers was full of meaning. To express thought and feeling; to convey clearly the flow of narrative by movement, gesture, and facial expression is the purpose of pantomime. Italy's dramatic geniuses developed in the Commedia dell' Arte were the first great pantomimists of the modern theater. In modern times, with the passing of the silent motion picture, a noble branch of the