The Exemplary Theatre
by . Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1922. 8vo, xi+270 pp. $2.00 net.
IN the course of The Exemplary Theatre there is a decided shift of appeal. Knowing what the author has so brilliantly done in previous criticism, we begin with the expectation of having our interest in the theatre keenly stimulated. Before very long we discover that Mr. Granville-Barker is appealing more particularly to our interest in the reform of current education. Of course these two interests are neither contradictory nor distantly alien; indeed, as the reading continues, we discover that they merge intimately into a common design. If we follow the author to his conclusion we come to realize that the exemplary theatre may have a great potential force if admitted to the field of applied pedagogy.
The logical reasons for such an admission are not difficult to understand. They find their base in the current appeal for larger and more complete socialization — individual participation in group-discussions and in group-activities, excellently illustrated, as the author shows, in the work of Professor George P. Baker at Harvard University.
In constructing our school schedule we now allot liberal portions of time to dancing, music, literature, and psychology, Yet the inherent educational values in the theatre are richer and more direct than in any of these. The selection and the study of the play to be acted, the rehearsals and the performance, offer the ‘direct impact of one human individuality upon another, clarified, and conventionalized, by the assumption and interpretation of character, diversified and enriched by the side-glancing that even the smallest elaboration of a play involves with its interweaving of other interests; and the final development of some unity of idea, some conviction.’ Acting a play intelligently, automatically creates an intellectual and emotional stimulus that cannot be aroused by mere study of the play as literature.
The author of The Exemplary Theatre is in sufficiently close intimacy with school conditions to realize that the major amount of time should he given to the study of plays — a study that looks all the while, however, not into academic niceties of structure and phrase, but toward the actual performance of a play within an actual theatre in which an intelligent audience has gathered. In order that this plan may yield its full fruitage, he urges that the most rigid care be given to the selection of plays. The study of the chosen piece will embrace all the varied items that comprehend artistic production. There will, of course, be those topics commonly included in ordinary reading and study, but in addition to these there will be emphasis upon costuming, scenery, stage-lighting, grouping, entrances and exits, casting, gesture and tone, and all the countless items and touches that in appropriate ensemble merge into a final artistic design.
The later chapters of the book discuss more definitely and more directly the points that comprise successful acting and successful theatre management. There is frank acknowledgment of the constant strife between the business man’s bias and the artist’s bias. But these controversies, and others besides, are not so destructive as to block the way toward real progress.
It is a reasonable regret that Mr. Granville-Barker’s important message, which every lover of the theatre is glad to receive, could not have been expressed in a less verbose and labored style.
CHARLES SWAIN THOMAS.
These reviews will be reprinted separately in pamphlet form. Copies may be had by any librarian, without charge, on application to the Atlantic Monthly, 8 Arlington St., Boston.