Shakespeare For School Children

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 370, 26 July 1946, Page 19

Shakespeare For School Children

HAKESPEARE iis_ popular with young people; they like to see his works on the stage. And interest seems to be increasing, for the Wellington Thespians will shortly give one performance of The Tempest for primary schools and three for secondary schools. At Palmerston North the company will play to parties of students from schools and colleges throughout the Manawatu district. When the members of the society presented Macbeth in 1940, a secondary school wrote that as its students were studying the play in the senior class, it would like to arrange for a party of pupils to attend. The Thespians then approached other schools, with the result that the next year, when Hamlet was produced, the school audience was 1,200, attending two performances. In 1942 A Midsummer Night’s Dream was played and last year The Merry Wives of Windsor drew, as well as adults, 1,500 school children. If other societies

in New Zealand are including Shakespeare in their programmes they are possibly having the same experience, discovering keen interest among. the younger people. The Thespians assert that they want-children to understand that Shake-

speare’s works on the stage are not the dull things some class-room study has tended to make them. Interest in The Tempest season has been encouraging. A letter has been received from the director of Catholic Education in Wellington asking that Catholic secondary and primary schools be allowed to see The Tempest. H. C. D. Somerset, director of the Community Centre, Feilding, wrote congratulating the society on giving children the opportunity to see Shakespeare played, and A. E. Mansford, Mayor of Palmerston North, wrote that he would be pleased to extend a civic welcome to the players when they

visit his city. Pupils of the Palmerston North Technical High School and of the Palmerston North Boys’ High School will be taken to the performances. Readers will remember the controversy that followed a Listener article about "The Man Who Walked Out of Shakespeare." Between 13 and 20; the writer argued, was the proper age to enjoy Shakespeare. It is neither proof nor disproof of the soundness of that argument that so many school pupils are asking for Shakespeare to-day. It has, however, been proved by the Thespians that it is never too soon to begin on Shakespeare.