Women in Teacher Training Colleges, 1900-1960 by Elizabeth Edwards

Women in Teacher Training Colleges, 1900-1960 by Elizabeth Edwards

Author:Elizabeth Edwards [Edwards, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Social Science, Gender Studies
ISBN: 9781134610020
Google: JYOEAgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2004-01-14T22:35:44+00:00


Drama

Most students entering training college, especially in the earlier part of the century, had had little experience of live professional theatre, although they had enjoyed amateur ‘theatricals’ at home and at school. At college they were not only introduced to a wide variety of classical and modern drama as part of the curriculum, but were given the opportunity both to perform these plays themselves and to attend productions at the professional theatre. In-house performances formed part of the traditional Saturday evening entertainments, and as students’ confidence grew, performances progressed from excerpts to full-scale productions. At Homerton, for instance, ‘Scenes from Sheridan’s “School for Scandal”‘ and ‘Scenes from Shakespere [sic]’ formed part of the entertainments in October 1914;111 by 1927 the college’s productions had become more ambitious:

The Christmas item was Walter de la Mare’s ‘Crossings’, very ably staged and performed. Among Saturday night performances, the outstanding ones were ‘Becky Sharp’, ‘The Critic’, Drinkwater’s ‘X=O’ or ‘A Night of the Trojan War’, ‘Riders to the Sea’ by J. M. Synge, and the ‘Golden Door’, by Lord Dunsany.112

By the 1930s full-scale productions were staged at Christmas and Easter. The student Entertainments Committee were much encouraged by the reception of their production of Shaw’s You Never Can Tell; next year they embarked on rehearsals for Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer. The following account shows not only how students enjoyed the excitement and liberation of dramatic performance, but that the occasion, with the participation of both academic and non-teaching staff (Miss Haynes, lecturer in English and Mr Cousins, head porter and chief engineer) involved the whole college community in the experience:



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