Reflections
on How the Theatre Teaches
by Jonathan Levy
Preamble
Theatre is, famously, an imitation of an action. It presents the essence,
the gist, of human experience, not a narration or recital of that experience.
Therefore, any attempt to explain how the theatre works in words will
be at best a translation or paraphrase. The real power of the theatre
lies in our total experience of it before the mind begins to turn that
experience into words. Thus, when we write or speak about the theatrical
experience, the best we can hope for is to fall short rather than mislead
or, worse, overshadow and obliterate the original. I write what follows
with that knowledge always in my mind.
The Question
Much is said by the friends of theatres about what they might be; and
not a few persons indulge the hope that the theatre may yet be made a
school of morality. But my business at present is with it as it is, and
as it has hitherto been. The reader will be more benefited by existing
facts than sanguine anticipations, or visionary predictions.
—William A. Alcott, The Young Man's Guide
It is widely assumed that the theatre, particularly theatre for children,
can and should teach. It is also widely assumed that the theatre can and
does do harm, real harm, especially to children. And it is universally assumed
that even if the theatre does not teach, it should do no harm.
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