YOUR PLEASURES IN THE MOVING SHADOW .sx SHOWS OF LIFE .sx LEARN to LOVE the DRAMA .sx An Unexplored Territory .sx To hundreds of well-read people of the book-world , plays are unexplored territory ; yet how full of quips and " wise saws , " humour , and .sx tragedy that territory is .sx To read plays successfully , one must apply greater concentration than when reading a book , for all explanation of the characters' thought is left out .sx Words crystallise in a few sentences what the novelist would describe in two pages .sx For that reason imagination must be active , and one must imagine characters moving about against the scenic background .sx The list of plays that can be read is unending .sx They cover all ages and embrace all nationalities .sx Hence , a little advice may be helpful .sx Frequent visits to a Repertory Theatre give a good idea of the plays of modern times , and would be the means of starting a list of plays for reading .sx And as the method of publishing plays is often to place two or three by the same author in one volume , one quickly becomes aware of many good plays that rarely see the glare of footlights .sx Prominent Playwrights .sx Gradually one becomes familiar with the more prominent playwrights - Galsworthy , Shaw , Barrie , Maugham , Milne , Susan Glaspell , Tchekov , Strindberg , O'Casey , Monkhouse , Stanley Houghton , O'Neill , Elmer Rice , Coward , and many others .sx Gradually one's taste develops , the list becomes less formidable , and one picks and chooses with more certainty , until , when moderns have been fairly well explored , there opens out the plays of former days and ages .sx Here is another great area , divided into centuries and generations , with their varying beliefs and fashions and fads , their enthusiasms and tragedies , their problems and delusions .sx The plays of olden times take us vividly back into the life of the period ; the artificiality and wit of Sheridan and Goldsmith still have power to refresh our modern ears ; the blank verse and rhymes of Beaumont and Fletcher , Shakespeare and Marlowe , set us still further back to an age when drama was struggling upwards from the masque and miracle and morality plays ; the fragmentary .sx remains of old English tableaux , performed to mediaeval audiences on guild festivals and market days or in the churches , seem marvellously crude and childish to us , but they bring us to the origin of drama - religion .sx Back 2,000 Years .sx Inevitably we come to the Greek and Ionian plays , to the grandeur and solemnity of chanted choruses , the soliloquies and odes and epics of antiquity , the humour and philosophy and pathos of 2,000 years ago , when Aristophanes , Socrates , and Euripedes were hailed the master playwrights of their day .sx Play-reading leads one into strange pathways , wakens a desire to seek back into the history of drama , and discover in the searchng a fascinating wealth of detail .sx The old plays need more than mere reading to comprehend ; we must find in what places they were performed , and what the players were like , and so , gradually , the development of the theatre itself comes to our notice , and that opens up still another world of lighting and scenery and make-up and music .sx Widening One's Education .sx We touch upon an aspect of history never taught at school , for the theatre , being communal , has always been affected by the fortunes of the people .sx Their disasters have been its disasters also , their prosperity its further development , their increased education its greatest influence and higher aspiration .sx To read plays is the surest way to widen one's education .sx Thus , if you have wearied of the novels that pour upon the world to-day , turn to the plays , and find in them a new source of pleasure .sx You will find that in them the " moving shadow show " of life becomes a little more real , a little more personal , than in the novel .sx For in the play the author feels with the characters , and does not stand aside to describe and analyse .sx You will learn to love the drama and to realise what a potent educational force it can be , as well as a fount of light-hearted merriment .sx `DO YOU SEND YOUR CHILD to the CINEMA ?sx DO YOU REALISE THE RESPONSIBILITY ?sx Where Mothers are to Blame .sx Are You Among Them ?sx In a spasmodic sort of way , parents are perturbed about films their children are permitted to see .sx Letters appear in the paper objecting to the spate of " gangster , " " vamp , " " war , " and " thriller " films which flood the country from America , and though , as one mother pointed out , the villains and the vamps and the enemy get their due reward for wickedness or else reform to decent citizens , there is first a whole " reel " of sex-stuff , warfare , pistol shooting , and harmful talk which terrifies children or develops in them a perverted enjoyment of sensuality and bloodshed .sx " These things should be altered , " cry parents .sx Certainly .sx But are not parents more to blame than the cinema people for permitting their children to witness unsuitable films ?sx Are you , dear reader , among those thousands and thousands of parents who pack their children off to the cinema in order to have two hours' peace , without the slightest regard to what films they will see ?sx It is done , you know , and mothers are to blame .sx The unfortunate thing is that only a small percentage of parents are truly concerned about the influence films have upon their children's minds ; and it is only through the untiring efforts and united protests of that small percentage that any improvements will be made .sx Perhaps you do not know that the film censor's certificate , thrown on the screen at the commencement of every picture , is the great guide to that picture's merit .sx Have you not noticed the certificate whereon is placed a large letter " A " or " U " at the bottom centre ?sx Those letters have deep significance .sx " A " means the picture is considered by the censor fit only for " adult entertainment , " and " U " that the picture may be " universally " shown to children and adults alike .sx Hence parents can legitimately protest to the management if any children be admitted to a picture marked " A. " How far protests will be made is , of course , a matter of conjecture .sx The management could , of course , say they were not responsible for the children entering , and that it was not in the interests of their business to refuse them admission .sx Thus does the boomerang rebound on the parents .sx There are those who do inquire as to the types of pictures being shown in their area , even see them first , and refuse to let their children go if they consider the pictures unpleasant .sx And there are those who can tell of bad effects caused by pictures their children have witnessed ; uneasy dreams , fear of the dark , dangerous pranks , twisted ideas of right and wrong .sx Surely it is time parents woke to their responsibility and ceased blaming the films .sx The Biggest " Thrillers .sx " It does not seem beyond the possibility of accomplishment that the future will see the establishment of children's cinemas , showing films which they could enjoy without fear of injurious sights or words .sx In the same way , some day there will be children's theatres , not as curiosities , but as a matter of course .sx The child mind is a serious responsibility .sx It is admitted that childish influences are the foundation of adult beliefs and actions .sx How necessary , then , that children's minds should be free from thoughts of horrible murders , sensational war scenes or aerial battle , unpleasant sex innuendo and sickening film " kisses , " with their deliberate filip to the sensual portion of our minds .sx These things put warped ideas in children's minds , and foster trains of thought leading to actions of a strangely adult nature which astonish and dismay us .sx Indeed , is it not dreadful that our own adult thoughts , actions , and beliefs are so unclean , terrible , and startling that we cannot with safety allow our children to witness them !sx Had we not better set our own film entertainment in order , also ?sx It is much better that a child should see a musical comedy film with all its senselessness than witness the biggest " thriller , " for a " thriller " to-day means guns and ghosts , shrieks and moans , suicides , murders , and blasphemies , which can have no other result than to set a child's head buzzing with sensations of a sordid character .sx Even we , hardened as we are , gasp at some of the scenes we witness .sx We Must Take Action .sx Thus do we see the danger of uncontrolled film entertainment for children .sx The remedy must come from ourselves .sx We must keep our children from the cinema and explain why ; we must protest to the film censor , and make known our desire for special children's films , not of a priggish character , but of good healthy fun and moral cleanliness .sx Animal pictures are huge favourites with children , travel pictures also , and they are intensely interested .sx Cinema managements make an effort to provide proper entertainment for children on Saturday afternoons , and with success , but they also admit children any time during the week , without regard to the picture showing , unless a particular film has come before the Watch Committee's eyes and is prohibited to children and adolescents .sx It remains , therefore , for parents to realise their duty , and voice in no uncertain terms the need for children to be refused admittance to any films marked " A , " particularly those of a questionable type .sx Children and the Movies .sx What they LIKE and LEARN .sx ADMISSIONS OF Fear , Fright , and Nightmare .sx " Give us clean movie Pictures " is the burden of many letters we have received from " Outlook " mothers .sx " It is not true to think money would be lost on clean films , " says one mother , and while others are not agreed as to the necessity of special theatres for children , others are of opinion it would be better to run special shows for children in the regular theatres .sx One Manchester mother objects to the lurid advertising of pictures , and another , this time a Leeds mother , thinks that proper advertising would be a great help to parents in weeding out the undesirable pictures .sx All are for clean pictures , better plays , and good , educational features on manufacturing , industry , animal life , stories of great men and women , and travel and adventure pictures .sx IN our last issue we discussed the influence of parents on their children with regard to going to the pictures , and how enormous that influence was and might be .sx This has brought us the opinions of many mothers who feel very keen about the matter .sx Extracts from their letters are given in the accompanying paragraph , and meanwhile the strong influence the pictures can be taken for granted , and " Outlook " mothers at least realise this .sx The trouble is about the standard of film acceptable in this country as suitable for presentation to children and Dr. Charles E. Goddard ( Medical Officer for Harrow ) pertinently asks why films that no cultured American would put up with should be fobbed off on the British public .sx Many of the objectionable pieces , he says , are extraordinarily clever , and at the same time desperately wicked , and the real cause of distress is that throughout the exhibition of such pieces the laughter of young people , and even children , is to be heard .sx He urges all who love children , especially school teachers and ministers of religion , to make a point of seeing such films , and then making a strong protest , either by means of a public meeting , or by bringing the films objected to before the notice of the censor , with a view to getting them withdrawn .sx A Birmingham Inquiry .sx We have already quoted the results of the Birmingham Cinema Inquiry Committee , but they will bear repetition seeing such a great public service was done through the publication of the report .sx In Birmingham it has been found impossible to exclude children from the films marked " A , " as has been done in Liverpool .sx In Birmingham the Justices were against this .sx Another great service is the publication of the children's answers in reply to the questionnaire .sx " How often do you go to the pictures ?sx " was asked .sx And out of 1,439 asked , between the ages of eight and fourteen years , thirty never went at all ; 302 went once a month , or occasionally ; 107 once a fortnight ; 780 once a week ; 184 twice a week ; and thirty-six three , four , or five times a week .sx