Some pupils may object that unless an exact preliminary assignment is made, two or more groups may choose the same scene.  Such a probable happening, far from being a disadvantage to be avoided, is a decided advantage worthy of being purposely attempted.  Could anything be more stimulating than to see and hear two different casts interpret a dramatic situation?  Each would try to do better than the other.  Each would be different in places.  From a comparison the audience and performers would have all the more light thrown upon what they considered quite familiar.

It would be a mistake to have five quartettes repeat the same scene over and over again.  Yet if twenty pupils had unconsciously so chosen, three presentations might be offered for discriminating observation.  Then some other portion could be inserted and later the first scene could be gone through twice.

Assigning Roles.  Teacher and pupils should endeavor to secure variety of interest in roles.  At first, assignments are likely to be determined by apparent fitness.  The quiet boy is not required to play the part of the braggart.  The retiring girl is not expected to impersonate the shrew.  In one or two appearances it may be a good thing to keep in mind natural aptitude.

Then there should be a departure from this system.  Educational development comes not only from doing what you are best able to do, but from developing the less-marked phases of your disposition and character.  The opposite practice should be followed, at least once.  Let the prominent class member assume a role of subdued personality.  Let the timid take the lead.  Induce the silent to deliver the majority of the speeches.  You will be amazed frequently to behold the best delineations springing from such assignments.

Such rehearsing of a play already studied should terminate the minute analysis in order to show the material for what it is—­actable drama.  It will vivify the play again, and make the characters live in your memory as mere reading never will.  You will see the moving people, the grouped situations, the developed story, the impressive climax, and the satisfying conclusion.

In dealing with scenes from a long play—­whether linked or disconnected—­pupils will always have a feeling of incompleteness.  In a full-length play no situation is complete in itself.  It is part of a longer series of events.  It may finish one part of the action, but it usually merely carries forward the plot, passing on the complication to subsequent situations.

Short Plays.  To deal with finished products should be the next endeavor.  There are thousands of short plays suitable for class presentation in an informal manner.  Most of them do not require intensive study, as does a great Greek or English drama, so their preparation may go on entirely outside the classroom.  It should be frankly admitted that the exercises of delivering lines “in character” as here described is not acting or producing the play.  That will come later.  These preliminary exercises—­many or few, painstaking or sketchy—­are processes of training pupils to speak clearly, interestingly, forcefully, in the imagined character of some other person.  The pupil must not wrongly believe that he is acting.