Though the delivery of a complete short play may seem like a performance, both participants and audience must not think of it so.  It is class exercise, subject to criticism, comment, improvement, exactly as all other class recitations are.

Since the entire class has not had the chance to become familiar with all the short plays to be presented, some one should give an introductory account of the time and place of action.  There might be added any necessary comments upon the characters.  The cast of characters should be written upon the board.

This exercise should be exactly like the preceding, except that it adds the elements of developing the plot of the play, creating suspense, impressing the climax, and satisfactorily rounding off the play.  In order to accomplish these important effects the participants will soon discover that they must agree upon certain details to be made most significant.  This will lead to discussions about how to make these points stand out.  In the concerted attempt to give proper emphasis to some line late in the play it will be found necessary to suppress a possible emphasis of some line early in the action.  To reinforce a trait of some person, another character may have to be made more self-assertive.

To secure this unified effect which every play should make the persons involved will have to consider carefully every detail in lines and stage directions, fully agree upon what impression they must strive for, then heartily cooeperate in attaining it.  They must forget themselves to remember always that “the play’s the thing.”

The following list will suggest short plays suitable for informal classroom training in dramatics.  Most of these are also general enough in their appeal to serve for regular production upon a stage before a miscellaneous audience.

Aldrich, T.B. Pauline Pavlovna
Baring, M. Diminutive Dramas
Butler, E.P. The Revolt
Cannan, G. Everybody’s Husband
Dunsany, Lord Tents of the Arabs
                         The Lost Silk Hat
                         Fame and the Poet_
Fenn and Pryce. ’Op-o-Me-Thumb
Gale, Z. Neighbors
Gerstenberg, A. Overtones
Gibson, W. W. Plays in Collected Works
Gregory, Lady. Spreading the News
                         The Workhouse Ward
                         Coats, etc. 
Houghton, S. The Dear Departed
Jones, H. A. Her Tongue
Kreymborg, A. Mannikin and Minnikin
Moeller, P. Pokey
Quintero, J. and S.A. A Sunny Morning
Rice, C. The Immortal Lure
Stevens, T.W. Ryland
Sudermann, H. The Far-Away Princess
Tchekoff, A. A Marriage Proposal
Torrence, R. The Rider of Dreams
Walker, S. Never-the-Less
Yeats, W.B. Cathleen Ni Houlihan