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Act 1

• THE CHILDREN'S HOUR is a three-act play set in the Wright-Dobie School for girls in the 1930s in a small town in Massachusetts.

• The school was founded by two single women, Karen Wright and Martha Dobie.

• Act 1 opens during an afternoon in April in the study room of the school which is a converted farmhouse.

• Several girls are working on projects and they are monitored by Mrs. Mortar, a former actress and Martha's aunt.

• Mrs. Mortar chastises Mary Tilford who has come in late, but Mrs. Mortar's displeasure eases when Mary presents her with a bouquet of wildflowers.

• Karen enters the room and foils Mary's ploy by declaring that the wildflowers had been tossed in the trash and Mary had retrieved them, not picked them especially for Mrs. Mortar as she would have liked the woman to believe.

• Karen determines that Mary's punishment will be two weeks...

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