Boston College - Sub Turri Yearbook (Boston, MA)

g»ttb®urri Pagpl2n the number of times that the several plays were selected for the annual presentation. It is not within the scope of this article to give anything like a detailed account of dramatics at Boston College. There is not space here, nor was the necessary historical data at hand to undertake such a task. The writer has been asked only to set down a few facts and a few thoughts which come to him during an experience of some j ' ears on our well-trodden stage. His time there has been spent more inside the wings than before the foot-lights, but even in that retirement he has not failed to appreciate the great benefit which comes to those who take part in these plays. To read one of these great works in the quiet of one ' s study is helpful. To see it performed by well-trained actors is perhaps better. But better still is the participation in the play itself, and this even though the student ' s part consist only in shouting with the mob, " Villains ! Traitors ! " or such like. It is necessary for the member of the cast to attend rehearsals day after day. From the frequent repetition he has memorized not only his own lines but those of many of the others in the play. He has seen all the principles of elocution exemplified. Under the guidance of a skilled director he has profited by his own mistakes and by those of others. He has seen hidden nreanings brought out and obscure passages made clear. He has seen a great episode vitalized, while at the same time his mind has been fdled with high thouglits and his ear attuned to the matchless majesty of the lines. He has learned something of the choice of words. He begins to know the use of imagery. He acquires a certain sense of harmony in sentence structure. He is impressed by the vigor of thought and the beauty of expression. His interest in the high class of dramas is stimulated. His ambition to become a good speaker is aroused. How many a graduate of Boston College who is today an orator of recognized ability may attribute the beginning of his faculty of speech to his college days when he " Did enact Julius Caesar and was accounted a good actor. " As I write I have before me the record books of The Boston College Athenaeum. This was a dramatic society formed in 1891. The book contains the minutes of one hundred meetings during the yeai ' s from March 23, 1891, to May, 1894. Just one hundred meetings and then, though it was a splendid organization " it stopped short, never to go again, " — wherefore I know not. I can only regret that such a useful society has not a place among the few organizations which are so fruitful of good to the students at our Alma Mater. In its methods The Athenaeum was very similar to its debating societies. These latter devote their time to the science of debate, their public appearance being in a prize debate. The object of the former was to study the drama and to prepare for the annual play. At each