Chester High School - Flamstead Challenge Yearbook (Chester, VT)

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FLAMSTEAD CHALLENGE 23 drops, while artistic ability is needed to arrange successfully the special furniture required and other necessary stage properties, to produce the proper lighting effects, and to plan appropriate costumes. Since to be a good actor one needs to 'be able to put himself in the place of the one whose part he is raking, be able to think as he would think, feel what he would feel, we can see at once that acting requires a sympathetic understanding of other people. Not only must the actor be in sympathy with the feelings, peculiarities, and oddities of the people themselves, but he must also be acquainted with various customs of dress, and ways of living of the peoples of other nations and races. These may be vastly different from his own, but the more he studies these people and their ways, the broader he will become and the more tolerant he will be toward them. 'Thus we can see that drama can play a large part in helping to achieve world peace by promoting a better understanding among nations, and a kinder feeling toward those who are unlike ourselves. Vermont, Our Torch Bearer THIRD HONOR ESSAY Marion Walker One hundred and fifty-seven years ago Vermont declared her independence, and since that day, began the laborious task of making a place for herself in the world. How proud we are of the tom'b of the Unknown Soldier, the Arlington Memorial, which is the largest cemetery monument of the world, built within sight of our nationis capital, at Washington. The blocks for this monument came from the Vermont Marble Company of Rutland' and Proctor. Before marble was quarried here, the land was a barren sheep pasture, considered so worthless that it was traded for an old horse. Now it has been transformed into by far the largest marble-producing establishment in the world. Barre has the largest granite-quarrying area in the United States. In fact, monuments made fom the dark Barre granite, which can be very 'highly polished, have been shipped to all parts of the world. Granite from Bethel and Woodbury has gone to build some of our finest buildings in the United States. We, of today, with all the conflicts and uncertainty around us, should strive to make our future as strong, dependable, and permanent as Vermont has made her industries of marble and granite. The industry which brings approximately two million dollars to Vermonters yearly is the maple sugar industry, in which Vermont leads the forty-eight states. She not only leads in quantity but in quality. John G. Saxe, a Vermont poet, declared that Vermont was famous for four things: Men, women, maple sugar and horses. The first are strong, the last are fleet, The second and third exceedingly sweet, And all uncommonly hard to beat. Ma le su ar not onl brin s mone into the ockets of Vermonters, but it also P A g - ya g n my P o brings happiness into their hearts in its season. This, too, should be kept as we go out into the world, because life not only needs strength, dependability, and

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22 FLAMSTEAD CHALLENGE f comedy, which, developing side 'by side with tragedy, was the outgrowth of the fun and merrymaking at the festivals. , Thus the adding of more actors continued until the Middle Ages, when the priests in the churches decided to educate the illiterate by dramatizing scenes from the Bible, ,especially around Easter and Christmas. Gradually the heads of the churches banished these mystery plays, as the dramatizations were called. Men then took up where the priests left off and went into the streets and public squares where they developed two more types, the miracle plays and the morality plays, of which Everyman is one of the best. , I After these, there came a revival of interest in the old classic plays. These were performed by pupils whose schoolmasters trained them for the classics. In 1536 the first English comedy, Ralph ,Roister Doister, was written. Fifteen years later the first tragedy was written, Gorboduc. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, English drama reached its highest point of excellence in S'hakespeare's plays. Then after the Elizabethan Era the excellence of drama 'began to decline. The Puritans closed all theatres, but with the coming of Charles II to the throne in 1660, interest again flared. The chief dramatist of. this period was John Dryden. His works and the works of those who wrote during this period show the coarseness and corruptness of the age. This brings us up to the beginnings of American drama which started with the colonization of the continent. America has produced, perhaps, more dramatic literature than any other country, but much of it has little literary value. , W In 1766 the first American theater was built. Not until after the Revolution was the first American play written, which was called The Contract. The title role was acted by Royall Taylor, the first American actor of importance, who later became Chief Justice of Vermont. American drama has its excellence in the players rather than in its plays. Since 1826, when Edwin Forrest played Othello, America has produced many important actors. These include Joe Jefferson, who gained his fame as Rip Van Winkle, Edwin Booth, Maude Adams, and Julia Marlowe. About 1880 drama- 'ti5sts.of America showed the most action. The writing tendency of these men was to present various phases of American life, and to center the interest of the audience on the native types of character rather than on the plot. Eugene O'Neill is the greatest of American dramatists. His works represent the highest peak in American drama up to the present time. Today, only plays of genuine merit are given on the stage, and only those can become popular. Some plays 'have been produced every night for as long as tyvo..,ye,ars. The reason for the decline in popularity of just playsi' is attributed to the fact that movies, the radio, and television have been invented, and these afford many hours of enjoyment at a fairly cheap rate. Theimportance of dramatics in schools is great. Perhaps the most out- standing value is that it gives satisfaction to the general public to see sons and daughters on. the stage entertaining parents. It is also one of the easiest ways in whichfto raise money for the many school organizations. More than that, the actors are getting experience in appearing before the public, thus gaining assurance and poise, and are learning how to express their thoughts and feelings. They are also keeping the public interested in drama. In the production of a play many 'branches of education are required. Science iirswemployed inthe development of light bulbs for special effects for different scenesg accounting and other branches of business are necessary for the success Y ' - of !.S8ll1l1g,, the play, shop and machine work must be used to make the back-

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24 FLAMSTEAD CHALLENGE permanency, represented by Vermont marble and granite, but happiness and sweetness which Vermont maple sugar brings to us. At the present time there are at least thirty-eight slate establishments in Vermont, and slate goods from these factories are now shipped to all parts of our country, even to Europe. In these goods she is exceeded only by the state of Pennsylvania. Lumber is another important industry, and, although Vermont does not lead in its production, she furnishes material for a large number of pulp mills. what would the world do without Vermont dairy products, for she not only supplies herself with milk, butter, and cheese, 'but also sends great quantities to New York and Boston. Farms of today are very modern and the farmers have all kinds of machinery which makes their work pleasanter and easier. The early farms of the pioneers were quite the opposite. They not only were without modern equipment, but were 'without the knowledge for making their crop pro- duction successful. Many times their crops failed and they would be faced with starvation. In spite of all these hardships and disappointments, the pioneers struggled on. As years passed by they gradually began to learn more about cultivating their crops, and the invention of new machinery made their tasks easier. We, too, will be faced with hardships and disappointments in the future, but if we remember the pioneers who stuck by their farms, never giving up, we will be encouraged to keep on until we have accomplished whatever we set out to do. - One hundred and fifty-seven years ago little did the early settlers, as they herded their sheep and tilled the soil, realize the vast amount of wealth that lay hidden under the very earth they walked on, and that was to be found in the forests about them. As we go forth now to make our place in the world, little do we realize what opportunities lie hidden from us and how we, by seeking out these opportunities, may make a name for ourselves as Vermont has done. Class History Kermit Reilly Now that the class of '48 is about to graduate from Chester High School, the question as to where the years have gone has been raised in the minds of some. It doesn't seem possible that four years have vanished leaving only majestic memory, but checking up on the time, we find that there surely have been four years that the class of '48 has spent in high school. Nevertheless, it seems only yesterday that we were freshmen. When school opened in the fall of 1944, pupils from Chester and surrounding towns walked up the path to the halls of knowledge to continue their pursuit of a higher education. Many students came from a one- or two-room school- house, and the sight of the brick high school filled some of them with a sense of awe and a bad case of shaking knees. The teachers looked grim and a trifle frightening to some, but after a few days we discovered that -the instructors of the various languages, sciences, and so forth, weren't so horrible as we had imagined. Then the first class meeting was conducted, with the Chester pupils making the most noise this time fthe out-of-towners were not very well acquainted with the surroundingsl. Barbara Jeffrey was the first ladyu Qpresidentj of the class, and the staggering sum of 25 cents a month for class dues was adopted.