Elmwood School - Samara Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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SAMARA 25 DRAM AT I CS THE Senior Dramatic class presented its annual performance on Friday evening April 7th. This year we performed Viceroy Sarah by Norman Ginsbury. There was some trouble in obtaining the rights to produce this play and we were very glad when Miss Eason succeeded in doing so. We were all much pleased with the choice of this play, as, without being a classic, it was within our capabilities and afforded ample scope for characterization. We thoroughly enjoyed acting in it and are most grateful to Miss Eason for her excellent direction. On Miss Eason ' s behalf as well as our own we want to thank Rosemary Youle very much for her invaluable assistance with the costumes. It was greatly appreciated. We recall with very much pleasure the dance which, this year, took the place of the usual Senior Christmas party. The Junior School greatly enjoyed their party. At the entertainment which followed, each of the houses presented a short one-act play. For the third year in succession Fry triumphed with Thirty Minutes in a Street by Beatrice Mayor. Nightingale presented Tickless Time by Susan Glaspell and Keller, The Little Man by John Galsworthy. There are still some presentations to be made. The Senior-Intermediates are busy preparing The Taming of the Shrew and scenes from Vicky and The Young Princess , while the Intermediates are working on Quality Street and Twelfth Night . The Third Form gave us a delightful performance at Christmas when they presented The Three Kings and will soon give another which will include The Sleeping Beauty and Persephone . Once again we want to thank Mr. Kendall MacNeil for attending our plays and for giving us a serious criticism of them. We also thank the Citizen for allowing us to reprint his review which follows: HIGH STANDARD SET IN OTHER YEARS IS FULLY MAINTAINED IN DRAMATIC PRODUCTION BY ELMWOOD STUDENTS It might be just as well to begin this comment on the annual dramatic production of the senior art class of Elm wood School, Rockcliffe, with a confession and admit we should have felt a great deal more competent to deal with Norman Ginsbury ' s historical play Viceroy Sarah , had we read Winston Churchill ' s biography, large though it is, of his illustrious forebear John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. It is an omission that the presentation of last evening urges us to correct at the earliest opportunity for we are ashamed to acknowledge that our knowledge of the history of the reign of Queen Anne is horribly rusty.

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24 SAMARA LECTURE NOTES DURING the past school year it has once more been our good fortune to hear several excellent lectures. We are extremely grateful to all those who so kindly gave up their time to come and speak to us. In October, Doctor Pleasance Carr told us about the work of the Nasik Hospital in India. She gave a very interesting outline of life in India, and a more detailed account of the really splendid work being done there by the hospital. On October I2th, Mr. Rollins gave the pupils of Elmwood and Ashbury a joint lecture on Canadian Wild Birds. As well as giving us an excellent description of the habits and appearance of the birds, Mr. Rollins also told us many interesting and entertaining experiences of his life as an ornithologist. Mrs. Newcombe very kindly spared some of her time on October 20th in order to make an appeal to us on behalf of the Ottawa Community Chests. At the end of October, we were privileged to hear a lecture from Miss H. C. Deneke of Oxford, who described very vividly that lovely old town, illustrating her talk with some interesting pictures. On Armistice Day, we had our usual delightful visit from our friend Major McKeand who talked to us about Poppy Day and his latest trip to the land of the Eskimo. We look forward with great pleasure to this yearly event and Major McKeand never fails to keep us entertained. On November I5th, Miss Iris Sayle gave us a thrilling and inspiring description of the work being done throughout Western Canada by the Sunday School Mission. Miss Sayle illustrated her talk with excellent lantern slides of the travelling Mission and the out-of-the-way places which it visits. Mr. Jacques of the Bell Telephone Company came on January I3th, to show us some very interesting movies. He included in his programme a travelogue, a film depicting the construction and operation of the tele- phone, and a fascinating one of Grey Owl and his beavers. The afternoon proved to be both entertaining and instructive. If the Westward Ho! trip, through Western Canada and Alaska, proves as attractive as Mrs. Girvan ' s description, in her talk just after the Easter holidays, then those of us able to join the tour this summer are indeed to be envied. WHAT DOES MORAL RE-ARMAMENT MEAN TO SCHOOL GIRLS? BEFORE one can attempt to answer this question it is necessary to know exactly what moral re-armament means. It means not only physical courage but moral courage, fair play, and a sense of sports- manship. It means a driving out of all fear. If we want peace, we need a new unity and a new strength. One should give instead of take, not only in little things, but in large ones. There is a great object in Moral Re- Armament, namely that we should all strive earnestly to help international understanding. We who live under Democracy count our- selves lucky to have freedom in speech and thought. But if discipline is rejected as contrary to freedom, that essential propor- tion must be lost. There is danger in praising Democracy and refusing to pay the full price. But what does all this mean to school girls? If in our games we can practise fair play, we will play fair in things other than games. If we have a sense of sports- manship in school, we will have it throughout our lives. If we are fair in our actions and speech to others in school, out of school we will be the same. If we drive out fear of others ' opinion, we will have no fear of what people say later on. What helps more in an understanding of peoples than fair play and sportsmanship? We learn and practise these excellent qualities first in school. Pat O ' Donnell— VI Upper

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26 SAMARA However, this has nothing to do with the way in which this strong piece of dramatic writing was presented by the girls of the school. It was an ambitious undertaking, one might have thought beforehand too ambitious for young ladies in their teens, with little experience of the stage, to attempt. Let us say, therefore, without more ado, that, all things considered, it was a really noble attempt and an excellent accomplishment. In ten years of reviewing Elmwood annual productions we have seen high standards set. These high standards have been fully main- tained by the presentation of Viceroy Sarah , which, like the plays of other years, demonstrated the excellent training the girls ' class at Elmwood receive in dramatic expres- sion, a training distinctly worthwhile in after life even if they never have any ambition to go in for stage work more or less seriously. ' ' Viceroy Sarah draws graphically the political scene in England while John Churchill is fighting its battles on the conti- nent of Europe. With a weak sovereign on the throne, Sarah Churchill is the real ruler of the land and governs the will of her mistress. Queen Anne, with an iron hand. Her domineering way, clever though she is, makes numerous enemies politically and although she valiantly attempts to hold the fort for her husband, the machinations of Harley and St. John through Mrs. Masham, a poor relative whom she has befriended, are successful in having Lord Godolphin removed from office. The fall of Marlborough follows, she herself is dismissed from favour, and all their friends and relatives lose their influence. John and Sarah, however, find peace and happiness in their own love and comradeship. Really Fine Performances Some really fine individual performances were given last evening and again the young ladies of the school displayed their ability to play masculine roles successfully. In several instances they were so successful that we really began to forget that they were girls at all. This was notably the case with regard to J. Smith ' s work as Marlborough. She made the character strong and dignified with the air of one born to command and the bearing of the congueror of Blenheim, Oudenarde and Malplaguet. Yet at the same time there was ever present a masculine tenderness and the love of a strong man for a loyal and clever wife. Following Elmwood custom, many of the roles were divided so that different players took several of the characters. Each naturally gave different impressions of the part, but this did not detract from the presentation. Indeed it only made it all the more interesting, for one would bring out a side of the character not present in such a degree as in the other so that one carried away a sort of composite and more complete interpretation of the whole. Unusual Opening The play has an unusual and difficult opening in which absolute silence is maintained by two of the players for a considerable time. This silence was perhaps a little too long last evening and we thought the same effect could have been obtained by making it a bit shorter. In the first scene, through nervousness perhaps, there seemed to be a tendency on the part of the players to get through their ' lines too guickly. Thus expression suffered and the acting did not achieve reality. As the play proceeded this disappeared and some fine work was the result. In the second act, the quarrel between Sarah and Mrs. Masham was notably well done and the scene in Act III with the same characters and the weak and lonely queen was also well done. We have already commented on the playing of J. Smith as Marlborough. Sarah, the viceroy herself, was played by M. Edwards and G. Vaughan. Both were very good indeed. The former was truly the woman who called herself Mrs. Freeman and her mistress, the queen, Mrs. Morley. The latter, who possesses an excellent stage voice, had a real sense of climax and gave a powerful and dramatic interpretation of the part. She deserves high praise for her work. A Difficult Role M. Paterson and S. Edwards were seen as Abigail Masham, the villain of the piece, a difficult role. Both girls brought out the sly intrigue with which the character is invested. S. Edwards was especially success- ful in this respect. Queen Anne was played by S. Kenny and D. Saunders. The former