Stoneham High School - Wildlife Yearbook (Stoneham, MA)

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CHARLES J. EMERSON To whom, in grateful appreciation of thirty years of service as Principal of the Stoneham High School we dedicate this issue of the “Authentic”

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THE STONEHAM HIGH SCHOOL AUTHENTIC Pageantry (Second Honor — Miss Hazel Blanchard) “Laugh, for the time is brief, a thread but the length of a span, Laugh, and be proud to belong to the old proud pageant of man.” Stoneham is about to commemorate her two hundredth anniversary by a pageant. How much more logical it is to celebrate by an observance of this sort than by a so-called good time — here today, gone tomorrow. The idea of pageantry has taken root firmly in this country. Even the hard-headed economist has been convinced that it pays. Any movement which becomes truly prominent must do so because the great mass of people is behind it. At the same time, public opinion has always need of the leader who will develop and reveal its characteristic sentiment. This has been particularly true of pageantry. Louis Napoleon Parker revived the pageant just twenty years ago on an anniversary occasion in Sherborne, England. America was not far behind, for in the same year a performance for a similar purpose was given in Cornish, New Hampshire, with Percy MacKaze as a leading spirit. Let us not suppose that these men in- vented the pageant. “Nothing is new, said Emerson, “except what has been forgotten. However, they deserve great credit, for the ability to renew what has been forgotten often eq uals Inven- tion. As far back as we have any records, people have had processions and festi- vals. In trying to express their glor- ious past, they found usual words and actions inadequate. They began to realize, too, that pantomime and grace of movement helped to express intan- gible things such as peace or prosperity. In those long-ago days very little was done in the way of pageants or drama of any kind except through religion. Authors and actors were usually mem- bers of the clergy who were endeavor- ing to teach the people. In the Middle Ages, the English, while retaining the ; r religious presen- tations, showed an increasing tendency to dramatize their legends and folk- lore ajscv. These perfiofrinandes were usually out-clcor affairs, with such he- roes as Robin Hood and Saint George. When history did not provide the desir- able material for such exhibitions, and especially Avhen it did not teach ethics clearly enough, the morality play came into favor. It was performed on a stage moved on wheels from town to town. It is interesting to note that such a stage was called a pageant. The poorer folk and country people attended these crude out-door perform- ances, while the nobles and kings were entertained by a fanciful and unreal drama built around the dance. This was called the mosque, and the char- acters in it represented virtues or vires, such as Justice, Hypocrisy, Heresy, Pietz. As in all development of drama and act, these forms of entertainment were obliged to pass through various periods of disfavor and unpopularity. The churches, which had done so much to foster pageantry, did their best to sup- press it. The Puritans were most zeal- ous in this work of opposition. Never- theless, we find that, on the whole, when- ever the people had an awakened inter est in history, dancing, acting, or any of the humanities, they expressed it in pageants. Perceiving new changes with each age, it has finally evolved as a method of giving the meaning of some history in a way effective and helpful to those observing it. Since history lias no plot, the pageant is of a loose sequence. Interest is not lost by this procedure, for methods not al- lowable in strict drama may “bring home” an idea to the audience. At the beginning of our own cen- tury, as we have seen, all sorts of pag- eants became immensely popular. The community pageant now aims to get the people of that community playing together, in the hope that they will work together. Everyone has his op- portunity to be of assistance, from the Indian who will “ ' die for the cause” to the spectators whose chief duty will be to allow themselves to be carried for- ward on a wave of enthusiasm which will sweep the performance to a glor- ious success. Imagine the effect on the commu- nity of driving out Poverty, Ignorance, Slavery, Sin, the Destroying Forces. These gone from our midst symbolic- ally, we shall come back to banish them 5