Chapter XI: The Dramatic Qualities in a Good Story

The stories in the Bible, if taken just as they are given, present a body of material which is complicated by a historical background and a religious symbolism that is remote from the young child's experience. They embody the historical incidents as well as the myths and folklore of ancient Hebrew life, and for the most part they express the highest idealism of the Hebrew people. There is no reason, however, why good stories and appropriate incidents may not be given to children from this body of material through selecting from and simplifying the biblical version. A great deal of what is in the Bible should not be used, but there is much that is highly dramatic and becomes valuable for dramatization.

It is possible to adapt an incident by simplifying, and in a measure reorganizing, the parts, and yet to keep the dignity and integrity of the story as it is given in the Bible. The attitude of the children, created by contact with this type of story, should be one of reverence and dignity, coupled with a consciousness of the high ideals of the people they are impersonating.

Before any attempt is made to select parts of the Bible narrative for dramatization the leader, or director of the children, should have well in mind standards which will help in making the part that is chosen a well-organized story. When any good story is analyzed it is found to be built upon an underlying basic structure. There is always a beginning or setting; a middle part, where the incidents rise to a climax; and an end, where the events of the story are satisfactorily worked out. There should be a feeling of movement straight through the story; the incidents should develop; there should be action that leads to some end. A unity must underlie the whole story--there must be no part which is not essential to the working out of the plan. The end of the story should give a sense of completeness, of satisfaction.

It is often the case that the three essential parts of the story call for three acts when the story is dramatized. In some of our modern dramas five acts, but in many only three acts, are required in order to complete the structure. Sometimes, however, all three parts of a story may be given in a one-act dramatization. Before a story is dramatized it is very necessary that it be told so clearly that the children are conscious of these parts; otherwise the resulting drama will lack in organization. No matter how elaborate or simple the story, the children should have a feeling for the basic structure, which should guide the form of the dramatization.

The leader in charge of a dramatic club in which Bible stories are used must take the responsibility of changing the Bible version so as to make an organic unit of the story and yet keep the spirit and big meaning. There are many parts of the Bible narrative which already embody this simple organization--or division into related elements--if all of the heavy, unnecessary incidents are omitted.[1]

Although the main purpose of these dramatizations is not that an artistic result be secured, yet that is an important factor, and should be recognized by both the leader and the children. The product many times will be necessarily crude and lacking in the aesthetic element, but nevertheless there should be an attempt, even though gradually, to train the children toward a recognition and an appreciation of the artistic qualities of the literary production they put forth, as well as of the stage groupings and effects.

Care must be taken that the stories chosen are ethically sound. The story of Jacob is one that may well be omitted. Jacob deceives, and yet all the good things in life come to him--he takes them away from those who rightfully have earned them. This injustice in the story always raises a question in the minds of the children, and for this reason it is not a good story. The stories of Samson, Jephthah, Jael, and others on this order should be eliminated for similar reasons. They are each based upon attitudes toward society and standards of friendship which are now outgrown. There are so many simple episodes in the Bible that can easily be readjusted into well-constructed stories, about which there can be no question of the moral value, that no time need be wasted in considering any story about which there is the least suggestion of an unethical quality when judged by our present-day standards.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: As a matter of fact, it is often the later editorial additions to the simple old stories that have produced the cumbrous effect. When the original story is recovered, it lends itself much better to the purpose here discussed. Such a reorganization of the stories with a preservation of the biblical language has been made in Soares' _Heroes of Israel_ (The University of Chicago Press), where also there is much illustrative material interpretative of the situations.]