Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1888 — Education for Dramatists. [ARTICLE]

Education for Dramatists.

Mr. Bronson Howard, who, as one ot the most successful of playwrights, is certainly entitled to speak ex-cathedra on the subject, contributes to a New York journal an interesting letter on the need of educating young men in the principles of dramatic art. Believing that the writer of plays offers a great field for fame and gain, he urges that the laws of dramatic instruction shall be taught in our colleges. In urging this Mr. Howard says: The students of our great universities are drilled in rhetoric and prosody; they are lectured to on the poetic beauties of the Elizabethan dramatists. But, with one exception, none of our universities attempt to teach the elements of the drama as an art; and without its art, aside from its poetry, no dramatic literature exists. Every university graduate has heard the v r ord “unities,” but take one of thenj. to the Astor library; open a volume of old plays; and ask him to put his finger on a “unity.” He knows there must be one somewhere in the library, but not being a mind-reader like Mr. Bishop, he is not likely to find it even with his eyes open; yet this young man has a half-written play at home, or he may be an eager applicant for the post of dramatic critic.