Excerpt from Five Plays and Five Pantomimes Pantomimes are simply a series of progressions from one climax to another. These I have, for convenience, called poses. Every pose should be held while the child counts four, slowly, to himself. This is to give the audience the chance to observe the pose fully, and to understand what is meant by it, because it is the key to what follows. All these climaxes are not of equal importance, but they will soon subordinate themselves naturally if the children have any dramatic instinct at all. If they do not, after three or four rehearsals, catch the idea of the play, then it is advisable not to attempt a pantomime. When the children thoroughly know the story of the pantomime, let first one and then another tell it over before the dance begins. At a final entertainment, when the dances are given before an audience, one of the children in her own words tells the story. This is much prettier than any set form which could be given. If desired, the child's version may be printed on the program. If this is done the entire performance is given by the children instead of a part of it being a parrot-like repetition of something an older person has written. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.