The Project Gutenberg EBook of Read-Aloud Plays, by Horace Holley

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Title: Read-Aloud Plays

Author: Horace Holley

Release Date: June 4, 2005 [EBook #15983]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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READ-ALOUD PLAYS

_BY HORACE HOLLEY_

_DIVINATIONS AND CREATIONS_
_READ-ALOUD PLAYS_
_THE DYNAMICS OF ART_
_BAHAISM_
_THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE_
_THE INNER GARDEN_
_THE STRICKEN KING_

READ-ALOUD PLAYS

BY
HORACE HOLLEY

NEW YORK
MITCHELL KENNERLEY
1916

COPYRIGHT 1916 BY
MITCHELL KENNERLEY

DRAMATIC AND LECTURE
RIGHTS RESERVED BY
HORACE HOLLEY

PRINTED IN AMERICA

CONTENTS

PAGE
INTRODUCTION V
HER HAPPINESS 1
A MODERN PRODIGAL 7
THE INCOMPATIBLES 29
THE GENIUS 39
SURVIVAL 55
THE TELEGRAM 71
RAIN 79
PICTURES 103
HIS LUCK 121

INTRODUCTION

The first two or three of these "plays" (I retain the word for lack of a
better one) began themselves as short stories, but in each case I found
that the dramatic element, speech, tended to absorb the impersonal element
of comment and description, so that it proved easier to go on by allowing
the characters to establish the situation themselves. As I grew conscious
of this tendency, I realized that even for the purpose of reading it might
be advantageous to render the short story subject dramatically, since this
method is, after all, one of extreme realism, which should also result in
an increase of interest. As the series developed, however, I perceived
that something more than a new short story form was involved; I perceived
that the "read-aloud" play has a distinct character and function of its
own. In the long run, everything human rises or falls to the level of
speech. The culminating point, even of action the most poignant or emotion
the most intimate, is where it