Play-Acting

In the words of Baden-Powell, from "Lessons on the 'Varsity of Life."

     I AM convinced that the play-acting which was encouraged among us boys [at Charterhouse] by that broad-minded and far-seeing Headmaster, Dr. Haig-Brown, was of great value to us in after-life.      It was not necessarily with a view to our going on the stage, however, that the Headmaster encouraged us to act but rather as a useful bit of general education.
     For instance, it brought us boys to appreciate for the first time something of the values and beauties of poetic expression. It taught us to memorise speeches, to express ourselves without self-conscious awkwardness before an audience, to articulate clearly, to use apt phrases, so to modulate voice and gesture as to grip and hold our hearers; moreover it taught us that valuable asset of being able to gauge their responsiveness; all in fact that was helpful later on in public speaking.
     Whether it was for the pleasure of showing off I cannot now say but I certainly enjoyed acting for its own sake, and its pursuit led me to many new and interesting experiences.