S{8 MYSELF AND MY FRIENDS

I got there I knew it was heaven because I saw William
Shakespeare There he was with his handsome, gentle
face with resolution glancing from behind a gracious
smile Dan nudged me and said, "Don't stare that's
William Poel, the Dramatic Director " "No'" I whis-
pered, "it's Shakespeare'" I was right, for the more
I came to know William Poel the more clearly I saw
m him Shakespeare come to life again, and that being
so it seemed simple and natural that Poel should give
new life to Shakespeare's dramas that he should do
easily what others had so often found impossible
reconcile the poetic and the dramatic m Shakespeare's
plays by showing that they are not contradictory but
complementary to one another

The Shakespeare in Poel made it easy for him to keep
the exquisite rhythm and cadence of the verse even whilst
the drama is hurtling along its swift tempestuous course

To you, William Poel, pioneer of modern Shakespeare
production, I owe more than to all the many others
who have taught me, for you were the first to make
me see the essential of drama—harmonious movemc nt
Others after you, and it may be independently, have
discovered and applied it, but you arc the pioneer
Before you, Shakespeare lived everywhcie except on
the stage You, by opening the stage doors once again
to him, brought Shakespeare at last to his natural home
in the hearts of all those who love poetry and drama

III

Anxious mothers sometimes come to me and tell me,
with tearful voice, that their children want to become
actors

"I don't want him to go on the stage and become a
drifting actor," says one "Is he a drifter0" I ask "No,"
indignantly replies the anxious mother "Then let him
go on the stage He will never learn drifting there "

I believe in the discipline of the theatre The regular
hours for rehearsal, the conserving of strength for work,