'To-day the Shanghai Amateur Dramatic Club. holds. ts. annual meet-Ing and no doubt the Committee will Fetelve appropriate congratulations fon ils successful productions during the past seaton. "The Club is a Piivale concern' and. fits business Kffairs. consequently do. not come funder public review Its productions, However, naturally atiraet public attention and. that attention embraces criticism ay well a3. commendation. The importance of keeping the flesh-and-blood drama olive in Shanghai Wwas referred to the other day in the course of correspondence on the Club's nat play of the season. The Cinema ettectually Keeps out the professional stage. play company" which sed to delight Shanghai audiences. Therefore it is all the more ineument on lovers of the stage to help amateurs to. keep the fag Aying. It Should be Temembered too thatthe feinema has had a benefclat ofiuence fon the amateur" stage by setting Riuher standards of" performance. Those who saw some of the younger players. in "Children to Bless You" trid the double-bit production. of "Pumed Cake" and "Ways and Means" could not but have been struck. by the improvement In the technique of he amateur in. young parts as'compared with that'ef, say, twenty years no, There Is no reason to be peste fmisiie about the aleut available if can be induced lo emerge. {fom iis shell" The Club, in asking for ppublle support, naturally invites: pub-{He criticism which cannot pretend to penetrate the intimate recesses of its management but has to confine leet fo assessment on artistic results, Tt often argued that the selection of Plays is less effective. than in. past Years. 'The eritiism cannot be Sup ported if a careful study be made of the list of productions. At the same time there is something In the contention that in bidding for encourage. ment on the new basis, namely' the existence of the Club as the last pule wark of stage-play production, the Club: might consider "the pos Sibinty of taking into its confidence the patrons to. whom. it looks for lis box amice returns. Its Glub evenings have done much in hat direction. "The value of working in ce-operation with younger but Kidred institutions might be cons Sidered, There is undoubtedly 1 gentral feeling that the local stage de-[Serves protection against the all-con-Guering cinema, Ae the senior organization in. Shanghat the Shanghai Amateur Dramatic Club is expected {o lead the way but It would probably find the task less onerous if by some
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.