Act 3 — CHAPTER VI THE DRAMATIZATION OF RUTH
Reading edition
Ruth was dramatized by the club during the fall of the year because it is a story of the Hebrew harvest time. In order fully to interpret the life of Ruth it was necessary for the children to secure information concerning the barley harvest in ancient Palestine, and also to become familiar with the old customs involved in the story. Many children brought pictures which illustrated the points under discussion, and some of them contributed by telling what they had been able to read at home. Independence on the part of the children in looking up data was always encouraged by the leader; the information which she had to give enriched and supplemented that which was brought in by them.
During the process of this dramatization constant comparisons were made with our own harvest time, and the study of the Hebrew harvest feasts and festivals served to increase the understanding and appreciation of our one harvest festival at Thanksgiving.
The method of procedure in presenting this story for dramatization follows closely that described in connection with Joseph. The Bible version of Ruth is so simply and beautifully told that it needed very little adapting. When it was first given to the children parts of it were read and parts were told by the leader. Many scenes were then planned, but these were soon cut down to the three necessary scenes. From the first the children used much of the Bible language as they acted the story. The beauty and the poetry of it caused them to remember readily the exact wording in many cases.
Seven meetings were required before the group was satisfied with the play as a product of their best effort. As was the case with the other plays given by the club, the children who were to take the parts in the final presentation were selected by the group and not by the leader in charge. Every child knew each part and could represent any character, but children were chosen for specific parts because they seemed to represent certain characters unusually well.
The dramatization of this story called for much construction work. The reapers made their sickles of cardboard and covered them with gold or silver paper or painted them. They found pictures which gave the shape, and from these they cut the patterns (Fig. 15). One little girl brought a real sickle which had once belonged to a Filipino. It gave her happiness to reap with it, but the others were just as content to use the sickles from cardboard.
The need for a harvest song was felt, and in consequence a little song that most of the children knew was decided upon. The reapers sang it as they reaped and while Boaz was walking through his grain field. There was no real grain nor anything to represent it, the children deciding to leave this to the imagination. The action of the reapers and the words that were spoken gave evidence enough that grain was growing there.
There was very little stage setting used in the play. The stage was bare in the first scene in order to represent the road from Moab to Bethlehem. In the second scene a big earthenware jar was needed from which the reapers could drink. The third scene required a box which represented a seat by the city gate; the door which led off the stage at the side was used for the gate.
The action and the grouping of people in the third scene required careful planning by the children. Women came through the gate and passed down the street with water jugs on their shoulders; men gathered in groups to discuss bits of news; Boaz walked toward the gate and sat waiting for his kinsman. Finally, when the cousin appeared, Boaz hailed him and had him sit down. The citizens who were standing near were asked to be witnesses in this business transaction. That one man should take off his shoe and hand it to another was a custom that created much interest among the children. They began to examine pictures for the kinds of shoes that were worn, and this led many of them to wear their own sandals, which approached most nearly to those seen in the pictures. The children who did not own sandals tried to make them with cardboard and strips of cloth (see Fig. 26).
The costuming was very simple. The reapers wore the same little brown slips which had been worn in every play that had been given. Boaz enriched his costume by wearing brighter colors in his headdress and girdle and by wearing a slip that was longer than the others.
The play follows as it was finally given.