Worship and Mrs. B. E. MacDonald. The theatre was filled to capac- 
     
     ity each evening. 
     
    

    
     Junior Drama. was introduced in 1949, and in that year a 
     
     short course in drama was conducted by Mr. Michael Micklejohn of 
     
     Ottawa, Governor of Dominion Drama Festival, who was one of the 
     
     founders of the Ottawa Drama League Workshop. Mr. Donald 
     
     Wetmore of Nova Scotia conducted a successful one week Drama 
     
     course at Winsloe Hall, he was assisted by Mrs. Vera Millar of Char- 
     
     lottetown. Students attending occupied the Highfield Cottages. 
     
    

    
     In 1952 new classification permitted the entry of Three Act 
     
     plays and a class for beginers was added that year. Choral Reading 
     
    
   
   
    
     will be taken over from the Music Festival in 1964. 
     
     For many years Dr. L. W. Shaw, Deputy Minister of Education 
     
    
   
   
    
     for Prince Edward Island was the Honorary President of the Drama 
     
    
   
   
    
     Festival and did much to encourage the participants. 
     
     Mrs. Harold Laird, one of those who sponsored the first Drama 
     
    
   
   
    
     Festival, was Women’s Institute director for Drama for several 
     
     years, and has been tireless in her efforts to promote the Drama 
     
    
   
   
    
     Festival idea. 
     
     It must not be overlooked that from the beginning of the 
     
    
   
   
    
     movement for this important project, the Government gave an 
     
     annual grant of six-hundred dollars ($600.00), and a further grant 
     
     has been given for the salary of a part—time Drama Instructor for 
     
     the Province, Mr. Lionel Dixon of England, who assumed his duties 
     
     in 1962. Three “Shaw” plays will be presented this summer under 
     
     Mr. Dixon’s direction. 
     
    

    
     The path down which the Drama Festival has come has not 
     
     been strewn with roses, but it has continued to expand each year and 
     
     has found outstanding talent in various communities throughout the 
     
     Province, and is a movement worthy of the support of all lovers of 
     
    
   
   
    
     the theatre. 
     
    
   
   
    
     “We can finish nothing in this life, but we can make a begin- 
     
     ning and bequeath a noble example.” — Selected. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Prince Edward Island Music Festival 
     
     (Mrs. Preston Beck) 
     
    
   
   
    
     I have been asked to write a brief history of the Music Fest- 
     
     ival movement in Prince Edward Island. 
     
    

    
     In the Spring of 1945 Mrs. Nadine Archibald and I, having 
     
     discussed on different occasions the possibility of a Music Festival 
     
     for P.E.I., brought the matter to the attention of a meeting of the 
     
     Central Royalty Institute, of which we were members. After some 
     
     discussion a committee was appointed to promote the idea, and bring 
     
     in a resolution at the annual convention that the Women’s Institutes 
     
     sponsor a Festival. The resolution was duly presented by us and 
     
     passed, but no further action was taken. We then talked of different 
     
     ways to start a Festival and after many consultations with individ- 
     
     uals, groups, and with one another, over a period of months, finally 
     
    
   
   
    
     —101—