Speaking on the “Social Message of the Modern Drama,” Rabbi Louis I. Newman in his Sunday morning talk from the pulpit of Congregation Rodeph Sholom, 7 West Eighty-third street, made a reference to the recently announced retirement from the theater of playwright-producer Elmer Rice. He suggested that Rice is tired from the “heavy burdens he has heaped upon himself” and suggests that he take a vacation from the theater and then return to it with new plays, not “the bonds-maidens of commerce but the priestesses of religion.” Dr. Newman said modern religion has come to view the theater as a form of “morality play,” but he pointed out that such dramas must be art as well as possess a commendable idea.
Speaking of propaganda in the theater, he said it is not “antipathetic to art, but it must be vigorously, entertainingly and inspiringly formulated and produced. It will be a tragedy,” he said, “if the drama sinks to the level of card playing and other narcotics of amusement.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
