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.”
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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.