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| WWJ, 1953 |
When the youngsters watch the "Pure Pretence" section of Channel 4's Playschool on weekdays (9:00 a.m.), they're not fooled a bit by the tall tales told by the delightful Midge. And Midge is the first to admit this!
"But for the children going out of their way to let me know THEY know I'm pretending as I talk to stuffed dolls and animals and hear them answer me back, I might get a twinge of conscience now and then over the tall stories I concoct - or just end up feeling plain silly," observes Midge. "But never once has a child laughed at me and never once have I been accused of being silly. For children are the happiest when an adult stops preaching and talking down to them, and talks to them about situations they have experienced and can more reading understand."
Midge also believes children are on a par with adults when it comes to analyzing characters.
"When I still had my Children's Theatre, I taught many children full-length roles in three-act plays, many by rote because they were too young to read. And often we would discuss how a certain character might react to a given situation in the course of helping to interpret the child's lines. Often the child's insight into a character would be amazing - far beyond what the author had revealed. Perhaps it was imagination. Perhaps they are keener observers of humanity than we give them credit for," Midge points out.
Another feature of Midge's section of Playschool is the trip to Cartoonland, over which she narrates a running story. Incidentally, she was the first performer in Detroit to do this.
Midge has two children of her own - John, a 10-year-old who writes verses that sometimes find their way to Playschool, and Michael, 13, who keeps an eye out for props for his mother's show.
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