Based on the idea that the focus of theater is human beings and thus that theater can be related to experiences already familiar to students, this book aims to provide both instructors and students with informative, incisive, and pleasurable knowledge about the theater. The book is divided into 6 parts and subdivided into chapters within each…

To provide both an enriching theatre experience for students and faculty and new opportunities for women artists, the Department of Theatre Arts and Speech at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey at Newark held a competition for new plays by New Jersey women playwrights. The winning play, Leni Hamilton's "The Fortress," a story of…

This performance guide is designed for teachers to use with students before and after a performance of the one-act musical based on Lucy Maud Montgomery's novel, "Anne of Green Gables," with music by Richard DeRosa and book and lyrics by Greg Gunning. The guide is designed to help teachers foster students' appreciation of theatre, dance,…

Presents guidelines and activities for radio theatre production. Covers playwriting, production techniques, skits, and improvisations. Includes an opening segment of a script adapted for radio of Chekhov's "A Marriage Proposal." (PD)

Presents a sample of college and university screenwriting programs for writers and directors. Includes opinions of faculty and professionals in the field of writing on the specific objectives of screenwriting courses, as well as methods of teaching. (JMF)

Describes the Danish Film School's program in screenwriting. Three faculty members offer insights into their objectives in teaching and the emphasis they each place on various aspects of writing. (JMF)

This book begins by pointing out that although much has been written on how the drama elements of the English curriculum might be taught in schools, not much guidance is available for teachers who regard drama not as an adjunct of English but as an arts subject in its own right. The book (a collection of articles by drama experts) shows how the…

The skills of playwriting are correctable, the craft of playwriting is teachable, and the art of playwriting is encourageable. In the area of craft, students can learn through models how accomplished playwrights deal with plot, characterization, dialogue, and theme. For the first element, plot development, students can look at written models to…

Intended for elementary school teachers, this short pamphlet describes the processes involved in executing a readers' theater. Much easier to implement than dramatic performances, reader's theater is seen as part theater and part oral interpretation. As outlined in the pamphlet, the procedures for implementing readers' theater in the classroom…

Describes a classroom program in which students adapted and then produced a play based on the adolescent novel "The Chocolate War." Notes group improvisation strategies for adapting internal monologue to dialogue. Argues the advantages of such a project over class discussion and book reports. (JG)

Developed by classroom teachers during the development phase of Minnesota's Graduation Standards, this performance package is made up of locally designed assignments that, taken together, show whether a student has learned and can apply the knowledge and skills related to creating and performing original artistic presentations. It begins with…

With the help of the music, physical education, and art teachers, two third-grade classes wrote, scored, and produced an original operetta in a five-month interdisciplinary classroom project. The process is outlined and recommended by the authors for almost any grade level. (SJL)

Presenting a variety of activities and information, this book offers a distillation of techniques, strategies, concepts, and suggestions that have proven effective in using the visual and performing arts in the classroom. Chapters in the book are: What Is Arts-in-Education?; Creative Drama; Theater Arts as Teaching Strategies; Designing the…

Intended especially for teachers who might be a little intimidated by the art of playwriting, this guide provides a step-by-step plan for using drama in the classroom in grades 4-8 to build children's language arts and thinking skills. The guide features a series of engaging activities where students will learn how to write dialogue, set scenes,…

Noting that knowledge of grammar rules does not ensure correct usage in one's own writing, describes an approach used in a summer workshop to promote awareness of appropriate idiom where 35 highly motivated black students produced 'Snow White' using their own script, half in standard dialect and half in black dialect. (JG)