Playing the Play describes the experiences of a storyteller and teacher of literature who created a literature-based literacy program at Concourse House, a homeless shelter in Bronx, New York, for women and their young children. This program is based on the belief that pleasure is the primary reason children want to learn to read, and that where children have seldom listened to the rhymes and stories that are the ground base for literate children, they need to hear the "call of literature" for themselves. The author describes the way stories are chosen, the active engagements with literature and drama, and the negotiation between her desire for a shared literary experience and the children's desire for play. Playing the play is about giving children the choice to engage imaginatively in stories, and helping them extend that engagement through a performance practice that deepens their knowledge of stories and feeds their sense of themselves as competent, literate people.