Describes the Orange Summer Shakespeare Festival, which offers teenagers from New Jersey (most of them African American) the opportunity to perform Shakespeare for their community and to cocreate an exemplary piece of theater that serves as a forum for the cast to transmute their stories and express their dreams, fears, rage, and joy. (SR)

Considers why educators should teach theater arts to kids, what educators want kids to get out of it, and whether the art itself should be subordinated to how it can support other subjects. Argues that both school arts programs and outreach companies should reconnect with their communities. (SR)

Claudia Klein Felske, a high school English teacher, has created a vital dramatic experience in the classroom with the help of a guest workshop leader. The three activities, such as how to read William Shakespeare, Metaphor Theater and character cacophony, which helped students to experience the intensity of language and discover ramifications of…

Describes a workshop approach to plays (especially Shakespearean) that included the academic study of the text, a theatrical presentation, and an exploratory workshop. (HOD)

Describes a drama workshop designed to teach English as a Second Language. Offers specific exercises which were used to help students learn to introduce themselves, use body language and inflection, use formal and informal language, and speak with conviction. (PRA)

Describes an arts and drama program in New Jersey which celebrates and explores cultural diversity. Outlines the seven-week workshop series (beginning with a dramatization of the Tower of Babel myth) that introduces art, music, and traditional stories of various cultures. Concludes with a festival where children dramatize stories they have…

Claims drama in the classroom offers teachers an opportunity to "bring to life" the challenges and triumphs of African Americans. Describes a drama workshop based on the story of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. (NH)

Presents a book excerpt that introduces the author's "Hope Is Vital" program and methods. Shares his vision and methods for creating performance workshops that actively investigate social concerns. Considers a series of gradually intensifying exercises leading from fun warm-ups to image-building bridge activities. (SC)

This paper discusses the impact that teaching and research on African theatre in the Workshop Theatre of the University of Leeds' School of English may have had in Africa and elsewhere. After surveying the productivity and influence of the Workshop Theatre to the present, the authors ask if they have contributed meaningfully to the development,…

Describes a workshop held in Zambia in August 1979, to disseminate among performing artists and rural development workers skills for using the performing arts to communicate information on problems related to agriculture, health, and community development. Over 70 participants from the U.S., Canada, Botswana, Lesotho, Tanzania, Kenya, and Zambia…

Describes the planning, implementation, evaluation, and implications of a "Drama Day"--a one-day middle school festival centered on creating theater. Discusses plans for "Drama Day II." (RS)

Describes some exploratory and discovery methods which capture interest, stimulate curiosity, and kindle enthusiasm of students as they approach Shakespeare and decide how it should be acted, interpreted, and staged. (SR)

The term 'community arts theatre' is used here to describe theatre created and performed by groups of adults in Telford, Shropshire, a new town in the West Midlands of England. The author, who was the co-founder and a theatre worker at Telford Community Arts (TCA), argues that their work is best understood as grassroots artistic reflections of and…

This paper will make a critical comparison between the stages of the Hero's Journey as presented by Christopher Vogler and the taxonomy of personal engagement as articulated by Educational Drama theorists. Both Vogler's journey and the taxonomy describe how a person travels from one world into another and back again, combining the two results in a…

Argues that by acting out, rather than only reading Shakespeare's plays, they can be better interpreted and appreciated. (SRT)