Relates the speech which Graham Down, the executive director of the Council for Basic Education, gave at the Theatre Education Association Director's Seminar. Argues against confusing skills for education, training for education, and knowledge for wisdom. Recommends that drama teaching be interdisciplinary. (PRA)

Details the following thoughts on directing for the theater: select the play, read the play, read the play again, ask questions, discover the spine, form a concept, cast the play, listen to the actors, make it move, make it spontaneous, make it real, look for obstacles, make it relevant, and make it important. (PRA)

Describes the relationship between a set designer and a director. Explains that set design is an integral part of every production. Compares the different fears of the set designer and the director. Relates an experience in a University of Kansas production of "Gypsy" in which the production was a collaborative effort in all respects.…

Notes that in drama education programs, students are routinely given responsibility in the real world of theatre. Relates the author's experience as an intern at a theatre in New York City, serving as the assistant stage manager, and failing at his job. Concludes that the playwright deserved a crew who showed initiative and solved problems--a crew…

Discusses ways to use older adults in high school productions, including casting senior adults in the older roles and using adults in all stages of design and production. Provides guidelines for a student-directed short play competition. (PA)

Suggests ways for theater educators to examine their own teaching and theater curriculum in regard to gender issues. Offers some alternatives to improve the gender fairness of a drama program. (SR)

Asks why the United States is training artists that it does not intend to employ, and why (when it seems that arts education is good for everyone) are all the resources concentrated only on "talented" children. (PRA)

Discusses the necessity of clear speech in the theater, especially in this age of media "watching, not listening to." Finds that theater professionals cannot expect an audience to listen if the language is not spoken as if it mattered. (PA)

Suggests that theatre's capacity to educate is often overstated. Notes theatre created by and for teenagers is especially guilty of proselytizing. Argues the real danger is that the cumulative, subliminal message is that theater is medicine. Suggests that playwrights, directors, and artistic directors leave the education for the classroom and take…

Argues that theater instructors must also be artistic directors. Relates one instructor's experiences in taking over the acting and directing program at the Los Angeles High School of the Performing Arts and how his changing attitudes were reflected in his restructuring of the program. (PA)

Argues that theater is the natural art form of democracy. Defines democracy in theater as a system of popular rule that values the individual's contribution to defining, legislating, and regulating the common good--during rehearsals, all troupe members have to agree. Concludes that democracy in theater is not perfect, but it has more successes…

Points out that the concept of winning is an integral part of American culture, especially in athletics. Argues that theater programs should not be judged by the number of awards they win--theater is a cooperative venture rather than a competitive one. Recounts how a formerly competitive theater conference has now downplayed competition and…

Offers some comments on the Educational Theatre Association's survey on the status of theater in U.S. high schools in the same issue of this journal. Discusses finding the key factors responsible for good school theater. (PRA)

Offers an edited transcript of a speech given by Ronne Hartfield to the 1992 Educational Theatre Association National Convention. Discusses the transformative power of art and the potential of theater in the schools to create radical change in the way children learn, think and feel about themselves and their ability to shape their own world. (SR)

Ponders what students might learn from a course in playwriting: the ability to think in vivid instances and moments; the habit of close observation of the details of human behavior; the ability to think through and see through cliches; making hard choices; sympathy; dreaming within limits; and concision. (SR)