In the autumn of 2007 and spring of 2008 the author performed an adapted version of Dario Fo and Franca Rame's one-woman play "Peace Mom" (retitled for Canadian audiences as "Peace Mum") about American mother and peace activist Cindy Sheehan. The play was performed for University of Victoria Applied Theatre students and also in a number of…

In July 1999, the Wedding Community Play was performed in Belfast. A much-celebrated event at the time, the Wedding Play took audiences into private houses inside Loyalist and Republican estates, then on to a public venue for the performance of a cross-community wedding. Gerri Moriarty has already written about some of the difficulties encountered…

The Theatre Company Blah Blah Blah (the Blahs) have been working in youth centres since 1985 and over that time the Blahs have experimented with ways to make theatre for young people in this environment. A youth centre can be a hostile place to take a piece of theatre. Many of the youth centres the Blahs have visited have been in areas of social…

This essay considers the performance context and aesthetics of "Journey Woman", a play devised to initiate a week-long rehabilitative groupwork programme for female prisoners. Although Geese Theatre UK are one of the country's longest-established companies specialising in drama work within the criminal justice sector, this 2006 piece is…

In September 2008 the author created an encounter between herself and Rick Walker, the Director of Cartwheel Arts, a small community arts company in Rochdale, in the North West of England. As one of the three founding workers of what was then Cartwheel Community Arts in 1984, she hoped to create a conversation which recollected or traced some of…

The traditional kindergarten program often reflected a rich but generic approach with creative contexts for typical kindergartners organized around materials (manipulatives or dramatic play) or a developmental area (fine motor or language). The purpose of kindergarten reflected beliefs about how children learn, specialized training for…

Discusses criteria of young children's dramatic play and various definitions of pretend play characteristics. Delineates differences and similarities between dramatic play and drama. Concludes that the term "dramatic play" can cover all kinds of pretend play, including symbolic, representational, imaginative, fantasy, thematic,…

In answer to points raised by Dansky (1985) about specific inferences from Simon and Smith's study (1985) and broader issues about a single-session paradigm used in play and problem solving studies, Simon and Smith argue that their study adequately demonstrated how methodological factors in paradigm can swamp the effects of any treatment…

Draws the connection between childhood play and the unifying, actualizing effects of play in human experience. Examines the concept of play and its integrative function from multidisciplinary perspectives, giving a paradigm for looking at the play process in other expressive forms such as ritual, art, and aesthetic experience. (JMF)

Presents the view that the play environment provides the necessary outlets that stimulate the development of the whole child. (SS)

Hawaii's Young Playwrights Workshop is a place for students willing to explore new worlds with discipline, self-reliance, and creativity. In the Workshop, students discover their own way of creating plays. The article explains how the teacher encourages students to be creative, letting go of preconceived ideas about writing. (SM)

Discusses racism, sexism, and sexual orientation through an analysis of the play "M. Butterfly." Focusing on the French diplomat, Gallimard, the essay discusses sexual orientation, explores Gallimard's racist investments in his orientalized vision of Song, and discusses his attempt to explain his love affair as heterosexual love gone…

This description of the development of imagination and fantasy in children outlines how children view their fantasies, imaginings, imaginary companions, and lies at different stages of development. Main topics include (1) the purposes of fantasy; (2) fantasy in preschool children; (3) imaginative games and dramas; (4) promotion or inhibition of…

Beginning with an extensive overview of theories, this paper proposes an integrative perspective on play. Early theories, which were proposed in the last half of the 19th century, included the surplus energy theory, the recapitulation theory, the instinct-practice theory, and the relaxation theory. More recent theories of play include Freud's and…

Notes the effect child protagonists can have on adult viewers of a play because adult audiences can be reminded of the helplessness of childhood. (JC)