Readers theatre is a presentation by two or more participants who read from scripts and interpret a literary work in such a way that the audience imaginatively senses characterization, setting, and action. This book offers 50, two-page reproducible scripts to entice the preschool and kindergarten group into beginning to read. These patterned…

Unlike traditional Readers Theatre, which is typically limited to literature-based scripts, Curriculum-Based Readers Theatre (CBRT) allows teachers and students to create scripts based on any topic, any work of literature, any textbook, or almost any collection of facts. It can be easily incorporated into the existing curriculum, and because this…

Reaffirms the position of directors (Peter Brook, Tyrone Guthrie, Peter Hall, and others) concerning the "balance of power" between director and playwright in transforming a playscript into a theatrical performance. (PD)

That a play has one central action which is its formal cause is the most influential interpretative idea to emerge among theatre writers since the old model of situation/incident/complication/climax/denouement. Unfortunately, the action concept has been insufficiently developed, excessive hopes have been pinned on it, and it has become a reductive…

As part of the theatre studies program offered by Montgomery County (Maryland) senior high schools, this instructional guide for advanced acting is designed to train students in the rigorous skills of preparing and presenting a character in performance. After listing 11 educational objectives, including being able to identify character elements…

Most performer-writers accept the writing process simply as a means to an end: the shared performance event with a live audience. While writer-performers regard a script as more important than the performance, a solo performance is, however, a showcase of the artist's talent, and creating one's own text offers the performer artistic control. Some…

Intended for teachers of gifted students in grades 4-12, the curriculum uses six of Shakespeare's comedies ("The Taming of the Shrew,""The Tempest,""Twelfth Night,""The Comedy of Errors,""As You Like It," and "A Midsummer Night's Dream") as materials for nurturing intellectual and…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 26 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) military theatre; (2) drama as pedagogy; (3) visualization and actor training; (4) the discomfort-relief quotient as an indicator of theatrical genre; (5)…