Community Performance Theater is a vehicle for creating collective knowledge based on oral history, opening dialogue in an urban setting, and paving the way for social change.

Create Your Own is a month-long artist residency that introduces children to opera as a method of spinning a tale rather than as elitist, high-brow art. Students create their own opera company and are involved in every stage of the process from writing the story and music to building the set and making the costumes. (TD)

The Ellensburg (Washington) Children's Musical Theater, created as a community schools project 21 years ago, is still going strong. The theater provides interactive learning opportunities for children of all ages and sponsors other opportunities for children, including a children's writer's workshop and workshops on television violence. Describes…

Middle school and junior high school language arts students can receive a basic background in the elements of theatrical production and an appreciation of the theatre arts by producing and performing one act plays. A six- or seven-week unit can progress from the basics of pantomime, reading and vocabulary, and characterization with make-up,…

The theory that the goal of public performance can be used as a motivating tool in foreign language learning is the basis for the annual German-cafe theater evening described here. The evening of refreshments and entertainment, entirely produced by the German classes, illustrates authentic German cultural activities. (PMJ)

Reviews the worker's theater movement of the 1930s that attempted to unite actors and audience in devising solutions to societal problems. Maintains that re-enacting its dramatic forms is a thought-provoking way to introduce students to the issues of the time. Includes instructions for suggested activities. (MJP)