Includes approaches to pantomime, improvisation, expanding a character, role playing, reader's theater, live stage, and script writing. (DD)

This document presents a rationale for using reader's theatre in the classroom. It briefly discusses some of the conventions that distinguish reader's theatre from traditional theatrical productions, including direction of voice and action to the audience, and the use of scripts. The major portion of the paper offers seven exercises on the…

This course guide is intended to help teachers introduce students to the basic concepts of readers' or interpreters' theatre. Performance objectives for the students are listed which include: (1) discerning the elements that make up a good choice of material, developing some understanding of how to adapt and arrange the material for readers'…

Defining readers theatre as a technique for enhancing students' appreciation of literature and spoken language by dramatizing literary works in classroom settings, this booklet explains the basic principles of that form and offers exercises for applying those principles. The booklet notes that while the exercises are intended primarily for…

The eight articles in this booklet suggest activities designed to help students see drama as an active, engaging pursuit. The first article uses excerpts from Harold Pinter's "The Caretaker" to illustrate how improvisation can be used to help students discover meaning in a play. The second and third articles provide suggestions for…

During the 1950s, when it first began, Readers Theatre was textual in its emphasis; it involved the group reading of literature and the staging of poems and poets' stories, essays, and scenes. In its second stage, during the sixties, Readers Theatre became a directors' art; it was the director who adapted and arranged the literature and whose…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 19 dissertations deal with a variety of topics, including the following: the impact of Konstantin Stanislavski's ideas on motion picture acting in the United States and their significance for oral interpretation; the empathic…

Presents the script of a Readers Theater production to complement a previous article on Bertholt Brecht in theory and practice (EJ 225 131). (JMF)

Describes a theater exercise designed to help students develop sensory skills and learn improvisational skills at the same time. Explains the four steps: getting into the drama, mixing in sensory skills, deepening the drama, and finishing up. States that the exercise is valuable in teaching students skills that are difficult to teach with…

Suggests that improvisation is an excellent catalyst for getting a scene jump-started or back on track. Presents two specific examples of how the author used improv in his own scene study classes. Notes the fundamental task teachers must master prior to improv work is how to isolate the essential dynamics of the scene. (RS)

Presents an annotated bibliography of eight items, entered into the ERIC system in 1977, of potential interest to the secondary school teacher/director in the area of theater arts, including rehearsal interaction, stage movement, costume design, theatrical style, Black theatre, and the use of creative drama. (JMF)

Proposes three theatrical games by which elements of literary experience may be made dramatic. (DD)

Presents guidelines and activities for radio theatre production. Covers playwriting, production techniques, skits, and improvisations. Includes an opening segment of a script adapted for radio of Chekhov's "A Marriage Proposal." (PD)