A study was conducted to survey current directions and conventions in Interpreters Theatre (includes readers theatre, presentational theatre, and chamber theatre) through a literature review and to note the presence and function of these conventions in current Broadway shows that are predominantly representational. The essential conventions were…

Repetition in vocal characterizations and deviant listening perceptions are two major weaknesses of American acting. That is, voices and diction usually sound the same in everything the actors do, but no one perceives it. One reason listening is so deficient is because of the uninformed or incorrect concepts of those who practice or teach acting.…

Small high schools on a limited budget do not have to sacrifice a theater program. An innovative teacher/director can use basic materials to develop an outstanding program based on units within the language arts curriculum, minicourses, staged readings, or productions of original plays. Recent research supports dramatics in schools. Includes 13…

Presents abstracts of ERIC instructional and background documents to help teachers and administrators of theatre and drama programs. (PD)

The contents of this issue consist of two articles, Readers Theatre as a Humanizing Process by Wallace Bacon and The Secret of Individual Progress in Art by Paul Gregory, and the 1974 readers theatre bibliography. Items are listed in the bibliography in four categories: plays, poetry, programs, and prose. In addition, the dates and places of…

In attempting the delicate task of adapting literature for Readers Theatre presentation, adapters must recognize two essential points: the importance of creating a script capable of effective presentation and the necessity of maintaining the integrity of the literature--those features contributing to the work's unique, unifying, and distinctive…

Explores the extent to which the scholarship of interpretation-in-performance parallels the knowledge of written literary criticism and contends that solo and group performance is a form of "published scholarship". (MH)

Interpreters theatre is proliferating on college campuses, has been made a national forensic activity for schools, has been the topic for recent workshops in the elementary grades, and is being used by the professional theatre to fill a large gap caused by the need for new written material and by competition from films. This paper explores the…

Drawing its materials from any genre, a Readers Theater differs from the usual theatrical presentation in that its action takes place in the reader's mind and is then projected to the audience. The one requirement for "production" is the reader or a group of readers--a stage is unnecessary. On a simple level, it emphasizes placement of readers,…

The interrelationship of performers, text, and audience in reader's theater may be better understood through philosopher Martin Buber's key concepts of polarity, dialogue, and inclusion. These concepts operate within four polar tensions identified by Buber: that between the performer and the character represented; that between the performer and…

Defines metaphorical staging as group interpretation that gives a ritual or symbolic stage form to literature and illustrates this concept by describing the staging of D. H. Lawrence's story "The Horse Dealer's Daughter". (MH)

Reviews some of the major current studies of performance in the areas of sociolinguistics, folklore, and literary criticism and suggests alternative, innovative ways in which to view performance. (MH)

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