This paper follows the author's trajectory as he collaboratively experimented with ethnodrama (theatre scripts generated from interviews, media artifacts, and written media) and devised theatre performance (theatre collaboratively created with a group), culminating in the analysis of a performance with high school students combining elements of…

Having students read news articles or novels, watch television snippets, engage in class discussions, essay-writing, emailing, and drafting letters are excellent ways to broach any number of society's systemic and oppressive social maladies. Engaging in these activities in the English language arts classroom can serve as a catalyst to encourage…

In cultures where there is a danger of losing face by making a mistake, students prefer activities in which their errors may not be so apparent. The speaking skill is challenging for language learners, necessitating activities that support oral interaction in the classroom. The adaptable radio drama activities presented in this article promote…

The article describes a collaborative project co-taught by a creative writing teacher and the theater department's technical director that required students to write an original script and perform it as toy theater or shadow theater.

When the lights come up on College of Menominee Nation's theater productions they illuminate the stories that students want to tell. These stories have traveled from the campfires, to classrooms, and then to the stage. They are original in execution but build on a long tradition of Indigenous storytelling. The stories are specific to the students,…

The authors of this article believe that giving students opportunities to talk about and represent science concepts helps them develop deeper, more integrated understandings, while providing teachers with rich, alternative methods of assessment. They provide Science units and instructional approaches that are consistent with science and…

An article on scripted drama might seem an unlikely choice for an edition devoted to getting students talking. Surely the point about a script is that the words used are chosen and prescribed by others. However, the examples presented here by Helen Snelson, Ruth Lingard and Kate Brennan demonstrate how effectively a well-crafted script can serve…

Advocacy begins with an assumption that if a number of community members are suffering, then there must be something wrong, not with the individual members, but with the community as a whole; therefore, the community must be changed to help alleviate that suffering. Advocacy creates a platform for change by allowing individuals to begin the…

Social justice is a complex theory and practice that includes the equitable redistribution of resources and the recognition of culture. This is a report about the Tubman Theater Project, a culturally relevant drama program in which African American middle and high school students confronted racism and classism, as well as their unexamined…

What do actors have in common with bigots, bullies and their victims? They play the same script over and over. This article discusses how social justice theater can teach students to take the story into their own hands. It describes Forum Theater, a dramatic method that sets up tightly scripted dramas of power and difference, then encourages the…

"Playesque" (in the manner of a play), Volume 1 features original plays for performances in high school, junior college, and other amateur venues. The plays are reproducible and royalty free for educational and nonprofit performance. They are easily duplicated and performed, and provide complete directions for costuming and staging. Each…

Ten readers theatre scripts based on some of the most famous, sensational trials in U.S. history provide a fascinating glimpse into our past and our justice system. These compelling dramas are based on actual trial proceedings, and have been adapted to the interest and reading level of students in upper elementary and middle school. Details of the…

Presents a dramatic script involving a professor and students in an innovative but unsuccessful course. Makes a case for "edu-prop drama," which engages spectators in fictitious recreation of classroom dynamics. Asserts that having symbolic players in the educational game engage in dramatized, but realistic, conflict dialogue can provoke candid…

Argues that the construction of a performance script permits the modification of the original text in order to render that original theatrically communicative in the present. Notes that the dominant concerns of script modification are in how to negotiate audience expectations. Describes three types of textual deviation: nonverbal alteration;…

Describes some of the Shakespeare software available to educators. Explains some of its applications in the secondary school language arts classroom. Shows how Shakespeare texts on disc allow students to cut sections of the play to enhance their own performances (for example, a 20-minute version of "Much Ado About Nothing") and how…