In this commentary, summarized from a recent interview, the author shares insights and memories from a career devoted to drama and performance studies. He enthusiastically recounts events, initiatives, and collaborations that have helped sustain his lifelong passion for performance.

This article suggests how teaching artists can develop practical coursework in audio playwriting. To prepare students to work in the reemergent audio drama medium, the author created a seminar course called Radio Theatre Writing, taught at Arkansas Tech University in the fall of 2014. The course had three sections. First, it focused on…

My privileged opportunity to work with renowned Drama theorist, Dorothy Heathcote, in Melbourne in the 1970s, set a foundation for what I now call Theatre as Education research. Formerly a teacher of Secondary Drama, I became very experienced at creating plays with my students, based on their own ideas, or inspired by the stories of the community.…

This article discusses the successes and vulnerabilities associated with combining the pedagogical methods of Theater, Composition, and Community Literacy in the Composition classroom. It examines how the ideas of Augusto Boal's "Theatre of the Oppressed" and Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" can be combined to support…

The application of drama strategies which focus more on meaning than on form can provide an impetus for ESL learners to be more confident about speaking, thereby increasing the quantity of their spoken English. This paper discusses existing research and the author's own experiences in an attempt to highlight the positive effects of improvisations,…

If educators want students to practice and prepare for challenges they might eventually face, there are a number of useful strategies to connect academic learning to the "real world." One is to ask students to complete what are variously called "performance tasks," "case studies," "simulations," or "project- or problem-based learning units."…

This article examines relationships among process, product, and playmaking in a southeastern playwriting and performance program for teen girls, Playmaking for Girls (PFG). The authors have chosen to focus on tensions between process and product. Such tensions are present in the challenges teachers experience when privileging student-centered…

Blending the arts into students' learning of science concepts through role-play and drama is unusual pedagogy in schools. For seven Australian Year Five students seeking extended learning, advanced scientific concepts were learned during the creative process of script writing and production of a science play called "Hectic Electric". A…

An Indonesian fable is the theme of this three-part lesson for young learners. Students practice with the past-tense verbs used in the fable. By listening, reading and ordering the sentences, and copying a paragraph of the story, students become very familiar with the fable. The lessons finish with homework to write a play based on the fable.…

Explains that five members of the Cornish faculty from various departments and a student came together across lines of discipline and departments to form a dramaturgy team. Notes that this experience created a new presence for the scholar/artist in the productive process. Suggests that the team's commitment to the students as educators contributed…

The process of writing a play serves as a remediation method for developing writing skills in the learning disabled student. The case of an 11-year-old student, who neither writes nor spells, illustrates this method. (SB)

The author decided to minimize the stressful emphasis on assessments in learning in his 11th grade American History and Government classes and put the fun back into teaching. Tired of the repetitive aspects of teaching the required state standards related to the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court cases, the author switched gears from simply…

Describes a seventh grade language-arts unit on playwriting that provided an outlet for the drama, energy, and creativity inherent in all adolescents and proved to be a highly successful and enjoyable program of study. (MG)

Describes Ellen Norman Melamed's Playwriting Project, a 15-session classroom program that requires each participating student to write and design a play, to do at least one revision of each stage of his/her work, and to submit a critical assessment of the experience at the end of the term. (PRA)

Describes the Danish Film School's program in screenwriting. Three faculty members offer insights into their objectives in teaching and the emphasis they each place on various aspects of writing. (JMF)