A detailed account of how a high school playwriting course was developed, with a list of 20 exercises. (RL)

After presenting a series of assumptions about the teaching of playwriting (for example, that students can be taught the craft, if not the art, of playwriting; students must be kept to a strict deadline if they are to develop into disciplined writers; and playwriting should never be discussed outside the context of production possibilities), this…

Describes a cross-county writing project involving a third-grade class and high school drama students. The third graders write character sketches and send them to the drama students, who write a play using the characters. The high school students then produce the play for the elementary students, complete with costumes, makeup, and scenery. (TJQ)

A technique adopted for a course in advanced conversation in English as a second language used a combination of writing, acting, and self-monitoring activities to teach a variety of culturally valuable skills: narration, expression of opinion, and discussion of common issues in culturally sensitive ways. Students write plays as a group about…