Presents an interview about musical theater and script analysis with Charlie Willard, a Broadway producer, touring company manager, and theater professor, who died in a boating accident in August 1991. (PRA)

Discusses the value of teaching playwriting. (PRA)

Describes how to start an improvisation troupe. Discusses appropriate books, casting, training the performers, rehearsing, developing the group's identity, creating challenges, performances, and the role of the leader. (PRA)

Describes the day-by-day process of a high school drama production. Discusses the play, auditions, set construction, directing, student morale, costuming, blocking, dress rehearsals, performances, and other aspects of the production. (PRA)

Calls for teachers in arts education to write to congress in favor of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Discusses censorship and the campaign against the NEA. (PRA)

Profiles the curricular theater programs of five high schools. Discusses enrollment, faculty, and curriculum standards. (PRA)

Lists nine practical applications of camcorders to theater companies and programs. Discusses the purchase of video gear, camcorder features, accessories, the use of the camcorder in the classroom, theater management, student uses, and video production. (PRA)

Presents nine rules to help directors get started as a choreographer and five characteristics to look for in a potential student choreographer. (PRA)

Outlines steps in casting a play: the group should choose a piece with the group in mind; people should be shown off to their best advantage; and ageism, sexism, or racism should not enter the casting process. Performance reality should be kept in mind. (PA)

Note that the exercise, Roll Call, is designed to demonstrate that character is most effectively and reliably created through a careful selection and execution of actions, not by magically inhabiting a character. Concludes that by the end of this sequence of exercises, students should have a better understanding of how character can be created…

Defines adaptations as translations of another's ideas to new or changed circumstances. Outlines the three main sources for adaptations: dramatic, non-dramatic, or literary material. Details challenges of adaptations, such as deciding what to keep and what to leave out, and the need to capture the essence of the original. (PM)

Relates the text of the Educational Theatre Association-National Association of Secondary School Principals brochure. Discusses theater's place in the high school curriculum and the qualities of a good high school curriculum. (PRA)

Provides a short history of educational theater. Discusses trends in commercial and educational theater. Recommends integration, collaboration, and communication for the 1990s. (PRA)

Discusses the problems with theater and arts instruction in New Jersey. Makes recommendations for creating administrative support for high school theater programs. Suggests integrating the theater curriculum with the other arts subjects. Lists New Jersey's arts education mandates. (PRA)

Laments the narcissism that the author sees in too many contemporary approaches to acting and directing. Argues that actors must focus on the world outside themselves, where the play and the audience most need them to be. (SR)