Discusses the value of teaching playwriting. (PRA)

Offers advice from a playwright on how to use a play's stage directions. States that stage directions (1) are one playwriting technique for eliminating unnecessary words, (2) are strong suggestions from the playwright, and (3) often reveal character traits. Discusses script analysis. (PA)

Notes that the author wants his high school students to receive the kind of feedback on their plays that he received during a playwriting symposium, and that he and wants them to have a chance to work and interact with experienced playwrights. Considers how playwriting is rewriting; discusses the importance of feedback; and presents two kinds of…

Ponders what students might learn from a course in playwriting: the ability to think in vivid instances and moments; the habit of close observation of the details of human behavior; the ability to think through and see through cliches; making hard choices; sympathy; dreaming within limits; and concision. (SR)

Presents a lesson that might be useful early on teaching a play writing class. Considers how audiences care about things that a character cares about. Explains that in a story the higher the stakes are for the character, the more an audience will invest in the story. Presents a seven question quiz with answers including a discussion of each…

Examines the idea of developing a play through a group effort. Draws on personal experiences of seeing this kind of work since the 1970s. Details techniques that have been used with various groups in a series of drama workshops over the years. (PA)

Discusses the artistry of those who write plays and films to introduce a series of sequential exercises to help student actors become more sensitive to the playwright's contribution. Outlines and explains the phases of "monologue makers": (1) tell stories; (2) make a play; and (3) get on your feet. (PA)

Describes a year-long project, the "Met Life Project," in which high school students collaboratively wrote and produced an original theater piece. (SR)

Presents and discusses a course outline for a high school playwriting course (for which English credit is earned). Offers several writing assignments and a series of sequential steps designed to help students reach the goal of writing a one-act play. (SR)

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 how a theatre educator brought together her acting students and her playwriting students so that the playwrights could see their work performed and acting students see the relationships among performer, director, and playwright. Discusses matching plays to players, customizing scripts, "showtime," and adapting the project. (RS)

Describes the efforts of a teacher to create an after-school drama program where none existed before in a blue-collar area of Pennsylvania. Explains how an original production, "Voices from Middle School," was developed and performed through combining her after-school volunteer drama classes with an in-school poetry class. (PA)