Before COVID, the author had led in-person readers theatre residencies with the same four fourth-grade teachers and their large public-school classes for over a decade. During COVID, the teachers wanted to do an online residency. The challenge: how to create theatre with young learners in isolated rooms, sitting alone, and seeing others only on a…

The authors discuss their participant observation study with the 10-year-old boy and 8-year-old girl who collaborated on making digital videos at home. Major themes that emerged from this research include appropriation of popular culture texts, parody, gender play, and managing self-representations. These themes highlight the benefits of video…

Argues that teachers need to reinforce the idea that the successful actor's first step in the process of finding and developing a character is to understand the script. Includes the script for a 10-minute play, Christopher Graybill's "Go Look." Presents a close study of the script. (RS)

Discusses the casting of small roles in television's dramatic series in terms of social stereotyping. Information is based on interviews with writers, producers, directors, casting directors, and talent agents. (JMF)

Describes "neutral scenes," a dialog exchange for which actors must supply the meaning. Contends the exercise provides young actors the opportunity to use all the basic tools they will need when they progress to more conventional scene work, such as finding conflict, using given circumstances, playing relationships. Advises analyzing the…

Presents a sequence of exercises that address the importance of using words effectively, and considers the insensitivity so many young actors today have regarding the words they have been given by playwrights to say. Intends to help students better connect and deepen the meaning of the words they use as actors with the objectives they choose to…

Horton Foote was among the television writers who helped make NBC's "Television Playhouse" the most popular live dramatic program on the air during the "Golden Age" of television drama, the period between 1952 and 1957. Foote felt a strong affinity for the land and people of his youth, and modeled the imaginary towns of…

That a play has one central action which is its formal cause is the most influential interpretative idea to emerge among theatre writers since the old model of situation/incident/complication/climax/denouement. Unfortunately, the action concept has been insufficiently developed, excessive hopes have been pinned on it, and it has become a reductive…

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)

Presents guidelines and activities for radio theatre production. Covers playwriting, production techniques, skits, and improvisations. Includes an opening segment of a script adapted for radio of Chekhov's "A Marriage Proposal." (PD)

A teacher describes using melodrama as a way to combine the elements of humor and drama to engage the imaginations of young gifted children. Techniques for use with elementary through junior high students are presented along with the script of a play for first or second graders, with the last lines left blank for students to supply their own…

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…

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)

Contains a teacher's description of how a radio script was developed by students and the completed script itself. (RL)

The entries in this journal represent the second annual publication of selected material dealing with the topic of black theatre. Articles describe an evening with the Frank Silvera Writers Workshop in Harlem, relate an interview with Vinie Burrows, explore the thinking of black scholars and artists on the elements of the African-American theatre…