Provides a number of classroom activities, including skits, which foster creative thinking and bring vigor to the classroom setting. Relates how, in one class, students were given the opportunity to collaborate on skits in lieu of the final exam. (HB)

Presents an assignment to help students understand the necessity of "seeing" a dramatic text as they read it and the necessity of considering that meaning in the theater is created on many different levels that often vary from one play to the next. (SR)

A 4-day developmental drama workshop was held for 12 visually impaired adolescents at a rehabilitation center for blind persons. Pretest-posttest measures of social skills revealed increased levels of individual concentration, increased interaction within the group and with friends and acquaintances outside the group, and higher levels of…

Offers tips on how to talk to actors in a rehearsal. Suggests describing rather than evaluating, speaking provisionally, encouraging collaboration, and showing enthusiasm through body language. (PRA)

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)

Suggests four exercises to undertake prior to the actual reading and study of William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" in high school English classes. (HB)

Describes the Shakespeare Project, a multimedia system on HyperCard with a two-screen workstation linking a Macintosh, videodisc player, and video monitor. States that this project brings theater to students as a serious object of study. (MG)

Describes the work of the Interrelated Arts Program (IAP) in Montgomery County, Maryland, whose multiethnic staff of 18 arts teachers provides varied teaching activities in the schools, many incorporating multicultural education. Offers a sample lesson plan on proverbs, and lists four multiethnic stories for which detailed lesson plans are…

Outlines the mission of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education's Committee on Junior High/Middle School Theatre Programs. Describes the committee's seminars and workshop activities, and mentions ideas under consideration for future projects. Invites readers to join the network of Junior High/Middle School teachers, and calls for articles…

Suggests resources for inspiring and encouraging junior high school students to write their own dramas and for identifying scripts that are just right for a particular group of students. (PRA)

Considers the relationship between drama and writing. Presents a conversation between two scholars interested in this connection in which they describe various views of the relationship. Suggests classroom activities linking drama and writing. (HB)

Describes the Orange Summer Shakespeare Festival, which offers teenagers from New Jersey (most of them African American) the opportunity to perform Shakespeare for their community and to cocreate an exemplary piece of theater that serves as a forum for the cast to transmute their stories and express their dreams, fears, rage, and joy. (SR)

Offers suggestions for writing and performing original plays with secondary students. Argues that classroom plays increase student motivation, improve reading skills, and build character. (SR)

A survey of 56 British secondary teachers found that traditional literary study is the most popular approach to Shakespeare, performance-based strategies less popular and dramatic recreation of the text through audio or video the least popular. The rich potential of experiential methods is clearly not being realized. (SK)

Presents an account of how one English teacher taught William Shakespeare's "Othello" through dramatics in a challenging way. Considers how teachers of drama might discuss props, stage directions, and the proper handling of Desdemona's handkerchief. Explains how teachers should try to take the plays from "page to stage." (HB)