A reader's theater script for Roger and the Three Knocks is provided on these pages. Six character roles are needed in this activity.

A reader's theater version of a folktale from Vietnam for 13 players, ages 10 and up. Adapted by children's book author Aaron Shepard from his picture book "The Crystal Heart," the themes explored are kindness and false imagining....

This page is the front door to an extensive collection of play scripts, theater bills, motion pictures, sound recordings and photographs that document popular entertainment, especially vaudeville, from 1870 to 1920.

In "When the Bubble Burst", students will participate in a poem in three voices. Adapted from the poem by Bruce Lansky in If Pigs Could Fly, And Other Deep Thoughts, students will dramatize a poem about a child who gets in trouble for...

In "Bad Baxter Barton," students will participate in a dramatization of a poem. Adapted from the poem "Bad Baxter Barton" originally published in Tall Tales of the Wild West (And a Few Short Ones) by Eric Ode, students will assume roles...

In "A Lesson Learned", students will participate in a poem in two voices. Adapted from the poem by Bruce Lansky in My Dog Ate My Homework! and If Pigs Could Fly, And Other Deep Thoughts, students will dramatize a poem about a skydiver...

A reader's theater version of a folktale from India and Pakistan adapted by children's book author Aaron Shepard from his picture book "The Gifts of Wali Dad." For 15 players, ages 8-13, it contemplates questions of generosity....

A comprehensive approach to understanding how a literary work is transformed into a radio play. Includes links to featured plays and how to organize them by genre, theme, or historical context. Lesson plans and teacher resources are...

In this lesson plan, students will consider "Being in the Noh: An Introduction to Japanese Noh Plays." The plan includes worksheets and other student materials that can be found under the resource tab.

Kabuki was one of the three most popular dramatic forms of Japan, the other two being Noh drama and puppet theater (bunraku). Singers and an orchestra of drums, flutes, wooden clappers, and samisen (a stringed instrument similar to the...

Kabuki was one of the three most popular dramatic forms of Japan during the Edo period and continues to flourish today. Read about these lively plays in this essay.

An important key to teaching children is engaging their attention and facilitating their wonder, curiosity, and interests. We all hope reading will become a passion for our students, and the arts can play a significant role in...

Balinese stories are continually told and retold. The Kayonan is the first and last puppet seen in the Balinese wayang shadow theater. As it dances, it symbolizes the living tradition of storytelling that deeply explains and entertains,...

What is Measure for Measure's problem? The play confronts us with questions about sex, morality, and power, which challenge us as readers and audiences. In these activities, students will debate why the play is so problematic, through...

The mystery plays and morality plays of the 15th and 16th centuries were very different from modern drama. This article takes us back in time to show how these plays portrayed scenes from the Bible, conveyed religious doctrine, and...

In William Shakespeare's plays, characters fight battles and face witches, lead kingdoms and hunt murderers, spend and squander money and friendship. Just as often, though, they focus on what can be an equally difficult struggle: the...

This article introduces Richard Brinsley Sheridan and his famous play "The School for Scandal".

This is a lesson on Elizabethan drama leading up the the reading of Shakespeare's Macbeth. It discusses the precursor mystery or morality plays including links to Everyman, the most famous of these. It continues with a discussion of how...

Contains a large amount of information on creative drama including classroom ideas, theater games, plays for performance, and more.

[Free Registration/Login Required] This PowerPoint presentation provides basic information about William Shakespeare, the Globe Theater, and the tragic play Othello. It explains the major characters in the play and their motivations and...

Use this teacher resource to get students more involved in Shakespeare's As You Like It. Sections of the Teacher Pack include Creating the Worlds of the Play, The Court and the Forest, Creating Characters, Using Movement, and Playing a...

This is a 21-page PDF study guide for Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing entitled "Will Power Study Guide: Much Ado About Nothing" from the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival at Desales University. It provides information about...

This PBS kids site features dozens of short plays that have been performed on the children's television series "Zoom." Includes short scripts for skits which students can perform together, and lists of props to include in the performance.

From the opening lines of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the audience knows what lies in store for the tragedy's title teens: that these two "star-crossed lovers" are doomed to die. By the end of the play, an "ancient grudge"...