Drama For Students

This volume features coverage of 15 plays most frequently studied in literature classes. Each entry includes: an overview of the play; a brief biography of the playwright; a discussion of the play's principal themes; and excerpted critical commentary on various facets of the play.

" Part food for thought, part instruction manual, part stories and scripts to explore, and part encouragement to recharge, this practical book offers a comprehensive approach to using role play and discussion to build meaningful language experiences. It explores issues around storytelling, silent speech, writing, and imagination and shows teachers how to be effective observers and support the deeper meaning that comes from working inside and outside the text. This authoritative resource is full of simple strategies and texts that have been chosen for their ability to engage students, get them out of their chairs, and let them learn actively and socially. The strategies begin with simple games, and evolve into more complex learning opportunities. The model texts give teachers a great place to start, and anecdotes from real classrooms put them into context. These classroom glimpses illustrate the real power that students can bring to their learning as they share within groups and find ways to involve their audience."--Publisher.

Body movement, gesture, voice and interaction are all essential parts of this large selection of games and exercises. Within its twelve chapters are games for getting acquainted, over forty games on how to warm up the actor's tools, and over one hundred games and exercises for improvisation and public speaking. Also included are over seventy monologues and poems for dramatic presentation together with over ten plays and scenes. This total drama book tells about how to assess dramatic performances and covers all drama terms and the essentials about a career in theatre. Each unit can stand alone. Enough resource material for several semesters of study. A must resource book for every drama library.

A true classic with a timeless message! All the other bulls run, jump, and butt their heads together in fights. Ferdinand, on the other hand, would rather sit and smell the flowers. So what will happen when Ferdinand is picked for the bullfights in Madrid? The Story of Ferdinand has inspired, enchanted, and provoked readers ever since it was first published in 1936 for its message of nonviolence and pacifism. In WWII times, Adolf Hitler ordered the book burned in Nazi Germany, while Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, granted it privileged status as the only non-communist children's book allowed in Poland. The preeminent leader of Indian nationalism and civil rights, Mahatma Gandhi—whose nonviolent and pacifistic practices went on to inspire Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.—even called it his favorite book. The story was adapted by Walt Disney into a short animated film entitled Ferdinand the Bull in 1938. Ferdinand the Bull won the 1938 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons).

Packed full of drama games, ideas and suggestions, Drama Menu is a unique new resource for drama teachers.

Give students the tools they need to make books and authors a meaningful part of their lives by introducing them to one of our "For Students" literary references. These resources are specially crafted to meet the curricular needs of high school and undergraduate college students and their teachers as well as the interests of general readers and researchers.

This play-analysis textbook contains 50 short essays on geographically diverse, historically significant dramas -- among them Major Barbara, Our Town, Hamlet, A Streetcar Named Desire, Romeo and Juliet, Miss Julie, Electra, Death of a Salesman, The Balcony, The Cherry Orchard, Mother Courage, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Old Times. The essays are supported by a Step-by-Step Approach to Play Analysis, a Glossary of Dramatic Terms, Study Guides, Topics for Writing and Discussion, Bibliographical Resources, and a comprehensive Index. Written for university and advanced high school students, these critical essays provide practical models to aid and promote writing and analytical skills. The author is a close reader committed to a detailed yet objective examination of the structure, style, imagery, and language of a play. He is concerned with dramatic analysis that can be of benefit to directors, designers, and even actors. Analysis of character, action, dialogue, and setting can thus be translated into concepts for theatrical production. The three key benefits of ANALYZING DRAMA are: 1. Most so-called play analysis texts are books about the methods and techniques of play analysis but contain few (if any) actual play analyses. The book describes the methods and techniques of play analysis while at the same time providing numerous examples of such analysis. 2. The Topics for Writing and Discussion and Study Guides provide a wide range of set tasks for students. 3. Readings are not biased by any particular social or political doctrine. Aimed at students, teachers, educated readers, and drama aficionados with an interest in world drama in particular and drama studies in general, as well as at theatregoers with an interest in the practice of play analysis and criticism.

The inspiration for the NBC TV series "Rise," starring Josh Radnor, Auli'i Cravalho, and Rosie Perez — the incredible and true story of an extraordinary drama teacher who has changed the lives of thousands of students and inspired a town. By the author of The Last Temptation of Rick Pitino. Why would the multimillionaire producer of Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Miss Saigon take his limo from Manhattan to the struggling former steel town of Levittown, Pennsylvania, to see a high school production of Les Misérables? To see the show performed by the astoundingly successful theater company at Harry S Truman High School, run by its legendary director, Lou Volpe. Broadway turns to Truman High when trying out controversial shows such as Rent and Spring Awakening before they move on to high school theater programs across the nation. Volpe’s students from this blue-collar town go on to become Emmy-winning producers, entertainment executives, newscasters, and community-theater founders. Michael Sokolove, a Levittown native and former student of Volpe’s, chronicles the drama director’s last school years and follows a group of student actors as they work through riveting dramas both on and off the stage. This is a story of an economically depressed but proud town finding hope in a gifted teacher and the magic of theater.