The Play S The Thing

P.G. Wodehouse's adaptation of Jatek a Kastelyban (The Play in the Castle) brings Ferenc Molnar's classic comedy to a wider audience. The play is a romantic farce without the usual door-slamming and comic entrances and exits. Instead, we are treated to a party of guests seemingly overhearing a lover's tryst, only to find (with the help of a very quick-witted playwright) that they are actually hearing something very different. The play combines beautifully formed characters with an exquisite text.

Responding to current debates on the place of play in schools, the authors have extensively revised their groundbreaking book. They explain how and why play is a critical part of children’s development, as well as the central role adults have to promote it. This classic textbook and popular practitioner resource offers systematic descriptions and analyses of the different roles a teacher adopts to support play, including those of stage manager, mediator, player, scribe, assessor, communicator, and planner. This new edition has been expanded to include significant developments in the broadening landscape of early learning and care, such as assessment, diversity and culture, intentional teaching, inquiry, and the construction of knowledge. New for the Second Edition of The Play’s the Thing! Additional theories on the relationship of teachers and children’s play, e.g., Vygotsky and the role of imaginary play and Reggio Emilia’s image of the competent child.Current issues from media content, consumer culture, and environmental concerns.Standards and testing in preschool and kindergarten.Bridging the cultural gap between home and school.Using digital technology to make children’s play visible.Recent brain development research.And much more! Elizabeth Jones is faculty emerita in human development at Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, California. Gretchen Reynolds is on the faculty in the early childhood education program at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Canada. Their other books on play include Master Players (Reynolds & Jones) and Playing to Get Smart (Jones & Cooper). “The Play’s the Thing provides an excellent summary of theories related to the importance of children's play and illustrates the six roles teachers can use to put these theories into practice.” —Harvard Educational Review “This book describes the knowledge that is required to foster play and to use it as a solid foundation on which to build learning.” —From the Foreword to the First Edition by Elizabeth Prescott, Faculty Emerita, Pacific Oaks College “Playful learning offers educators a plan for creating fun and engaging pedagogies that support rich curricula. . . . And this book offers magnificent descriptions and evidence-based examples of how teachers can pave this new road and create a climate for learning via play.” —From the Foreword to the Second Edition by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University, and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, University of Delaware

Traces the life of the famous English writer, from his childhood and schooling in Stratford-on-Avon, through his successful career as actor and playwright in London, to his death in 1616.

The traditional role for teachers in children's play was to structure it, setting rules and interrupting if things got "out of hand". However, for children three to five, sociodramatic play is a way to invent and make familiar the rhythms and actions of everyday life. This text describes why play is a fundamentally important part of children's development and shows how adults can support and promote play. The authors offer systematic descriptions and analyses of the different roles a teacher adopts toward this end, including those of stage manager, mediator, player, scribe, assessor, communicator, and planner, and describe both highly interactive and inhibited children from different economic backgrounds. The authors integrate cognitive and psycho-dynamic theory as well, regarding the scripts children play in both cognitive and affective terms, and they discuss the importance of fantasy and reality play themes, demonstrating the implications of play for literacy learning.

Marina Jenkyns conveys the excitement of working therapeutically with dramatic text though a personal and highly readable analysis of plays from a variety of periods and cultures. Influenced by the theories of Winnicott and Klein she lays bare the dynamics of relationships and plots to show how they can be used to help us understand our own relationships to each other and the world around us. This highly innovative text integrates therapeutic practice and literature in an engaging and challenging book which will hold the attention of a wide audience. This book contains new ideas for dramatherapy practice, theatre directors and teachers.

Shakespeare has never been this sexy! One evening when helping a colleague stage The Merchant of Venice, English professor Jessica Randall slides momentarily back to 1598. Later that night, she lands for good in the chambers of one William Shakespeare, a down-on-his luck playwright. His biggest problem of late has been a non-stop stream of Jessicas apparating into his chambers nightly. Yet Jessica's appearance halts the visitations, though neither have a clue why. Can she get back to 2018? They don't know that either, and together they begin to craft a life together, all the while trying to break the time travel curse and avoid falling in love. As Jessica grapples with practical (what is and how does one put on a farthingale?) and emotional (how to risk your heart when everything might disappear in an instant?) aspects of adapting to Elizabethan London, she must try to solve the mystery of the other Jessicas. More importantly, she must figure out how to get home without suffering from the broken heart she knows she can't avoid. Despite being thwarted at every turn, Jessica manages to navigate her new world and her old one and save not only herself but Will Shakespeare and his legacy. Praise for the books by Jessica Barksdale Inclán “A magical, mystical tale, one you won’t soon forget.” —Amanda Ashley, author of A Fire in the Blood “An author to watch.” —Kristin Hannah, author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone “Jessica Barksdale Inclán brings a profound understanding of human nature to her characters.” —Sally Mandel, author of Take Me Back “A rich blend of fantasy, farce and spot-on history, The Play's the Thing is a joyous journey through time, place, and the universal complexity of the human heart. A delightful marriage of Peggy Sue Got Married and Shakespeare in Love—a celebration not to be missed.” —Warren Read, author of Ash Falls and One Simple Thing

The play begins with Max and Charlotte, a couple whose marriage seems about to rupture. But nothing one sees on a stage is the real thing, and some things are less real than others. Charlotte is an actress who has been appearing in a play about marriage written by her husband Henry. Max, her leading man, is also married to an actress, Annie. Both marriages are at the point of rupture because Henry and Annie have fallen in love. But is it the real thing?

Miss Brilliant's class puts on a performance of "Mary had a little lamb." Jose isn't interested in the play or in being a Brialliant Player, or in his role, but as he learns about working with his classmates, he finds he has his own place in the class.