![[Alan Review Image]](http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/alan-review-log1.jpg)
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| Editors: | |
| James Blasingame | James.Blasingame@asu.edu |
| Lori A. Goodson | lagoodson@cox.net |
Life, Live Theater, and the Lively Classroom[1]
Today is the day my right hand finally finds out what my left hand has been doing. Since 1980, my right hand has published fifteen booksfor young readers, and on the strength of those books, I've been invited tospeak at schools, libraries, and conferences like this one. But since secondgrade -- well before 1980 -- my left hand, figuratively, because I'mnot actually ambidextrous, has been writing plays.
And, yes, I'm aware that the left hand is associated with thingssinister, gauche, off-balance, wicked, dark, dangerous, and "not quite right,"but theater has always been accused of all of that -- and proud of it. I saw at-shirt recently that said, "Film is art, theater is life, and television isfurniture." Life is the messy one, but life is also the big adventure.
I actually began my life upon the wicked stage in first grade, not as a writer,but as a performer: I played Vitamin A. A Junior Literary Guild editor oncetold me she made her stage debut as Plymouth Rock. It also turned out to be herlast theatrical endeavor, but I went on to bigger things. By second grade, Iwas improvising skits based on popular songs of the day: "The Tennessee Waltz,""The Shrimpboats Are Comin'," "How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?"
None of my creations was ever written down. My company of players and I workedentirely "on the hoof," as it were. I'd boss them around: "Now Joycie'll standhere and Paul will say this and then we'll all sing the song and do a dance andtake a bow." And they'd say, "That's dumb. I don't wanna." And I'd say, "Well,okay, how about . . . " And so it went, until we got the job done.
Our teacher let us perform for the class and then sent us on tour around thebuilding. James G. Blaine Elementary School in Philadelphia was three storiestall. We did fine on the first and second floors, where the elementary classesmet. But when we got to the third floor, where the junior high kids lurked, andwhere ordinarily we were not allowed to roam, we got nervous.
We lined up in front of our first junior high class, and they looked so big tous, so important, so dangerous, that we got the giggles. And we giggledand we sputtered and we snorted until, finally, the teacher asked us to leavethe room. That was the end of my touring company, but that was the beginning ofmy playwriting career.
I've moved between the worlds of theater and books ever since, and it has beenamazing to me that those who speak of "children's literature" and "young adultliterature" almost never include plays for young audiences under thoseheadings.
Last year I served on a language arts evaluation team for our school districtin Springfield, Missouri. Our committee was compiling a list of all thelanguage arts programs available to the young people in our schools: literaryjournals, computer publishing centers, district writing contests, a children'sliterature festival.
"What about school plays?" I asked.
"Oh, no," I was assured, "that's not language arts. That's speech and drama."
Imagine my surprise. All this time, I'd been reading plays, writing plays,attending plays, and performing in plays under the misconception that thoseactivities had something to do with language!
That committee's reaction is not uncommon. Many of the book people I've metdon't even realize there's a rich field of dramatic literature out there. Dothe names Aurand Harris, Suzan Zeder, V. Glasgow Koste, or Joanna Halpert Krausring a bell with you? They -- and many other playwrights like them -- arehighly respected in the world of children's literature, and their award-winningplays -- The Arkansas Bear, Mother Hicks, The Tolstoy StoryPlay, and The Ice Wolf, to name only a few -- belong to a literarytreasure too often hidden behind the wall that separates plays from the rest ofchildren's literature.
Possibly you've heard of Sandy Asher before today, but never of Sandra FenichelAsher. That's the name my left hand goes by, the one that writes plays. Theytravel in different circles, Sandy and Sandra do, and sometimes it'sinteresting for each of them to be an invisible observer in the other's world,but it's frustrating, too, because the two worlds have much to offer childrenand could reach them far more effectively working together.
If you aren't already acquainted with the people I've mentioned and othermodern playwrights creating theater for young or family audiences, you have agreat treat in store for you. The field is booming -- and it's changing inwonderful ways. Jeff Church, artistic director of The Coterie, an excellentfamily theater in Kansas City, notes:
This season, a play we've slated sold out all 29 weekday school performancesfive months in advance. This play is not Wizard of Oz or "Flopsy Goes tothe Circus."
It is The Meeting. A play about Martin Luther King and Malcolm X alonein a room arm-wrestling. To some it doesn't sound like theater for kids -- butwe think just the opposite. We believe our school and public audiences arecraving a unique brand of children's theatre; that indeed we are being soughtby a growing audience.
For The Coterie, children's theatre is about two oil workers discovering acavern of dinosaurs; it's about a child raised by wolves; and it's about twogenius South African high school debate students . . . all subject matter forour new '93 season.
As well, children's theatre is still about the classics, Oliver Twistand Anne of Green Gables, skillfully adapted and made stageworthy. Evena modern kids' cult comedy novel called Bunnicula (cross a bunny withDracula) can live superbly in a Coterie season. A special one-woman show calledBlazing the Outback . . . is already sold out . . . .
Finally, we have a five-state tour we are currently booking for 1994 of SandyAsher's A Woman Called Truth, a play about Sojourner Truth for which wecould not add enough performances last season to meet the demand.
Each play represents one of a series of very unusual choices that we've plannedto make theatregoing at The Coterie a rare experience. Children's theatre isbeing redefined, and what the schools are wishing to see is very encouraging.Goodbye "Flopsy Goes to the Circus."
Across the border, the Nebraska Theatre Caravan sees its mission differently,but with equal enthusiasm. Marya Lucca-Thyberg, Educational Coordinator,writes,
Since its inception in 1976, the Nebraska Theatre Caravan has been dedicated tobringing classic literature to life on stage through the creation of excitingscripts and productions. The Caravan strives to enhance the language artscurriculum through performances and involvement in workshops, offering studentsan opportunity to experience the literature of the classroom in an entirelydifferent way.
The students see . . . one creative vision of what a certain story and set ofideas meant to a specific playwright and a particular group of artists. Throughworkshops the students make creative decisions, just as the artists have done,encouraging them to realize what that story, those words and ideas inspire inthem.
The Caravan devises study guides to assist the classroom teacher in followingthrough on this process as well as taking the issues of an individual play intoother areas of the curriculum. This use of theatre in the classroom/curriculumallows students to become aware of . . . the images, ideas and emotions thatthe literature evokes for them. They can begin to recognize their contributionto any work of art, written, visual, or aural, as well as their owncreativity.
I like that approach: Each student's reaction and contribution to theexperience is unique and valued. Students discover themselves as they discoverliterature. "What do you think?" is an irresistible invitation to learn.
The Coterie and Nebraska Theater Caravan are two out of hundreds of companiesacross the country committed to offering high-quality theater and relatedworkshops for young audiences. I urge you to explore those in your area,including out-of-state groups on tour. If you're not aware of any, contact theInternational Association of Theater for Children and Young People(ASSITEJ/USA) and ask about member theaters in your state or nearby. (Writethem c/o Amie Brockway, The Open Eye: New Stagings, 270 West 89th Street, NewYork, NY 10024).
Some of the plays companies choose to present are unpublished and may be uniqueto that performing group, but many other scripts are available at about thecost of a paperback book through play-publishing companies. I wrote to severalcompanies and asked them what teachers who are not necessarily their schooldrama coaches ought to know about them. The response was generous. Likeproducing companies, play publishing has changed with the times.
Editor Marjorie Murray reminded me that along with my own A Woman CalledTruth and The Wise Men of Chelm, Dramatic Publishing Company offersabout 850 titles, including many you may even be teaching in book form: ToKill a Mockingbird, The Outsiders, Charlotte's Web,Dandelion Wine, and Flowers for Algernon.
Raymond Pape, Associate Editor of Baker's Plays, points out that,
. . . within the last ten to fifteen years, there has been an incredible demandfor plays that are about teenagers. Our focus as a society has shifted to theteens again in many ways, most obviously in the movies. But on the stage, wetry our best to bring plays that are contemporary and plays that speak toteenagers on their level, and to their experience . . . . Within this trend isthe "issue oriented" play, which has become immensely popular. Plays that dealwith issues such as AIDS, teen pregnancy, suicide, chemical abuse, prejudice,are being produced on the high school level all across the country, and morepower to those kids.
In many ways, theater for young audiences is right now where book publishingfor young readers was in the seventies and early eighties: wide open to newideas and experimentation. In spite of censorship crusades and a guttedNational Endowment for the Arts, difficult subjects are being dealt with inyouth theater, and the freedom to do so is generating much excitement and finewriting.
However, the same danger lurks in topical plays that eventually overwhelmedso-called "relevant" or "problem" novels: The problem can become more importantthan literary quality. In his book An Odyssey of Masquers: The EverymanPlayers, Orlin Corey, editor of Anchorage Press, warns against what hecalls
stage sausages . . . stuffed with instant and ersatz solutions to whatever iscurrently fashionable -- child abuse, incest, racial discrimination, divorce,police brutality . . . nuclear power, etc. and etc. . . . one-tenth sermon,six-tenths antics, and three-tenths spurious logic and sensationalism, a recipefor gaseous dyspepsia. Masquerading as "serious," "socially significant,""now-theatre," these highly marketable pastiches are none of the above. Inreality they are neo-Victorian and neo-Puritan -- arrogant, "ethical,"prescriptive.
Which is not to say Mr. Corey is against difficult topics being dealt with inthe theater. "No one can protect children from the life [that serious literaryworks] imaginatively and sensitively reflect," he reminds us. "WinstonChurchill, when asked why the British public in 1940 was so opposed to fascistdictators, puckishly replied, `Because they have known Macbeth sincechildhood.' "
"But lest we forget," Raymond Pape says, "theater is also meant to entertain .. . . Our feeling [at Baker's Plays] is that . . . kids are growing up fasterthan we ever did, and much too seriously. We also provide for the need that isout there for these kids to cut loose."
All of the publishers I heard from offer a wide variety of plays, trulysomething for everyone. A trip through any of their catalogues is an adventurein itself, and I am constantly ordering scripts described therein for thesimple joy of reading them. To give just a taste of the smorgasbord available,let me move at high speed from the sublime to the sublimely ridiculous.
I Never Saw Another Butterfly by Celete Raspanti is the story of one ofthe 15,000 children who passed through Terezin, a military garrison set up as aghetto during World War II, a stopping-off place on the way to the gas chambersin Auschwitz. This sensitive and life-affirming play, available in bothfull-length and one-act forms, is based on collected poems and drawings bythose children, which were recovered and published in a book by the same name.The title poem goes like this:
I never saw another butterfly . . .
The last, the very last,
so richly, brightly, dazzling yellow.
Perhaps if the sun's tears sing
against a white stone . . .
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly `way up high.
It went away I'm sure because it
wished to kiss the world goodbye.
For seven weeks I've lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto,
but I have found my people here.
The dandelions call to me,
And the white chestnut candles in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don't live here in the ghetto.
(reprinted by permission of The Dramatic Publishing Company)Way at the other end of the spectrum of trials children must face is alighthearted but surreal one-act called This Is a Test by Stephen Gregg."As the ticking clock reminds you, you have only sixty minutes to complete thisoh-so-important predictor of your future," reads the catalogue description thatcaught my attention. "But you didn't get the review sheets, the teacher doesn'tseem to like you, and your classmates are blatantly cheating. Time is passingand the voices in your head keep reminding you that though you may be havingtrouble with the test, your personal life is far, far worse. Then you reach theessay question. The good news is that it's an opinion essay. The bad news isthat it's in Chinese . . . ."
There is no topic of study, including the topic of studying, that can't be mademore vivid and personal by a good play.
But maybe I'm preaching to the converted. Maybe you've already been bitten bythe theater bug. In that case, it's very likely you've still experienced somedifficulty justifying the inclusion of post-Shakespearean drama in yourcurriculum plans -- to yourself, possibly; to certain powers-that-be in yourschool system, almost certainly. There is still that suspicion, even amongenthusiastic theater-goers, that it takes 300 years or so for those naughtythings called plays to petrify into literature.
And it's not only book people, of course, who have maintained the wall betweendramatic and other forms of literature. Many theater people keep themselveswell on the other side, at a safe distance from the literature departments oftheir schools. Maybe it's because the two groups see each other as conflictingpersonality types: Book people read, reflect, talk, and write; theater peopleread, reflect, talk, write, jump up and do. Book people are often quitehappy in their own company -- alone with a good book. Theater people cannot dowhat they do alone; they need each other and they need an audience.
Both kinds of personalities exist in every classroom, and there are children --I was one of them -- who embrace both extremes. But young people, as a rule, dotend more toward the active than the passive mode, more toward the social thanthe solitary life. We spend a lot of time and energy trying to get them to sitstill and be quiet when they read and write. Maybe, for a change, we ought tolet them stand up, move around, and be noisy while they read and write. Whyforce naturally left-handed people to use only their right hands?
Plays do come naturally to children. My second-grade friends and I weren'tunusual, except that we were given many opportunities to strut our stuff. Youand I and all of our students began creating plays almost as soon as we couldtalk: "Let's pretend you're the students and I'm the teacher and first I'llgive you a spelling test and then you'll be bad and I'll make you stand in thecorner and then you'll cry. And I'll tell you if you promise to be good, I'lllet you go outside for recess. Okay?"
Characters, conflict, dialogue, action, even a theme -- it sure sounds like aplay to me. And it's as natural to the human organism as walking upright: Let'sget together and pretend. We know how to do that. We were born knowing how.It's part of the standard-equipment language arts program on our mentalcomputers.
Playacting is a way of reviewing what we already know and finding out more.When you and I get together and pretend, possibilities arise that would neverhave been available to either one of us alone. We draw on each other'sstrengths and shore up one another's weaknesses. Discoveries are made abouteach of us, and about the two of us together, and about people in general andhow they interact, both in the play and in the making of the play.
Playacting produces a work of fiction, but it's also a new and real lifeexperience. As in a book, the story exists, the characters exist; but in aplay, real people also exist -- in the same place, at the same time. Actors,characters, and audiences join hands to take part in games of "let's pretend."Story and life are integrated and intensified in a way that only live theater-- not film, not TV, not even books -- can offer. Everything is engaged: mindand body, intellect, imagination, emotions, and senses -- and that, as wealready know, is the ideal way for young people to learn.
"Theatre allows us to laugh, learn, and explore just about anythingimaginable," writes Marjorie Murray. "We can be exhilarated, motivated and/ormoved to reevaluate the world around us and ourselves. And let's not forgetentertainment! It's wonderful to be dazzled by this art form."
Sounds like fun, doesn't it? And now that I've conjured up that three-letterword, I'd better face it and deal with it. Yes, plays are fun. They don't callit a "play" for nothing. And fun doesn't get the respect it deserves in many ofour schools. There is no fun factor on standardized tests; fun grades do notappear on report cards; no one gets into a gifted program for having ahigher-than-average fun-Q.
Still I believe it's a safe bet that the kid who says school is fun is the kidwho is learning. Teaching tools that delight as well as entertain -- the artsamong them -- are too often dismissed as frivolous. If it tastes good, it musthave too much sugar in it; if it's fun, it has to be fluff. And yet the exactopposite is often true. Fun can be highly nutritious!
Anne Fendrich, president of Pioneer Drama Service, sent me this clipping fromher newsletter:
At a time when educators and the educational system are subject to a great dealof criticism, it has become obvious to us that dedicated teachers are not inshort supply . . . . They know, as educational specialists are pointing out,that the arts are not merely the frills some have thought them to be.
An article in U.S. News and World Report of March 30, 1992, points out,"Mounting evidence that comprehensive programs in the arts can radicallyimprove graduation rates, grades, and overall achievement level has capturedthe attention of an array of groups with a vested interest in educationalreform . . . . Theatre experience offers to the student an opportunity toachieve what the Department of Labor considers to be skills "for the workplaceof the future . . . . the capacity for working in teams, communication,creative thinking, self-esteem, imagination, and invention."
I wholeheartedly agree that plays are an especially effective teaching strategyfor today's students, all of them: the brightest ones looking for creativechallenges, the reluctant ones who see no purpose in sitting alone with an openbook, the non-athletes who need a legitimate way to stand up and be noticed.The production of a play brings together people with a broad range of interestsand abilities: Anyone who can read, write, research, act, sing, dance, play amusical instrument, design, choreograph, sew, draw, paint, cut and paste,hammer and saw, pull curtains, work a tape recorder, turn lights on and off,sell tickets, usher, collect donated furniture, costumes, and props, deliverposters around town, or direct, supervise, and/or clean up after everybody elsecan make a contribution to the production of a play. And every singlecontribution makes a significant difference, because there truly is no suchthing as a small part. The tiniest hitch can ruin everything; meticulousattention to detail can produce magic.
Plays offer endless opportunities for individual leadership and cooperativeproblem solving. Knowing that today's students will face situations in theirlives, on a personal, community, and global scale, that we cannot possiblyforesee, practice in identifying and dealing with a wide variety of unchartedsituations should take top priority in their educations, right along with thedevelopment of the self-esteem needed to face the unknown with hope andcourage.
There is nothing quite like live theater for generating uncharted situations.Some theatrical problems require long-term planning; others, on-the-spotdecisions and lightning-fast action. Some call for an exchange of ideas; othersleave you quite on your own. Either way, each decision affects every otherdecision and every other person involved in the on-going process of presentinga play. And no matter what happens, you can't go back and you can't stop. Notonly must the show go on, it will go on, one way or another. Sounds a lot likelife, doesn't it?
But all right, you and your school simply do not have the time, money, staff,or support needed to get your kids to the theater, bring in a touring company,or put on a fully-produced play yourselves. Hard to believe in a country thatspends a billion dollars a year on hairspray, but, yes, it happens. So whatelse can you do to bring dramatic literature to life in your classroom?
You can read plays and do everything you do with books and stories, includingthe mundane "describe the characters, summarize the plot, and identify the mainidea," if you want to. But you can also do more.
Before I suggest how, I must address the topic of royalties and when you do anddo not need to pay them. Most of you are familiar with Plays, themonthly magazine that publishes about eighty new scripts for all grades everyyear. Those plays are royalty-free; that is, you may perform them fornon-paying audiences without paying a fee to the publisher. Once you chargeadmission, though, you're in a royalty situation and need to contact themagazine for permission and royalty rates.
Other play publishers also have royalty-free plays in print, and theircatalogues will say so, but most of their scripts do require the payment ofroyalties whenever the play is presented before an audience, paying ornon-paying. When you purchase a playscript, you may read it to your classwithout paying a royalty, you may have the class read it to themselves or toeach other without paying a royalty, and you may have one side of the classperform it for the other side without paying a royalty. But once you leave yourclassroom, even to perform for the class next door, you must pay the royalty.It is unethical and illegal to do otherwise. (Royalties generally run betweenfifteen and fifty dollars a performance, depending on the play's length, yourtroupe's professional standing, and other factors.)
That said, let me repeat that you may purchase one or more copies of aplayscript and use and enjoy it within your classroom as you would any otherbook. And you can have the additional fun -- and personal involvement -- ofreading and thinking about plays the way professional theater people do.
Why not examine a character the way an actor might: Stand up and move throughthe script. Here she enters for the first time. Where might she be coming from?What kind of mood is she in? How would she walk? What does her voice soundlike?
Now she drinks a cup of coffee. Would she be a dainty sipper or a noisyslurper? Is she the impatient type likely to burn her tongue? Why doesshe do these things in this way? How do her actions affect everyone else in thescene? How do their reactions affect her?
The answers to these questions are not in any teacher's guide. Like clues to aninexhaustible treasure hunt, they're hidden in the play itself and in eachactor's interpretation of the role. Acting means more than memorizing andreciting lines. It requires minute analysis of the character's personality andbackground, of the situation she's in, of the time and place in which shelives, of what happened before the play began that affects her behavior now.Good actors spend a lot of time in libraries, researching their roles. Thinkinglike actors, students can climb inside each character's skin, make decisions,and make discoveries. Reading like an actor is intense, intelligent, and verypersonally involving.
While I'm on the topic of reading like an actor, I'd like to put in a word herein favor of rehearsal time, even for an informal classroom reading. It wasnever Shakespeare's intention to have his plays read aloud by sullen, hesitant,embarrassed students who'd never set eyes on the words before. The Bard is notat his best under those conditions, and neither is anyone else! Short scenesanalyzed, rehearsed, and then read aloud to the class are far more satisfyingthan attempts to stumble through line after line of a play without a first, letalone a second, thought. Think like an actor: Don't go public until you'verehearsed.
There are other intriguing roads into a play. What about the set designer'spoint of view? Or the costume designer's? Both jobs call for more than artistictalent. Designers study every word of a script to balance their owninterpretations against the physical needs of the actors, the playwright'sintentions, and the theater's dimensions and budget. Designers need to researchtime periods and geographical locations for accurate details. Again they learnenough to enter the world of the play and, by their individual decisions, helpto bring that world to life.
The director has to straddle both the artistic and the practical aspects of theplay. How can he or she work within a budget and still be true to the spirit ofthe story? Which actors should be chosen to breathe life into these characters?And why? What special qualities might each bring to the play? (If you're notactually presenting the play, you can draw up a fantasy cast of famous names,or mix those with classmates, if you like.)
Could one actor be hired to play two or more roles? It saves money, but is itphysically possible? Is there a point at which the actor would end up on stageas both characters at once, talking to himself? You have to know a playintimately before you even cast it!
What ideas might a director offer the actors, designers, and other participantsto keep costs in line and yet bring his or her vision of the play to fruition?Might the sets and costumes be suggested rather than fully executed? Mightmusic bridge the changes in scenery or eliminate the need for sceneryaltogether? What kind of music would be appropriate? Again, there are no rightand wrong answers, but there are answers -- in the script and in thoseinterpreting it.
The differences between the book and play versions of a story, and betweenstorywriting and playwriting in general, offer intriguing possibilities foranalysis of a play from the playwright's point of view. Like stories, playsgenerally begin with a character -- a character with a problem to be solved, agoal to be reached. That character determines the direction of the plot,because certain kinds of adventures happen to certain kinds of people: DonQuixote did not sail to the New World; Christopher Columbus did. Even if DonQuixote were real and Columbus were fictional, they would still be true totheir own natures.
Like stories, plays present a theme. Events are not chosen randomly; they arearranged to mean something, to illustrate and illuminate, to make a point.
But while story writers can develop character, plot, and theme throughnarration, playwrights depend almost entirely on dialogue, action, andspectacle. Characters in a play are known and judged only by obvious externalfactors. How they look, what they say or fail to say, what they do or fail todo -- and what other characters say about them -- are the only hints we getabout who those people are. Other characters, the actors interpreting eachrole, and we, the audience, have nothing else to go on. We're not mind-readers.And while the playwright tries to provide enough information to make his or herintentions clear, he or she rarely steps onstage, the way a narrator might in abook, to tell us what's going on beneath the surface. This is another way inwhich plays call for active involvement from audience and readers. All the workis not done for us.
Like play characters, real people are known and judged by externals: how welook, what we say and do, what others say about us. This fact and themisunderstandings that often arise from it are acutely apparent to youngpeople. There's no narrator around to explain how we secretly feel or what wereally meant to say or what extenuating circumstances lie behind our deeds.Examine the human dynamics of a play -- what's readily communicated, whatisn't, and the ramifications of both -- and you come away with insight into thedynamics of daily life.
Unlike the authors of stories, novels, TV shows, and movies, playwrights haveto accommodate their work to the special physical problems and challenges ofthe theater. In a story or a movie, time, space, characters, and action arelimited only by the imagination. A character can be a baby asleep in his cribone moment and a grown-up lost in space the next. Mountains and mobs can appearand disappear with a touch of narration or camera work.
But in the theater, you're dealing with real flesh-and-blood people who have toperform the story nonstop from beginning to end, often many times over,sometimes more than once a day. Characters who fly are possible, but difficult,and expensive. The climactic, bloody boxing matches in the "Rocky" movies couldnot be done convincingly eight performances a week by real actors -- at least,not in a realistic manner. Or not with the same actors each time!
In theater, you're dealing with a real physical space: floods, volcanoes, trainwrecks, and earthquakes are hard to reproduce onstage. The aerial dogfights ofthe Star Wars epic would be expensive at best and silly-looking at worst.
The reader of a book can take as long as needed to digest each page, but atheater audience can't stop to rest or review and can't be expected to payattention indefinitely.
Finally, while the author of a book has only to keep one imaginary reader inmind, someone very much like himself or herself, a playwright has to take intoconsideration the future needs of producers, actors, designers, audiences, andso on. Everyone involved in the presentation of a play has a creative vision ofwhat the play should be, and not all of them necessarily agree with each other-- or with the playwright's original intentions. There's Shakespeare as musicalcomedy, Shakespeare as opera, Shakespeare in the park, Shakespeare in signlanguage. It might be interesting to compare a production of the play with thewritten script and imagine the playwright's reaction to the interpretations.I'll give you a hint: It's not always pure joy! Fortunately, each productionmeans a new approach -- or set of approaches. A play is a living thing, capableof growth and change, onstage and in the classroom.
The differences between storywriting and playwriting can be seen aslimitations, but they're better thought of as challenges -- and infiniteopportunities for creative problem solving. Given the obstacles mentioned, andothers that your students may discover on their own, how do playwrights maketheir stories interesting, even exciting, whether they're working on originalscripts or adapting stories for the stage?
Rising to the challenge, some of your students may want to carry thinking likea playwright to its logical extreme -- writing plays. I won't go into themechanics of playwriting here; that would require far more time than we have.But remember that it can be done "on the hoof" as well as on the page, and thatopens the door to students of wide-ranging skills.
I've written about both techniques in some detail in Ruth Nathan's bookWriters in the Classroom, and there are many excellent books onplaywriting, creative dramatics, and improvisational theater available,including several offered in the catalogues of the play publishers I've quotedearlier. There are also wonderful models for teenage playwrights in Sparksin the Park and other titles in the ongoing series of books from Dellfeaturing the winners of the annual Young Playwrights Festival, high schoolerswho write with inspiring candor and skill. Dramatic Publishing Company featuresseveral plays by groups of teenagers, and Baker's Plays also sponsors ahigh-school playwriting contest and publishes the winners.
Whether we write them, read them, perform them, or attend them, plays involveus physically and emotionally as well as intellectually, and because of that,they make an imprint that's practically indelible. However your studentsconnect to the beating heart of a live play -- at home studying lines,backstage mending a costume, in the art room painting a poster, flat on thefloor playing Plymouth Rock, or just imagining these possibilities whilereading -- they will develop and internalize language skills and life skills --not to mention specific lessons across the curriculum.
And they'll have fun doing it.
I'd like to end with a few testimonials that shed light on the value of playsin the language arts curriculum from a variety of angles. The first is fromCharlotte H. Ray of East Webster High School in Maben, Mississippi, writing toPioneer Drama Services:
I'm a P.E. and science major, but I sponsor a play because I've seen how muchit means to the students. When I attend class reunions, the most oftenremembered event in high school is the Senior or Junior play. Also, each yearI'm amazed at the student who comes out of his/her shell when . . . accepted bythe audience or . . . fellow cast members. One mother told me after the playthat her son had been a different person since accepting a part. She said, "Ican't believe it, and I owe it all to you." What better reward can you receiveas a teacher!
Playwright William-Alan Landes observes,
A teacher in Missouri thanked me for one funny children's short play, sayingshe had spent a year trying to encourage a ten-year-old to read. She thoughtshe had failed. At a seminar she found a copy of Aesop's Friends andsome notes on usage. She tried having her class read aloud, dramatize, andperform. The ten year old got excited. After a couple of play reading sessions,she found the entire class enjoyed reading more. As I've said for years, playsare good reading!
Here are four very different responses to one company's production of one play,my own A Woman Called Truth, performed by the Open Eye: New Stagings inNew York. (I apologize for the immodesty, but my own are the only reviews Icollect en masse!) From Marvin Krislov, U.S. Justice Department, CivilRights Division: "I commend you and your company's important contribution toeducating all people in the history of this country and promoting racialharmony and understanding." From Corey, P.S. 35, New York City: "Your show mademe sad, happy, and angry. Your show was heart warming. I gave it two thumbsup!" From Jacquelin Powell, enrolled in an adult high school equivalencyprogram: "As I sat in your audience last Thursday morning, staring directly atthe stage and watching you perform the play . . . with such dignity, I thoughtto myself that if it were me, would I be courageous and brave as Isabelle was?"And finally, from playwright J. E. Franklin: "As for my own daughter'sreaction, she was full of questions after the play. For some time, I had left acopy of Sojourner Truth: Narrative and Book of Life lying conspicuouslyhere and there in the house, hoping she would someday pick it up. A few daysafter the performance, I saw a bookmark in it."
The play's the thing . . . .
A seclection of Play Publishers
Opportunities for Young PlaywrightsBooks and Plays Cited
Asher, Sandra Fenichel. The Wise Men of Chelm. DramaticPublishing Co., 1992.
Asher, Sandra Fenichel. A Woman Called Truth. Dramatic Publishing Co.,1989.
Bradbury, Ray. Dandelion Wine. Dramatic Publishing Co., 1988.
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. Unpublished; adapted by The CoterieCompany.
Gregg, Stephen. This Is a Test. Dramatic Publishing Co., 1988.
Harris, Aurand. The Arkansas Bear. Anchorage Press, 1980.
Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders. Adapted by Christopher Sergel. DramaticPublishing Co., 1990.
Keyes, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon. Adapted by David Rogers. DramaticPublishing Co., 1969.
Koste, V. Glascow. The Tolstoy Story Play. Dramatic Publishing Co.,1991.
Kraus, Joanna Halpert. The Ice Wolf. New Plays, Inc., 1963.
Landers, William-Alan. Aesop's Friends. Unpublished, contact Player'sPress.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Adapted by Christopher Sergel.Dramatic Publishing Co., 1970.
Morgan, Marlo. Blazing the Outback (published as Mutant Message).Lee's Summit, MO: MM Company, 1991.
Nathan, Ruth. Writers in the Classroom. Christopher-Gordon, 1991.
Raspanti, Celeste. I Never Saw Another Butterfly. Dramatic PublishingCo., 1971.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, Macbeth, et al. Arden ShakespeareSeries, available from Baker's Plays.
Sojourner Truth: Narrative and Book of Life. Arno Press and The New YorkTimes, 1968.
Stetson, Jeff. The Meeting. Dramatists Play Service, 1984 and 1990.
White, E.B. Charlotte's Web. Adapted by Joseph Robinette. DramaticPublishing Co., 1983.
Wizard of Oz, The. Musical and straight play adaptations are availablefrom Baker's Plays.
Zeder, Suzan. Mother Hicks. Anchorage Press, 1984.
In addition to her work as a playwright, Sandy Asher is the author of therecently published collection of short stories, Out of Here: A Senior ClassYearbook, and numerous novels for young adults. She is a former member ofALAN's Board of Directors and a frequent speaker at ALAN and NCTE meetings.This article is adapted from a presentation at the International ReadingAssociation Great Plains Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, October 30, 1992.An abridged version of this talk appeared in the Fall 1993 issue of theConnecticut English Journal.
