Drama games are not staged plays but a dynamic form in which children explore their minds and the world around them. They can use their play-acting in sensory games, pantomimes, story games with puppets, in creating masks and costumes, and much more.

Drama games allow children to get more in touch with themselves and what they want to be, and are a delightful way to discover the freedom, creativity, and expression of acting- and living.

The "SmartFun"Activity series encourage imagination, social interaction, and self-expression in children. To make the books easy to use, games are marked according to appropriate age levels, length of play time, and group size, using helpful icons. Most games are non-competitive and none require special skills or training. The series is widely used in homes, schools, daycare centers, clubs, and summer camp.

"It is almost Friday night. Outside, the dark is getting darker," and here and there around the city ninety-two men and thirteen women are getting dressed to go to work. First they bathe and put on their underwear. Then they don special black-and-white apparel. Then when the one hundred and five people are completely ready, each takes a musical instrument and travels to midtown. There, at 8:30 tonight, they will work together: playing.

In these pages Karla Kuskin and Marc Simont combine their talents to give us a delightful and unusual inside view of one way an orchestra prepares.

Nominee, 1983 American Book Award
Notable Children's Books of 1983 (ALA)
1983 Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book)
Outstanding Children's Books of 1982 (NYT)
A Reading Rainbow Selection
1983 Teachers' Choices (NCTE)
Children's Books of 1982 (Library of Congress)

When Kay Harker meets a mysterious Punch and Judy man on his way home for Christmas, he little realizes that he is about to be plunged into adventure. The old man entrusts Kay with a strange puzzle box - the Box of Delights - before suddenly disappearing. Kay soon discovers two things: the box can transport him through time and space, and there is a plot to steal it. He must battle heroically against terrifying forces of evil in order to win the day... This thrilling BBC Radio adaptation boasts a stellar cast, including Donald Sinden, Lionel Jeffries, Spike Milligan and Celia Imrie. 3 CDs. 3 hrs.

In illustrations and rhyme describes the dancing of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, one of the most famous tap dancers of all time.

An excitingly different approach to sharing Bible stories with children What is a Whoosh? It's a drama strategy developed by the Royal Shakespeare Company's education unit and popularised in schools, involving every child in physical interaction with the story. Why Whoosh? It enables children to retain details of the narrative more effectively and to discuss the meaning of a story with greater understanding and insight. And it's lots of fun! What's in this book? 50 Bible stories for use with 7-11 year olds, follow-up activities, discussion starters and prayers, and tips for leaders on how to use the whooshing technique. How do I use this book? It can be used with minimal preparation to provide a full Bible story teaching programme or to supplement an existing one, and is suitable for a range of contexts: Sunday school, midweek group, family service, holiday club, Messy Church celebration, or primary school.

When she first became interested in using puppets in library programs, Jean Pollock discovered there were few interesting scripts suitable for amateur puppeteers that were appropriate for performance in library and school settings. She decided to write plays taking into account the puppet collection available, the time available for rehearsal and performance, and limited puppeteering skills. The plays acknowledge that children know what is funny and what is not, appreciate and use witticisms, and have the sophistication to follow a plot and participate in the joy of creating an illusion. Playful and fast-paced, the scripts are simple enough to be suitable for young audiences, while the humor and interaction between puppets and the audience will extend the appeal to older children as well. Each play is supported with useful production notes, program building notes to adapt the plays for classroom and library use, and a bibliography listing books and media that can be used to develop a study unit or program around the play.

What does it mean to teach Shakespeare with purpose? It means freeing teachers from the notion that teaching Shakespeare means teaching everything, or teaching "Western Civilisation" and universal themes. Instead, this invigorating new book equips teachers to enable student-centred discovery of these complex texts. Because Shakespeare's plays are excellent vehicles for many topics -history, socio-cultural norms and mores, vocabulary, rhetoric, literary tropes and terminology, performance history, performance strategies - it is tempting to teach his plays as though they are good for teaching everything. This lens-free approach, however, often centres the classroom on the teacher as the expert and renders Shakespeare's plays as fixed, determined, and dead. Teaching Shakespeare with Purpose shows teachers how to approach Shakespeare's works as vehicles for collaborative exploration, to develop intentional frames for discovery, and to release the texts from over-determined interpretations. In other words, this book presents how to teach Shakespeare's plays as living, breathing, and evolving texts.

Discover the fascinating stories of the bold and brave women in Shakespeare's plays. Stories of twelve of Shakespeare's courageous, strong-willed and determined characters are brought to life with Becca Stadtlander's rich and evocative illustrations. Celebrate these incredible women with this beautiful gift book, the perfect way to get children fascinated by Shakespeare and inspired by his work. Featuring: Titania, Cleopatra, Rosalind, Margaret of Anjou, Cordelia, Lady Macbeth, Beatrice, Juliet, Portia, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, Miranda, Viola.

In his thirteenth year, Will Sparrow, liar and thief, becomes a runaway. On the road, he encounters a series of con artists--a pickpocket, a tooth puller, a pig trainer, a conjurer--and learns that others are more adept than he at lying and thieving. Then he reluctantly joins a traveling troupe of "oddities," including a dwarf and a cat-faced girl, holding himself apart from the "monsters" and resolving to be on guard against further deceptions. At last Will is forced to understand that appearances are misleading and that he has been his own worst deceiver. The rowdy world of market fairs in Elizabethan England is the colorful backdrop for Newbery medalist Cushman's new comic masterpiece.

Aimed at a generation of short attention spans and a taste for razor-sharp comedy, the rapid-fire ZAP is a smart, farcical new play for high-school students that's ready to bring the house down.
When they're not dusting off the old classics -- over and over -- high-school drama departments are constantly in search of new material. But what play could possibly suit the point-and-click attention spans of kids born with remote controls in their cribs? Cue the lights for ZAP, a nonstop farce that juxtaposes seven different plays -- performed simultaneously -- with a comic genius reminiscent of masters from Monty Python to the Marx Brothers. Combining spot-on parodies of Anton Chekhov, Agatha Christie, Tennessee Williams, Samuel Beckett, Neil Simon and performance art and throwing in scenes from RICHARD III for good measure, ZAP flicks rapidly back and forth from play to play, with hilarious results. As characters from one play end up on the set of another, their befuddlement, exasperation, and brave attempts at improvisation are truly priceless. A hoot to read, ZAP is a dream to perform -- as high schools in California, New York, and Florida have already discovered.

Having fled from Garmany in 1933 to escape the Nazis, Anne Frank and her family were forced into hiding in 1940. Anne, devoted to writing about her experiences, tells us of the tensions and terrors during the period in which the family hid in an attic above a factory, their home for two years.

Twin brothers, Mickey and Edward, are separated at birth as their mother cannot afford to keep them both. Raised only streets apart in the heart of Liverpool, the boys' lives take two very different paths. However, following a chance meeting, the pair form an unlikely friendship. But what will happen if they ever find out the secret of their shared history?

In Our Day Out Mrs Kay's 'Progress Class' embark on an anarchic school trip to Conwy Castle in Wales. Assisted by the authoritarian Deputy Headmaster, Mr Briggs, the students conspire to steal animals from the zoo and cause as much chaos as possible along the way. This edition also includes the following short plays: The Boy with the Transistor Radio, Terraces and I Read the News Today.

Although a classmate says that she cannot play Peter Pan in the school play because she is black, Grace discovers that she can do anything she sets her mind to do.

The school show must go on, in the fourth hilarious mystery in the award-winning Anisha, Accidental Detective series! JUST ONE WEEK UNTIL SHOWTIME! I'm SO busy - our class is putting on a musical, and we only have ONE WEEK before curtain up. And, as it's nearly DIWALI, Granny Jas is cooking non-stop, and Auntie Bindi is determined to BRING THE BLING. I'm leaving the theatrics to Milo, but as the director's assistant I have LOADS to do...especially now everything is going WRONG. Even Molly the cat is forgetting her cues! Miss Jive believes the show is CURSED, but I think someone is trying to STOP THE SHOW! Time for me, ANISHA, ACCIDENTAL DETECTIVE, to step into the spotlight! Praise for the Anisha, Accidental Detective series: Winner of the Sainsbury's Children's Book Prize and of the Crimefest Best Crime Novel for Children Shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award, the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year, and the Laugh Out Loud Book Award "DELIGHTFUL! Perfect for younger detectives - so funny and clever and sweet" Robin Stevens, author of the Murder Most Unladylike series "An absolute joy" Jennifer Killick, author of Crater Lake "Super funny and packed with lovable characters" Swapna Haddow, author of Dave Pigeon

Intended for students and children taking part in speech and drama competitions and exams, this book contains a range of audition speeches. It includes female, male and unisex speeches selected from both plays and children's books. Where relevant the author has indicated how a speech could be shortened for younger children. There is also an introductory section with contributions from Alan Ayckbourn, Carol Schroder (teacher and examiner for the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art), Richard Carpenter (TV writer) and Ed Wilson (Director of the National Youth Theatre) and senior casting directors for the RSC, TV and film. This edition has been freshly revised to include 10 new speeches from well known recent productions as well as children's books including Harry Potter. 'A superb compilation' Amateur Stage