Customer Reviews

Folktales on Stage: Children's Plays for Readers Theater, with 16 Reader's Theatre Play Scripts from World Folk and Fairy Tales and Legends, Including Asian, African, Middle Eastern, & Native American

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Compiled and written by author and actor Aaron Shepard, Folktales On Stage: Scripts For Reader's Theater collects theater scripts designed for young readers and adapted from the folktale retellings. Each of Shepard's script is quite brief (only a few pages in length), and intended for aspiring young actors ages 8 to 15 and appropriate for a range of reading levels. All of the scripts comprising Folktales On Stage may be freely copied, shared, and performed for educational and/or non-commercial purposes. A superb resource for schools, libraries, and youth-friendly community theater organizations, Folktales On Stage is a welcome and highly recommended addition to school and community theater collections.

As a junior high school Theatre teacher, I had been searching for the best folktale scripts to perform for our elementary feeder schools -(schools that send their 6th grade graduating classes to our junior high.) A fellow English teacher recommended Aaron Shepard's book Folktales on Stage which we purchased. My Advanced Theatre class, consisting of 8th and 9th graders, read each folktale aloud in class and thoroughly enjoyed each story. When it came time to select 3 of the 16 folktales to perform for our elementary schools (time constraints), the battle was fast and furious. Every student seemed to be supporting a different folktale (because they were all so good!) It took nearly all class period and 5 or 6 secret votes to narrow the field down to the final 3! We will probably select 3 other folktales from Mr. Shepard's book for next year's performances. Thank you for such good writing!

Jeff Rockoff
Cedarcrest Jr. H.
Spanaway, WA 98387

Do you want an engaging activity to use with elementary students that fosters reading, performing and listening skills? Aaron Shephard's book is a wonderful resource for K-8 teachers to use in the classroom. This book has a variety of texts adapted for Reader's Theater from all parts of the world. It has been a great addition to our reading lessons!

In North Carolina, we are always looking for resources to help out teachers in the classroom. Folktales on Stage provides teachers with wonderful examples of scripts to help prepare students for the drama selection of our End of Grade Test.

I love all of Aaron's books. As a future teacher who believes today's students don't know enough of the world's folktales, I know I will be using this book in my future classroom. I especially like the story of "The Sea King's Daughter." It is a wonderful story and Aaron Shepherd has done a wonderful job of adapting it and the other stories in this collection for readers' theater. I can't wait to see what he will do next.

The grade and school where I teach stresses folktales, legends and myths. I also wanted to try to get this in a "Reader's Theater" format. This book does just that! Bravo!

As a teacher of children with learning disabilities, I rarely find an activity that relates to the standards, a child's IEP, and is one that students rave about. This is entertaining as well as educational.

I've used several of Aaron Shepard's reader's theatre plays, including The Magic Brocade and The Gifts of Wali Dad in this book, for intergenerational worship in my Unitarian Universalist church.

It's a great way to involve all the generations in performance, requiring almost no preparation or rehearsal. Reader's Theater conveys a message in a way that's accessible to children without being too "babyish" for the youth or adults.

A number of kids regularly ask when we're going to do reader's theater again "because it was so much fun!"

As a teacher of the gifted I find reader's theatre a creative avenue for teaching literacy and creative dramatics. Aaron Shepard does a great job providing interesting, well organized scripts with a rich selection of myths, folktales, and legends. I greatly appreciate this valuable resource!