Theatre Games and Beyond: A Creative Approach for Young Performers [Paperback]

Amiel Schotz (Author), Theodore O. Zapel (Editor), Janice Melvin (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 21, 1998

A new teacher's handbook of over 140 theatre games to stimulate creativity in performers of all ages. The essentials of creative acting skills with games and exercises in twelve units: Unit 1: Group Orientation; Unit 2: Trust; Unit 3: Warming Up; Unit 4: Developing the Senses; Unit 5: Co-ordination and Interaction; Unit 6: Co-operation; Unit 7: Reality; Unit 8: Sensitivity and Communication; Unit 9: Transformation, Discovery and Spontaneity; Unit 10: Characters and Stories; Unit 11: Drawing to Music and Unit 12: Creative Quotations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This handsomely printed book offers teachers at a variety of levels a way of introducing children and mature students to the nature of play; and to that end, Schotz collects and sometimes invents, a sequence of games and exercises. The focus is on loosening people up, and bringing them out of their shells, so that they use their imagination and enjoy the company of others in rhythmic and creative ways, and learn more about themselves as individuals and as part of a group. But Schotz goes beyond superficialities. Through the intensity of the author's committment, gestated over a lifetime of practical theatrical work and classroom experience, he achieves a penetrating synthesis on the theme of "homo ludens", man, the game-playing animal. He integrates, applies, and explains, clearly, incisively, brilliantly.

Schotz insists on calling his first unit "Group Orientation" and on putting games of introduction and trust before exercises in sensory refinement and feeling enhancement; in other words, making the group more important than the atomized individual.

The games start to create, enhance, and redefine the experiences we make as individuals in social groups. In this sense, imagination and creativity do not offer supplemental colors to the hardheaded blacks-and-whites of the real world; they are the inner forces of that world, the "dark matter" that constitutes 90% of the universe--not the 10% of mass which is the visual (cash nexus) of the cosmos.

However, I think the real worth of this book lies in its insistence that teachers and parents guide children through love, a love manifest in their participation in children's games, and with a constant and respectful turning to the children for their ideas, their responses, their input into the creative effort. The model of society inherent in these games is indeed worthy of emulation. Let us play with it and start to enjoy life by imaginatively recreating the world. -- Professor Norman Simms, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

About the Author

Amiel Schotz is a Meriwether Publishing author.

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Meriwether Publishing; 1st edition (April 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566080398
• ISBN-13: 978-1566080392
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #170,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Source for Beginners..., June 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Theatre Games and Beyond: A Creative Approach for Young Performers (Paperback)

...and a good refresher course for theater educators or others who use the arts in the classroom. The games are organized into 12 units with titles such as "Trust" and "Reality," that guide your search for the right exercise, although I have found that randomly leafing through the pages proves equally as effective. The author places no age restrictions on the games, but most will work easily for students K-6, and many can be expanded or modified for older students. The quotations section in Unit 12 is especially inspirational and provocative. Schotz's style and attention to detail will reassure beginners.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FANTASTIC!, June 14, 2000

By 

Mary L. Anderson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Theatre Games and Beyond: A Creative Approach for Young Performers (Paperback)

Being a drama director with young adults, I am constantly in search of new ideas and concepts to continue to stretch their imaginations. I just received this today from Amazon.com and am extemely pleased at what a gem this one is. There are new ideas from cover to cover that I have not come across yet in my library of theater books. I am anxious to share most of these ideas with the kids I work with. Many of the "games and beyond" are excellent tools in challenging the creative process within actors of ALL ages and really allow them to go many steps further in their self-awareness as a performer. Another must have!