Theatre for Young Audiences: 20 Great Plays for Children [Hardcover]

Coleman A. Jennings (Editor), Maurice Sendak (Foreword)

Book Description

Presented with the right plays, children are the most honest and appreciative of audiences. This anthology, compiled by an authority on children's theatre, collects new and overlooked scripts that represent the best of modern playwriting for children. From works adapted from classic children's stories to original contemporary scripts, each play inspires the imagination as it entertains.

With complete scripts for twenty plays plus a biographical sketch of each playwright, Theatre for Young Audiences is invaluable for anyone involved in children's theatre, from community theatre groups to teachers and students of dramatic literature.

Plays included in this book:

Charlotte's Web ... Joseph Robinette
The Arkansas Bear ... Aurand Harris
Really Rosie ... Maurice Sendak
The Secret Garden ... Pam Sterling
Wiley and the Hairy Man ... Suzan Zeder
According to Coyote ... John Kauffman
The Mischief Makers ... Lowell Swortzell
The Wise Men of Chelm ... Sandra F. Asher
Crow & Weasel ... Jim Leonard
The Ice Wolf ... Joanna H. Kraus
Home on the Mornin' Train ... Kim Hines
The Falcon ... Greg Palmer
The Man-Child ... Arnold Rabin
Hush: An Interview with America ... James Still
Bocon! ... Lisa Loomer
The Crane Wife ... Barbara Carlisle
Jungalbook ... Edward Mast
A Thousand Cranes ... Kathryn S. Miller
The Yellow Boat ... David Saar
Selkie ... Laurie Brooks Gollobin

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The library of children's theater is understocked, and this collection partly redresses that situation. These mostly recent short plays are directed at children around ten, the ideal age to build a theater-going habit. The book begins with an interview with Maurice Sendak and includes a play of his, indicating the level of excellence the collection aims for and succeeds in achieving. None of these plays is doctrinaire or didactic, though they are full of wisdom. They engage children's imagination to communicate a sense of worth. There are coming-of-age plays, tolerance plays, and plays about children in society and war, and we are prefaced by useful introductions that will aid adult directors. Some are musicals. The best of them are based on folk tales from American Indian, eastern European, Russian, Japanese, and other traditions. Some are adaptations of children's literature such as Charlotte's Web and The Jungle Books. There is something here to meet every theater need and every child's anticipation. Highly recommended.?Thomas E. Luddy, Salem State Coll., MA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

For librarians and other adults interested in the production of good children's theater, this excellent collection features 20 plays covering a variety of subjects and interests. Jennings has included original plays as well as adaptations of known works, all by award-winning playwrights who are recognized in brief biographical headnotes to the scripts. Hits such as Maurice Sendak's Really Rosie and Joseph Robinette's adaptation of Charlotte's Web are mixed with lesser-known treasures such as John Kauffman's According to Coyote. A conversation between playwright James Still and Sendak provides a motivational foreword. The scripts are not intended to be reproduced, but copyright sources are given, with addresses and phone numbers for those interested in obtaining permission to perform the plays. Highly recommended for school and public libraries and anyone interested in a substantial collection of plays for children. Helen Rosenberg

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 624 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (April 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312181949
• ISBN-13: 978-0312181949
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #814,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great theatre resource, plays fun just to read too, July 4, 2001

By 

susieq (austin, tx) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Theatre for Young Audiences: 20 Great Plays for Children (Hardcover)

Coleman A. Jennings was a professor of mine at the University of Texas at Austin, and this collection was a required textbook for his class. Instead of selling back the book when the semester was over, I kept it, because the plays are such good ones. As the Booklist review says, the anthology includes original plays as well as adaptations of well-known folk and fairy tales.

Quite the multicultural collection, many countries and cultures are represented: Cajun, Native American, African, Jewish, Eskimo, Southern Plantation, Russian, Central American, Japanese, and Scottish.

The plays and authors included are: 1. Charlotte's Web - Joseph Robinette 2. The Arkansaw [sic] Bear - Aurand Harris 3. Really Rosie - Maurice Sendak 4. The Secret Garden - Pam Sterling 5. Wiley and the Hairy Man - Suzan Zeder 6. According to Coyote - John Kauffman 7. The Mischief Makers - Lowell Swortzell 8. The Wise Men of Chelm - Sandra F. Asher 9. Crow & Weasel - Jim Leonard 10. The Ice Wolf - Joanna H. Kraus 11. Home on the Mornin' Train - Kim Hines 12. The Falcon - Greg Palmer 13. The Man-Child - Arnold Rabin 14. Hush: An Interview with America - James Still 15. Bocón - Lisa Loomer 16. The Crane Wife - Barbara Carlisle 17. Jungalbook [sic] - Edward Mast 18. A Thousand Cranes - Kathryn S. Miller 19. The Yellow Boat - David Saar 20. Selkie - Laurie Brooks Gollobin

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for teaching!, April 9, 2007

By 

Q. Le (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Theatre for Young Audiences: 20 Great Plays for Children (Paperback)

I love this book! The plays are deep and meaningful. Normally, my students would never want to read something so deep but since it is a play they are more motivated to do so. I like it a lot better than using novels because most of the plays are fairly short at least for 5th graders and up (They're about 10-20 pages long). This perfect for pulling lessons about story structure, characterizations, themes, and whatnot without having to read a full length novel or a lower level picture book.

There is a lot to discuss in these plays. For example, we are reading The Ice Wolf in class today. This is a story about a little Eskimo girl who is rejected by her community because she looks different and was almost threw out in the snow to die by her own father. We were about to discuss the father's internal struggle to follow the ways of his people and the love of his own daughter with my 5th graders.

Plays seem to be great motivators for my kids to read and discuss literature in a deeper way. These plays allow you do so in a 'just right' manner. You are putting the kids over their heads with Shakespeare or dumbing it down too much with other kiddie plays out there. I would recommend this for Intermediate/Upper Grades.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Good, September 24, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Theatre for Young Audiences: 20 Great Plays for Children (Hardcover)

This book has many different and interesting plays for kids of all ages. Though, for most of them you need a lot of people, they are still pretty good. Thats why I give it 4 stars.