Wings to Fly: Bringing Theatre Arts to Students With Special Needs [Paperback]

Sally Dorothy Bailey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1993

Wings To Fly is a comprehensive nuts and bolts handbook which describes concrete, proven techniques and lesson plans to make drama accessible to people with disabilities of all ages. It is written for use by professionals in education, recreation, theatre, and therapy settings. The book covers creative drama, improvisational acting, puppetry, theatre production, and creating original scripts, providing specific adaptations for each situation as well as issues such as inclusion, using drama to teach academic subjects, physical accessibility, programmatic accessibility, behavior management, and effective team teaching techniques.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An extremely welcome addition to the very sparse literature in this field...The author's considerable background in theatre, coupled with years of first-hand experience working with disabled participants make her particularly knowledgable. -- Hilary U. Cohen, "The Drama Theatre Teacher"

Sally Bailey's passionate, incisive, and insightful methods put her in the vanguard of what children's theatre for the twenty-first century must be: theatre that invites ALL children to go through the doors of their imaginations and unleash what's trapped inside. -- Mark Medoff, Tony Award Winner for Best Play, 1979, "Children of A Lesser God"

Sally Dorothy Bailey offers theater techniques to help children gain self-esteem, improve social skills, and explore new modes of self-expression, drawn primarily from her work with special needs children at the Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts.

Wings To Fly will refuel the energy, creativity, and hope of all teachers and drama therapists who work with children. Bailey expresses her faith in human beings when she says, "You can do anything if you imagine it clearly enough and work on it hard enough" and she asserts that we, too, can summon courage to take leaps into the unknown, just as her students have done. Bailey's own words aptly describe her book, "It speaks to the human heart and soul in a direct, immediate and emotional way." Wings To Fly offers the joy and hope which allow us to soar, and the experience and techniques to ground us. -- Camilla Polhemus, RDT, "Dramascope"

About the Author

Sally Dorothy Bailey, MFA, MSW, RDT/BCT is a registered drama therapist, director, and playwright. Wings To Fly chronicles the program she created in 1988 for students with special needs as the Arts Access Director for the Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts in Bethesda, MD. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Drama Therapy, Creative Drama, and Playwriting at Kansas State University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 409 pages
• Publisher: Woodbine House; 1 edition (March 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0933149581
• ISBN-13: 978-0933149588
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #609,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sally Bailey is a professor in the theatre department at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas where she has directed the Masters program in drama therapy since 1999. She earned her BFA in directing from the University of Texas at Austin in 1976, her MFA in directing and playwriting from Trinity University at the Dallas Theater Center in 1981, and her MSW from the University of Maryland at Baltimore in 1998. After spending 13 years in professional theatre, she discovered drama therapy and trained with Jan Goodrich, one of the founders of the National Association for Drama Therapy. Her drama therapy work has been primarily with people with many kinds of disabilities, recovering substance abusers, and older adults.

She has written three books: "Wings to Fly," "Dreams to Sign," and "Barrier-Free Theatre," all about including people with disabilities in the arts. "Barrier-Free Theatre" was the recipient of the American Alliance for Theatre in Education's 2011 Distinguished Book Award. She also has chapters in "Current Approaches in Drama Therapy, 2nd Edition," "Creative Arts Therapies Manual," "The Use of Creative Arts Therapies with Autism Spectrum Disorders," "The Use of Creative Arts Therapies in the Treatment of Sexual Abuse," "The Use of Creative Arts Therapies with Chemical Dependency," and "Interactive and Improvisational Drama."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WINGS TO FLY by Sally Bailey, February 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Wings to Fly: Bringing Theatre Arts to Students With Special Needs (Paperback)

This exceptional book is a MUST for anyone who shares the creative arts with students from elementary through high school, those with and without special needs! Sally Bailey not only includes an overview of developmental and physical disabilities, but goes on to cover pertinent issues for any drama or creative arts class; e.g., using drama as a tool to teach other subjects, mainstreaming, behavior management, class composition, working with other personnel, and other basic adaptations for classroom use. She goes on to cover creative drama and improvisational acting classes, puppetry, developing original scripts for performance and specific lesson plans and activities that work educationally and recreationally.

In addition, Sally includes excellent sources of information from books to national organizations on disability, drama, and theatre; as well as a complete checklist for making your facility, staff attitudes, and program barrier-free.

WINGS TO FLY "will teach you how to approach adapting activities and programming to specific situations and individuals, so that you can begin to problem-solve on your own."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for anyone interested in Drama or Special Ed., February 24, 2000

By 

Patricia L. Woolsey (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wings to Fly: Bringing Theatre Arts to Students With Special Needs (Paperback)

This book is informative and contains lots of creative ideas for working with Special needs students. Many of the games and techniques I have used in my non-special education drama classes and rehearsals as well. I read "Wings to Fly" over and over and it continues to inspire me. I recommed it to anyone who is interested in working in the Dramatic Arts.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Theatre Arts Comes to Everyone, February 1, 2000

By 

Linda R. Nelson "Professional educator" (Helena, MT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wings to Fly: Bringing Theatre Arts to Students With Special Needs (Paperback)

This seminal work by Sally Bailey includes a clear understanding of the practical aspects of facilitating drama therapy for children and young adults with special needs. Ms. Bailey's experience at the Bethesda Academy Special Needs program adds depth to her understanding of both physical and cognitive difficulties faced when working with these clients. Her fine background as a playwright, director, and drama therapist permeate the entire book. She offers many practical theatre games that can be used by a variety of populations, as well. Few books in this field address the needs as clearly and articulately as Ms. Bailey.