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Plays Magazine takes great pride in providing its readers with
high-quality, fun, simple-to-perform plays. Over the years, our
subscribers have shared with us the unique and creative ways they
use our material: Teachers use plays to help their students
improve their reading skills, and to promote literature and
literacy in schools; student actors in drama clubs perfect their
acting styles and techniques, and experience the thrill of
performance in front of an audience; after-school programs seek
out our plays to provide young people with entertaining, creative
alternative play.
We hope you'll take a few moments to share the experiences you've
had in using Plays as an educational tool. . .and please feel free
to offer your suggestions and recommendations for how to
incorporate more play reading and performance into children's
lives at school, in afterschool programs, and at home.
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I enjoy reading the Plays magazines. Whenever I get one I am so
excited to see what play I can act in next. I act in plays all the
time at my school, so you can see why I love the Plays magazines.
Also, the more I act and practice, the better I am in plays. The Plays
magazines help me do that.
I love how the magazine is so organized. What I mean by this is, it
gives you descriptions of characters and what they should wear,
different scenes, the time period, where it takes place, and you can
definitely tell the plays are well written and thought out. The Plays
magazine gives you everything you need! I highly recommend this
magazine to anyone who likes acting.
My students love plays. They provide practice with fluency and involve
everyone in a meaningful way. They offer various levels of difficulty:
easy, challenging, or just right. Classroom plays allow for the
variety of full productions or reader theatre-type settings. Best of
all, there is a play for every subject, occasion, or circumstance.
I teach theater arts at East Junior High in Boise, ID, and I am an
avid user of Plays Magazine. I can rattle off the names and plots of
nearly a hundred of your favorites. Besides all of the productions we
do from PLAYS, we also sometimes do an improv activity, like they do
on "Whose Line is it Anyway?" I give a copy of PLAYS to each student
(I have a gazillion copies in the room) and have them write an
interesting line of dialogue on a slip of paper. Then I collect the
papers. Each actor in the improv scene picks two slips of paper from
the "hat," and works it into their scene. It's a lot of fun.
Thanks for the information. This will be a good summer project for
me—to get my plays into submissible form. I love your magazine
and have used it for years. Keep up the good work; many kids benefit!
Right now, my little group of drama students are working on HALLOWEEN
HAPPENINGS from your October PLAYS. Last year, we performed THE HALL
OF BLACK AMERICAN HEROES, by Mary Satchell. Your magazine also had a
very good play about the history of the Philippines, which I used a
few years ago when
connecting American history to historical events around the world. We
hope this year to perform a short play for each holiday. I really
appreciate
your magazine--the integrity of your selections and the
age-appropriate themes.
I work in the inner city. Often, it is a struggle to bring the drama
together, and often my students perform with scripts in hand. Our
props are always makeshift, make-do materials, and paid for
out-of-pocket. But, we always have a wonderful time, and the students
give it their all.
You wouldn't believe some of the inappropriate programs that are done
in the schools with middle school children, reflecting primarily the
popular
TV/MTV culture. But, I find from my years of experience that the kids
are hungry for real literature, good stories, innocence, a chance to
learn, act and share, which is why I am so grateful to have an
uplifting teaching tool like your magazine, always reliable, always at
hand.
I cannot thank you enough. Your magazine meets so many educational
requirements. I had to buy this magazine from my own money but it was
worth every penny! I share my GREAT discovery with other staff members
and they are as thrilled as I am. It fullfills so many needs, from
multicultural to character educational (the latest "buzz" word). I
also have a club called the "Sherlockians" so the Sherlock Holmes
plays are of special interest. We love any mystery play!
I have taught for 33 years and I'm not easily impressed. I cannot
praise you enough. Keep up the good work.Thanks for bringing the joy
of reading to my classroom. Love your work!
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