Playmaking

by Daniel Judah Sklar

Sklar’s personal account of teaching dramatic writing, direction, and performance, to a group of 7th graders in the South Bronx, reveals the planning and execution of his lessons. It also addresses the reception such lessons received—including resistance. Teachers and Artists-in-Residence stand to gain much from this book, since it deals with real life dynamics in the classroom and necessary strategies for getting through a project in a thought-provoking, fun, and creative way for everyone participating.

184 pages, Paperback

First published June 18, 1990

Reviews

[penelopewanders]

Given to me by a colleague clearing house before a move, I read this intermittently while doing a theater class. Interesting ideas, many of which I could only use if fairly drastically overhauled to fit the situation of my class (teenagers, not children, a shorter period to put everything together, etc).
At times the strange relationship between Sklar and Mrs. Finney was irritating and didn't seem particularly relevant. Fortunately this seemed to improve as the project neared its end.
Another point which I found amusing - this was apparently published in 1991 - nowadays the atmosphere in many schools is such that all of Sklar's private meetings would be somewhat frowned upon if not nixed altogether.
A good read with a number of ideas worth trying out.