Perform It!

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional Resource For Working With Kids
Review: Can children be taught Shakespeare and love it? Yes! And author Jan Helling Croteau shows us how. If you work with young people, grades K-12 - as a teacher, activities director, home-schooler, mentor Ð this clear, concise, easy-to-use book provides innovative ways to turn-on kids to learning in fun, effective ways. This young people's stage company director and home-school mom provides insights into making teaching the Bard accessible and enjoyable for both teachers and students. While there's the benefit of using Shakespeare (royalty-free) to bring the classic stories, history and language to life, this book is also about the many aspects and benefits of using stagecrafts for building confidence and social skills. It is filled with activities that can be used in any youth group or classroom to make learning fun. Mask-making, costume design, make-up, staging, voice, acting techniques, team-building exercises and much more are presented in ways that can be used as piece-meal activities or followed to produce a full-blown theatrical performance. If you've ever wanted to help kids "put on a show" but didn't know where to start, this book walks you through every aspect with checklists, relevant activities and practical advice to get from choosing a play to the post-production cast party. It is the definitive work on staging a theatrical performance with young people.

Rating:
Summary: Youth in the Theatre.
Review: PERFORM IT! is a wonderful book for anyone who is just starting to work with youth in theatre. The book provides a basic outline of how to put on one's first production with a cast and crew composed of young people. The book includes lots of useful information and tidbits from basic skit ideas; how to make flats; stretching exercises; games; how to makes masks; and a complete walkthrough of directing a play from selecting a script to the final cast party. The book is short (96 pages) and doesn't delve too deeply into any particular area. Good guidebook for the novice youth theatre director.