Children's Theater: Setting Their Spirits Free! - Hardcover

by Wilma Melson Grant (Author)

If you are an elementary school teacher or parent of an elementary school student who loves the theater, but has no theatrical experience. Then this book is for you. This teacher was the student council advisor for the school and a true lover of the theater who went to the theater often and exposed her students to the theater by helping them raise money in many ways to bring a performing arts traveling theater company of a local college to the school. When this college lost their funding and could no longer travel to perform for the various schools in the area, the children in this school asked their advisor to organize their very own theater group for the school. Well, this teacher told them in no uncertain terms that she knew absolutely nothing about acting and would not even know how to begin a drama program. Well, the children convinced this teacher to at least try. So she did. This book shows how this teacher through her friends and family members who knew people who knew theatrical people who guided her and showed her how she really could organize a real drama program for her school. This book shows the elementary teacher how to teach the children to write their own script from their favorite book in their library. Then eventually write their own version of popular stories such as "The Wizard of Oz". It also shows the teacher how to organize the parents of the students into the essential needs of a drama club by assessing the various talents of the parents and interested members of the faculty. This book also shows the drama teacher how to introduce to the students various improvisations and exercises for developing acting skills. It also includes the scripts and directions for nine different plays, including suggested music, all suitable for elementary students. In other words, it is a book of how an elementary teacher went from having no theatrical experience to how she was able to organize a very successful drama club, that was invited to perform for the D.A.R.E. conference and the governor at the capitol building in Sacramento, California.