The Drama Book

ACTIVITIES
1. Theater games, warmers, fillers 8
Stand-alone drama activities can be used to build community while developing speaking, listening, and nonverbal communication skills.
2. Pronunciation activities 19
Focused pronunciation exercises enhance both sounds and meaning.
3. Working with monologues 34
Short one-speaker performances provide an introduction to acting and are a perfect vehicle for working on pronunciation skills and strategies.
4. Role-plays and improvisation 39
Structured and spontaneous practice supports functional language practice in different contexts and helps students develop fluency.
5. Sketches and social skills 48
Single-scene sketches open a window into the hidden language of pragmatics and allow students to experience English conversational tactics from within.
6. Reader’s Theater and podcasts 59
Performing a prose poem, text, or play with a script in hand bridges language work and drama. This section also has example activities for using a play to practice selected grammar structures
7. Staging plays 70
Staging a production provides literary content for discussion, fluency practice through the rehearsal process, and the impetus for focused pronunciation and intonation work.
8. Writing plays 87
Workshopping and writing a play supports students in writing skills, fluency practice, exploring theatrical themes, and bringing their own stories to the stage.
9. Working with academic content 92
Taking on the roles of history, science, or other fields through process drama–or perhaps making a documentary or podcast–gives students a kinesthetic and empathetic experience with academic content.
10. Assessment and feedback 98
Giving notes, using rubrics, and encouraging self-assessment all support students in valuing language production skills such as pronunciation, pragmatics, and fluency.
SCRIPTS
11. Monologues 105
Chain Migration: Five monologues provide different perspectives of people coming to live with relatives in a new country.
The Harvey Monologues: Ten voices representing victims and their rescuers during the historic Houston flood of 2017.
Strangers on a Plane: The interior dialog of four passengers and a flight attendant reveal a slice-of-life at 30,000 miles above the earth.
12. Sketches
You’re Making Me Crazy: Five microsketches explore ways that people attempt to influence someone else’s response including a confession, an offer, a secret, a favor, and an apology.
Fake It till You Make It: A visiting debate team is terrified by the driving skills of the young man who picks them up at the airport.
The Smartest Kid in the Room: Some people are much better at getting others to do their work than they are at doing the work itself.
What Are Friends For? Sometimes a socially adventurous friend can be useful.
The Wrong Foot  Making the wrong assumption about someone can lead to a big embarrassment.
13. A Reader’s Theater Script 132
Suspicious is a 14-character desert mystery that includes implied action. It can be used in
reader’s theater, a podcast or as fully-staged play.
14. A Short Play 158
Strange Medicine is a 5-character drama that explores different attitudes toward scientific
inquiry and allows students to interpret and develop characters who are changed by the events
in the story.
APPENDICES
1. Stress Express 180
2. Stress Emphasis 182
3. Character Development Worksheet 184
4. Academy Awards Certificate 186
5. Process Drama Background Reading 188
6. Audition Rubric 189
7. Feedback rubric without points 190
8. Feedback rubric with points 191
9. Self-assessment checklist 192
10. Theater vocabulary 193