Plays, Skits & Musicals

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village

Step back to an English village in 1255, where life plays out in dramatic vignettes illuminating twenty-two unforgettable characters.

Maidens, monks, and millers’ sons — in these pages, readers will meet them all. There’s Hugo, the lord’s nephew, forced to prove his manhood by hunting a wild boar; sharp-tongued Nelly, who supports her family by selling live eels; and the peasant’s daughter, Mogg, who gets a clever lesson in how to save a cow from a greedy landlord. There’s also mud-slinging Barbary (and her noble victim); Jack, the compassionate half-wit; Alice, the singing shepherdess; and many more. With a deep appreciation for the period and a grand affection for both characters and audience, Laura Amy Schlitz creates twenty-two riveting portraits and linguistic gems equally suited to silent reading or performance. Illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings by Robert Byrd — inspired by the Munich-Nuremberg manuscript, an illuminated poem from thirteenth-century Germany — this witty, historically accurate, and utterly human collection forms an exquisite bridge to the people and places of medieval England.

Show Time: Music, Dance, and Drama Activities for Kids

Gotta dance! Gotta sing! Gotta do most anything because it's show time! In Show Time! kids will learn to become "triple threat" performers, developing their skills as singers, dancers, and actors through more than 80 activities that include imitating a musician or musical instrument, acting out a song, creating a mirror dance, making puppets and playbills, and more. Along the way, they'll learn about the history of musicals, discover musicals about history, and find out how to get it all together before the curtain goes up. Show Time! is perfect for teachers needing to prepare performers for a show; for parents looking for fun ways to fill spare minutes with their kids at home, in the car, or in a doctor's waiting room; and for kids wanting ways to enjoy themselves on their own or in a small group. Several play scripts, a list of suggested musicals for kids, and a play glossary are included.

Cool Characters for Kids! 71 One-Minute Monologues, Ages 4-12

WARNING: Opening this book may cause you to become a famous movie star, adored by millions of fans and forced to sign autographs for the rest of your life!

The curtain goes up, the spotlight is shining, and the stage is yours! The audience is waiting to be dazzled by the stars of tomorrow -- and you could be one of them! Never before have talented, young actors been in such demand. Agents, directors, and managers are looking for something unique, something special. The characters in this book were created to showcase your talent and let your personality shine. They think like you, talk like you, and care about the things that you do. Inside you will find 71 monologues, one-minute and under, that will make any audience sit up and listen, laugh, cry, or even cheer. Your performance is sure to be real, original, and unforgettable. And because the monologues are short, they're perfect for auditions and easy to memorize.

Whether you're 4 or 12, short or tall, silly or spunky, this book is for you! Within these pages you'll find exactly what you need - a fantastic source for drama and speech teachers, and leaders of creative classroom activities.

Cool Characters for Kids - monologues that are hot for kids that are cool!

The Children's Shakespeare

In her touching introduction to this collection, Britain's beloved children's author E. Nesbit shares with us her very personal inspiration for The Children's Shakespeare. As a writer, she understood that the stories are the least part of Shakespeare, but as a mother she also understood the need for simplicity. Her daughters were far too young to handle such complex language, yet certainly they must be capable of appreciating, indeed enjoying, the stories hidden within.

Envisioning this simplified introduction to works such as The Winter's Tale, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Taming of the Shrew-eleven plays in all-E. Nesbit set out to make them more accessible to young readers without sacrificing any essential elements. For if the stories were stripped of their wit and humor, of their emotion, the children would be no more entertained by them than by the indecipherable originals.

In the end, under E. Nesbit's gifted pen, these stories emerged with all the charm and grace of the very best fairy tales. Written in thoroughly modern English and each no more than ten pages in length, the eleven plays featured in this volume afford children the opportunity to discover for themselves the magic of Shakespeare.

Who Was William Shakespeare? (Who Was...?)

The beloved plays of Shakespeare are still produced everywhere, yet the life of the world's most famous playwright remains largely a mystery. Young Will left the town of Stratford to pursue theater in London, where his work eventually thrived and made him a famous and wealthy man. With black-and-white illustrations that include a diagram of the famous Globe theater, Celeste Davidson Mannis puts together the pieces of Shakespeare's life and work for young readers.

Stories on Stage: Children's Plays for Reader's Theater (or Readers Theatre), With 15 Play Scripts From 15 Authors, Including Roald Dahl's The Twits and Louis Sachar's Sideways Stories from Wayside School

Stories on Stage is a collection of reader's theater scripts for young readers, adapted from stories by fifteen different authors, including Louis Sachar, Nancy Farmer, and Roald Dahl. Coming from such genres as humor, fantasy, and multicultural folktales, stories were selected for their dramatic quality, literary value, and appeal to young people. The scripts may be freely copied, shared, and performed for noncommercial purposes. With a focus on ages 8 to 15, the collection features a wide range of reading levels. The scripts in this collection are -- "Three Sideways Stories From Wayside School," by Louis Sachar -- "Mr. Twit's Revenge," by Roald Dahl -- "Millions of Cats," by Wanda Gag -- "Tapiwa's Uncle," by Nancy Farmer -- "How Tom Beat Captain Najork," by Russell Hoban -- "Harriet," by Florence Parry Heide -- "Mr. Bim's Bamboo," by Carol Farley -- "Talk," by Harold Courlander -- "The Jade Stone," by Caryn Yacowitz -- "The Bean Boy," by Monica Shannon -- "The Kid from the Commercial," by Stephen Manes -- "The Fools of Chelm," by Steve Sanfield -- "Mouse Woman and the Snails," by Christie Harris -- "Westwoods," by Eleanor Farjeon -- "The Legend of Lightning Larry," by Aaron Shepard.

Romeo and Juliet : For Kids (Shakespeare Can Be Fun series)

"Who is William Shakespeare?" For more than 20 years, Lois Burdett has asked that question of her elementary school students in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, leading them on a voyage of discovery that brings the Bard to life for boys and girls ages seven and up.

Romeo and Juliet for Kids, written in rhyming couplets is suitable for staging as class plays as well as reading aloud.

A Midsummer Night's Dream for Kids (Shakespeare Can Be Fun!)

"Who is William Shakespeare?" For more than 20 years, Lois Burdett has asked that question of her elementary school students in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, leading them on a voyage of discovery that brings the Bard to life for boys and girls ages seven and up.

A Midsummer Night's Dream for Kids, written in rhyming couplets is suitable for staging as class plays as well as reading aloud.

MacBeth : For Kids (Shakespeare Can Be Fun series)

"Who is William Shakespeare?" For more than 20 years, Lois Burdett has asked that question of her elementary school students in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, leading them on a voyage of discovery that brings the Bard to life for boys and girls ages seven and up.

Macbeth for Kids, written in rhyming couplets is suitable for staging as class plays as well as reading aloud.

William Shakespeare & the Globe (Trophy Picture Books)

"How many ages hence/ Shall this our lofty scene be acted over/ In states unborn and accents yet unknown!" In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, he prophesies his own future more accurately than he may ever have dreamed. Although Shakespeare's works have touched people everywhere, very little is known of his life. Well-loved author and illustrator Aliki pulls together clues from writings, drawings, history, birth, marriage, and death records, and from Shakespeare's own plays, in this vibrant introduction to one of the greatest writers of all time.

Cleverly arranged as a play, with an aside and acts one through five, the book features a quotation from one of Shakespeare's plays on every spread. Bite-sized chunks of text are interspersed with the lovely detailed illustrations Aliki is famous for, making what might be a difficult subject very accessible. In addition, there are charts listing Shakespeare's plays, a chronology of his life, sidebars with mini-biographies of significant people in his life, and a partial list of words and expressions he invented (gloomy, moonbeam, mountaineer, zany, and bated breath, among 2,000 others!). Aliki also devotes a special section to Sam Wanamaker, a 20th-century man with a dream to reopen Shakespeare's Globe playhouse in London. (Ages 7 and older) --Emilie Coulter

From Hamlet to Romeo and Juliet to A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare's celebrated works have touched people around the world.

Aliki combines literature, history, biography, archaeology, and architecture in this richly detailed and meticulously researched introduction to Shakespeare's world–his life in Elizabethan times, the theater world, and the Globe, for which he wrote his plays. Then she brings history full circle to the present–day reconstruction of the Globe theater.

Ages 8+