At Play Teaching Teenagers Theater

Young people and improvisational theater should be a natural combinationso why do we so rarely find this combo in today's classrooms? According to Elizabeth Swadosplaywright, director, composer, poet, author of children's books and of an acclaimed family memoirimprovisational theater is the perfect creative outlet for junior-high and high-school students . . . if only they can be given the tools and the guidance to make the most of this natural yet rigorous art form. Drawing on her own experience teaching inner-city children in the groundbreaking musicalRunawaysand in teaching the techniques of improv theater in schools around the country, as well as on her own background in experimental theater, Swados provides a step-by-step guide to bringing out the natural creativity and enthusiasm key to young people creatingand enjoyingimprovisational theater. Covering the basicsfrom freeing the imagination to learning about how to work with an ensemble, from how to master different forms of movement and sound to how to create different kinds of charactersthis isthebook for teachers and students eager to learn how to express fully the creative talent that all children are born with. Elizabeth Swadoshas composed, written, and directed more than thirty theater pieces, includingThe Trilogy,Nightclub Cantata,Runaways,Alice in Concert,Doonesbury,Rap Master Ronnie,The Haggadah,Jonah,Job,Esther,Jerusalem(with Yehudah Amichai),The 49 Years,andMissionaries. She has performed at La MaMa, The Public Theater, The Manhattan Theater Club, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnegie Hall, and other theaters on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and all over the world. Ms. Swados has composed music for film and television as well as a song cycle,Bible Women, which has toured the United States. She has published a memoir, novels, nonfiction books, and children's books. Her newest work includes a musical theater piece about the life and work of Alfred Jarry, which premiered at the Flea Theater in February 2005 and opens at the Alley Theater in Houson in September 2007. In the summer of 2005 she created a musical theater piece in collaboration with a cast of students about attending New York University and living in the city, which was performed for the incoming freshmen at NYU. The twenty-fifth anniversary concert ofMissionarieswas performed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in December 2005.My Depression: A Picture Bookwas published in April 2005. She is a faculty member at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and lives in New York City. Young people and improvisational theater should be a natural combinationso why do we so rarely find this combo in today's classrooms? According to Elizabeth Swadosplaywright, director, composer, poet, author of children's books and an acclaimed family memoirimprovisational theater is the perfect creative outlet for junior-high and high-school students . . . if only they can be given the tools and the guidance to make the most of this natural yet rigorous art form. Drawing on her own experience teaching inner-city children in the musicalRunawaysand in teaching the techniques of improv theater in schools around the country, as well as on her own background in experimental theater, Swados provides a step-by-step guide to bringing out the natural creativity and enthusiasm key for young people to createand enjoyimprovisational theater. Covering the basicsfrom freeing the imagination to learning how to work with an ensemble, from mastering different forms of movement and sound to creating different kinds of charactersthis isthebook

Elizabeth Swados is a playwright, director, composer, poet, children’s book author, and memoirist. She lives in New York City.