With Quotes And Sly References To The Famous Works Of William Shakespeare And The Words He Invented, This Adventurous Ode To Language Will Delight Readers Young And Old. It All Starts One Morning When Words Fly Into William’s Window. He Wants To Catch Them, But They Are Flibbertigibbety And Quick And Slip Right Through His Fingers. Soon Whole Lines Of Verse Are Leading Him On A Wild Goose Chase As They Tumble, Dip, Flip And Skip All Through Town, Past A Host Of Colorful Characters The Observant Reader May Find As Familiar As The Quotes. William Remains Persistent, And With Time And The Proper Tools He Finds A Way To Keep The Words With Him.
Theater
Playing A Part
Grishka has grown up in the closed world of a puppet theater in Russia, but now that world seems to be falling apart–his best friend needs an operation, financial difficulties are forcing people out, his homosexual friend Sam, the jester, is leaving for Holland and Grishka no longer knows what role he himself is playing.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume VII, Issue 3
Shakespeare and Macbeth
Blending historical research and contemporary literary criticism, this fascinating look at one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays explains how the playwright conceived and wrote Macbeth and brings to life a production of the play.
Alice-Miranda Takes the Stage
There’s loads of drama in store for Alice-Miranda and her friends at boarding school.
Curtain Up!
Young Amaya is auditioning for a role in a professional play. Although she longs to perform, she is about to learn how much team effort and hard work is involved.As the reader follows her progress from a nervous hopeful at an audition through the fittings for costumes, the rehearsals, the memory work, and even stage fright, Dirk McLean introduces the many people and jobs involved in staging a play. A glossary provides descriptions of terms like casting, choreography, and blocking. Written by an author with extensive firsthand theater experience, this is a must-have resource for young children who are performers. And for those who only dream of a career on stage, it is entertaining to share Amaya’s journey and to feel the thrill of a peek behind the scenes.
The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard
A comic romp through Shakespeare’s London featuring an intrepid little boy, a friendly bear, and-in the role of dastardly villain-the Bard himself. What happens when a boy bursts through the curtain of a deserted theatre and onto the world’s most famous stage? He lands on the Bard himself and the chase is on-through the streets of Shakespeare’s London. This is a rare and inventive visual feast-a runaway story about a curious boy, a magic cloak, a grumpy bard, a captive bear and a baron bound for the chopping block. It is also a richly illustrated, dramatic and very funny tale of adventure and friendship.
Wombat Divine
Wombat loves everything about Christmas–especially the Nativity play. He’s wanted to be in it for as long as he can remember. At last he’s old enough to try out. But at the auditions, the first part goes to someone else. So does the next. And the next … Will there be a part left for Wombat?
Munsch at Play Act 2: Eight More Stage Adaptations
This book presents simple stage adaptations, suitable for school use, of eight stories along with staging suggestions and ideas for easily obtainable sets, props, and costumes.
Wonderland
She’s back. Jude’s childhood friend sexy, daring Stella returns to their stifling hometown, and life will never be the same again. Sixteen-year-old Jude has to get out of tiny Churchtown. She has to escape her outcast status and her pathetic dad, who hasn’t gotten past her mother’s death. The one bright light is drama, her way out, if only she can get into the Lab, a prestigious program in London. Then Stella, Jude’s childhood best friend, swaggers in after years away. With bold and magnetic Stella by her side, Jude knows she’s capable of anything. But Stella’s influence extends well beyond the theater. Soon Stella’s wild and dangerous streak begins to cause trouble for Jude yet Jude can’t bring herself to abandon Stella and the attention she’s always craved. And besides, now that Stella’s back, there’s no stopping her. In Jude’s dark and tangled story, British author Joanna Nadin plumbs the aftermath of loss and the consequences of becoming the person you always wished you were.
Alamo Wars
Josephine “Miss Mac” McKeever had taught English and Theatre Arts at Rosemont Middle School for so long that her colleagues sometimes joked that she would die in the classroom. So when she does just that, students, teachers, and administrators are stunned. After getting over the initial shock of losing their colleague, the staff agrees that they need to do something very special to acknowledge Miss Mac’s fifty-one years of dedication to the students at Rosemont and suggest naming the school’s auditorium after her. When Mrs. Frymire, her long-time colleague and friend, discovers a play written by Miss Mac years before, she knows that it would be the perfect memorial to present the play, Thirteen Days to Glory: The Battle of the Alamo, in the school’s auditorium named after her friend. But the teachers quickly learn that presenting a play isn’t as easy as Miss Mac had always made it seem, and soon the entire school community is in an uproar as conflicts related to the play emerge. Seventh-grader and Golden Gloves boxer Marco Diaz is, at first, excited to be chosen to play Jim Bowie, the brave Texan who defended the Alamo against Santa Anna’s Mexican Army. But his friend Raquel, an undocumented immigrant, calls him a sell-out because she believes the play makes heroes out of the people who stole her ancestors’ land. And Sandy Martinez, Miss Mac’s much younger replacement, finds the Mexican characters’ dialogue not only politically incorrect but downright offensive. Miss Mac’s friends, though, are adamantly opposed to making changes. Ms. Martinez also tries to convince them that giving certain students plum roles in exchange for their parents’ contributions is wrong, but ends up leaving the production in frustration. Meanwhile, rehearsals only serve to increase the tension between Marco’s friend Izzy Pena and the school bully Billy Ray Cansler. And it’s only a matter of time before Billy Ray corners Izzy when Marco isn’t around to protect him. Weary from struggling with disruptive kids, teachers and kids dropping out of the play, and parents with unreasonable expectations, everyone begins to wonder if they should just give up and cancel the production. Is it too much to expect everyone to work together to pay homage to a long-time friend and teacher?