The Creative Drama & Youth Theatre Ring Homepage

What is Creative Drama?

The term "creative drama" was coined by Winfred Ward to describe the spontaneous pantomime and acting out of scenes that she witnessed in her classroom after reading a story to her students. Although not the first teacher to use dramatization to teach literature (the practice dates back to at least the 19th-century), she was the first classroom instructor to write about the practice in a structured way as a teaching tool.

What makes a story appropriate for use in creative drama?

Generally speaking, the story should have an easily identifiable protagonist (hero) and antagonist (villain). It should have a beginning, a middle, and an ending. To make the task of creating a scene from the story, the tales retold here at Amergin generally incorporate dialogue in key scenes. While it is not necessary to adhere to this dialogue, it does provide some guidance so that not all of the speaking needs to be improvised.

Amergin Press tries to select material from the earliest possible source and to try to find stories which are not in wide distribution (does anyone really need another version of Little Red Riding Hood?).

What is theater for youth?

"Theater for Youth" has become a catchall term which includes both plays performed by children for other children and plays performed by adults for children. It has the dubious honor of including plays with subjects appropriate for kindergartners through high school students (this can rarely be accomplished in a single play). Traditionally, there has been a tendency for material to be drawn from fairy tales (i.e., Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, etc.). Since the late '60s, there has been a gradual emergence of plays dealing with life issues which impact children (i.e., divorce, death, isolation & ostracism, etc.).

To paraphrase a favorite quote (which unfortunately I have forgotten the source of)-- doing theater for youth is exactly like doing theater for adults, only it must be better. Children will not sit politely pretending to be interested during a bad play; they will let you know in no uncertain terms that you are failing to entertain them.

What is a Net Ring?

A Ring is a collection of sites which share a similar theme (or at least have some element in common). Visitors to one site in the ring are able to locate other sites with similar subject matter by using the navigation links provided in the webring navigation box.

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In January 2001, Amergin Press was selected as a Castle Greywolf Prestigious Awards Program winner.