Abstract

John Newman invites teachers to take their students on a playwriting voyage in Playwriting in Schools. The book examines why students who learn to write plays and work with a professional playwright in residence empower themselves and how teachers can teach the process of playwriting to make space for the student voice. Playwriting in Schools investigates how adult teachers and playwrights use playwriting as a strategy for student self-expression through two main approaches. One approach is the creation of fully-developed plays written either by individual students taught by teachers or through interactions between a team of students and a teacher-playwright. The other approach is developing plays through collaborations between professional playwrights, teachers and student actors, crafting new plays in ways that suit the needs, interests and learning of young people. Throughout, John and the teachers and playwrights he features express themselves with an artistic generosity that encourages us to widen the scope of our own programs by introducing students to the vast ocean of playwriting and play development.
John Newman is an associate professor of theatre at Utah Valley Universityand director of the UVU Theatre for Youth and Education Center.