Plays Children Love: Volume II: A Treasury of Contemporary and Classic Plays for Children - Paperback

by Coleman a. Jennings (Author), Coleman Jennings (Editor), Aurand Harris (Editor)

This beloved anthology, a favorite of students, teachers, parents, and dramatists for decades, offers a collection of twenty plays to be performed for young audiences or by child actors.

Plays Children Love: Volume II--replacing the earlier volume, which is now out of print--adheres to the same format of Jennings and Harris' earlier classic: a choice of plays for adults to perform for children as well as a choice of plays for kids to produce and perform themselves. Among the favorites collected here: Charlotte's Web, The Wizard of Oz, Treasure Island, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and Jim Thorpe, All-American.

With an extensive introduction detailing the special needs of producing plays for children, and with many insightful instructions for helping children get the most out of producing plays themselves, this book is a solid asset for all classrooms, children's theatre groups, school libraries, education seminars, playwrighting workshops, and the like.

Author Biography

Coleman A. Jennings, Ph.D, is a professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin. A pioneering scholar and mentor in both the study and advocacy of performing arts for children, he has taught courses in creative drama, theater for young audiences, and children's dramatic literature at UT-Austin since 1963. His many other anthologies include Theatre for Young Audiences: 20 Great Plays for Children, Eight Plays for Children: The New Generation Play Project; and Theatre for Youth: Twelve Plays with Mature Themes.

Aurand Harris is the most produced playwright for young audiences in the United States, with more than 30 published plays to his credit. Before his death in 1996, he was the first children's playwright to receive a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the first to win the Charolette Chorpenning Cup from the American Theatre Association. His widely revered plays include The Arkansaw Bear, Androcles and the Lion, Rags to Riches, The Tobey Show, Monkey Magic, Pinballs, and The Orphan Train. Harris also wrote stage adaptations for such well-known stories as Pocohantas and The Magician's Nephew.