s written by Clearinghouse staff conclude with writer's initials: Dan Dieterich, Merle Feld, Leonard Heldreth, Jane McClellan, John Madison, Judy Spangler, Sarah Washington. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.169 on Sat, 01 Oct 2016 05:46:30 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms NCTE/ERIC SUMMARIES & SOURCES 535 which students have both attended and studied play. The actors lead small groups in discussion sessions and act as resource persons. Those involved in four-year Educational Laboratory Theater Project (19661970) became convinced that presentation of plays, no matter how fine they may be, is not, in itself, enough to bring about a basic or widespread change in process of education in schools.... Teachers and students must be more extensively involved and artists must take a much more active role in educational process. (The federally-funded Project attempted to enliven high school English programs by arranging for students to attend live performances given by professional acting companies. The four volumes of final report on Project, which was more concerned with student as audience than as actor, have recently been processed by NCTE/ERIC and are available from EDRS. Ordering information is given in concluding section of this report.) One idea for integrating an ideal educational theater program has been suggested by R. Glenn Webb (Dramatics, November 1970). He proposes acquainting students with a basic knowledge of stage and acting techniques, then studying a particular playwright's life and a specific work in light of this knowledge. Webb concludes that if students can attend performances of plays they have studied and even produce themselves some works (if only in classroom) by author, then the various goals of appreciation, training of a knowledgeable audience, and a practical understanding and ability in workings of theater would all be accomplished. In addition to creating new programs to expose students to live theater, providing ways for them to learn more about drama as an art form, and getting more of them involved in process of putting on plays, others recommend encouraging students to be creative with art form itself. When allowed to develop to its full capacity, use of creative dramatics (as explored by James Hoetker in Dramatics and Teaching of Literature') can provide spark and means by which students can begin to create, write and produce their own plays. By beginning with simple pantomime and adding dialog to form short skits, students can eventually expand and develop their ideas into drama. Ivan Schweninger (Dramatics, October 1968) claims that performance of a student-written play is education theater at its best. As James Moffett (Drama: What Is Happening2) points out, A student who writes a play is learning how to converse, to appreciate an art form, to understand himself, to describe, and very generally, simply to Commenting upon importance of total participation in success of her students' original plays, Florence Boutwell (English Journal, December 1967) describes process through which her students work to develop, refine, and shape their ide s into dramatic form. The sequence of actio s, a drawing of each scene, and a complete list of characters are developed by class and written on blackboard. Then each student selects scene he wants to write. The original scenes are presented to a class committee which ties whole thing together, adds any omitted elements and deletes annnecessary ideas. The class views a preliminary reading of finished product and has one last chance to ake final revisions. Trusting their students to figure out what it was they wanted to clarify for themselves and then communicate to an audience, Craig Matheson and others (Today's Education, March 1970) decided to let their students create their own dramatic production when none of scripts or plays they had read seemed relevant. Combining ar ous theatrical forms and employing multi-media techniques, play developed into a series of sharply contrasting scenes of joy and violence tied together by an everyman figure who emerged from audience, introduced show, watched it, reacted to all of it, and then closed it. The drama, War and Pieces, became first high school production to receive Moss Hart Award for Plays of Free World. 'An NCTE/ERIC monograph, available from NCTE Order Department, Stock No. 01401 -$1.50 prepaid. 2Available from NCTE, Stock No. 17751-