Whitney Rice-Richardson

English 112B Annotated Bib

November 29, 2011

Voices on the Stage

The role of drama in school is an activity that is somewhat undervalued. Aside from the few plays that students are required to read in their high school classrooms there is no sense of real emphasis on this type of genre. It is instead enforced as an extracurricular activity with drama clubs and school plays that students can be a part of. However, allowing drama to play a stronger role in the classroom with students could help with more than just allowing students to find a possible career goal or a well enjoyed hobby. Drama in the class can also help students to not only better understand the plot of classic plays and sonnets but also help them to find ways to identify with the characters and plots, and use these types of activities as a means to express and find the waiting voice within themselves.

Such examples of this idea of self expression with classic dramas or in any other types of dramas written for the stage consist of the play of Romeo and Juliet, a well known play that is very much taught in high school English classes, but there is a lot more that could be done with this play other than just being assigned and discussed. Students could recreate the plays with their own different styles while still using the general idea of the play. In allowing a student to recreate a play like this in a way that better relates to them they may work to understand it better as they read it because they know that for this assignment the plot will have to stay the same. They can express their own modern day Romeo and Juliet in their own individual and unique ways.

Not only will allowing the students to recreate these plays allow them to relate to them better, but allowing them to participate in a small production could work to help them find a voice within themselves. With drama one is required to step outside of their comfort zone and into the character that is required of them, and for one who is still trying to find them self they may find it in the fictional voice of a character that they have to play. By playing the role of a very out spoken and demanding character that individual may find that this is a feeling that they enjoy, and to be the person who speaks out about his or her thoughts demanding to be heard is a character trait that they may end up adopting for themselves.

Allowing students to recreate and create their own plays for either them or their peers to act out could help to get students more involved on how the play writing process works. By becoming playwrights themselves they may begin to understand the reasoning behind the twist in the plots in certain plays that English classes study today. This is a research assignment that not only wants to focus on the importance ensuring that students understand the plays that they are reading, but it also focuses on the psychological and long term role that a heavy emphasis on drama in the class can promote.

Annotated Bibliography

1. Kemp, Martin. �Promoting The Health and Well Being of Young Black Men Using -Community- Based Drama.� Health Education, 106.3 (2003):186-200. ERIC. Web. November 20, 2011

This source focuses on the role of drama and theater in establishing the emotional and social wellbeing of young black men. It is a sources that that finds that drama and theater is an effective way to create a high sense of self-esteem through the theaters many opportunities of self expression. This is a helpful source because it was the first source that I found that validated my idea that drama and theater could be used as a means to express oneself which will lead to positive results. However, the source only focus on young black men and does not carry a larger sense of diversity, but it did work as a great start in trying to understand how theater could affect youth.

2. Catrell, Ruth. �Giving a Voice to �Tweens and Teens: Dallas Children�s Theater: Healthy Living for Young People.� Incite/Insight, 2.2 (2010):14. Education Research Complete. Web. November 20 2011.

This article addresses the many struggles of �tweens� and teens. The source focuses on a theater group that presents plots and characters that tweens and teens can relate too. It is a group that will work on changing the way these students reflect on and handle the issues that they are faced with. I thought this source was a very useful tool because it focuses on the theater groups efforts to target a very diverse group of students through drama. The source states that several participants of this program have written plays for the students that center around the issues that they may face in school. It is a source that centers around the idea that plays can be adjusted to fit the high school students story.

3. Sandberg-Zakian, Megan. �Arising From the Sullen Earth� The 52^nd Street Projects Transformative Teen Shakespeare Project.� Teaching Artist Journal, 8.3. (2010): 165-174. Web. November 17^th 2011.

This is a source that focuses on a group that allows teens and kids the hands on experience of writing as well as acting in plays. This article also focused on how they gave student participants Shakespearean sonnets to memorize and perform before an audience. This article goes on to focus on how one student seemed to struggle with trying to understand and memorize Shakespearean sonnet number 29, but after she decided that she would transform it into something that she could relate to she began to understand the sonnet more. So she therefore used Shakespeare�s general idea to tell her own story, allowing her to both express herself and to understand what the sonnet meant. This source was great because it further explains the idea that recreating a classic and allowing a student to turn it into something that they can relate to works well in allowing them to understand the material better as well.

4. Kamin, Hester. �Honolulu Theater for Youth and the Nanakuli Performing Arts Program Present: Original Voice: Giving Teens The Power to Speak Out.� Teaching Artist Journal, 5.1 (2007): 27. Academic Search Premier. Web. November 22^nd 2011.

This article tells the importance that drama and theater have on youth who are dealing with difficult issues. It points out that theater can be a great way for these �at risk� youth to express themselves. This source works to further lead into the idea that theater can be seen as a great way for students to truly express themselves by writing and performing their own life experiences.

5. Zambo, Debby. �Yong Girls discovering Their Voice with Literacy and Readers Theater.� Young Children, 66.2 (2011): 28-35. ERIC. Web. November 22 2011.

This article focuses on the way young girls are forced to see themselves through the media. As these girls realize that they are not meeting the physical demands of society they may become depressed and their self esteem may be deeply affected. However, this source focuses on the power of the readers theater in the classrooms, and how teachers could carefully assign powerful women characters to those girls so that they may find the strength in their voice. This was a helpful source that contributed to the idea that students may find a comforting voice in a character that they play when they feel that they are having trouble finding their own.

6. Brym, Robert J. �How High School Drama Helped Me to Become a Sociologist: An Essay In The Sociology of Autobiography.�Canadian Journal of Sociology, 31.2 (2006): 250-251. Academic Search Premier.web. November 17, 2011.

This article focuses on one sociologist�s experience with the role that high school drama has played in his life. The article involves his statement that theater helped to give him purpose, how it helped to give him the voice that he did not know that he had. The Sociologist states that with drama he went from seeing himself as a nobody to someone who was here for a particular reason. This seemed like a valid source because it emphasizes in great detail the growth of a single individual through the use of drama in high school.

7. Schiller, Juliet. �Drama for at-Risk Student: A strategy for Improving Academic and Social Skills Among Public Middle School Students.� (2008). ERIC. Web. November 23^rd 2011.

This article points out how drama helps in developing a better emotional, social and physical well being for students who are considered at-risk and have low outcomes with education. The source states that drama creates the opportunity to help students voice out what they are dealing with inside. It also gives students a sense of leadership when they do not feel it anywhere else. This source is helpful because it continues to back up the idea that drama is a great way for students to express themselves. It also shows that students could work to gain a better sense of self.

8. Veach, Laura. Gladding, Samuel. �Using Creative Group Techniques in High Schools.� Journal for Specialist in Group Work, 32.1 (2007):71-81. ERIC. Web. November 26^th 2011.

This source focuses on the creative techniques such as dramas and plays that can be used to help adolescents express their emotions. It also focuses on how students can gain insights on themselves and others. This source works for my project because it continues with this theme that drama can work to bring more to a student than a simple homework assignment.

9. Dorey, J. Milnor.�How to Study Shakespeare in the High School.� Education,45.1 (1924): 22. Education Research Complete. Web. November 27 2011.

The article states that the best way to grasp a better understanding of Shakespeare is to act his plays out. It also states that when teaching Shakespeare the history of drama should be taught including the conditions of the theater from centuries ago. This was a great source that worked to support my idea that actually acting one of Shakespeare�s plays out would be the best way to understand him. However, it did give me some new insight on how the history of Shakespeare and drama could be important for students to know in their efforts to try and understand him.

10. Feffer, Laura Beth. �Devising Ensemble Plays: At-Risk Students Become Living, Performing Authors.� English Journal, 98.3 (2009): 46-52. ERIC. Web. November 24 2011.

This article claims that it would be a good idea to allow students to create their own plays that surround a central concept or idea. As this is done it may create a great way for students to allow their voices to be heard. The article states that it would be up to students to focus on the plot that they would want to have performed. This article is good because it continues on with the theme that playwriting and acting will help a student to find and develop their own voice.