Script Handling The trick with scripts is to handle them so they can be referred to easily but dont seriously

restrict movement or distract the audience. The script is held by one hand only, leaving the other hand free for acting. For a relaxed grip, the binder spine can simply lie in the palm. If readers are moving around a lot, they can instead grip the binders top edge. Part of the binder rests against the upturned forearm. Right-handers hold a script with their left hand, left-handers with their right. But sometimes a reader may have to switch hands, if a particular hand is needed for stage action, or if looking at the script turns the reader too far from the audience. Though readers dont need to memorize, they should know their lines and cues well enough so they can look up from their scripts about half the time. When they do look down, its only with the eyes, keeping the head straight up. You will have to be flexible about script handling. A character who has to look upward for much of a scene may have to memorize part of the script. A narrator who has a long speech may have to run a free hand along the edge to keep the place. A reader who will have no free hand when a page must be turned can place that page backward in the binder to get two pages facing. The Set You dont construct sets for readers theaterbut you can suggest them. The narrators descriptions are brought to life by the readers movements and mime. If a reader opens a door, we see it. If readers hang ornaments on a Christmas tree, we know right where it is. Stools are among your chief aids for suggesting sets, as well as being practical props. Three short stools in a semicircle can be a dining room. Two short stools close by each other can be a bench in a park, or a roof ridge atop a house. A single high stool can be a throne room. A high stool with a short stool next to it can be a tree to climb, or a mountain. An area with no stools can be anything at all! As in theater, you start designing your set by figuring out what locations your script calls for. Then you position those locations on your stage in whatever arrangement works and looks best. Look for ease of reader movement, stage balance, and openness to the audience. Readers can move to different stage areas for different scenes. Or they can stay in the same area and you can change the set. Or the set can move to them! For instance, a reader could move from room to room in a house just by

walking in place, climbing some stairs, and opening some doorsall without moving an inch. Reader Movement After designing your set, decide where your readers will start and where they will go. Dont forget the narrators. Drawing a series of movement diagrams can help you spot problems, save time during rehearsal, and jog your memory the next time you use the script. In one simple diagram system, circles are low stools, double circles are high stools, crosses are readers, and arrows show movement. Sample movement diagrams (PDF, 1 page) To go offstage, a reader doesnt need to actually leave the area but can instead go BTAback to audience. This indicates to the audience that the reader is out of the picture. If sitting on a stool, the reader can usually just turn around on it. If standing, the reader should also get out of the way by moving toward the back of the stage. Narrators seldom go BTA, even if theyre not reading for a while. In regular theater, the curtain or the lights coming down indicates a scene changea jump in time and/or place. In readers theater, this change is shown by some kind of break in movement. For instance, the readers can all freeze in place like statues. Or they can turn BTA, freeze, then come back in. Or they can freeze, then cross the stage for the next scene. If one scene in the story flows smoothly into the next, without a jump, you may not need a break at all. Mime and Sound Effects Whatever action is described in the script, readers should try either to do it or else to suggest it through mime. If someone is eating, we should see the fork carried to the mouth. If someone is hanging in the air, we should see the arm pulled tight by the floating balloon. If someone is racing a horse, we should see the galloping hooves. The key word here is suggest, because the movements are often far from realistic. For instance, its hard to take off a coat realistically when one hand holds a script. Readers quickly learn to sleep sitting up, with their heads bent to the side. And walking in place is a readers favorite mode of travel. Though formal mime techniques arent required, they do add polish to a performance. Its always good to draw on proven tricks for walking in place, climbing up or down stairs or ropes or ladders, lifting or pulling heavy objects,

flying, falling, and so on. Look for library books on mime, or invite a local mime to conduct a workshop. Part of successful group mime is being aware of the invisible. If a stool is meant to be a chair at a table, make sure no one walks through the table! Even a door thats invisible shouldnt shift position as different people pass through it. If two characters look at a picture on the wall, they will hopefully agree where it is! Sounds in the story too should be added where possibleexplosions, wind, bees, roosters, whatever. To help the illusion, this is usually handled by readers who are BTA. Focus Focus refers to where the readers are looking. Most of the time, its simple: Narrators useaudience focusthey look straight at the audience. Characters use on-stage focusthey look at whoever theyre talking to, just as in plays or real life. But sometimes you may want characters to use off-stage focus. The readers imagine a screen facing them, as wide as the stage, set up at the front edge of the audience. On this screen they imagine a mirror image of all the readers. Then instead of talking straight to each other, they talk to each others image. If you prefer, you can move the screen farther from the readers. Offstage Focus

The most important use of off-stage focus is to help create illusions of distance or height. Two characters on the same stage but using off-stage focus can shout and wave at each other as if a mile apart. If one looks upward and one looks downward, you have a midget talking to a giant, or a woman in a window talking to a man in the street. Characters can at times also use audience focus, addressing comments directly to the audience. They might also use this focus if the audience is drawn into the storyas might happen, for instance, if the audience suddenly becomes a hill completely covered with cats.

Beginnings and Endings One reader should introduce the story with at least the title and the author. Beyond that, something can be said about the story, about the author, or about the performance. Just dont give away the plot! After the introduction, the readers wait to begin until theyre all in place and frozen and the audience is quiet. At the end, the last words are spoken slowly and with rhythm, so the audience knows the story is over. Everyone recognizes the ending happily ev-er af-ter. But the same effect can be achieved with almost any words by reading them in a slow three. When the story is finished, the readers freeze for a long moment to break the action. Then they close their scripts, face the audience, and bow all together. You may want to assign one reader to lead this closing sequence. Beginnings and endings should be rehearsed along with the story so theyll go smoothly. Once young people have a general idea of how readers theater works, they can take over much of the staging themselves. In fact, they often beat adults at developing mime. After all, pretending is part of their profession.

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What is Readers' Theatre ? Readers theatre is a joint dramatic reading from a text, usually with no memorization, no movement and a minimum of props. It involves children in oral reading through reading parts in scripts. Unlike traditional theatre, the emphasis in on oral expression of the part rather than on acting and costumes. What is its purpose? It enables students to bring a text to life and together create a powerful interpretation. It offers less confident readers support from peers and provides a genuine social purpose for attentive reading. It also provides students with models for creating 'the voice behind the page' in their own silent reading. Readers' Theatre provides a real context for reading and has obvious benefits for students by increasing their skills as readers, writers, listeners and speakers. Readers' theatre can be used to introduce longer texts that students may then go on to read. In the same way that a television adaptation can push book sales through the roof, readers' theatre can take students into the world of a text and entice them into enthusiastic reading. How can I do it?

First an appropriate text is selected. Many narrative texts can be adapted for readers theatre. Picture books are often ideal and fun to use. For longer texts, several narrators can be allocated, characters can be assigned to students who read their speech, and longer descriptive passages that do not suit dramatic reading can be omitted. Alternatively, scripts are sometimes prepared specifically for readers' theatre. Susan Hill and Joelie Hancock suggest starting by demonstrating with repetitive picture books such as Hattie and the Fox by Mem Fox or Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen. The teacher can start by reading the text through and then getting the students to join in with the dialogue or for alternate sentences to create a dramatic reading. The degree of preparation depends on the expertise of the readers and the specific purpose of the reading. Some students like to include costume suggestions, music and other props. How can I adapt it? The whole class can work on the same text, or cooperative groups can work on different parts of a text. An alternative is to invite groups to select their own texts to present, from a collection of picture books or short stories. The performance can be just for the class or for other classes or audiences. When using readers' theatre to tune students into reading and studying a set text, a gripping segment from any part of the book can be chosen to work on, with a brief introduction by the teacher to set the scene. Create and read scripts to introduc and reinforce concepts related to other subject areas. Adapt stories from various cultures to the readers' theatre format. Assessment & Evaluation Considerations Observe students' willingness and ability to make predictions and inferences about character and plot development. Note students' efforts to interpret characters and communicate meaning through voice (volume, pitch, stress and juncture), facial expressions and hand gestures. Note students' interest in participating. Record or video tape presentations. Note students' interest in independent script writing.
this is the script of "the king of the forest" Cast Narrator Wolf Goat Doe Zebra Bear Monkey Fox Lion Rabbit

Introduction -- in Engish and Thai Good morning Father Nathee. Good Morning Father Nung. Good Morning Teachers. Good Morning Fellow Students. Mathayom 4/5 is going to present a short play read in English. The play is about a hungry lion (the King of the Forest) who keeps eating the other animals in the forest. The animals get together and make a plan to stop the lion from eating any more of their friends. The Narrator (Por) will describe the story to you in English. Please listen. There will be no Thai translation. Narrator: (All animals except the Lion face the audience.) Once there was a big lion who lived in the forest. All the other animals were afraid of him. Every day the lion went through the forest to hunt for food. The animals tried to hide from him but the lion always found one and killed him. The forest was not a safe place. At last the Wolf thought of calling all the animals to a meeting. Wolf: It is good that everyone is present. (Sadly) We are here because we have a big problem. Our lives are in danger. (Cast: Ooohhhh danger! Danger) Goat: Meeee-eee-eee. What can we do to save ourselves from the lion? He eats one of us every day. Soon all of us will die. Doe: The lion is fierce. He has no pity for anyone. I remember that day I left my little fawn alone. (Cries) When I came back, my little one was gone. Zebra: What shall we do? The lion is wise. He roars to frighten the animals. They cry in their hiding places. That is why the lion knows where to find them. Bear: (Fearfully) The lion's sharp claws can tear us to pieces. He can climb a tree with his strong paws and his teeth are very sharp. Monkey: (Angrily) Everyone is afraid of the lion. He is only one. We are many. Can we not stop him from killing us? Fox: If we don't plan well, then we will all die. Why don't we think hard and talk about the matter? Wolf: What do you suggest? Rabbit: Everyone must think of a plan. Then we shall decide what is the best. All: We agree. Let's think of a good plan. Narrator: The animals thought and thought. Many gave suggestions. Finally they chose the Rabbit's plan as they thought it was the best. That night, the animals went to see the lion. As they came near the cave, they heard him growl. (Lion growls) Some wanted to turn back but, when they saw how brave the rabbit was, they went on. Lion: (Turns to face the audience) What do you want? Bear: King Lion, we have come to tell you something that will help you. Lion: What is it?

Bear: We know you are the King of the Forest but you must stop eating the animals. You have killed many. Those you have not killed are afraid to stay in the forest. Soon there will be no animals left. Lion: What shall I eat? I must have something to eat. Bear: We will take care of that. Each day we will choose one animal for you to eat. It will come to your cave so that you will not have to hunt for food. Lion: That is a good plan. Let's try it. (All animals except the Lion turn their backs to the audience.) Narrator: The animals carried out their promise to the Lion. Each day they sent one little animal to the lion's cave. Each night one of them was missing from the forest. Narrator: (Rabbit turns to face the audience) One day, the rabbit was chosen to be the lion's meal. He started for the lion's cave early in the morning but he thought he might as well have all the fun he could before he was eaten. So, he played along the way. (Rabbit hops) It was very late when at last he hopped to the door of the lion's cave. The lion was very hungry. Lion: (Growls angrily) Why have you kept me waiting so long? Rabbit: Good morning King Lion. Would you like to see a big lion that looks just like you? He has a voice like yours too. Lion: Where is the other lion? Rabbit: I cannot tell you that King Lion. You have to come and see for yourself. Narrator: Then the rabbit hopped away through the forest and the lion followed him. Soon they came to a deep well. There was water at the bottom of it and it was very deep. Rabbit: Look down there King Lion. There he is! Narrator: The lion looked down into the well. There he saw another lion. He opened his mouth and roared. (Lion ROARS) The echo of his voice was very loud. (Echo of roar) He jumped into the well (Lion jumps) to fight the other lion and was drowned. (Lion stays in the well) The rabbit hopped back to tell the other animals about the good news. All: (All animals turn to face the audience) After that the animals lived in peace in the forest.