Interacting: 60 Short Drama Scripts for Developing Skills in Drama, Performance or Getting on with People

 Interacting: 60 Short Drama Scripts for Developing Skills in Drama, Performance or Getting on with People
 Edward Denniston,
 Russell House Publishing
 ISBN 9781905544126,
 £19.95

 Star rating: 4/5




This collection will be an effective resource for anyone teaching drama or relationship skills, writes Simon Firth.

The scripts in this collection are not designed for performance, but to focus attention on the techniques required to make performance effective. The author, Edward  Denniston, focuses attention on key skills: realising beginnings and endings, playing silence and pause, recognising and realising turning points, and listening and developing character, for example. These skills are not taught, but drawn from performers through often surreal and amusing, sparsely-written short scenes.

In one scene, two players react to the discovery that someone has replaced the contents of their suitcase with fruit. In another, two players argue as to how they will divide or share the stage space between them. Creativity and imagination are drawn from the players as they explore subtexts and make sense of their performance.

The great strength of these scripts is the clarity of their focus. They each address one of a syllabus of core skills directly, and force the active practical learning of these skills from their players.

Denniston supplies 10 effective lesson suggestions, and suggests appropriate scripts to use with them. These could perhaps be more detailed and further tips or pitfalls highlighted, but an experienced leader will want to tailor lessons to the players in any case.

The scripts are not targeted to any single age group or ability level, and could be as useful for adults as for teenagers and younger children.

Simon Firth is an actor, writer and director, and is artistic director of Gripping Yarns Storytellings