Hi! I have a suggestion for you. Audience participation plays. A good source for those is anything by the British author Brian Way. "The Hat" is a good one. And so simple, a small cast, each in one costume. One prop, and the audience sitting "cross-cross apple sauce" on the cafetorium floor, with a prompt that their "pockets" (bottoms) are magically stuck to the floor.
Years ago when I did it as an advanced theatre class project, we "toured it" (aka: scheduled curricular field trip) to nearby elementary schools in our District, using their gyms or cafeterias as the performance space. Each performance had four elementary grade classes seated in a circle (we used spike tape on the floor to define the seating areas) arrangement, like a pie with a hole in the center, and an "aisle" between each slice, kinda like the layout of a Greek theatre (theatre history connection there-looked great on the lesson plan). The actor's blocking takes them all over, in the centre circle, up and down the "aisles" and around the outer circle. The script calls for the audience - prompted by the cast, to make sounds on cue, and move their arms and heads to make some of the magic happen. What fun for everyone! And the rest of my class were engaged as ushers, seating each audience class as they entered the cafeteria/gym and as "section monitors" seated with the kiddos to model the expected response during the performance. As a pre performance assignment the class had to create post performance activity/questions worksheets in pre-bundled packets to give to each teacher as they exited. And some Theatre Booster club parents were the required chaperones for my class's "field trip." A good time was had by all. Oh, and don't forget to schedule a pre-performance appointment with the elementary principle in which a couple of students explain everything they are going to do, and what the curriculum objectives covered would be. Needless to say the project was a hit. The next year, the District wanted us to do the project again, and that time didn't charge our account for the bus. Try it!
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Anita Grant
Stafford TX
Original Message:
Sent: 12-09-2015 10:42
From: Daniel Stowell
Subject: Theater for Young Audiences Ideas?
school house rock. Charlie Brown, Emperor's New Clothes, TYA version of Shrek :), Rent (hahaha) Mulan, Honk!
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Daniel Stowell
Teacher / Director
Dublin OH