Introduction 1
ABOUT THE INTRODUCTION
Please don’t skip it! It’s brimming with bright ideas and suggestions to get you into the right mood for trying your hand at acting. Whether you intend to direct, stage, or act in the plays themselves these preliminaries will help you set the scene and, most importantly, will spur you and your students to unleash theatrical talents and creativity you thought you never had.
2
LANGUAGE LEVEL
The plays bring to life English vocabulary and structures based on Levels A1 and A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, which require students to reach a survival level of English. The plots and style of dialogue are written to intrigue 11-15-year-olds. The plays deal with everyday expressions and situations, they practise exchanging information on familiar issues and depict practical scenarios such as giving and receiving directions, ordering or talking about food, the weather, household chores, etc.
3
AIMS OF THE BOOK
Let’s Act! is not intended as a serious work of drama and hence has no claims to match the work of classical playwrights: in other words, it does not aim to instil an everlasting appreciation of classical theatre in your students! What it does hope to do is introduce some entertainment and fun into your classroom whilst also achieving the educational purpose of helping your students discover and develop their acting abilities using the English language in a controlled, yet creative and humorous way. Let’s Act! contains the scripts of twelve mini-play productions which can be conceived as either very short, but complete plays, or as very long and developed skits. In each case, the performance is designed to last 15-20 minutes. Several situations deal with the pursuit of the opposite sex, some deal with superficial conflict at home or in school whilst others are parodies of the news or television talk shows. 7
