Ice Breaking and Agenda

Sally Wu

About Me

• Assistant Professor at CJCU• Free Lance Conference Interpreter and

Translator• Author of English Learning Books

About You

• Personal Information• Teaching Job• Issues to be Discussed

Topics

• Reader’s Theater• Debate• Listening Strategies • Textbook Materials• Alternative English Teaching Materials (News

English)

Agenda

• We are going to meet six times (including this one…)

Reader’s Theater

• Readers Theatre or Reader's Theater is a style of theater in which the actors do or do not memorize their lines.

• Actors use only vocal expression to help the audience understand the story rather than visual storytelling such as sets, costumes, intricate blocking, and movement.

There are four different types of Readers Theatre: Readers Theatre,

Free Readers Theatre, Chamber Theatre, and Contemporary

Readers Theatre.

Readers Theater

• The original Readers Theatre was presented using only scripts and stools or chairs. The material performed was plays, poems, narrative fiction, and non-dramatic literature. The performers' focus was offstage and limited costuming was sometimes used (often the readers wore all black to strip away character and allow for more focus on vocal interpretation of the piece). While the readers may have interpreted the scenes or poems cold, in most cases the scripts were memorized and rehearsals were conducted with even more intensity than those conducted for a regular play. There was little to no interaction between performers or movement. This style of performance also helped performers deal with performance anxiety.

Free Readers Theater

• Free Readers Theater was a little freer than traditional Readers Theater. The materials performed were all the same except plays were no longer performed. The performers were now able to look at and interact with each a little more and the presence of scripts was optional. Blocking began to appear which suggested psychological relationships between characters and pictorial compositions (for example, if two characters hated each other, they might be at opposite ends of the stage, and as the tension rises, they might move toward each other). The performers still wore black, but some wore additional costume pieces to help suggest character (such as a hat or shawl).

Chamber Theater

• Chamber Theater focused on narrative fiction only (no other type of material was performed). Scripts were almost always memorized (a narrator might carry a script to make their authoritative voice). The movement became more elaborate and could be associated with more traditional theater practices; it was used in such a way to reveal the character's role and relationships in the story. Costuming evolved into suggested or full costumes.

Contemporary Readers Theatre

• Contemporary Readers Theatre is commonly practiced today. It is less bound by convention and uses techniques from all of the above traditions of Readers Theatre. It is influenced by performance art techniques which is to say there is an increasing emphasis on creating a critical performance that interrogates the text instead of being faithful to it and doing a good representation to share the meaning and interact with the audience.

Teaching Reader’s Theater

• Read to students first and interpret the plot.• Let students be familiar with all parts and

practice. Choose the parts.(how?)• Have students read parts together. Practice

and video tape the practices.• Performance

Experience Sharing with Teaching RT