Reader’s Theatre

·        Barry and Pearson reveal the characters in Peter and the Starcatchers by how they speak, what they do, and by how they look.  He uses the narration and dialogue so that readers may “hear” the characters’ voices. You are invited to prepare a Reader’s Theatre presentation for a scene from the book. The scene should be no less than 2 pages and no longer than 8 pages. Read Readers on Stage: A Guide to Reader’s Theater (or Readers Theatre) by Aaron Shepard to help you with the process. http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/Tips.html

·        In one form of Reader’s Theatre, students are assigned to read both the narration and the dialogue in certain sections of a book.  A narrator(s) reads the non-dialogue parts.  If the non-dialogue parts become long, or are more than one paragraph at a time, there is often more than one narrator. The students sit on stools or chairs in the front of the classroom.  No scenery or props are necessary.

·        The focus is for students to read and re-read the script so that in the end, they will perform the reading with fluency, appropriate prosody (phrasing and expression), and a complete and thorough understanding of the text. Because props are minimal, students read from their scripts, and use their expression, intonation, rate and other prosodic features to convey the meaning of the story to audience members.