Drama
Some years ago when I was a youth worker in a mainstream church, a group of kids – more or less from the ages of 8 to 14 – and I enjoyed putting on plays. I had a dislike for the usual pious, didactic and sentimental plays that I came across, and so decided that it would be a good idea if we made our own plays. I developed a technique for doing this that produced a number of plays that were enjoyed a great deal both by those of us putting them on, and by the church and family members who were the audiences. In this section I have included some examples. Anybody is free to use any of these plays, as is, or to modify them to their tastes and situation. Or I would encourage you to make your own.
The first step in the creation of a play was for me to sit down with those who wanted to put one on, and to engage in a discussion with them about their primary concerns and worries. Their concerns ranged from personal matters having to do with social acceptance, or fear of death, to various political and social matters such as the possibility of nuclear war or ecological destruction. Whatever they came up with was okay. We would then decide as a group which of these concerns we wanted as our focus. I would then explain to them the meaning of dramatic tension, and ask what kind of situation might reflect their concern most accurately in a dramatic manner. This led into making up a story which, as we refined it, contained the same number of characters as were in our group.
Since it would be an overwhelming task for the whole group to write the play together, I took the theme, the story, the setting, and the characters that were created in our joint session and wrote a play based on that.
Throughout the entire task of creating, rehearsing and presenting the play, we had ample opportunity to explore their concerns from a variety of angles.
As I think back on it, I could possibly have involved the kids in the actual creation of scenes and dialogue by doing impromptu enactments of various scenes. I’m sorry I didn’t think of that at the time. Undoubtedly the results would it still required some final writing and polishing on my part, but it would have been that much more a product of the entire group.
Any youth drama group – whether church oriented or not – is free to use any of the plays that I will list here. I'll have about four or five when I am done. But I would also encourage any group with the time and the inclination, to think about creating play of their own. This can be done, and I think that both the process and the product would be rewarding.