Plays Children Love

About the Author(s)

By Coleman Jennings and Aurand Harris

Coleman A. Jennings, Ph.D, is a professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin. A pioneering scholar and mentor in both the study and advocacy of performing arts for children, he has taught courses in creative drama, theater for young audiences, and children's dramatic literature at UT-Austin since 1963. His many other anthologies include Theatre for Young Audiences: 20 Great Plays for Children, Eight Plays for Children: The New Generation Play Project; and Theatre for Youth: Twelve Plays with Mature Themes.

Aurand Harris is the most produced playwright for young audiences in the United States, with more than 30 published plays to his credit. Before his death in 1996, he was the first children's playwright to receive a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the first to win the Charolette Chorpenning Cup from the American Theatre Association. His widely revered plays include The Arkansaw Bear, Androcles and the Lion, Rags to Riches, The Tobey Show, Monkey Magic, Pinballs, and The Orphan Train. Harris also wrote stage adaptations for such well-known stories as Pocohantas and The Magician's Nephew.

Table of Contents

Part One: Plays for Adult Performers
Charlotte's Web, Joseph Robinette
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Robinson
Golliwhoppers!, Flora B. Atkin
The Wizard of Oz, Anne Coulter Martens
Treasure Island, Aurand Harris
The Wind in the Willows, Moses Goldberg
Jim Thorpe, All-American, Saul Levitt
Ride a Blue Horse, Aurand Harris
Dandelion, Judith Martin
The Forgotten Door, Gregory A. Falls

Part Two: Plays for Children to Perform
The Bremen Town Musicians, Paul Sills
The Golden Goose, Paul Sills
How the Camel Got His Hump, Aurand Harris
How the First Letter Was Written, Aurand Harris
Who Laughs Last?, Nellie McCaslin
The Chinese Cinderella, Lowell Swortzell
Pyramus and Thisbe, William Shakespeare
Mr. Hare Takes Mr. Leopard for a Ride, Carol Korty
Giants, Syd Hoff
The Three Little Kittens, June Barr