Stage Start 20 Plays for Children (Ages 3-12)

Book excerpt: The following is a selection of plays that I have written and that have been performed on numerous occasions with different Drama Groups I have worked with throughout the years.The first nine plays - The Lion and the Mouse, The Little Red Hen, The Gingerbread Man, The Ants and the Grasshopper, The Enormous Turnip, Chicken Licken, The Hare and the Tortoise, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Ugly Duckling and The Boy Who Cried Wolf - are all based on well-known and well-loved, traditional children's stories. The play Chinese New Year is based on the legend of how each animal became associated with a Chinese year. The Lonely Dragon is based on a therapeutic story I wrote about isolation and making friends. How the Zebra got his Stripes tells the fun story of the legend of how all the different jungle animals came to look like they do today. The Selfish Giant is based on the very popular short story by Oscar Wilde; The Land of Trolls and Gargoyles is a play about a child's attachment to his parent, and No Excuse deals with the topic of bullying. Caught in the Act, At Doctor's Crowne and A Winter's Tale have fewer characters and can be used in a small drama class or with smaller groups. Finally, Anne of Green Gables is a duologue based on the very famous book Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. In the scene, Anne accidentally gets Diana drunk and chaos ensues.