Games, warm-ups, skits, sketches & more

[We get so many good books a month, and we don’t like making people wait to read about them. So, from this month forward, we’re combining our Off the Shelf and The Play’s the Thing departments. Each month you’ll get the same helpful reviews of books about theatre arts and plays, they’ll just be in the same article. Less waiting and more theatre for everyone! —ed.]

Becoming comfortable on stage and in a character is important for actors of any age—but it’s especially so for young people, the focus of this month’s round-up of new books and plays.

The myth—and necessity—of multi-tasking

While I was at the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference in McCall, Jeni Mahoney (the artistic director of the Conference) was also a participating in the Conference as a playwright with her piece Kandahar. At the meet-and-greet barbecue on the first day a community member presented Jeni with a hat. On one side of the hat was the word “Playwright,” on the other “Artistic Director.” Whichever side was facing forward determined the role she was playing at any given moment. It was a cute, but necessary, prop that helped everyone around Jeni know what headspace she was in, and what questions they could approach her with—but it also helped her, too. She was able to focus on one thing at a time, and externalize that choice. I imagine it helped cut down on a lot of “should”s—I should be doing this, I should be doing that. Instead, she was able to very clearly define what she should be doing. Now I’m a playwright. Now I’m the artistic director.