Drama for Children

Jane and Rose are putting on a play with some friends this weekend. For weeks they’ve been carrying around dogeared scripts festooned with yellow highlighter, running lines in an arcane actors’ ritual that seems to require Rose to jump on my bed. The Bounce Method?

This got me thinking about how much the kids love to put on impromptu plays, and how much I loved acting at their ages (and far beyond—I started out a drama major in college and had my sights set on Broadway until I met That Boy). I realized I’m a bit out of touch with children’s drama these days and wondered if any of you had favorite play collections your kids have enjoyed. I know there’s a collection of Aesop’s fables in play form somewhere out there, though I’ve never seen it. We have acted out many a fable in our living room, improv style. I think our biggest hit, though, was our rendition of how Caligula conquered Britain (except that the Roman soldiers kept dissolving into giggles).

So how about it? Got any good kids’ plays to recommend?