It’s not too late to stage a Halloween drama fest. Here are half-a-dozen plays that will allow your students to dress in costume while still doing something academically valid. And if Thursday’s festivities are too packed or to near, there’s nothing wrong with staging these monstrosities on that awkward, sleepy, problematic day-after.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stoy classic, The Birth-mark, tells the story of a mad scientist who, in his quest to make his already beautiful bride “perfect,” kills her instead. The Monkey’s Paw is W.W. Jacobs’ classic Gothic tale about getting three wishes. The disturbing result will stay with your students long after Halloween has passed. The well-known Legend of Sleepy Hollow is available in my book, Read Aloud Plays: Classic Short Stories (you can purchase and download it instantly at Scholastic Teacher Express). Pair it with YouTube segments from the original Disney flick. My newly re-released version of Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart can be paired with my modernized version, Penelope Ann Poe’s Amazing Cell Phone. (At least one of my reader’s has commented that it’s “too strange,” which I think makes for great Halloween fun.) Finally, A Piece of String has a ghostly conclusion and Cyclops has a ferocious monster. All of these plays were originally published in Scholastic classroom magazines such as Scope and Storyworks from which some of the above coveres originate), so you know they’re up to snuff, and they all come with reproduction and performance rights.
Ready to give it a try but unsure how to start? Download my free guide to teaching with plays. It’ll give you tips and ideas on how to use plays to make your language arts block the best section of the day. But get to it right away…those ghouls and goblins are already knocking at your door.
Happy Halloween and happy directing!
Mackowiecki Lewis 