ABSTRACT

Though most storytellers are actors and directors, they rarely make use of creative dramatics and video in working with children. Yet there are important connections to be made, particularly since great advances in technology have enhanced our audiovisual means of communication. Although the movies and TV programs for children in the America and Europe are for the most part deplorable, this new technology is not an “enemy” of children and communal storytelling, as some critics have argued. Theater, film, and video depend on narration, both oral and written, and the mediations between orality, script, stage, camera, and screen can be used in manifold ways to help children develop critical thinking and practical skills. Moreover, since children tend nowadays to be exposed to theater and film narrative as much as to any other form of narration, it is very important that they grasp how plays, videos, films, and screenplays are composed or put together, piece by piece, so to speak.