Customer Reviews

Drama Notebook is an incredible asset to theatre teachers! I found the lessons, scripts, and games so helpful and will be using them in my curriculum for years to come!

My students loved the games and scripts. Improv was our favorite! Drama Notebook created a lot of laughs and brought many students together!

I'm on my 14th year teaching drama and theatre classes and JUST NOW JOINED "Drama Notebook". Good heavens, WHAT was I waiting for? I've created my own curriculum for years and have some dandy material, but sometimes I just sit and shake my head in fatigue and need fresh stuff. Enter ... "Drama Notebook". Whee HA! Their pieces are great and their suggestions are practical and fun. JOIN, JOIN, JOIN!!!

~ Jeanette (Johnson) Boynton, CA

I just used, "The Quest for Pixie Dust" by Hayley Cotton for a workshop of 8 - 12 year olds. We all had a lot of fun with it! It's been very difficult for me to find materials that this age group will get excited about, and Drama Notebook has many scripts that I know will work for us in the future as well!

I am very impressed with all the material available. I have been involved in drama for over 30 years and it is refreshing to have material that you feel safe with using in school settings. Thank you to all that are helping keep this material available. There are lots and some of the lessons are short and to the point. Helpful in a club setting. Short lines in the plays seem more bite size for kids to memorize who is already busy with so many other things in life. We used to be able to have our middle-schoolers come up with their material, but the school asked us to have something more specific. This gave us lots of options to choose from.

I want to say a huge THANK YOU to Drama Notebook, and specifically to playwright Ruth Giordano for her wonderful script, "a Tree Called Aesop." My Grade 2 class of 18 seven and eight year olds performed her play last night at the Whistler Waldorf School in British Columbia, Canada. We loved her funny take on the classic fables, and the children enjoyed being playful, being silly, and the experience of acting!
They children wrote & drew invitations with the title, her name and 'from Drama Notebook' to give to each of their families before the play.
It was a big hit with the parents, the children - and having such a great script readily available made my life so much easier! Thank you, thank you. I have recommended Drama Notebook to other teachers in our little school already.

Yours,

Nina

I've never taught a theater class of any kind. I've never taken a theater class of any kind. So when I was informed that I was teaching theater this year to both HS and MS students my blood pressure may have spiked. Drama Notebook has saved my life this semester. One of my students-- one of those teenagers who is too cool for everything-- told the counselor that Theater is his favorite class. I'd love to take credit but almost all the material I'm using comes from Drama Notebook.

Thanks, Janea and team, for creating a comprehensive resource that allows me to start and end class with engaging, fun activities. My kids are becoming comfortable expressing themselves and learning how to do that in dramatic ways. Our little school hasn't had theater classes for a number of years, but suddenly there's a tremendous amount of positive energy about theater. Go ahead and spring for the 1 year membership... there's plenty here to keep your kids busy being AWESOME for a whole year. Totally worth it.

We recently started a Skills Academy at our school as a weekly reward on a Friday afternoon. As an amateur dramatics enthusiast of over 30 years I was asked to take a drama class as my SA which I was delighted to do. However performing is a lot different to teaching and I thank goodness for Drama Notebook!! With the help of resources from the website we had a wonderful time. The game ideas were a great way to start each session and the group had a choice of short plays to perform each week, which they did with relish! They each had their favourites and we managed to perform one or two to a small audience, albeit in a very basic way. We have all changed our particular groups for the next term but when drama is on the list again I will be back for more. Thank you for all your support.

Not just for kids! We have a tour team that works with K-12 youth as well as youth/young adults at risk. We conduct summer theatre camps and we also teach theatre classes for adults with disabilities. This has become our Go To website for the variety of resources offered. From classroom management to Shakespeare in many accessible forms you find what you need! When planning our very first camp, I talked one-on-one with Janea who had great advice and calmed my fears! We have been doing summer camps for 3 years now which have doubled in size every year! We will be tackling Macbeth this fall with our adults with disabilities! Thank you Drama Notebook!

I have never offered a review on any product or service but I am making an exception for an exceptional and excellent site. The resources and personal service enhanced my own life as well as the lives of young artists in my community. I was asked to reinstate the Community Children’s Theater in a small town in the heart of Appalachia. Drama Notebook Has been a “go-to” resource with games, skits, plays and videos-all worth every penny. Highly recommended!

Enjoy!

As a Drama Teacher with 30 years experience it is easy to keep doing the same things you have been doing forever. Every year I challenge myself to add new material to my teaching. Drama Notebook has been a great go to. I always find things I haven't done or thought of. Thank you.

I enjoy the materials but when I could no longer afford it I could not find a way to cancel.

Hi Jody,

I'm sorry that you had trouble. We try to make it as easy as possible to cancel your subscription. I have emailed you and refunded your last payment. Please come back anytime!

Janea

About six years ago the administration at out elementary school changed my position from general music to performance art. I had no idea how to proceed. I found Drama Notebook online and it saved my life! Skits, improvisation ideas, fantastic plays, an incredible wealth of information. I'm very happy to say it opened the doors to a highly successful stretch of interactive fun for the students and myself. I'll be retiring and am pretty sure they won't replace the position, budgets, you know, but if they do I will recommend Drama Notebook to the next person. Before I leave, we will be performing 'Rumplestiltskin Private Eye." Thank you for the treasure trove that you are!

We have used Drama Notebook plays for the past few years as the "play presentation" portion of our summer camp. They are great because they have clear notations for number of players, staging, costuming and age group. The stories are interesting and our kids are reading without knowing they are reading! The younger campers comprise the audience and really enjoy the stories and look forward to the day when they are old enough to be in the play.

I used this site for plays that could be used for a younger group. I found the staff to be very helpful and willing to accommodate. I have a very "sensitive" audience and some of the wording in the Mark Twain plays were a bit much for the general class, though I personally loved them. The author allowed me to change the line and so I was able to print the play and not have to deal with any backlash from the original lines. I found that the way in which the have sorted the plays on the site was very helpful for selecting what you need. I was looking for simpler plays with around 8-10 parts. I cannot speak to a large production as far as the site's helpfulness. I would very much recommend this site to anyone. Teachers will not be sorry for the money invested is well worth it!

I am working with after-school drama programs and Drama Notebook provided just the support I needed to have short appropriate plays for kids and it also gave me lots of ideas for writing plays with kids. Either way, Drama Notebook has been a key factor in delivering a successful program. Thanks!

I've been using Drama Notebook for almost 10 years! It just keeps getting better and better. I use it for K-8 Spanish teaching- so many of the ideas work beautifully for language teaching because it is all about communication. Gracias!

Everything the folks have said about the resources is true! However, I want to talk about the customer service! I had some difficulty because of the browser I was using and even though I am subscribed, I was hitting the pay wall every time I wanted to download. The folks made sure I did not get double billed and helped me solve the browser issue.

I found Drama Notebook to be an invaluable tool in delivering my drama program. The games and scripts were very helpful and helped me in my lesson planning.

I work for an amateur theatre group in the North of England and have used some of the excellent ideas as a springboard for some of the work that we do in our drama workshops with children. The drama exercises have been very useful in creating a positive energy among the children!

I am a Performance Studies Teacher at Seattle Girls' School and I love roaming the pages of Drama Notebook. This website helps me generate new ideas and practices. There are days when I need inspiration and feel like I am in conversation with the various lessons provided. This means that I am able to adapt activities to meet my students' needs and also tweak various lessons to adequately fit within my school's scope and sequence needs.

Drama Notebook & Janea are worth their weight in gold! I would be truly lost without this resource and it’s always my very first go-to when I’m looking for material for my classes. The site is so easy to navigate around with an abundance of wonderful ideas to structure fantastic classes for children of all ages. I would recommend DN before any other resource. Janea is also on hand on a personal level for any one to one advice too. There’s no other website I know which can offer that! Thank you Janea!

I have a degree in Theater and have the pleasure of teaching only theater to Middle school students for 7 years now. Many of the other resources are so expensive. I am only one teacher with no budget. I have been able to show that this resource is worth purchasing. To not have to pay hundreds of dollars to attempt to put on a production by myself is really a blessing. I love using the short plays and divide the classes up to perform. We only perform in the classroom. Sometimes they come out so great, I wish I would do the plays in front of a full audience. It is perfect for having different short plays to select from. I have wasted plenty of money buying books for "Plays/scripts for Students/teens" and they are horrible. I get to read the whole script before I choose to use. The one year subscription has been the best use of my own money!!!!

This is my first year teaching a drama class and I've been scrambling to find resources. There are tons of websites with free material, but they're generally just ideas, like 'have students create tableaus', but they don't give suggestions, and for someone in my position that made them almost useless. This site has it all. I purchased the one month subscription and was able to download weeks worth of awesome materials, it has decreased my stress and increased my confidence in my lesson planning. Also, I had a question, sent an email and received a very kind reply in 10 minutes. Couldn't be happier.

I live in Canada and am a teacher new to Drama. I knew that I needed to challenge my Sr. High Drama students more, but wasn't sure how. I bought Drama Notebook, and I was soooo glad I did! Before I had these resources, I was taking way too much time thinking of things to do, and I needed something that would help me spend less time prepping. This was it! I like the lessons it provides, because I was learning as I was teaching too. There are always games and fun ideas whenever you need them as well. And they are fun, quality games that students actually like doing. I would definitely recommend this product!

Having taught drama for years I love the fact that I have a diverse range of resources at my finger tips..... so much so that I have just upgraded my membership to a yearly subscription from a monthly one. Thank you Drama Notebook!!! 💖🎭

I found Drama Notebook quite by accident as I was searching for ideas and information for a seminar on using Drama elements in the EFL classroom. As I didn't know where to start and what to look for, finding Drama Notebook was life saving and quite an inspiration to start a wonderful journey of using Drama elements for learning a foreign language with young children. Here, on this website, I found everything I needed, and it became a sort of a compass for exploring an ocean of knowledge. I used Drama Notebook for a month, and the materials I downloaded are top-notch quality, customer service is great too! I am currently not using this website but I am planning to renew my membership soon to continue exploring the Drama world 🙂 I have also shared the link with my colleagues and friends and they are all keen to try it. I would recommend this website for anyone who is curious about using Drama elements or conducting full- time drama classes with children- this place is a gem and a well of ideas, guidance and inspiration!
Thank you!!

I teach Drama in mainstream and to students with autism. This resource has been invaluable, such a variety of activities, games and scripts - a real life saver.

I am a Special Education teacher and have taken on being the music and drama teacher because of my music ministry and community theater background. This has been a great resource for these students with the voice games and the role playing games. The range of emotions they have learned from Drama Notebook is wonderful to see. I even use these cards in other classes.

I really appreciate this resource. I teach a fall and a spring acting class, and I needed a script for my students. I found Drama Notebook last fall, and loved spending only $10 to get a script AND a bunch of activities! I came back from the spring for new resources and a new script. I'm sure I will come back again in the future!

I signed up, hoping to get some resources for my junior high school students (13-15 year olds). I got a few, but the site predominantly caters for primary school students. If I was teaching the younger age groups, I would love to come back and buy more resources as there is a plethora of them. 🙂

Hi Debbie,
I'm sorry that you felt that the site didn't have enough resources for middle-school. We have tons of middle-school teacher and high-school teacher members who find amazing lessons and scripts. I'm concerned that you may have missed something. I'm going to give you another month free, and suggest specific titles and sections for you to explore. --Janea

Amazing materials not available anywhere else! I am not a “drama person” but was asked to teach drama! I wanted the class to be fun and engaging and not cheesy. ALL of the activities from this site were a hit. Thank you for making teaching drama fun!

As an Instructional Assistant who has always been a drama fanatic and director at church, I was given the honor of starting a Theater Club for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders at the school I work in (recently have to resign to take care of grandbabies). Drama Notebook was a lifesaver! I have been able to get exercises, game ideas, skits, everything I have needed. I love it and am so very thankful!

 Absolutely fantastic! Davenport Junior Theatre is a program that has been around for 67 years. We have so many amazing resources at our disposal, but Drama Notebook is far above the rest. An absolute gem for any individual teaching artist or large organization!

As a new drama teacher I have relied on Drama Notebook for appropriate plays, particularly for my 12 year-olds. I found a wide range of plays for various sized groups, such an invaluable resource. A vast supply of well organised warm ups, drama games and lesson plans.

I love all the resources! Our school put on our first play last year and we used one from Drama Notebook. It was fun to make the characters come to life with plenty of ad-libbing and physical comedy thrown in! Where did they learn that? Working in class on skits and games that helped develop these skills. My students were able to showcase their skills. This year we are looking at some other plays by Drama Notebook for play number two! I could never pull all this together myself-no time! Also my limited budget prevents us from performing the musicals other schools do. We’ve decided to put on comedies and find the joy in life!

As a first time teacher I found the website so useful and creative! I got so many great ideas to create my classes and to develop my own. I will definitely come back to you at some point!

Good site! Very clear, and so many scripts and styles to choose from. Suggestion: have it clear how many credits each script/download each product costs/uses.

Thank you! Everything in our Lesson Library is one credit. Scripts in the royalty-free Script Library are mostly one credit, but longer scripts and scripts that include additional teaching materials run 3-10 credits and are noted in the description.

As a playwright, I can't say enough about how wonderful it's been to work with the staff at Drama Notebook! As a retired teacher, I wish I had had this resource 20 years ago! Hours of research during my teaching career led me to become discouraged by the plays being offered for children in elementary school so I began to write my own plays instead. Drama Notebook is an amazing resource and is destined to become even better!

This site is a godsend! As an elementary/middle school librarian who also teaches "drama" classes I was desperate for quick, practical help. This is it!! From lessons on acting to quick, interesting to the kids, and easy to stage scripts this site has it all. Thank you!!

Drama Notebook is a lifesaver. It provides a variety of affordable, creative and well planned resources that are fun to teach and that kids enjoy. I highly recommend.

This site saved me! As an English teacher who loves acting, but had no formal training, these resources made my first attempts at teaching drama sooooo much easier. The students truly benefited from the high-quality materials!

Drama Notebook has been an absolute life saver! The lesson plans, unit plans, games, and plays have served me well ever since I joined! These are perfect for teachers who want lessons or activities that are planned out with clear objectives! I recommend Drama Notebook to all my drama teacher friends!

When I first started teaching children's drama classes, I did what most people would do. I scoured the internet for plays and drama games. Drama Notebook quickly became my reference point because of how organized and detailed their content is. And they are still by far the best resource a drama teacher could have.

Drama Notebook was such a valuable resource for me as I taught theatre to our community kids! The programs are laid out so well and were great value for the subscription price. Janea personally responded with advice when I emailed her with some challenges that I was facing with our club. Highly recommended.

I have had the pleasure of drawing on resources from DRAMA NOTEBOOK for many years! As a Performing Arts teacher across multi year levels (in Australia) I find the variety of material available, whether it be warm-ups, work shopping or presenting a performance, is AMAZING! Thank you to Janea & her great team! 🙂

When I was starting to teach 2nd graders Drama for the first time a couple of years ago, Drama Notebook, and in particular, Janea, helped me get my footing. Janea was able to answer my questions and point to specific DN resources that were relevant for my specific circumstances and needs. DN was a confidence builder when I needed it most! Facebook posts from this DN group have also been enormously helpful.

I love this resource. As a small dance school starting our drama classes, its a fabulous collection of ideas, classes, sessions and scripts that means each week I'm struggling with too many ideas as opposed to not enough. We've used the games, the learning activities, scripts and monologues. I'd highly recommend this to anyone!

Drama Notebook is exactly what we were looking for! They offer a great selection of scripts and the customer service was excellent!

I’ve only just signed up a yearly membership and can see how many great ideas there are!! Worst thing is going to be deciding exactly what to use!!!! What a predicament😄😄