Drama Notebook Reviews

Every drama educator should have a subscription to Drama Notebook. The materials are current, fun, thorough, and great for students of all ages. Before I joined Drama Notebook, I had a hard time finding material that didn’t make me roll my eyes. I have taught K-12 and on this site I find strong material for all ages and socio-economic backgrounds which are challenging and fun. Plus, their scripts are plentiful! Lastly, they are always adding new plays and lessons. Best drama site for teachers!

After starting the first elementary drama club in my school, Drama Notebook came to my rescue! I was able to navigate the site easily and found two perfect plays to perform with my students. The first was performed last April and was a HUGE success. I am currently in the process of directing my second. Hats off to Drama Notebook for offering such a wonderful service for teachers who want to give students an enriching, positive experience in theater.

What a fantastic resource--it covers all age groups with an incredible variety of drama materials from games, to developing skills, to great plays! I will definitely subscribe again when I am teaching drama next year!

Excellent resource and lovely staff who respond very quickly to questions.

Great site. I just needed one play for a small group and the short Shakespeare ones were perfect!

This is a great resource for working with children who are experiencing Developmental/Relational Trauma. I work in an inner-city church where the majority of the children in our programs are in chronic traumatizing environments. It is helpful to them to work out trauma through drama. Thanks for this tool.

Beth, thank you for doing such important work in the world. It warms my heart that you are using DN materials in that way.

I love Drama Notebook! The admins are super helpful and it's always there when I need it. There's no more affordable, USABLE service for any kind of creative teacher.

I teach middle school drama, and this site is an absolute Goldmine! I pull nearly all of my lesson plans from this site. Everything that I present to my students is an absolute hit. Last week we used 20 Practice Scenes for Pairs. They were age appropriate and school appropriate, and got my kids trying new things right away--sometimes hard to do with this age group. Thank you, Janea and Drama Notebook for putting together such a wonderful resource!

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.

I am a middle school teacher in an urban school system and was in the process of building lessons and content from the group up. Drama Notebook help provide daily plans and sub plans that were easy and effective.

As a drama teacher for years, I am always looking for new material. Drama Notebook has provided some of the most fun and effective materials I have ever used. My 'Acting for Tweens' class especially loved the "20 Practice Scenes for Pairs." These pieces provided entertaining as well as a manageable training ground for characterization, humor, timing and working together. What a great resource!

I've taught drama for over 20 years, and I was on the verge of burning out when I found Drama Notebook. There is so much material here that I have never heard of! Only five hours after joining, and I'm beyond excited about returning from break and using what I'm downloading here. Thank you, Janea, for your creative genius. You've brought this old teacher back to life!

I got thrown into teaching high school drama this year (I'm a choir director by trade), and Drama Notebook SAVED ME! My students LOVE the activities on this site, and there is enough here for me to plan an entire year's curriculum and more. There is really something for everyone and every level of student here; not only scripts, but lesson plans, activities, and all the extra resources you need to do those activities! 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

As a professional actor who has taught other professionals I was at a loss when asked to hold an after school Drama and Acting Class at a private school. I found Drama Notebook and thanks to this site I have just been hired for another semester. I felt totally in control and had so many wonderful ideas because of this company. Can’t thank you enough. If you teach Drama don’t hesitate. Save yourself the headaches and time and give your students fun and important lessons in a great art.

I came across Drama Notebook after I was FRANTICALLY looking for theater classroom material.
I have my degree in performance, worked professionally on television and stage and Drama Notebook has a library of some of the best material online. If you stop here, put it in park! You've found your destination for all things acting.

As a middle school drama teacher in a rural community, my funds are quite limited. We were looking at doing a play in the spring, and the royalty fees were cost-prohibitive. I had considered doing a Shakespeare play, but felt it was probably beyond my student's ability. A quick Google search, and I found a fantastic adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream on this site that is only an hour long, and perfect for my students. Imagine my delight when I realized that the entire cost of this script is $10. No other fees whatsoever. All I have to do is post a link to this site on my teacher's page and send photos and a few notes about our show. This site is a game changer for theatre educators. Thank you! (I have also joined the site as a member, and am impressed by the quality of the lessons.)--Sincerely, Josh Acosta, TX

I have referred to Drama notebook for over 7 years now and am constantly finding new and useful classroom units, scripts, and even classroom management techniques. I have referred several new and experienced teachers alike to the site and they have all had the same success. Often as theater educators, we are the only ones at our school so it is wonderful to have a community to share ideas and learn from others. Thank you for the continued wonderful content.

I downloaded the Shakespeare Lesson Ideas book. The activities were only tangentially connected to Shakespeare. I canceled my membership immediately.

Hello Alexander,
I'm sorry that you were dissatisfied with your download. I do hope that you got at least one idea you could use out of the 13 pages of Shakespeare activities. I will happily issue you a full refund!
Warmly,
Janea

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!

Thoroughly enjoyed this resource!! Very well organised and easily accessible - found navigating my way to find certain resources very easy! Lots of variety which catered so well to support my Year 5 and 6 students! Many thanks! Looking forward to re subscribing again in term 1.

An addictive resource! I started out with the monthly membership but realized within an hour that there was so much to explore and that i could use for my middle school theatre classes! I now have the yearly membership and still am finding countless items to use for my class!

Hi Candice! I'm so glad that you are inspired by what you are finding on Drama Notebook. We have refunded your first month's subscription, as you quickly upgraded to the yearly. --Janea

Coming from a music background, I was terrified when my administration asked me to teach a drama class this year. Drama Notebook to the rescue! Within an hour on the site, my nerves began to calm down. The lessons are creative and best of all, very easy to follow. In many instances, Janea even tells you exactly what to say when introducing a lesson. This site makes teaching drama foolproof!

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!

Drama Notebook has been a godsend for our community theatre. The scripts are high quality, the audiences love them and to top it all off, they're reasonably priced (usually just a link and some pictures!). The site is easy to navigate and is updated often. We're a fan!

Although I grew up onstage, I found myself struggling with putting together classes for young burgeoning actors. This place was an absolute godsend as I started to find my rhythm and this library of lessons, methodology, and scripts has sparked inspirations in me that I know will continue throughout my teaching career. Thank you for an invaluable resource and "holding my hand" through my new endeavor. I'll be back to refresh my toolbox!

I signed up originally because I had been drafted to teach Middle school and High school drama. This site was extremely useful and informative. I loved the lesson plans and even adapted some of the material for use in my English Grammar classes.

I've been teaching high school drama for 13 years, and was suffering from the doldrums. Another drama teacher told me about this site, and I can't thank her enough. There is so much material here that I have never heard of. It's completely refreshed my toolbox, and I can't wait to use these materials! Thank you, thank you, thank you Janea and Drama Notebook!

I was able to find some plays that will work very well with the MTSS class that I teach during the first period of the day. I have 18 3rd through 5th graders that need activities that challenge them.

I signed up as there is a huge wealth of original material available, from scripts to lesson plans. All are of very good quality. It's a really easy, colourful site to navigate. The illustrations are great! Would definitely recommend to teachers.

Ms. Dahl, you have saved this drama mama so many times I have lost count! I’ve used your website for MS drama classes, HS Theatre Classes, Drama Camps, and evening drama club activities. I can’t Thank you enough, but I will continue telling others about this amazing resource!

I subscribed to Drama Notebook because I found it difficult to find appropriate scripts for my high school multimedia students. For one of our projects, I wanted my students to rewrite a scene from a Shakespearean play to a specific decade in recent history and found it difficult to find short, comprehensible plays (who understands middle English and 17th century slang anyway?). Then I stumbled upon Drama Notebook, who not only specializes in royalty-free short plays BUT also has a library full of shortened Shakespearean plays edited by Shakespearean actors! I can't wait to put another Drama Notebook play into production with my multimedia students.

I was a new junior high theater teacher, and while I had an outline of curriculum, I didn’t have mini lesson plans. Drama Notebook really helped me solidify my teaching day with games and less and ideas and scripts we could read aloud in class. I recommend it, especially for new teachers!

I signed up to Drama notebook as I needed a few activities to help with warm up ideas and scripted activities for some Primary classes.I was able to find relevant resources that blended in nicely with the programs I had written. I used some games and scripts in the classroom and found them easy for the students to read and create their own version. It has been a great help. Thank you!

I have a masters in teaching, and have been teaching drama to high school students for many years. Last year, I was offered a position in an elementary school. I was ready for a change, so I took the leap. Suffice it to say that my first year was a disaster. I struggled with classroom management, and with keeping the students engaged. Enter Drama Notebook. Since using the materials on this site, my students tell me that drama is their favorite subject. I am able to utilize new-found classroom management techniques, and the whole experience is a complete 180 from my first year. I'm sad that I didn't find this while teaching HS, too. I think my students would have LOVED some of the things I am using with my elementary students. If you are teaching drama in any capacity, don't even blink. JOIN!

I subscribed to Drama Notebook because I was a first-time drama teacher and while I have been in many shows in my past I have never taught. This website was so helpful in helping me design lesson plans, teach skills and was extremely affordable. The skits were easy and the fact that they are royalty-free is amazing for a new drama department where the money is not readily available. Thank you for this site I highly recommend it!!

This is a website PACKED with great resources. I'm working to liven up my elementary music classroom and this website was a gold mine. This is my go-to site for drama resources!

I am a first-time Drama, Debate, and Forensics coach, and I found the site very helpful. Lots of great scripts at a very low cost.

As the leader of a large drama club, it was great to be able to log into Drama Notebook and find an array of prepared materials to use. We even used one of the Mark Twain scripts and put on a large production. Everything is accessible and very user-friendly!

Just want to take a moment to rave about this site! Not only have I found amazing material on Drama Notebook, Janea took the time to personally talk me through a challenging situation I'm facing. WAY above and beyond. If you are teaching drama, you have found a GOLDMINE in this site!

I have a music background but have been thrown into teaching year 7 drama. This resource has been a life saver in not just getting scripts, but getting helpful tips on how to teach the class. Thank you so much for all of your hard work! - Hannah

It was so much fun for my students to browse through the various spooky scripts! We chose a selection of scripts (Scary Poems to Perform, Attack of the Vampire Pigs, The Spook in my Tent, The Mummy Speaks) and small groups did a Reader's Theater. Reading scripts helps students develop inflection, punctuation awareness, fluency, and public speaking skills. Thank you for providing an affordable collection of inviting scripts which are easily downloadable. Thank you also for returning my phone message to help me navigate purchase orders.

Maureen Appleton
Special Education Teacher

Drama Notebook gave me everything I needed for my first foray into leading an after school drama enrichment program to 3rd-5th grade students at my children's elementary school. The EXTENSIVE list of drama games was fantastic! I pared down the Beginning Acting 9 Week Lesson Plan to 5 weeks and selected poems from the provided Shel Silverstein collection to end our run with a performance piece that parents attended! I never would have been able to do it without Drama Notebook! I was especially inspired by a personal phone call with Janea when I joined - she gave me great tips and tricks and it was wonderful to have the pep talk before I got going! The kids loved the games and were so confident at their final performance. Even though it was a lot of work, Drama Notebook made it a breeze! It was a successful outing that I hope to do again some year! Thank you!

I am only a cover drama teacher so needed resources to help me for just one term. The resources were well- designed and very easy to use as your instructions were so clear. Loved all the little sketches and cartoons too. May be more all class activities like drama circles would be good. I would use the site again with no hesitation and recommend it to others!

I used Drama Notebook to find a piece for my school drama club, to perform at the local eisteddfod. I found the website easy to navigate and easy to find suitable pieces. The piece I chose was Jabberwocky by Andy Pavey. It was really easy to contact Andy and get permission to perform his play. I found the play very easy for the students to learn and read. They all really enjoyed it, and it gave lots of flexibility with character numbers and roles. I would recommend using Drama Notebook to everyone.

My team and I have been putting on plays as a means to teach English as a foreign language. So far we’ve been struggling with coming up with new ideas every year. Drama Notebook has helped us a lot by giving us a fresh insight in drama teaching and we loved the scripts! Thank you for all the ideas and suggestions! I strongly recommend this site!

I would like to take a moment to thank Drama-notebook for the creating such a great and resourceful website. I am a first year Drama Teacher in B.C. Canada and your site has helped me immensely to deliver great lessons to my students...I am very grateful for this site, the play writers and the creator of this website.
Thanks & Best Regards
Naina 🙂

I am thoroughly enjoy using the plays from Drama Notebook to help teach the children in class about theatre. We just performed A Trip To The Forest by Jasmine Rodger, and The Rules by Martha Patterson. Drama Notebook offers so many ideas, scripts and lesson plans that are fabulous. Thank you for sharing.

'I teach English to French kids. I've been teaching English drama to some of them for 4 years now and I used to struggle to find some ideas and scripts. Now Drama Notebooks just saved me! What a gold mine!! Thank you so much for sharing so many brilliant ideas and scripts. Now I know I'll be able to keep teaching drama and improve my skills in the next 20 years!!

What a great website to use. It provided so many great skit practices for my students in drama, and they did a fantastic job making the characters of their own. What a great website!