Drama Notebook Reviews

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 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!!

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

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!

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!

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 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! I'm sure I'll subscribe to Drama Notebook again at some stage, but right now I'm not using the resources available. Would definitely recommend to teachers.

Stage Left Children's Theatre is a children's community theatre. I have found Drama Notebook to be an excellent source for new ideas in our curriculum for creative dramatics for grades 2-5. It is also an excellent resource for the arts education SLCT teaches in the public schools.

Drama Notebook was an an excellent resource for affordable and fun scripts for my middle school theatre program-every class does in class plays and these were perfect! It has also been an excellent source for new ideas in my curriculum and resources for my students. Thank you!

I subscribed to Drama Notebook because I was to teach an adaptive drama class for the first time. What I found was a plethora of information, activities, and scripts for all ages. Even my advanced students have entered works in the monologue contest. Even though my funding for Drama Notebook doesn't come in until February this year, I will subscribe again! I can't imagine a year without new scripts and lessons from dramanotebook.com!

Drama Notebook has been totally awesome for me as a first-time theatre teacher. I have enjoyed the resources for ease of application, and my students have enjoyed them just for the sheer fun. I have discontinued my subscription only because the class was a single trimester elective, and it is now over.

Last year was my first year as a drama teacher at the elementary school where I have worked as a classroom teacher for almost 20 years. I needed ideas for my drama classes and found this website. I was floored by the magnitude of resources available on Drama Notebook and found what I needed for my classes. My students enjoyed the drama games, skill building activities and performance activities very much. I like how many of the drama activities gave my students creative license and really enjoyed watching the students who started out shy and apprehensive transform into confident children. They become eager to take risks in class. There is still so much to discover. I just renewed membership to give me more time to explore and gather ideas... Thanks for this awesome website!

I joined Drama Notebook because my daughter was on the hunt for a monologue for her middle school play audition. This was a great resource and she found so many monologues for teens!

Last year, I was teaching theatre for the first time and this website saved my life. The selection of activities is extensive and I love all the scenarios that are all ready for you. Each of my students received a different scenario for all the different activities we did. I highly recommend this site!

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 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.

This is a great resource- lots of things all in one place!

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 librarian who supports classroom teachers in their core subjects, I found Drama Notebook an invaluable resource for public speaking, literature support, and just plain fun for my middle elementary students. They loved your plays!! And I loved the range of materials. Thank you!

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!

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!

Can't describe how impressed I am with this resource. It is the difference between "Wouldn't it be great to run a drama program?" and "We can run a drama program!" Amazing.

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

Just finishing up my second year of teaching Drama (7-12th grade) and Drama Notebook is my go-to place for quick lessons, scripts, and ideas. "How to Teach Your First Drama Class" was a godsend for my first year and many of the games have become class favorites. I love that I can download a script or a lesson for immediate use. We have had fun staging "Three Ghosts and a Jock" and "Anansi the Spider." Next year I plan to use Drama Notebook resources to help with my monologue and one act unit. Keep up the good work!

Really great resource with lots of variety in the scripts and this makes putting on a production so affordable in comparison to other scripts that require expensive royalties for schools when drama teachers already have almost no budget. I was a little hesitant at first because the design/look of the website is a little old school (it feels like it was designed 15 years ago and hasn't kept up with the times) but the content of the scripts are perfect for a modern classroom. Really happy to have this as a resource.

Hi Renana, This version of Drama Notebook was done four years ago. Unfortunately, we hired children to design it. (Just kidding.) I'm glad you are enjoying the scripts. The site is constantly updated, and the entire Script Library was added in 2018.--Janea

Oh my gosh, I am just now starting to teach drama to children again after many years, and this was like a life raft! I love this service or whatever you call your endeavor. Please never stop. Your graphics are especially good.

I have a degree in theater and have been teaching theatre to middle-school students for seven 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 is really a blessing. I love using the short plays and divide the classes up to perform.  I have wasted plenty of money buying books for "Plays/scripts for students/teens" and they are horrible. Drama Notebook scripts are fun, inventive, and appropriate for this age group.  The one year subscription has been far and above the best value for our department! We are happy to link to Drama Notebook on our school website, and to send photos for other teachers to see, as we are saving hundreds in royalties and other ridiculous fees!

Last year was my first year as a teacher, and I taught Drama to Kinder through 8th grade. This site and all its resources absolutely saved and made my year! 3 of our school plays came from the scripts here, and I feel like I have an endless well of resources, lessons and games to always keep the kids on their toes. I was so happy when I found this site because I didn't have to keep scrounging all over the place for relevant material for all my different age groups. Thank you!

I subscribed to Drama Notebook when I was looking for some inspiration. I teach year one (age 6), and every year each class works on a play to present to family and friends. I found a couple of plays about Peter Rabbit which I am currently using for my class. They were very appropriate for the stage I teach. Excellent site that I would recommend!

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

I teach students whose first language is not English and use drama as a way to encourage them to actually use the language to express their ideas and feelings. Last year we did the short versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and it was amazing! The students felt like they were doing doing "real" Shakespeare but weren't bogged down by memorizing so many lines. In particular the collection of scripts and monologues is a serious time saver.

I teach Theatre K-12 and am always looking for good resources that I can use for my classes. On Drama Notebook, I have found resources that I can use in each grade level that I teach. I started with the monthly subscription but quickly realized that I needed to upgrade to the yearly subscription!

Drama Notebook helped me so much this past year in the classroom! I taught drama classes for kids K-12 at a home-school co-op for the very first time and Drama Notebook was exactly what I needed. I’m a music teacher by trade and was intimidated by the thought of teaching drama at first. With all the warm ups, exercises, and intriguing activities and lesson plans, however, I was equipped to teach and personally inspired to keep going. My students had a blast and were asking to do many of the activities over again!

I direct the High School musical at our school and run summer theater camps for students in grades 2-5 and 6-12. This website is an amazing, affordable resource for educators and it is very much appreciated! My students have loved playing the skill building games and the scripts available for download are excellent. The site is organized and easy to use. It is definitely my "go-to" resource when planning drama/theater activities. Thank you for providing resources at an affordable cost for educators to help grow the minds of the young actors and actress in our community!

Drama Notebook made this year of being a freelance teaching artist a breeze! From the almost endless amount of theatre games to the simple yet engaging lesson plans. This site is an important part of any artist’s creative toolbox!

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

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.

This site is amazing and got me through my first year of teaching theater as a transfer from another discipline, and I have hardly had a chance to scratch the surface!