Do you see a lot of plays? Maybe not, but if you subscribe to READ magazine, you sure do read them! Even if you aren't a theatergoer in the Broadway sense of the term, you are familiar with the stage in some sense or other. Surely your school puts on a play at least once a year? Does it not? Have you ever attended one? There's something magical about a play that you cannot get from a movie or (dare I say it) even a book! When you are sitting in front of a live performance, you can feel as if you are actually a participant in the different scenes and characters' lives on stage... even if it is only as a silent observer, a good play can push away the reality of the audience and allow you to dive right in!

And then you can write about it.

A great way to extend that dizzy feeling you get from living in someone else's drama (or comedy) is to leave the theater feeling good and go home feeling good and go to sleep feeling good and wake up feeling... like you just have to write about it. How did you respond to the characters? Were the actors believable in the roles they played or did they fall short of making the most of the fantasy? Was the ride you experienced smooth and flawlesss or was it bumpy and agonizing? You are the writer! Tell it how it is!

Emotion is something that should come second though. First and foremost, you have to make sure to get all your facts straight. Bring the program home and spell everybody's name right in your review. There's nothing an actor hates more than seeing his name butchered in the paper. Write down the basic plot of the play without giving anything too important away. If a main character dies in the play, DO NOT mention that in your review! I cannot stress this enough! How would you like it if someone told you the ending to a movie you were just about to see? Right, you'd probably punch him in the face! (See Disclaimer below.) Don't be that guy who ruins the play for everyone else. Just write the basic BASIC beginning of play plot points and then get out.

Now you can talk about how individual actors portrayed their parts. Did an actor or actress have certain or subtle quirks about them that you think would be interesting to your reader? How well did the play come together as a whole... and NOW... how did it make you feel? You know what? You don't even need that part, really. I just tend to put that stuff in because I'm a shamltzy writer.

You can see a review I wrote for a play that is currently running at The Wilton Playshop in Wilton, CT called Over The River and Through the Woods by clicking here.

(Disclaimer: Weekly Reader Publishing does not condone any acts of physical violence. If it were up to us, the whole world would be full of happy people singing happy songs and holding hands... well... maybe not to that extreme.)

OK, so not that anyone cares but here are just a few pictures from our Chicago trip last week.

Here is Jives working his Weekly Reader MoJo on some unsuspecting visitor to our oh so impressive booth. "Check out all these cool features in our magazines! Don't you soooo want to subscribe?"

Here are our magazines. They're much more impressive in person.

Here is Sandhya in Millennium Park about to be eaten by a grinning giant.

Here we are. Last day in Chicago. Exhausted. Counting the minutes til our last deep dish pizza arrives so we can catch our flight home. Yes, we look like Pizza Hut employees.
I know. Gather 'round the good stuff.

In My Pockets
- Poem by Brianna Segars, Grade 6

What's this in my pockets?
A frog, a pencil,
two shells, one stone,
a wadded up newspaper,
a chicken bone, half of
a blue jay feather and a piece
of string, three crayons, and a
ladybug wing, some pink gum,
a couple of cookie crumbs,
a plastic elephant I have a 
couple of these, hey look
assorted keys, a melted candy
bar, and a picture of a place not
too far away, my sister's mini-umbrella,
some noodles from my chicken
noodle soup, and what's this? a
Cinderella doll, a plastic red
bicycle, a wheel from a tricycle,
some rubber rockets ... that's
What's in my pockets!