A Playwriting Parent Reviews: Action! Writing Your Own Play by Nancy Loewen

As both a playwright and a parent, it delighted me when my daughter starting integrating playwriting into her games. She’s always telling me about the play she’s writing and every keyboard is an opportunity for her to work on “her script” (which sounds way better than any of mine BTW). While the pretending is adorable, I wondered if there was a way to both encourage it and turn into into a learning opportunity. 

Action! Writing Your Own Play  by Nancy Loewen

Then I discovered Action! Writing Your Own Play by Nancy Loewen. Our library had Loewen’s book on writing Poetry from the same Writer’s Toolbox series and my daughter really liked it so when I noticed she had one on writing plays, I had to hunt it down. While my expectations weren’t high, I was incredibly impressed with this book and highly recommend it for anyone looking to give their kids and overview on writing for the stage and an understanding of how the genre works. It manages to give a rather complete overview of the basics of playwriting, with concrete and simple examples, and get kids excited about trying out their own script while also standing on its own as a kid friendly picture book.

The book takes a simple short play, based around the childhood rhyme of John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, that it presents in traditional play format with stage directions and scene breakdowns. The story of the play is illustrated by Dawn Beacon, who takes what is mostly an instructional text, and turns it into the sort of beautiful picture book kids expect. Alongside the play text and accompanying illustrations are boxes that explain the basics of play construction, writing, and character development using the script and story right there on the page as examples. It’s easier to grasp the concepts when they’re demonstrated at the same time you’re seeing them in action and, while it makes for a strange read aloud experience, it works well for an instructional text.

I wasn’t sure my daughter would like this (she’s only 3 and it’s clearly geared towards grade school kids) because I didn’t think she’d understand the concept of reading the play and dissecting how it worked at the same time. Well, apparently I know nothing because she was rapt as we read it and has asked me to read it several times since. Would a kid that young have been as into it if she wasn’t well aware that Mom writes plays? Probably not. But it was a huge thrill for me to see her taking such an interest in it and I was absolutely delighted to know a book like this even exists! When I think about how much I would have liked the Writer’s Toolbox series when I was a kid and trying to muddle through my first stories, it makes me so glad this series is available for kids today to get a head start on understanding the basics of story construction across genres.

A big thank you to everyone involved in the production of this book! And if you know a kid who’s interested in theatre and writing plays or if you’re a playwriting parent like me and just looking for a way to explain exactly what the heck you’re doing over there on the computer, you’re going to want a copy of this book!