Irin David Evans, Spain
Finding plays suitable for learners of a language has never been easy, and I have often found it easier to devise a play with the group itself. You need to choose a strong basic idea which everyone is happy with and then run improvisation sessions or games around the theme.  Get some of the stronger students to write up the scenes as a follow up.  Ask your students to decide who they would like to be and get them to write short, 50 word, monologues to introduce their chosen character or personality.  Putting contrasting characters together on the stage can produce some interesting drama.

The beauty of this technique is that the students themselves are instrumental in creating the play and this often motivates them.  You can introduce hidden grammar, too, by devising a scene to do with wishes or future intensions, and revising future structures such as going to or modal verbs.  Try to remember that your aim is to stimulate speaking and not producing a slick play. Break a leg!

Susanne Berg, Netherlands
Which play to stage depends on a number of things and/or whether the the students are familiar with the concept of plays, have they performed on a stage before, how fluent are they in spoken English, how many students are to be involved etc. I'd start off with improvisations.  I've done Pinter's The Dumb Waiter with intermediate students, but found that I had to read and learn a lot about directing. My best advice is to select a play which appeals to your students and which comes with a lessonplan and good stage directions.

Glenda King, France
Hi Louise, I teach French adults, and I often use plays by contemporary playwrights with my intermediate/advanced classes.  As an ex-actress I have a wide selection on my bookshelves!  My personal favourites are Harold Pinter - difficult to perform well, but he uses simple language - and Sue Townsend. In particular, I like "Groping for Words" by Sue Townsend. It is about adults learning to read, and the sympathy my students have with the characters attempting to learn to read and write (as compared to them trying to learn English!) is often very moving.  Hope this helps.

Ana Martínez, Argentina
Let me tell you about my experience last year. It was with a group of intermediate to upper intermediate students. First, we read three short stories by Roald Dahl ("The Way up to Heaven"," Mrs Bixby and the Colonel's Coat", and "Lamb to the Slaughter"). This was done during the first two of the three terms the school year is divided into. We had different before, during and after reading activities. After having dealt with the three stories, in the last term my students created their own story mixing characters, situations, beginnings and endings. They wrote their own play using dialogues from the original ones, rehearsed and put it on stage. The result was lots of fun while creating, loads of languange learning and a very good play on stage.

Demetrios Hadjinicolaou, Greece
In my opinion, you could re-enact a funny experience you or somebody else has had, ask your students to think of a script supposedly consisting of real-life characters (e.g. actors or TV presenters) or you can transform an anecdote into a short theatrical play.

Adriana Felix, Brazil
Salut Louise! What a nice idea having your students act out! Well, I think it could be really rewarding for them to write their own play according to a topic provided by you. It's also important to assign roles to each student (e.g. the ones responsible for clothing, make up, writing the play, scenario, etc), so that they can be really involved in the whole process. Good luck!

Natalia Centoira, Argentina
I recommed you use "An Inspector Calls" by J.B. Priestley. It's a very interesting play, and my students loved it.

Brian, France
Imagine they're going to perform to an audience of not-completely-fluent-at-all-in-English people. A good idea in this case is to use a fairy story/children's story of the Little Red Riding Hood or Snow White sort that will provide lots of language and other work for the students at lower, middle (or higher) intermediate level while being fairly easily accessible to an audience unable to grasp the subtleties of the language.

Simona Gheorghiu, Romania
Hi everybody! I challenged my students to write a modern little play using the 'Red Riding Hood' story. They produced a funny modern version which everybody enjoyed a lot.

Ramin Yazdanpanah, USA
Hey there! I have used radio dramas with their scripts in the past. These help students to model good voice techniques (stress, intonation, emotion) which helps students who haven't had too much experience with acting in the past. The complexity of the radio drama and script of course depend on the level of your students. Do a little searching around and you'll find what you need. Good luck!

Ferelith Lean Dahl, Sweden
Miss Julie by August Strindberg is for three players and has been performed all over the world - the theme is international and the climax is exciting, if expected!

K.R. Surendran, India
Hi Louise. Staging a play is not only about language alone, but also about body language, emotions, voice, culture etc. I have first translated the play in the learner's mother tongue, made them fully grasp the meaning and the nuances. The selection of a play depends on that which they are familiar with. Try at least one scene from G.B. Shaw's My Fair Lady, particularly a scene in which language practise is involved.

Melinda, USA
In our drama classes we've used scenes from popular movies. You can find many movie scripts online. You can have the students watch the scenes first, or not. We selected scenes that were particularly engaging, funny or dramatic, and let students do the blocking, costumes, props, etc. If some lines were difficult, we let them say it in their own words. Our classes did scenes from the Wizard of Oz, Shrek, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Alejandra, Argentina
Well! Who wouldn´t surrender to plays? Our pupils, the youngest and oldest, love them and are eager to perform at the end of our term. Choosing the play, the characters, staging the play, designing costumes, etc is the only way to raise everybody´s interests. I´d recommend you tell your pupils about your idea and the rest...well, the rest will come about. It´s absolutely amazing how creative pupils can be and how engaged in whatever activity you ask them to do. I agree on improvising and playing once you have a general idea of what to do. I also agree that creating/writing plays is wonderful as pupils have the chance to use all their knowledge and usually learn a lot more while trying to express new ideas, feelings, etc.

Pasi Nova, Angola
I have to say that plays are very interesting and motivate learners. Children and teenagers I teach really enjoy plays. They enjoy receiving their role, learning about the topic and want to know when they are going to perform it! Plays are a meaningful tool to teach a language, and the fun and noise in the classroom proves their popularity.