Play and Performance

Play and Performance offers hope to those lamenting the loss of play in the twenty-first century and aims to broaden the understanding of what play is. This volume showcases the work of programs from early childhood through adulthood, in a variety of educational and therapeutic settings, and from a range of theoretical and practical perspectives. The chapters cover an array of practices that can be seen across the play to performance continuum. Taken together, the myriad ways that play is performance and performance is play become clear, sometimes blurring the need for distinction. The volume provides play advocates, researchers and practitioners a wealth of practical and theoretical ideas for expanding the use of performance as a tool for creating playful environments where children and adults can create and develop.

Carrie Lobman, Ed.D. is associate professor of education at the Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University and the director of pedagogy at the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy. She is the coauthor of Unscripted Learning: Using Improv Activities Across the K-8 Curriculum (Teachers College Press, 2007). Lobman was a founding member of the improv ensemble Laughing Matters and has written extensively on the relationship between performance, improvisation, play and learning. She received her M.Ed. from Hunter College, City University of New York and her Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University.Barbara O'Neill is an assistant professor of early childhood education at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. She has worked as an early childhood special education teacher and teacher educator in an array of settings. O'Neill studies storytelling, creative drama, and play with a focus on how such activities can foster inclusive learning environments and human development. She received her M.Ed. and Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University.