The Potomac Community Library in Woodbridge is encouraging kids to embrace literature and acting in its first-ever reader’s theater this month.
Reader’s theater, which is used in teaching literature in schools and libraries across the nation, transforms popular literary works into scripts intended for dramatic performance. Potomac Library’s reader’s theater is geared toward students in grades 6-12 and strives to expose them to literature and get them excited about reading.
“I think it’s something different and unique,” says Debbie Todd, a youth service librarian at Potomac. “Young people all dream of being someone else, whether it’s a celebrity they saw on TV or a character they read about in a fantasy novel. [Performing can] draw them into the literature.”
Todd spent most of her career as a grade-school teacher, where she incorporated reader’s theater into her classes. “My second-graders loved the reader’s theater because it created a safe and creative place for them to truly be themselves and have fun,” she says.
After seeing how effective the program was with her grade-school students, Todd introduced the concept to the library as a part of its youth services programs. The event will be held in the library’s community room, giving the kids plenty of space to act out their stories. Students don’t need prior acting experience and don’t need to memorize any lines—they simply read from the script in front of them. The books that inspired the scripts will be available for checkout immediately following the program.
“One of the things I’ve learned is that children naturally love to play,” Todd says. “They like to role-play and try new things, and the beauty of this is that we are creating a judgment-free space.”
The reader’s theater will be a recurring quarterly event at the library. Todd hopes it will not only inspire kids to be themselves but also encourage them to read a wider variety of books and fall in love with reading in general.
“We provide the space, the scripts and the books,” Todd says. “All we ask is that you just go for it.”
The first reader’s theater will be held at the Potomac Library in Woodbridge Jan. 18 at 6:30 p.m. Registration is now open, and each program is limited to 20 students.
