Review: Acting Exercises for Creative Writing

Following up from her book Acting Games for Improv, Sam Marsden is back with another release in her A Pocketful of Drama collection. These are really helpful books as they are exactly what they say,: a book that one can reach for without too much trouble and the need to flick through 350 pages. This book is around 90 pages long and offers excellent exercises to encourage practical ‘ways in’ to creative writing.

My first thought when reading this book was that it would be particularly helpful for English teachers as a way to get pupils out of their seats and into writing characters and stories inspired by practical work, perhaps as part of a creative writing or English Language course or scheme of work. I would definitely recommend the book to aid this type of desk-based classroom learning (and who doesn't like pushing the desks aside to make space for some practical work?) However, as the book went on, I found myself thinking that this would be an excellent resource for Drama teachers working on devised theatre, particularly with KS3 or as part of the GCSE assessment.