How to Read a Play Script

Khan Academy

This educational video serves as an engaging introduction to the structural elements of drama, specifically focusing on how to read and understand a play script. The narrator, David, defines drama as a specialized form of storytelling meant for performance and distinguishes it from poetry or prose. Using a sample script titled "My Unusual Aunt," the video breaks down the unique text features found in plays, guiding viewers through the layout that makes dramatic writing distinct from standard narratives. The content explores key literary and structural themes including the Cast of Characters, scenes as organizational units of time and place, and the crucial distinction between spoken dialogue and italicized stage directions. The video explicitly demonstrates how stage directions function as instructions for actors and the production team rather than words to be read aloud, using simple drawings to visualize how text translates to physical action on a stage. For the classroom, this video is an excellent tool for English Language Arts units focused on literature and creative writing. It provides a clear visual model for students learning to identify the parts of a drama (RL.3.5, RL.4.5) or preparing to write their own scripts. Teachers can use this resource to scaffold lessons on reading fluency for Reader's Theater, helping students understand which words to speak and how to interpret behavioral cues within a text.