Adapted from the booklet from Shepard Publications, 1997. May be freely copied and shared for any educational, noncommercial purpose. Almost any story can be scripted for reader's theater, but some are easier and work better than others. In general, look for stories that are simple and lively, with lots of dialog or action, and with not too many scenes or characters. Script Roles First study your chosen story to identify the roles.
Characters are in the story.
To help your readers understand the types, you can explain that character parts appear in the story inside quotation marks, while narrator parts appear outside. If the group you're working with is small, a story may have more roles than you have readers. In some such cases, a story may simply not be practical for you. Assign to individual readers more than one role. Speeches of one character can often be added to those of another.