Her Own Worst Enemy

A serious comedy about choosing a career

What are you waiting for? The play’s the thing!

Aida is planning to go to university and study science to get a practical in-demand job.  However, there is a catch: Aida is a talented actress. When a famous theatre school invites her to audition for a spot, Aida's friends and relatives are excited about the opportunity. Everyone has advice for her, but Aida must make her own decision about her future.

Her Own Worst Enemy is part of the Integrated Skills Through Drama series that teaches speaking and communication skills through the performance of a one-act play. This flexible curriculum is perfect for a class project, elective course, or drama club.

As students prepare to perform the play, they study intonation and pronunciation skills such as sentence and word stress for meaning. They learn about body language and gesture as ways to communicate. They analyze the script as a work of literature and also mine it for language and rhetorical strategies to encourage someone, give advice, tease a friend and respond to teasing and talking through an issue. And they learn to apply those strategies to their performance and to real-life situations. A variety of performance options are featured, including Reader’s Theater.

Background readings discussing the benefits of the Liberal Arts and STEM majors, as well as profiles of a computer programmer and an opera director round out the curriculum. A number of creative writing projects to rewrite the script, adapt the play, or even write a sequel allow you to extend the learning further.

This original drama-based coursebook is sure to engage and motivate your learners