How to Create Catholic Plays for Children

We love free webinars! So, we've been busy scheduling several between now and the end of February. I hope you'll be able to join us for a few.

In October, we have Ana Braga-Henbry scheduled. Ana is a regular writer for the Catholic homeschooling magazine mater et magistra as well as a blogger and homeschool mom. She will be sharing loads of practical information on how to pull together a play production. I know in our own homeschool group, student plays have been extremely beneficial to families.

Catholic Homeschool Plays
(click on title to register)

Date: Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Starting time: 8:00 pm, Eastern Daylight Time (7:00 pm, Central Time)
Duration: 1 hour
Presenter: Ana Braga-Henebry

Description: Have you ever wanted to stage a play with your catholic homeschool kids and found nothing out there to work with? This has happened to me and I am sure with many others. After looking at the library and online for hours on end and finding only insipid, silly plays, I decided it may be easier to write my own than to continue in a seemingly fruitless search.

Now, I would have never contemplated that if it weren't for an inspiring aunt, one of the most important people of my childhood! She staged lovely shows every year for relatives with skits and plays she wrote, and my siblings and cousins and I so looked forward to it. Armed with memories of her writing process and her imaginative creative power, I looked into classical antiquity attending to the kids' request, and came up with my first little play about King Midas. Two more plays of classical themes followed the next two years, when I switched to stories of the Church's saints.

When an opportunity came for me to write a play for our homeschool one-act festival, I did not hesitate. In this webinar I will draw on the memories of those childhood shows and elaborate on the creative process of writing a play, as well as explaining how I can make them available to your home school group.

Presenter's biography:
Ana Braga-Henebry has seven children with her husband, Geoff Henebry, a research scientist and university professor who is found immersed in field work or international conferences in the four corners of the world at any given time. They live in an acreage north of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Ana has an art degree from the St. Teresa d'Avila College, Brazil, and a Masters in Humanities/Aesthetic Studies from The University of Texas at Dallas. In her thesis Ana discussed the poetry of a prolific Brazilian Benedictine monk, translated a hefty selection of his work, and elaborated on the translation process.

Ana and Geoff were married during graduate school and were blessed with two children before their dual graduation in 1989. The family has lived in Texas, Kansas, Brazil, New Jersey, and Nebraska as they followed Geoff's career in academia. They were blessed with more children in each state, adding to a chaotic and wonderful total of seven children. Today they are experimenting with acreage life, collecting fresh eggs daily, and attempting to care for vegetable gardens in South Dakota, which is a long way from Ana's childhood years in the very big city of Rio de Janeiro.

Ana reviewed children's and parenting materials for Parent Council, LTD. from 1994 until 2002. She has enjoyed reviewing for Love2Learn, the premier Catholic Resources reviews site, since March 2006. Ana writes a monthly feature for Faith & Family Live and has worked on a variety of writing projects. She has also been on the editorial board of mater et magistra, the only national Catholic homeschool periodical, writing both feature articles and book reviews, since its inception. She blogs vignettes of family and acreage life with pictures, recipes, and occasional favorite books or opinions on contemporary issues at http://anabragahenebrysjournal.blogspot.com.