The Skit Book: 101 Skits from Kids by Margaret Read MacDonald
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Abstract
Skits, the "folk theater" of children and adolescents, show us both sides of what Gary Alan Fine has called "Newell's paradox," the simultaneous conservatism of children's folklore formulae and the remarkable dynamism of the folklore's content. MacDonald has collected 101 skits from suburban Seattle kids, who learned the skits at their fifth grade "Outdoor Education" campout and at other camps, including Scouts and YMCA camps. The "camp skit," she explains, is short, requires few props, is improvised around a simple and humorous plot outline rather than scripted, and is performed without much rehearsal for a group who knows the players well. She showed her list to a number of "key informants" and (by mail, through the American Camping Association) to a number of camp counselors and directors, both to test the inclusivity of her sample of skits and to test their geographical distribution beyond the Seattle area.
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