El Cerrito’s “Dr. Sam” Wrote the Books on Acting, Teaching and Directing Live Drama

During his 15 years teaching drama and stage craft at El Cerrito, followed by 30 more years as a professor of theater arts at San Francisco State University, Sam “Dr. Sam” Elkind directed thousands of students as they learned the ropes of acting, directing and producing live shows.

But he also influenced an untold number of other students and teachers through the instructional books he wrote. Although now out of print, copies of some of the books can still be found for sale online.

Known as Dr. Sam to those who met him – he earned his doctorate in education from Columbia Teachers College – he wrote his thesis on “High School Drama as Self-Discovery” in 1958. He followed that with a series of books aimed at helping both students and teachers hone their talents.

Dr. Sam Elkind, drama teacher at El Cerrito High School and San Francisco State University. Photo courtesy Risa Nye.

His first books were “Scenes for Acting and Directing, Vols. 1, 2 and 3” published by the Players Press Performance Workshop.

As listed on Amazon, Volume 1 contained 28 scenes designed for actors, directors and teachers, offering “a wide and varied range of material for developing, practicing and improving theatrical and communicational skills. The scenes are chosen to focus on critical moments, important ideas, actions, or character revelations.”

Each scene included an introduction providing detail and “general background for understanding the characters, plots and settings. Production notes, in the margins, have been written to stimulate the actor or student and to encourage directorial approaches for continuous action, emotion and interpretation. Each scene was carefully selected for maximum presentational quality and minimal props, sets or costumes. An invaluable collection, offering those desirable, less familiar, select scenes of major American, British and world playwrights.”

Two of the books Dr. Sam wrote to help teachers and students of drama.

The series was followed by “Improvisation, Theatre Games and Scene Handbook,” also published by Players Press Performance Workshop. “In this book Dr. Elkind adds more high-quality scenes that can be used for study and auditions. He then shows you how to develop your scenes and the characters in it, using the games and improvisations that he also introduces in this text. Then he opens the door to exploration of the techniques so that the actor and director can develop the skills necessary to utilize these in developing any scene or play,” according to one online post.

His other books included “28 Scenes for Acting Practice,” in 1971 and “Improvisation Handbook” in 1975, both published by Scott, Foresman & Co.

By Jon Bashor. This article appeared in the January 2024 issue of The Forge.