The first book is Barbara Winther's Plays from African Tales, which contains 18 different small plays based on African folktales, with notes and background for each of the plays, plus production notes (approximate performance time, cast of characters, props needed, etc.). If you are a teacher and want to stage a performance, the plays are royalty-free for school use!
These are the plays included in the book: Anansi, the African Spider (3 plays); Ijapa, the Tortoise (2 plays); Two Dilemma Tales, African Trio; The Monkey Without a Tail; Bata's Lessons; Trickster Hare's Feast; The Great Tug of War; Mantis, the Dreamer; Two From Abu Nuwas; Who Wears the Necklace Now?
The script formatting is very simple and makes for fun reading even if you are not interested in staging a performance.
The other book is an anthology of plays from different parts of the world, including four plays based on African folktales: The Reader's Theatre of Folklore Plays: African, Asian, and Latin-American Stories by Henry Gilfond.
The four African plays included are: Three Foolish Men (Tanzania), You've Got to Use Your Head (Kenya), Who's Nervous? (Congo), and Mind and Matter (Ethiopian).
Unlike Winther's book, this book has illustrations; they're by Jim Roldan. Like Winther's book, the stories here are fun to read silently, in addition to being scripted for performance (since this is a reader's theater book, it does not have production notes as Winther's book does).
So, especially if you are a teacher, you might find these books useful both as texts for performance in your classes, or as an inspiration for you and your students to write your own scripts inspired by traditional folktales... which you can find in abundance at the Internet Archive of course!
by Barbara Winther
by Henry Gilfond
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