Plays in the classroom

This year is the first year that I work with plays in my English lessons. I suggested the idea to my 9th grade students and they accepted the challenge. At first, I was a bit scared to do this kind of activity because I was not sure about the way in which teenagers were going to react. Contrary to my own prejudices, they were eager to do it. What is more, they took an active role in the organization.
They also adapted the play and gave it a different ending with their own ideas.
The play was familiar to them in Spanish so that helped a lot. The story of Little Red Riding Hood is very famous in the Spanish Literature. In this way, they felt free to make some changes to it.
One big barrier that students had to overcome was stage panic. In most cases, they did not want to act in front of students from other courses. I said it was compulsory so they were oblished to act.
We have a big stage at school so everybody could look at the play. Some parents were invited too and the school authorities as well.
What I enjoyed most about this activity was the fact that the students used English naturally and learnt new vocabulary and language expressions. And above all, they had fun doing it. So I strongly recommend this type of tasks. Teachers will not regret it.