This book describes how theater can create an impetus for productive learning across the curriculum. Dorothy Heathcote's "mantle of the expert" approach is discussed in which teachers and students explore, in role, the knowledge they already have about a problem or task while making new discoveries along the way. The book also presents a variety of examples of planning for and using a mantle of expert approach in language arts, history, mathematics, and science classes. Chapters in the book are: (1) A Dialogue between Dorothy Heathcote and Gavin Bolton; (2) Some Introductory Guidelines; (3) The Dimension Factor: Using the Mantle of the Expert Approach across the Curriculum; (4) Life in a Medieval Monastery; (5) Scandal, Disease, and Death! A Teacher's Nightmare?; (6) A Couple of Adventure Dramas; (7) Teaching Nine-Year-Olds about Another Culture; (8) King Arthur of England: An Extended Example; (9) Drawing a Few Threads Together; and (10) A Final Exchange of Letters. Appendixes present material related to the examples presented in the book--a letter from a "bishop," a floor plan for a monastery, notes on chamber theater and a script, and a pronunciation guide for King Arthur of England. (RS)