Children have a natural inclination to play and imagine themselves as characters. Research has supported theories that connect this pretend play and related theatrical play to the development of children's social and emotional skills, but the author contends we need further, more rigorous research on whether such play directly relates to such positive outcomes. The author developed a cohesive pretend play intervention to conduct such research, using block play and story time as controls to distinguish what may be uniquely useful about pretense. She seeks to provide researchers and practitioners who work with children a model for creating guided-play activities. She also discusses how to train play leaders and handle the issues that arise in the implementation of these pretend play interventions.