How to Use a Small Cast Play in Your Drama Classroom, Part 2

In Part 1 of our How to Use a Small Cast Play in Your Drama Classroom article, we shared two different analysis-based exercises that focus specifically on small cast shows. Now we’re going to focus on acting in and directing small cast shows. These shows allow students to work together in a more intimate setting with fewer peers.

Both beginner and advanced acting students can do the acting challenge below.

The directing challenge is great for an advanced-level drama class, or for a split-grade class, with the senior students taking on the director roles and the younger students as actors. If you’re teaching a director’s craft or similar class, directing a short small cast play (or scene from the play) could be your students’ culminating project. Students would be responsible for selecting, casting, rehearsing, and presenting their scene for an audience.

In preparation for the acting and/or directing challenges, you may wish to have students complete one (or both) of our analysis-based exercises for small cast plays prior to casting and rehearsing the scenes. This will give them additional time with the script for a more thorough understanding of the text.

If you need some small cast scripts for your drama class library, check out Theatrefolk’s top 10 plays for small casts or the Small Cast Script Bundle for some great options.

1. Acting Challenge

With a small cast show, everyone gets featured and there’s nowhere to hide, so it can be an exciting challenge for student actors. In these shows students work closely with one another and get to know each other more deeply. There’s a lot riding on each actor to pull their weight in the show. It’s a lot of responsibility but also a lot of fun.

Unless you have a very small drama class to begin with, you’ll need to divide students into small groups. If the show has multiple scenes, assign one scene from the play per group. If there aren’t scene cuts, you will have to assign a specific page or cut of the script to each group. Keep it to 1–2 pages if you’re doing this challenge in one or two class periods. (You will need to allot more class time if you want the students to perform the scenes off-book; otherwise, students will perform with script in hand.) If the play you’re studying has one common set throughout the show, let students know where the common entrances and exits are for continuity purposes.

Have the groups cast their scenes with the students they have in their group, and rehearse and present the scenes. Perform the scenes in the order that they appear in the play. You may wish to film the performances so the groups can watch their performances back.

Afterwards, have students compare and contrast the actors’ approaches to each character, the evolution of the characters from scene to scene, and how the show flows from scene to scene with the different actors playing each role.

If you have an uneven students-to-characters-to-scenes ratio, you could have some students act as directors for some or all of the scenes. Which leads to…

2. Directing Challenge

Small cast shows are a great opportunity for a student director to tackle, as there are fewer actors and characters to wrangle. Tagging on from the acting challenge, have a group of students act as directors for the various scenes from the small cast show. Decide if you want your directors to work independently or cooperatively. For staging, you can have each director create their scene as they wish in terms of blocking, stage layout, and performance style, or have the directors get together in advance and come up with a universal plan for the setup of the stage and how they’ll guide their actors.

For casting, you can pre-assign casts for each director, or have the directors do a casting session, metaphorically duking it out to determine which director will work with which actors. Once the groups have been set, the directors will cast the scene with the actors they have, and block and rehearse the scenes. Then, the student actors will present the scenes in the order they appear in the show. You may wish to film the performances so the groups can watch their performances back.

If you’re doing both the acting and directing challenges and have some scenes with a student director and some that are self-directed by the groups, have your students discuss how the rehearsal process worked for both types of groups. What were the advantages and disadvantages of having a director versus being self-directed? How might the processes be different with a larger cast show?