Theatrefolk Plays

*Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. * In Prom Night by Sylvia Davenport-Veith, an unlikely romance between the outcast and the linebacker brings prom night magic. Prom night has not been fun for Imena Hart. She fought off her date, tore her dress, broke her high heel, left her glasses at home and her mother won’t stop calling. Dillon McGinty’s not having a ball, either. His date wasn’t named Prom Queen, so she got drunk and accused Dillon of not being fun anymore. This unlikely pair meet in the woods on a moonlit night in their fancy clothes. They tell the truth, share secret wishes and find out what’s behind the “uncool” Catholic girl and the linebacker Prom King. Together, Dillon and Imena create their own prom night magic. Why did we publish this play? What drew us to the play was the clear characters that go beyond the stereotype of “Prom King” and “Geek Girl.” A sweet story without ever being cloying – this would be a showstopper of a competition piece. Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? From first grade through senior year, I was an awkward, shy girl who lived on the outside of the social world of my peers. I had no problem getting up on stage and acting, but I could barely converse with others in real life. Of course, no one asked me to the Prom. Like Imena, I liked old music and old movies, and I was certain I had no appeal. Everything changed when I attended college and met many different types of people who found me interesting and attractive! I ended up teaching high school students for 25 years and chaperoned countless dances and Proms. I wanted to write a play about a girl who realizes her potential on Prom Night, instead of waiting for college. In order to do that, I had to create the right characters to surround this awkward girl and bring her out of herself. Grace shows her that being “cool” doesn’t always end well. Dillon shows her that what she thinks and feels make her a unique and fascinating person. She doesn’t have to feel bad about the books she reads or the music she likes or the way she looks. She just has to be herself. One final thing: I wrote this play with diversity in mind. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. The play emphasizes the importance embracing one’s own individuality as well as summoning the courage to take a chance. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? I have to say that the play is written to provide many visuals for the audience. Imena’s stumping around on a broken heel in a torn dress; Grace’s drunken antics; Dillon’s mocking dance moves; the romantic pantomime, ending in a kiss; Dillon’s lifting Imena onto the tree stump so he can dance with her better; their romantic slow dance as the lights go down. Directors should make every effort to make the play a series of memorable visuals. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Casting is the key. This is for actors who are mature enough to open themselves up and play for keeps. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? I directed the first production of Prom Night, and the student actors were completely immersed in the characters. Each had past stage experience and were masterful with the comic timing. Additionally, after Grace passes out, Imena and Dillon were able to move easily into the deeper parts of the play. Later, they were able to look into each other’s eyes and make the stage kisses tender and real. Nothing was artificial. The audience loved every moment, and the actors told me that had a ball!

*Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. * Something to Keep us Warm by Stephen Gregg is a fantastic competition piece and an incredible experience for your high school student performers. Norma is running out of time. Thanksgiving Trick or Treat is upon her and the tablesweat isn’t finished and she can’t remember which of her daughters is older. How does a family deal with watching one of their own disappear? This heartbreaking and hilarious one act would be a wonderful experience for students onstage and off. Lots for your tech team to explore—from ghost costumes, to lighting, to creating a “tablesweat.” Why did we publish this play? Stephen Gregg is well known for his play This is a Test. It’s been performed by high schools for over 20 years. Something to Keep us Warm is a different experience – Humour and heartbreak is difficult to pull off, and that is exactly what Stephen’s new work does. Add to that, any time a script has the opportunity for student driven tech elements, we’re in. A fantastic competition piece. Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? I started the play 25 years ago. It was meant to be the first scene of a full-length play that I was working on but, when I finally decided to publish the longer play without it, I had a 25 minute min play that didn’t belong anywhere. And it didn’t really stand on it’s own. Norma, the mother, was dying and the kids were angry. There was no center and no drive, so I put it away. Then one week I was due to present at my writer’s group, Lab Twenty6, and I didn’t have anything. I brought in the play and the feedback was smart, and over the course of about four months I developed the play. It has what I didn’t have 25 years ago: clear objectives. I want to go to the party. I want to comfort a loved one. I want to stop my mother’s crazy behavior. I want to protect my family, even after I’m gone. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. The things we love best never altogether go away. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? Easy. It’s the tablecloth that extends all the way across the stage at the end of the play. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Play the lines of conflict, not the ending. Keeping the warm end of the play too much at front of your production will result in what I had for twenty or so years: a play that sags under the weight of its sentiment. 5. What is your favourite moment in this play? My favorite moment is the end: the actions and the character and the themes all get wrapped up — literally wrapped up — in the tablecloth that the mother has been furiously working. (It has often made people cry.)

*Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. * Scarlet Expectations of a Drowned Maiden and Two Greek Queens by Robert Wing is a fabulous theatrical gem of a comedy that allows student performers to have a ton of over-the-top fun. On today’s episode of The Dee Dee Show, legendary TV talk show host Dee Dee Dane welcomes women who just can’t seem to get it right when it comes to men. But, Dee Dee’s guests aren’t just any women. These relationship-challenged women are none other than some of literature’s most memorable characters: Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter, Ophelia from Hamlet, Miss Havisham from Great Expectations, Penelope from The Odyssey and Medea from, well, Medea. It is a farcical and funny meeting of minds that makes today’s episode very special indeed. Why did we publish this play? I love plays that take explore theatricality and there’s nothing more theatrical than to take a character from one scenario and drop them into another. The talk show format has been done before and it’s hard to do in the theatre – there’s a lot of sitting. It takes a special play and special characters to make it comes to life and Robert has done just that. Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? This play started off as a “riff” during a class I was teaching. My students and I were discussing something from The Scarlet Letter (I think I’m the last teacher in the world who assigns the book) and I got off track (as usual) and starting yakking about one of my favorite female characters in literature, Miss Havisham from Great Expectations . I described her splendid decay and her gorgeously-narcissistic decision to give herself over to grief at being left at the altar – toooo fabulous for words! (If memory serves me correctly, I imitated her disheveled ambling the classroom. Ah, good times.) 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. Strong women from literature and the weak men they love – next on the Dee Dee Dane show! 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? When Miss Havisham reappears after her makeover – too funny. I’m giggling just thinking about it. And the commercials! They took forever to record when my school produced it, because Duke Symanski, (the psychology teacher at my school with a beautiful, deep announcer’s voice) couldn’t stop laughing when recording the voice over. None of us in the studio could for that matter. (I wonder where that recording is…I must have it somewhere.) 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Good grief – have FUN! Don’t hold back. This play is over-the-top. No, that’s incorrect: this play is that place you get to after you go over-the-top, you know, the over-over-top-top. Oh, have fun with this one, gang – have fun! 5. Why is this play great for student performers? Curiously enough, this play actually has a fair amount of instructional value. All the characters share their tales of romantic woe, and in doing so encapsulate the plots of some timeless tales. Let’s see…There’s Hester Prynne (Scarlet), Miss Havisham (Expectations), Ophelia (Drowned Maiden), Medea, and Penelope (Two Greek Queens). Ta-da – there’s the title!

*Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. * Just Girls Talking by Robert Wing is a fabulous drama for female performers. If “doing the right thing” could destroy a life, would you do it? “You’re the push of a button away from changing two lives. Mine and yours. You can’t do it. You won’t do it.” What starts as a meeting to finalize frivolous graduation ceremony details ends with one young woman faced with a life-changing decision. Five girls on five different paths hit head-on in a collision of values that leaves the viewer asking: What would I do? Why did we publish this play? Do you like plays that start in one direction and take a left turn? Do you want great parts for girls? We do and that’s what drew us to this play. Fabulous character-driven parts for girls. Your audience will talk about Just Girls Talking long after they leave the theatre. Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? After years and years of teaching, I am still often stunned by the things my students say – and the things their parents do. Though this play is pure fiction , it is topical, given the recent headline-making college admission scandal in the United States involving wealthy parents who buy places for their children at top universities.. So, why did I write about it? Because I have seen it happen, not in the way it unfolds in the play, but I have seen it. Wealth buys access. It’s unfair, and anti-democratic, and it infuriates not only teachers, but hardworking students too. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. Sophocles said it best: “ There is a point at which even justice does injury.” The characters in J.G.T. are poised at that precise moment where “doing the right thing” could destroy a life and they have to decide if it’s worth it. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? The image that comes to my mind appears in the final moments in the play when Amanda is trying to get the phone away from Molly. Both actors are in a desperate state: Amanda wants to preserve her power and Molly is struggling with her unexpected (and not entirely wanted) power. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Though it is a one act play, give this piece a good, long rehearsal window. Allot time during production to discuss the concept of justice, and make sure the actors understand the complexity of these characters. There are depths to them all, even to Amanda that need to be fully understood to inform the actors’ choices. Take your time with this play. There’s very little in the way of setting and costuming to worry about – spend your time living in the characters’ heads. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? Students will be familiar with these characters. On the surface, they fall into the timeless categories of young adult depiction: smart kid, sassy kid, rich kid, etc. Easy enough. Students and audiences will find this familiar, if not predictable. They are lulled into what they think is going to be a traditional teen angst narrative – and then an entirely unexpected depth is revealed and, hopefully, audience members leave the theatre asking themselves, “What would I do?”

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. The Myths at the Edge of the World by Matthew Webster is a unique cross-curricular storytelling adventure, with excellent opportunities for mask and movement. Four campers are not only lost in the wood, they are lost at the edge of the world with no land, water, stars or sun. The only way to bring life back is to ask the right questions that will release stories from the wind. These stories come from all over: China, Africa, Native lore, and the Aztecs. Do you know the Myth of the Water Dragons? Or The Girl who Scattered the Stars? Perhaps you are at the edge of the world too… Why did we publish this play? How many times have you used Greek myths in your classroom? But what about the myths of other cultures? What about myths closer to home? One of the things that drew me to The Myths at the Edge of the World was that it incorporated stories that I had never heard of. It is a unique cross-curricular storytelling adventure with fantastic opportunities for mask and movement. Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? This play was written as a collaborative project between a Theatre professor, a Dance professor and an Art professor. It was our intention to create a project where all three disciplines could contribute to a performance project. We decided that a theatre production would be the best way to weave these art forms together, and hit upon the idea of creation myths as the source material for the project. I then researched the stories and wrote the script. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. A group of campers are lost in the woods. As they wonder out loud how everything around them came to be, the world suddenly disappears. With the help of The Wind, they must unlock stories of creation from around the globe in order to rebuild the world, and find their way home. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? There are a lot of exciting visual possibilities in this play. Each myth presented provides an opportunity to create a unique visual environment, especially when you combine it with the specific cultures presented in the play. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Look for creative ways of telling these stories. Do not think in terms of realistic design when producing this play. Think instead about clever ways to bring the stories to the stage using shadows, puppets, masks and other kinds of fun theatrical magic. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? Besides exposing students to mythology from different parts of the world, this play gives students the opportunity to create characters that are non-realistic and bigger than life!

*Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. * Being Bianca: The Semi-Complete Guide by Alan Haehnel is a fun play for a huge cast – perfect if you’re in a rebuilding year with your program. Bianca just knows that everyone wants to be her. And why not? By her estimation, she has everything: good looks, humour, popularity, fashion sense, and, above all, intelligence. When told she should be engaged in volunteer work, Bianca decides to perform a work of great service to mankind: She will teach us all how to “Be Bianca.” From brushing your teeth to choosing the best stuffed animal, she leads us gleefully through her semi-complete guide. In the end, while the audience may not be convinced that “Being Bianca” is the best idea, they will certainly agree that watching her is a sure formula for hilarity! Why did we publish this play? Big cast, easy to stage, great characters – _Being Bianca _has everything we’re looking for. On top of that, this play is a delight – lively, fun and frothy. It’s a play that gives you the opportunity to “play.” You can’t ask for more than that in a comedy! Let’s hear from the author! 1. Why did you write this play? Pure fun. I’ve long had amusingly-unintelligent characters involved in my plays, but to feature one as the protagonist was a blast. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. That’s a tough question for a play that is really just about having fun making fun of a character who has no idea how clueless she is. The theme, then (dramatic music, please): Some people are ridiculously clueless! 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? The highly-colorful and costume-varied depiction of Bianca’s fashion world. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Keep the pace fast and the choices bold! 5. Why is this play great for student performers? This play is a great opportunity to make broad, energetic choices that will surely get big laughs.

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays For….Cross-curricular. Cross-curricular is a magic word for many admins and quite frankly there’s a good reason for that. Here in the 21st century we no longer live in an isolated world and students shouldn’t be taught in isolation. What we do in the drama classroom has always had implications outside of the drama classroom and it’s time to showcase that connection. If you want students to increase their critical thinking skills, their communication skills, and their collaboration skills, reach out across department lines! You can do plays that will interest your history department, english department, social studies, technology and more. Click the link and you’ll be taken to the webpage for each play. There you’ll get the details and read sample pages. Hand this list over to your student directors and see what they think. All the best with your search!

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. Layers by Gary Rodgers is a fantastic play within a play… within a play! Step inside Robin’s world as he grapples with his conscience and his anti-conscience. And then deeper into a world of misinformed theatrical anthropologists from the 25th century. And then deeper still as the writer tries to figure out an ending… which he may not be able to do if he’s not actually the writer. This is not just one play. It’s a play within a play within an onion within a cabbage. Layers is filled with, well, layers. Characters and story overlap and cabbage gets thrown. Make sure you read to the very end because it’s not the writer who writes the final word… Why did we publish this play? This play is an onion. It’s a play within a play within a play. That alone makes it an interesting challenge: when are we in which world? Add to that we have characters grappling with both their conscious and their anti-conscious, characters from the 125th century, and a writer who isn’t the writer. This all could be a jumble as one layer piles on another, but it’s not. It’s so well written. We love the challenge of this play, love the fun of the challenge and we love being able to offer the challenge you! Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? I approached this production with the intention of creating a play within a play within a play (and believe me I toyed with the idea of putting it all in another play) and adding several standard aspects of theatre including a quasi-chorus group, the breaking of the forth wall, and an audience plant. The plan was to create something entertaining for both performers and the audience. I had a fantastic cast to work with when we performed the original production and I was delighted with how well it all came together. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. I always thought the theme of Layers is that all decisions have consequences, however, it is questionable whether we are actually in control of our decisions. Surely, we all make decisions that guide our fate in life but is it possible that our decisions are actually guided by fate? Do we really make independent choices or is it our destiny to have made them? In other words, are we creating a script as we go or are we simply following one? 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? The characters Knowledge and Quote add a whole other dimension to this play, or shall I say “layer.” Though acknowledged by the Writer and Advisor, their presence cannot be explained. They do however, create the impression that they are controlled by some outside entity and are displeased with their situation. It is important that their body language and positioning portray the idea that they are not the masters of their own fate, though they should not act as robots, but rather slaves. This sets them up well for the skirmish scene at the very end when they battle with Robin for the laptop, which represents the opportunity for one of them to rewrite their destiny. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? It’s almost impossible for actors to overact the characters in this play. I would advise anyone performing these roles to ham it up and bring as much life and animation to each character as possible. This play moves surprisingly fast and if every performer brings a pile of energy to their role, the audience will hang on every word. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? This is just a super fun play that is great to act in. It has a level of complexity and sophistication that can challenge student performers yet is not overly complicated or confusing. It has a clever wit about it, not only in individual lines but in the fabric of the situations created. Ultimately, young performers will feed off their audience’s ample reactions to this play.

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. The heartwarming and heartbreaking story, _Somewhere, Nowhere _by Lindsay Price, is a full-length play made up of four one-act plays. See the characters grow, change, and stumble through four seasons. Somewhere, Nowhere is a place to call home. A place to leave. The best place in the world. Nothing but a memory. How many of us feel one way or the other about the place we grew up? How many of us love or hate our hometown? Maybe it’s both at the same time. The characters in Somewhere, Nowhere face a dilemma: Do they stay close to home at the end of high school, or do they get as far away as possible? What if they want to do both at the same time? What then? Why did we publish this play? Home is a universal topic – and leaving home is something every senior high school student has to face – do they want to get as far away as possible, or is the thought terrifying? A topic like this makes for an excellent play material and that’s what Somewhere, Nowhere explores to the fullest: Relatable characters going through the ups and downs of dealing with their relationship with home. Great for every program. Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? On a long distance drive I had an experience in a small town oil change place and was so taken by the young people working there, it was the spark that lead to the whole play. I basically wrote the rest of the trip! I’m also always interested in the places that people call home – what makes people stay? What makes people leave? 2. Decribe the theme in one or two sentences. What does home mean to you? What does it mean to leave home? 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? It’s not something that we see, but it’s a visual that is vital to each character – and that’s how they see the town. I’m purposefully vague about where the town is because I want each cast to make it their own. Every character has a specific relationship to the town and that has to come through in every moment. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Establish the relationships between characters outside the world of the play. The play shows four scenes in the year of the life of these characters in summer, fall, winter, and spring. There’s a lot of time in-between where characters change, sometimes drastically. It’s important to establish how those changes happen. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? Character work is always great for student performers – how do they interpret the information in the text and make the play come alive? Also, the play addresses the question every teenager has to answer for themselves by the end of high school – do they leave? Do they stay? Who will decide not to go away to school and face the consequences? Who will want to leave, but fears the unknown? Who will end up covered in egg cartons and shaving cream?

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. The Absolutely Insidious and Utterly Terrifying Truth About Cat Hair by Bradley Walton is hilarious, easy to stage, and suitable for an insanely large cast. Brenda! Put down that brush! Step away from the cat! Cat hair is infinite. No matter how much hair you brush off of a cat, there will always be more. Always. Cat hair has existed since the beginning of time, and it will be here long after cockroaches have become extinct. It is the secret driving force behind business and politics, and is plotting the downfall of humanity even as we speak. Why did we publish this play? The title totally stands out and our first question was, does the play match the awesomeness of the title? Boy does it ever! This play has the longest title, the largest cast, the strangest characters and an infinite amount of cat hair. And the great thing is that the cat hair is integral to the play, so the ensemble has an active role. The cat hair has personality. This is a play filled with unique characters: granola bar, lint roller, masking tape, vacuum cleaner. It’s fabulous if you’re looking to introduce non-human characters to your middle school students. Let the fun and the cat hair begin! Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? My wife and I had an incredibly sweet cat named Nuala. She shed. A lot. To the point that it seemed infinite. One night I was staring at all the cat hair that had accumulated on a rug I was sure I had very recently vacuumed, and the ideas for this script started to germinate in my head. So I started typing, with no idea where the concept was going, and wrote the play in tiny increments of about 300 words a day over the space of a month. I remember at one point thinking it was a mess and I should give up on it. But I didn’t, and I pulled it together. It became my most popular play, and I have since come to regard it as a gift from Nuala. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. Cat “owners” are actually helpless, powerless slaves to their pets. (And also, cat hair really is infinite and not to be trusted.) 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? The actors playing the cat hairs moving and functioning as a cohesive unit. The more strongly they pull this off, the better it sells the concept of the play. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Tying in to the previous question, treat the movement of the cat hairs more as choreography than blocking. They should be smooth, graceful, and vaguely sinister. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? Although the play can be performed with as few as 16 people, it is beyond perfect for large groups. The only limit to your cast size is the number of bodies you can fit on your stage. And ALL of the parts are gender flexible.

Box by Lindsay Price is a middle school vignette play with flexible casting. It can be expanded for a large cast or reduced to a cast of 10 with doubling, and has excellent small scene and monologue opportunities. Sometimes we choose the way the world sees us. Black box – indestructible. Jewelry box – plain on the outside, shiny on the inside. Sometimes our box is defined by others – our parents, our friends, our enemies. A box built by others can feel small, confined, impossible. How do we handle the boxes imposed upon us because of our gender? Our race? From peer pressure? From parent pressure? Do we have to live with our box for the rest of our lives? Can we change? Michelle Wilson and the fantastic drama group at Davison Middle School in Davison, Michigan were able to share “all the feels” with their performance of Box. Cast, crew and audience members were all left with the incredibly unifying message that we’re all in this together: “I have done Box several times with my 7th and 8th grade Introduction to Theater students (public school). I love the play. A fun fact is that the scene with groups A B and C always makes a parent cry–because of all the students on stage (with each other) yelling “I am alone!” It really shows how alone we feel in our culture, even though we are surrounded by people who feel alone. TIPS: I had a grandparent of one of the students make me 6 heavy duty plywood boxes with these dimensions (2 of each): * 2 ½ feet high, 2 ½ feet wide, 1 ½ feet deep * 3 ½ feet high, 1 ½ feet wide, 1 ½ feet deep * 5 ½ feet tall and 2 feet wide and deep They are heavy, so the students have to work together to move them, but we use them all the time for improv, and have used them for many productions of Box. They are so strong, students could jump up and down on them and they wouldn’t break.”

*Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. * They Eat Sunshine, Not Zebras by Dara Murphy takes the expected and turns it upside-down. The field believes in uniformity. Lovely rows of blades all the same height. Lovely rows of blades exhibiting standard behaviour of green grassness. Nothing stands in the way of their orderly life. Until they wake up one morning to see a yellow dandelion in their midst. Sunny (that’s the dandelion) is bright and warm and just wants to be friends. The field wants nothing to do with her nonstandard, non-green ways. A dandelion will turn their orderly way of life upside-down. A dandelion must be destroyed. Isn’t that what you do when something is different? Why did we publish this play? Dara Murphy loves looking at the dark side of life, always with a twist of humour. We love that about her writing. Also, personification is a must at the high school level. It’s one of the best ways to get students out of their shells to take on a character that just doesn’t exist in real life. Personification is one of my favourite theatrical techniques. Who doesn’t want to see talking grass? Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? When I was younger, my family owned a cabin in BC and we would visit fairly often. It had a large yard and every summer my mom and I would spend time pulling out dandelions. After digging up flower after flower, I started to feel bad for the dandelions. I thought the yellow flowers were pretty. I wondered why some plants were labeled weeds and some plants weren’t. Another part of me found the job tedious. Why spend time digging out healthy plants? Who was I to decide if they could live or die? I started to daydream about the dandelions and what their characters might be like. I ended up writing a short story about them, and eventually I adapted that story into this play. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. This play is a comment on the fear and misunderstanding that can occur when someone different moves into a community. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? I see a field of grass standing perfectly at one uniform height. The threat of the lawnmower has caused the blades of grass to continuously strive for order and perfection. Then I see Sunny, the funky, yellow dandelion. Sunny is an individual who is different in many ways. The field glares at Sunny and does its best to make Sunny feel completely unwelcome. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? The field of grass should be very lively and active. Instead of just waiting for lines, actors can mumble, cheer, shout out, and gossip about what’s going on. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? I think this play is great for a lot of reasons! • It has a large cast, gender doesn’t matter, and every character gets a moment to shine. • If there are students who don’t want lines, they can still join in as blades of grass and have fun reacting with the rest of the field. • The actors are on stage for the entire time, so there are opportunities for students to learn about ensemble acting. • The costumes and the set can be simple, yet there is a lot of room for creativity. • The theme is topical and this could lead to important discussions.

*Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. * Hamlette by Allison Williams is a fantastic competition piece for student performers that takes Shakespeare and turns it on its ear. Imagine if you will that “Hamlet” was not “Hamlet” at all, but “Hamlette” – a woman! This play is a twisty-turny interpretation of the classic Danish tale. Why spend four hours telling the story when five actors can get the job done in thirty minutes? Elsinore has never been this funny! Why did we publish this play? We first published Hamlette in 2001 and we’ve been a fan of Allison’s work ever since. She knows how to twist Shakespeare into a pretzel and make you look at the text in a new light. For example, what if Hamlet was played by a girl? Turns out it fares quite well and not only that, Hamlette takes 30 minutes to tell the story instead of four hours. Love it! Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? I first wrote Hamlette for a cast of apprentice performers at the Bay Area Renaissance Festival. I needed something short, that an audience would find funny enough to sit and watch for 30 minutes in the hot sun. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. What Hamlette is about, in a lot of ways, is insisting on one’s own identity. Not just in terms of gender, but the idea that young people are at a time to “try on” different identities and explore who they really are. Often, parents dismiss this as “going through a phase” (as Gertrude does to Hamlette!) but I think it’s valuable to experience different ways of relating to one’s peers, different interests and hobbies, and it builds empathy for others, even the groups we end up not staying part of. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? I just love the Laertes/Ophelia switch, and what a fun moment that is for the actor to whip around and do a completely different characterization. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Talk slower and pick up your cues faster. This feels like a contradiction, but comedy is all about timing, and it’s important for actors to react quickly, but speak distinctly and while being in their moment. With comedy, if you miss a cue, it looks like someone forgot, where in drama you can pass it off as a moment of deep thought. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? Because it’s a small cast and a short play, it’s easy to rehearse in a class period. Plus, Hamlette’s concerns are so identifiable: I’m not happy about my parent remarrying, I’m sad someone died, I think my significant other is insincere, I’m worried my best friend is going to betray me, I keep getting advice from adults who don’t know me very well. Totally the student experience.

The Super Non-Heroes by Taryn Temple is a fantastic middle school play that looks at friendship, acceptance and discovering yourself. Have you ever felt like you don’t belong? Powerless Charlie sticks out like a sore thumb in a school full of superheroes. Smellinator can’t control her powers and forgot to do her Villain 101 homework. Golden Boy won’t follow protocol. And Toxic Sludge is, well, toxic sludge. When a supervillain attacks the school Charlie must dig deep within herself. She may not be a superhero but she discovers her unique talents to save the day. Have you ever wanted to be a superhero? Patrick Derksen and the dedicated drama group at Border Valley School in Reinland, MB did – and they did a super job sharing their super selves in their production: “Just wanted to thank Taryn Temple and Theatrefolk for a great play! Border Valley School in Manitoba performed “The Super Non-Heroes” last week and we had a blast. The kids loved their roles so much; we had a lot of fun figuring out superhero backstories and character traits. We also enjoyed creating costumes, hair, and makeup for the different superheroes. I heard many positive comments from teachers that even younger students understood the plot and positive messages, and they appreciated the strong roles for girls.”

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. Letters by Mrs. Evelyn Merritt is an excellent and challenging Reader’s Theatre script for high school and middle school student performers. For many wars, letters home were the only form of communication between soldiers and their loved ones. Letters is thought-provoking and character-driven. It’s not hard to see Marie, Jim, Caleb, Sarah, Harriet and Robert reaching out with pen and paper. Why did we publish this play? What’s great about the script is its focus on the characters. Each character expresses specific emotions about their place in their particular war. The play also has oral elements such as overlapping speech, unison speech, and repeated patterns. The words speak for themselves. A thought-provoking piece. Why is this play great for online platforms? Because this play is set up as Reader’s Theatre, it’s easy to transfer to an online platform. The montage sections can be presented in a gallery setting and will take a little practice to get the timing – but they would in a traditional production too. Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? I wanted a way to allow students to remember the past in a theatrical way. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. Remember the human face of war. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? The letters. Even though it’s readers theater, try to have the type of letter each of these characters would have as a prop. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Reader’s Theatre doesn’t mean you can’t act – each character should be brought to life as much as possible, even though you have a script in your hand. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? It’s a chance for students to put a face to the past and also connect to history. Experiencing history is always better than just reading about it.

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. _Apostrophe’s _by Bradley Hayward is a hilarious show with an extremely flexible cast, audience participation, and really fun staging opportunities. It begs to be performed by silly students with a million clever ideas. You’ll never look at apostrophes the same way again! Are you sometime’s amazed at how many apostrophe’s s’ome people manage to fi’t into s’entence’s? Then you’re not the only one. That’s just the problem that needs to be solved in this outrageous comedy. Why did we publish this play? There’s so much to like about this show. The casting is gender-neutral, there’s audience participation, and the staging holds a challenge or two – there’s a scene that is played forward, then backward, then forward again. A great physical exercise for your students! Add to all of this, Bradley is a wonderful writer for the student voice. Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? I wanted to write a super goofy play with a deeper meaning than all the silliness might suggest. Hidden among the wacky pantomime, comedic fast forward/rewinding action, and audience participation is actually a sad story about very real people searching for a place where they belong in this world. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. The things that separate people can ultimately become the reasons people make connections. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? Early in the play, the characters enter alone and stand at a distance. They are afraid to get too close. Yet as the play progresses, they begin to break down the barriers between them. This emotional distance is reflected by physical distance, when we see the characters get closer and dance with each other. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Rehearse in front of an audience! Gather a few friends together to watch the scenes as you practice them. So much of this play is about the connection between the characters and the audience, so rehearsing with people watching will help eliminate the proverbial fourth wall that exists on a stage. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? The script is overflowing with possibilities for physical comedy, character development, and vocal experimentation. All of the roles are non-gender specific, so it can be tailored to suit your cast. In addition to student performers, I think this play is perfectly suited for student directors because it is made up of short vignettes that make the play easy to rehearse in small bites.

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. Nice Girl by Amanda Murray Cutalo is a great play for female performers that asks the question “Is there such a thing as being ‘too nice?’” Mia, a teenage girl at an all-girls school, knows how to be a confident and assertive young woman who is not afraid to stand up for herself; the only problem is she can only act this way in her fantasies. In Mia’s reality, she is the kind of girl who does her friends’ homework, lets people cut in front of her in line, and pretends to be someone she’s not in order to get a boy to like her. As she repeatedly learns, being the “nice girl” requires a great deal of sacrifice and, often, frustration. As Mia eventually nears her breaking point, she decides the time has come for her fantasies to become reality. Why did we publish this play? This is such a relevant middle school topic: Girls who think being nice means you get more friends, especially when being “nice” means you don’t stand up for yourself. The main character in Nice Girl has quite the dilemma and it’s the reason we chose the play. We want to show middle school-aged characters going through middle school problems. Not high school problems adapted down. Not only do the characters have to face the dilemma of sacrificing character to be “nice” they also make mistakes, and deal with those mistakes. All in a lovely theatrical package. A great show. Let’s hear from the author! 1. Why did you write this play? I am an English teacher, so I’ve taught many “nice girls” over the years. The inspiration for this play came from a conversation that I had with one of my students. She approached me at the end of a group assignment, feeling frustrated that she had done the bulk of the work and that her friends had taken advantage of her. She felt voiceless and powerless. I related to this struggle, specifically the pressure that girls and women often feel to be nice, or risk being called shrill, aggressive, difficult to get along with, or other words that I’m not sure I’m allowed to write here. To demand respect means to be unlikeable. I wrote this play because I wanted to explore what it looks like to confront these pressures and redefine a healthier sense of self, which leads to healthier relationships with others. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. It’s a play about redefining female identity by challenging the mask of the “nice girl” that girls and women often feel pressured to wear. 3. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Have fun with the fantasy scenes! (When Mia says exactly what she’s thinking, completely unfiltered, and in one instance even punches Jen and grabs Maggie by the hair). Besides using different lighting to distinguish between fantasy and reality, it definitely helps for the acting to be as over-the-top and exaggerated as possible in these scenes. 4. Why is this play great for student performers? I hope that student performers will see pieces of themselves in each of these characters and be able to think more about what it really means to be a “nice girl” and what it means to be friends with one.

Have you ever wanted to be a superhero? Taryn Temple’s The Super Non-Heroes is a fantastic middle-school play that with an important message: Be kind to people, especially those that are different from you. We are stronger together than we are by ourselves. Have you ever felt like you don’t belong? Powerless Charlie sticks out like a sore thumb in a school full of superheroes. Smellinator can’t control her powers and forgot to do her Villain 101 homework. Golden Boy won’t follow protocol. And Toxic Sludge is, well, toxic sludge. When a supervillain attacks the school Charlie must dig deep within herself. She may not be a superhero but she discovers her unique talents to save the day. A fabulous middle school play that looks at friendship, acceptance and discovering yourself. Who doesn’t want to be a superhero? The fantastic group of drama students at Cherokee Community Schools in Cherokee, Iowa were super excited to transform themselves into a team of super heroes – and non-heroes – complete with fun and flashy costumes that really set the tone. Directed by Jason Wood , the students brought their “larger than life” characters to the stage, demonstrating to everyone present that there truly is strength – and success – in numbers.

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. Tick Talk by Lindsay Price is a wonderful technical exercise for high school student performers that also serves as a fantastic starting point for discussions. The teenagers in Tick Talk have a lot to say, but no way to say it. Most characters are limited to only ONE WORD for the whole play. A fascinating challenge for actors: What happens when a character has just one word to express hopes, fears, and frustrations? What if they have something terribly important to say but can’t? They’d better find a way soon: Time is running out. Why did we publish this play? “What If” questions are great questions to explore in theatre – “what if” characters only had one word or phrase to share their story and their experience? That is the world of the play in _Tick Talk. _ How do we encourage students to find ways other than dialogue to create a three-dimensional characterization? Plays that challenge form, challenge students, and challenge the audience are important and that’s why Tick Talk is in our catalogue. Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? I love writing challenges. What if wrote a play where the characters have only one word or phrase to tell their story? What would that look like on the page? What would that look like in performance? 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. The teenagers in this play have much to say but no way to say it. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? There is a character named Great Dance, who puts on the visual of being completely “happy” but we learn that she is also bulimic. The idea that people often hide darkness behind a positive face is something we often miss. We only focus on what we see. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? It’s all about the subtext. Every single line a character says in the play, even though it’s the same line over and over, has a different subtext. It’s important for students to figure out the meaning behind each line in order to help them know how to say it. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? It’s a great challenge for students to take characters their own age who are limited in their dialogue. How will they make a three-dimensional character out of one word?

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. Among Friends and Clutter by Lindsay Price is a character-driven piece that is loved by students for its well-rounded characters and its wealth of comic and serious moments. Among Friends and Clutter presents a montage of characters who experience the most important relationships in life: friends, family, and love. Starting with seven classmates, the play explores what they imagine their lives will be, and shows what their lives eventually become. They grow, succeed, and sometimes fail. Why did we publish this play? So this goes back to the very beginning of Theatrefolk. Among Friends and Clutter is one of the first plays we published, and it’s over 20 years old now. The fact that it still gets done to this day amazes me. But it speaks to the question “how do we identify stories with longevity?” And the answer is relationships. It doesn’t matter what piece of technology comes and goes – moms are going to fight with their daughters. Couples will get together and break up. People start out as children, find success and failure. And that’s why Among Friends and Clutter is in our catalogue. It’s a play that looks at humanity. And that will never go out of style. Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? Necessity is the mother of invention. I was supposed to direct a play and we didn’t get near enough actors for the parts. So instead of cancelling the production, I very naively said “I’ll just write one.” It’s the experience that made me realize I loved watching an audience respond to my words and changed the direction of my professional life. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. This character driven piece explores the most important relationships in life: friends, family, and love. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? We see these characters at the beginning of each section as grade two students, where they respond to the themes of the play as children would. I love how different productions have created “Mrs Morton’s Grade 2 class.” This is the visual that anchors the whole play. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? The play works best without blackouts or complicated set changes. Use a unit set and have the different scenes use the same cubes, risers, and other pieces. Bonus advice: do character profiles for each character! Your actors should fill in all the missing pieces that the script doesn’t answer. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? It’s an excellent opportunity for students to dive deep into character development. How do human beings change over time? How do they embrace different types of relationships?