School Plays

Prepare yourself for some sensational Shakespearean silliness! Mmmbeth, by Allison Williams is a hilarious adaptation of the Scottish play where everything goes wrong in the best possible ways. Sara-Margaret Cates and the student performers at Tuscaloosa Academy in Tuscaloosa, Alabama performed this classical adaptation and had a great time doing so. “My upper school class performed Mmmbeth last spring, and had a great time! They had previously studied the original Scottish play, and found this interpretation to be a lot of fun. It was a great opportunity for many beginning actors to get out of their shells and be silly with Shakespeare. It was a great experience! – Sara-Margaret Cates” Fantastic job, Tuscaloosa Academy!

How do you decide when to respect authority and when to question the system? Teenagers in Look Me in the Eye by Lindsay Price learn about the dark side of the utopian vision in this haunting futuristic drama. Under the direction of Kelli Connors , the drama students at Noble High School in North Berwick, ME took great care to bring this futuristic vision to reality. “We were going for a futuristic look in the play since it takes place in a future society. We went for a very angular costume look with the people who have status. This is why Rea has very rigid straight lines with a flair at the bottom for youth and Rea has straight lines that are broken up by somewhat curvy lines, but curvy lines that are not predictable or necessarily symmetrical. She has an appliqué of the fabric from her pants on her shirt with a unpredictable wavy shape that is intersected by a metallic straight line. All characters have some sort of metallic feature to their costumes. The set is meant to mirror this with sharp angles out of “metal” that has been riveted onto the walls or furniture. The only circular forms are the splatters on Vio’s pants and the set walls. These are reminiscent of blood splatters without being overly obvious in their color. As for the boxes they stand on, they bring their signs in with them and choose a box to stand on for the observation. The stripes have to do with status and there is a slight shuffle between Rul and Vio when they first enter the room as to who gets the box with the most stripes. We also added a multimedia element at the beginning of the play. A film plays on the monitor and talks about how we came to be the society we are now – a government propaganda film with voiceovers and underscoring. The film ends with an eye that watches them and moves with them which stays on the monitor through their time of observation. The Offense Officers are voices that are coming from above with a combination of sweeping spotlights and sirens. Every sound byte sounds electronic or automated…such as the opening of the box that holds the list, shown upstage of Vio in this first pic. I use a sound of dripping water throughout the show that serves as an element of sensory overload for the audience as well as the heartbeat of the show. The performers and the audience feel the effects of this form of control.” Amazing job, Noble High School!

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays For….Scene Work. You want interesting scenes for your students. You want a variety of scenes for your students. You don’t want to do the same scenes over and over and over and over with your students. Click the link and you’ll be taken to the webpage for each play. There you’ll get the details and read sample pages. All the best with your search! Sixteen in Ten Minutes or Less This collection of 10 plays can be performed as an evening of theatre. Or it offers the perfect scene work collection for a class. Each short stands perfectly well on it’s own without any prior knowledge of the characters. Ten/Two Ten plays for two actors. All the plays are easy for students to self direct and self block. Have a group larger than twenty, double up on the scenes and seen how different groups interpret the same material. Chemo Girl and Other Plays A collection of plays that examine the impact of cancer as seen through the eyes of teenagers. Each scene can stand alone which means you can have a full class all working on their scenes at the same time. An excellent project if you want to present a cross-curricular aspect to a scene unit. How can cancer be theatricalized? Close Encounters of the Undead Kind This collection has three short plays filled with unique characters. Most of which are vampires, zombies, and others of the undead variety. Have a class of beginners? Divide the plays up so that groups are dealing with smaller chunks within the larger piece. Ten Minute Play Series: All Girls Need scenes with all girls? We’ve got you covered. One of our most popular scenes comes from this collection. It shows Juliet and Ophelia in the afterlife. And they are NOT happy. C’mon and Dance What about students that struggle with lines or perhaps are learning English as a second language. Give them a non-verbal scene to work on. This piece fits the bill perfectly. Will and Whimsy: Sixteen Dramatically Illustrated Sonnets of Shakespeare Want to combine scene work with Shakespeare, but you’re not ready to tackle the bard in the original language? This is a wonderful collection of scenes that illustrates the themes in 16 of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Scene-Speare: Shakespearean Scenes for Student Actors But what if you are ready to tackle Shakespeare? This scenes are already cut down for class use and offer vocabulary help, character questions, and story specifics. A perfect place to start with students. Competition Scenes: Duets Want a collection of duet scenes that come from published plays? Use them for individual event competitions, use them in your classroom. The Middle School Scene Book And just to take care of our middle school folks. Here’s a collection of scenes that come from published plays just for middle school students. We got you covered. Image credit: Rockdale County High School (Conyers, Georgia) production of Will and Whimsy by Alan Haehnel. Directed by Dave DiPietro.

Nothing brings Cheshire Cat-sized grins to an audience like the comedic, classical adaptation Aliceby Lindsay Price. Audiences in New Zealand followed director Juliet Cottrell and the Drama Workshop down the rabbit hole through a wonderland of crazy and classic characters. It was no ordinary production. The theatre had been destroyed by fire four weeks prior… and yet the show did indeed, miraculously, go on! The costumes for Alice were created by Angela Elliott from Foxie Red Costumier who worked around the clock to get them ready in time. How the play came together: “This production miraculously came together four weeks after our theatre was destroyed by fire. We lost all of our props and costumes and the sound and lighting was all destroyed. We had to scramble to find new premises for 120 drama students, create new costumes and pick ourselves up off the floor and carry on! It’s moments like these that you just put one foot in front of the other, head down and focus. Ten days after the fire our village was hit by a water contamination bug and 5000 people became ill. All schools closed for the week so we had to close too! We lost about two weeks though as people recovered and came back to class. – Juliet Cottrell”

When two worlds collide sparks are bound to fly! Such is the case in the movement-based comedy _Beauty and the Bee _by Lindsay Price. Perfect for high school and middle school students alike, this is an excellent play with a strong focus on character study and development. Catherine is a high school beauty queen cheerleader. Cosette is a homeschooled spelling bee champion. Two sisters could never be farther apart. So when their worlds collide sparks are bound to fly. The buzzing in their brains gets so hot that life-sized giant bees enter the picture. Then the emotions explode! Sisters, spelling bees, fruit leather, fitting in, photographs, photo ops, say cheese… Andrea Watson and the talented performers at Stony Brook School in Westford, MA had a great time performing Beauty and the Bee and took some of the key messages to heart. “I had my students do some work on the different pressures they think the bees represent, and each of them is going to wear that pressure on their shirt (“be pretty” “be smart” “be the star”) _– _Andrea Watson” Great stuff, Stony Brook! Photo credit: ASA Photographic.

Drama teachers: How do you teach your students about what happens when their orderly way of life gets turned upside down? They Eat Sunshine, Not Zebras by Dara Murphy is the perfect comedy for high school and middle school students alike. Nothing stands in the way of the green grass. Until they wake up one morning to see a yellow dandelion in their midst. 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? Under the guidance of Kate Olena, the talented students at Nichols Middle School in Buffalo, New York had a great time exploring the themes of this fun one-act comedy: “Theatre class is mandatory for 8-weeks each year at Nichols Middle School. I had a group of students who were very shy and only moved their hands onstage, if they moved at all! This play was perfect for my thrust stage in a multi-purpose space. The characters (mostly blades of grass) had no hands and were rooted to the floor, so they had to use their bodies in ways they had never done so before to express their views. The theme of the year was “Utopia/Dystopia”. The metaphor was not lost on our audiences. – Kate Olena” Way to go, Nichols Middle School!

It can be tough at times to get students excited about Shakespeare but that was before Cobweb Dreams by Lindsay Price. This fun-filled fantasy parallels the events of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and allows students to have some fun in the forest. Cobweb is not having a good time as part of Titania’s train. She dreams of a life where she plays pranks all day long and doesn’t have to be a stuffy, stuck-up fairy in waiting. If only it was a simple as crossing the brook to be part of Oberon’s train! We love these pictures of James River High School ’s production under the direction of Allison Oyler. “We thoroughly enjoyed putting on Cobweb Dreams last spring. Kids are STILL talking about how much they loved the show. -Allison Oyler”

We know about ‘decking the halls’ but now is the time to Deck the Stage!. Audiences and students alike will be left feeling holly-jolly with this festive collection of six short Christmas plays by Lindsay Price, inspired by Christmas carols such as: Deck the Halls, The Twelve Days of Christmas, and We Three Kings. Mary Taylor and the drama students at Sunray High School in Sunray, TX got into the festive spirit with these vignette plays inspired by some classic Christmas carols. “All of the parents, friends, and students who attended loved the play. I was able to include a total of 31 students, many whom had never been on the stage. I used this fall play to introduce theatre to freshmen who have never had the opportunity to participate in theatre. Our Culinary Arts and Food Science classes also hosted a dinner in conjunction with the performance. The guests were served during the intermission. This was a first ever event for Sunray High School. _– _Mary Taylor” Way to go, Sunray High!

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays for…Holidays! The holidays are a perfect time to put on a play. And we don’t just stop at Christmas. Since the end of October is a particularly spooky time of year we’re also going to share some of our most spookiest stuff. Click the link and you’ll be taken to the webpage for each play. There you’ll get the details and read sample pages. All the best with your search! Deck the Stage Six short plays inspired by Christmas carols. Bittersweet moments. Laugh out loud comedy. And the weirdest 12 days of Christmas you’ve ever seen. The plays can be performed individually, or all together as a complete evening of entertainment. Humbug High: A Contemporary Christmas Carol A new take on the classic Dickens tale! Eddie Scrooge is 17 years old. He hates his parents and his classmates. His only goal in life is to make money and keep his heart ice-cold. This Christmas he’s about to meet the errors of his ways face-to-face. The Snow Queen Kai has been captivated by The Snow Queen. She is frozen in her heart and mind. Gerda will stop at nothing to find her sister. This is a magical theatrical adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of a sister’s love, an ice cold heart, and a fantastical journey. A great winter themed alternative to traditional Christmas fare. Christmas In July Last Year has handed off the calendar to the New Year and is ready to hit the beach. The New Year is nervous but ready for the challenge. But something goes terribly wrong. Summer starts in November, Easter’s in February and Christmas is in July! The calendar days are all in a tizzy. The First Herald Angel On the first Christmas Eve, a poor shepherd happens across a small child in the hill country about Bethlehem. To the shepherd’s surprise, the child explains she is an angel practicing to be a herald angel so she can announce the Saviour’s birth. Great for concerts or assemblies. The Bottom of the Lake Dani’s out in the middle of the woods at night, alone, without a flashlight. She meets three girls from another camp, and they tell ghost stories to pass the time. A combination of ghost stories, urban legends, teen issues, romance, absurd comedy, and film noir, all in a single play! Close Encounters of the Undead Kind Is that a werewolf at the support group? A child vampire at the front door? A zombie boyfriend? With some close encounters of the undead kind, these plays are far from typical and humdrum! The plays can be performed individually or all together for a ghoulishly delightful evening. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow This new adaptation of the Washington Irving story is excellent for large groups and suitably spooky for Halloween! Icabod Crane is new to Sleepy Hollow and seems to fit right in. But not everyone is happy to see Icabod and they prepare a ghoulish surprise for him. The Haunting of Chip Lake Lodge Four seniors arrive at a country lodge for their prom. But things go askew from the start. They show up at the wrong lodge, their car won’t start, the phone goes dead, and disco music plays inexplicably. The lodge is haunted! It all leads to a bizarre prom night no one will forget. Shuddersome: Tales of Poe Specters, ghosts and ghouls come alive in this vivid theatrical adaptation of some of Edgar Allen Poe’s best-known works. His words rise from the page like corpses from the grave. Be careful. Do you hear that tap, tap, taping? Multi-length versions of the script to fit every need. Planning on performing one of these or another Theatrefolk play? Let us know all about it with pictures and highlights – we might even feature you on our site! Click here to submit your story.