Theatrefolk Featured Play - neeT Teen

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. neeT Teen by Lindsay Price is a fantastic play for your group. It's got a little bit everything - from the absurd, to movement, to audience participation, to song... There's even the opportunity to add your own scene to the mix!

Teen life – backwards, forwards and inside-out. From dealing with the tractor beam of insecurity and doubt, to dealing with parents who couldn’t hear you if they tried. From fighting pimples to fighting the hallway. From knowing math skills aren’t going to get the girl to knowing that happy teenagers exist. They may not get the laughs, or the drama, or the big monologue, but they’re there.

Let's hear from the author!

1. Why did you write this play?
I wanted to write a vignette play that went out of my comfort zone in terms of exploring form. And there is every type of form in this play from kitchen sink scenes, to absurd, to movement based moments, to choral work, to audience participation, to song, to groups adding their own scene.

2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences?
Teen life – backwards, forwards, inside out.

3. What's the most important visual for you in this play?
I love the ending where the entire cast is singing about not feeling great, not being liked and not getting worried about it. They're not going to change who they are.

4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be?
Don't get bogged down by the different forms. Focus on the individual characters in each scene and express the form through what those characters want and the obstacles in their way.

5. Why is this play great for student performers?
It looks at teen life and tackles topics that many teens go through in a unique and varied way.

6. Who is your favourite character in the play?
She's not my favourite character, but for me, it's the most vivid moment in the play. Tyne has bullied another girl to the point where she felt she had to take her own life. Tyne is trying to grapple with the vast weight of this moment and rationalizing her actions as just "a little mean." It's one of my "favourite" monologues in its rawness and how words have consequences.

7. What is your favourite line in the play?
"The world would be a better place if people weren’t so easily offended by words that don’t actually do anything, they just exist."