Theatrefolk’s Top 10: Plays for Advanced Actors

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays For…

Advanced Actors. You have students who can go to the next level. They are ready to tackle scripts beyond the norm of character development and realistic story lines. You want to raise the bar and we want to help you do that. Check out our top ten plays for advanced actors. It’s a great mix of issue driven, ensemble driven, character driven work.

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!

Clowns With Guns
A theatrical and absurd look at the repeated and seemingly endless cycle of school violence. This story is mean. There are guns. This play packs a theatrical punch.

Censorbleep
The Bleep Bleep Girls are the greatest group in school. They know what’s best. And when students try to stand up for themselves, or don’t do the “right” thing, they get dealt with. A great character driven piece where teenagers are turned into garbage and disappear.

Breathless
Three girls named Summer. Summer Adams is looking for love in all the wrong places. Summer Robertson is hanging on through her battle with cancer. And Summer Davis refuses to lose, even at the expense of her body and her friends.Three races of discovery. Will they crash or fly? A beautiful mature character piece with strong female leads.

The Blue and the Grey
Charlie is surrounded by ghosts: her father, a classmate’s sister, and the grey. Who are the grey? Civil war soldiers. A chance for an ensemble to build a haunting, exhilarating, and theatrical landscape.

Power Play
A gunshot is heard. Which of the five characters did it and why? Was it the Goth girl? The football star? What are the realities and the stereotypes of high school violence? Violence is about power. So is high school. This play has absurd moments, vivid characterization, and a powerful message.

Stroke Static
Russ is an eighty-three year-old man in a nursing home struggling with multi-infarct dementia. But in his mind he sees himself as a boy of eighteen, and thus is played by a young actor. The ensemble plays a variety of real and imaginary characters in Russ’ mind. A heartbreaking look at what goes on in the mind of someone who can’t communicate.

Tick Talk
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?

Emotional Baggage
One of the most unique plays we sell. There’s no dialogue. The play is based solely on non-verbal storytelling through mask and movement. Seven strangers meet in a train station. Instead of luggage, they all carry their own “emotional baggage.”

Chemo Girls and Other Plays
A collection that examines the impact of cancer through the eyes of teenagers. Characters deal with the difficulty of saying the word out loud, the difficulty of admitting a friend or family member has cancer, and the difficulty of finding the energy and the attitude needed to fight.

Have You Heard?
A play formatted solely in monologue. The story follows what happens in a school when rumours and secrets spin out of control. What makes a secret more powerful: When it’s the truth? Or when it’s a lie?