High School Plays

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. Are you ready to deck those halls? Or are you saying “Bah, humbug” to the holidays? Either way, you’re going to love Humbug High: A Contemporary Christmas Carol by Lindsay Price – 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. He carries his own low temperature always about him and doesn’t thaw one degree at Christmas. He is on his way to becoming a miserly, miserable, tight-fisted hand to the grindstone, until one Christmas season he is taken on a journey by Madge, the lunch lady, and the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future. Scrooge is about to meet the errors of his ways face-to-face. Let’s hear from the author! 1. Why did you write this play? Not only is adaptation my favourite form of writing, A Christmas Carol is one of my favourite stories. It’s such a universal tale of humanity, which is the reason it’s been transformed so many times over the years. The way Dickens writes characters is so vivid it was a treat to transform them into modern versions. The story tells itself so it’s important to have strong unique characters. *2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. * Everyone can find the true meaning of Christmas in their heart. Sometimes it takes a couple of ghosts and a dead lunch lady. *3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? * When Madge, the dead lunch lady and Eddie’s only friend appears as a ghost covered in a chain of her own making made of pots, pans, and soup ladles. She tells him the truth of what’s going to happen if he doesn’t change his ways (and pushes him to get a girlfriend). I love the mix of raising the stakes in the story and Madge’s sense of humour. *4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? * Character, character, character. Everyone knows the story, so share it through the eyes of human beings and not actors saying lines. There’s a lot of fun to be had in the play, but the genuine journey of the characters is most important. *5. Why is this play great for student performers? * Great characters share a well known story that was written just for them. Who wouldn’t want to play Scrooge as a teenager?

Among Friends and Clutter by Lindsay Price 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. Students love this play for its well-rounded characters and its wealth of comic and serious moments. The drama group at Tallmadge High School in Tallmadge, Ohio took on this high school character-driven dramedy and we think the results are picture perfect. Check out their production photos to see how they brought this play to life! Great work, Tallmadge High School! *Photo credit: Brin Charek

The highs and lows that teenagers face are truly universal. The students at the American International School in Hong Kong recognized this fact and selected Sixteen in 10 Minutes or Less by Bradley Hayward to showcase their talented student directors. As drama teacher, Susan Holt says “This was a totally student directed project, so a huge achievement!” Student director, William Wong, reflected upon his experience as both an actor and a director and offered some advice to future performers: “As a director, you should always stay focused and lead, you must stay organized and always expect to multitask with the amount of work you should be expecting. Write down and draw out stage movements, character notes, queues, lights and sound. It’s impossible to get everyone to like your decisions, you must follow your heart. Even if the entire world ask you to compromise, your job is to plant yourself like a tree and ask them to compromise. As an actor, do not procrastinate, there are too many lines and movements you need to remember. Listen carefully to your director’s advice, but always leave yourself room to discuss with the director because director isn’t always correct. The preparation is never enough, so learn your lines and constantly run your lines with the people in the scene you’re in charge of, so in the actual performance day you won’t be nervous.” The lives of seven teenagers become intertwined in this humorous and oftentimes bittersweet collection of ten minute plays. From extracting a gummy bear out of a new set of braces to coping with bullies, these characters share their innermost hopes and fears with each other, ten minutes at a time. As the audience drops in on these intimate moments, they will come to understand that being sixteen isn’t always easy. Congratulations on a great job, American International School in Hong Kong!

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. If you’re looking for a play that takes a stand and gets people talking, then read on. This month we’re featuring Clowns with Guns by Christoper Evans – a play that both audiences and performers will never forget. Step right up! Step right up! It’s the SCHOOL-SHOOT-O-RAMA! And the question everyone’s asking is “Am I walking out alive today?” Clowns with Guns takes a theatrical and absurd look at the repeated and seemingly endless cycle of school violence. It happens, everyone is terribly upset, things continue on as normal, it happens again. This story is mean. There are guns. The play puts school shooting violence out in the open and forces all of us to do the same. Read the play with this knowledge. Why did we publish this play? Clowns with Guns takes a theatrical and absurd look at the repeated and seemingly endless cycle of school violence. It happens, everyone is terribly upset, things continue on as normal, and it happens again. We wanted to publish this play because it puts school shooting violence out in the open and forces us to do the same. It’s not a gentle play, it’s mean. And we wanted a play out there on the topic that makes a stand. Let’s hear from the author! 1. Why did you write this play? This was my comment on the seeming acceptance of school and mass shootings. I was angry and wanted to be an angry voice that said “This is not okay. I do not accept this.” 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. A cycle of violence will not stop unless we do something to stop it. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? The introduction of the silent clowns, Thoughts and Prayers, at the end of every stylized shooting. This was my comment that after every event all we would do is send Thoughts and Prayers. Nothing else. Nothing changed. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Embrace the absurdity and the message. This isn’t a play to be enjoyed. It’s social satire and it’s going to make your audience very engaged, possibly angry. Some folks don’t like to be seen in a negative light. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? It adds Absurd Theatre to their resume. It’s unlike any play they’ve done. It’s not safe. It’s mean and if you go as far with these characters as the script demands, you’ll never forget this play. Neither will your audience. That’s what theatre should be.

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. Anonymous by Allison Green is the story of every teenager: trying to fit in, trying to belong, trying to fall in love. It’s hard to be an individual when you’re trying to survive. We all have our stories. “New and old, complete and untold.” Anonymous is a story of every teenager: the new kid trying to fit in, the best friends, the love interests, the kid in the corner with their secret, the group of individuals each trying to belong. The teenagers of Anonymous have no names because they are “Me” and “You.” They are everyone. Why did we publish this play? When you write an issue play it’s easy to become trapped beneath the issue. It’s easy to let the issue overwhelm the play. Audiences don’t want to be overwhelmed. Yes, they want to learn something about the issue. But they also want to be engaged. Anonymous is a play that does just that. The issue here is something every high school student goes through: the feeling of being alone, anonymous to the point that their name doesn’t even matter. There are few things more difficult than standing out as an individual in high school, or fearing that if you told your secret you’d be shunned. Anonymous engages an audience with this issue. The characters are trying to work the issue out, they are not overwhelmed. They struggle, yes. But they also fight. That’s what an audience needs to see. This is a play that shows hope at the end of the tunnel. It doesn’t lay out a “happiness for all” ending, but it does provide a light. For some students that’s all they need. Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? I wanted to capture the feeling of the isolated/anonymous feeling that teenagers feel as they struggle to connect with others. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. Identity. Artistic Expression. Finding out who you are. 3 What’s the most important visual for you in this play? Riding a teeter totter. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Allow the student actors to find their own sense of anonymity. How can they all be the same (colour, mask etc) with their own individual style. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? Students can find their own voices. The student who is searching to connect. Hates gym class. Struggles to express themselves. Remembers kindergarten embarrassments. Loves a kid in their class. Finds it hard to talk to the guidance counselor. This play is about about every teenager. It’s about Me and You.

Trying to find your place in the world as a teenager can be tough. We all have our stories. “New and old, complete and untold.” The high school drama, Anonymous, is a story of every teenager: trying to fit in, trying to belong, trying to fall in love. The teenagers of Anonymous have no names because they are “Me” and “You.” They are everyone. It’s hard to be an individual when you’re trying to survive. The students at Almaguin Highlands Secondary School in South River, Ontario put on a special performance to mark International Day Against Homophobia for their school board. They were in an incredibly fortunate position to be directed by teacher and playwright, Allison Green , who definitely has a special connection to this play! Photo credit: Noah Looby

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays For….High School. We’re a company that focuses on high school performers so the majority of our scripts are high school plays. But we know the score: you want a play that is just right for your students. You want work that is specific to your students, and yet is something that can sink their teeth into. And you don’t want to search forever and a day for that play. We’ve got a great list of 10 to get you started. Comedies, Dramas, unique formats. A little bit of everything! 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 10 Minutes or Less The lives of seven teenagers become intertwined in this humorous and oftentimes bittersweet collection of ten minute plays. They plays can be performed individually or together. Split Teenagers navigate the winding road of divorce in this honest and theatrical look at the day to day reality of growing up in a family that’s been torn apart. The ending always makes me cry. Anonymous Anonymous is the story of every teenager: the new kid trying to fit in, the best friends, the love interests, the kid in the corner with their secret, individuals trying to belong. The characters are You, Me and Them. They are all of us. Look Me in the Eye Teenagers in the future are obedient, polite, and respectful. Everything about their life is black and white, right or wrong. This is due in large part to the government-required “Observation Sessions.” But there is a dark underside to this utopian vision. Sometimes life is grey. Ashland Falls The students of Herbert Hoover High are too wrapped up in miscues, awful accents, and stolen boyfriends to notice strange things happening around them. Revenge is coming. Each actor must play two vastly different roles in this spine-tingling comedy thriller. This easy to stage and intense theatrical experience will keep your audience on their edge of their seats. And the twist ending will make them question everything they’ve witnessed… Puzzle Pieces This play explores teen issues through a series of monologues. The characters speak frankly about their fears, their futures, and how to embrace the day to day. Somewhere, Nowhere A small town is a place to leave for some, a place to call home for others. The teenagers 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? The Art of Rejection Two plays that look at being alone – whether it’s the only letter in a sea of numbers, or alone in making the right decision to sit or stand. A combination of humanity and the avant-garde the two together make for a great competition piece. The Perils of Modern Education The Perils of Modern Education are many! A comedic romp through the stresses and struggles of making it through the average, or not so average, school day. Gender flexible casting, doubling possibilities, and easy to stage. neeT Teen Teen life – backwards, forwards and inside-out. In every form from kitchen sink, to absurd, to movement, to audience participation, to song, to adding your own scene.

Can you envision a future where teenagers are forced into obedience? What happens when someone questions authority? Is it more important to take a stand or remain in compliance? These questions are examined in the thought-provoking one-act drama, Look Me in the Eye by Lindsay Price. Under the direction of Nina Bryant , the talented student performers at Consuelo Mendez Middle School in Austin, Texas took on this wonderful character development piece. They demonstrated that the futuristic teenage characters are every bit as full of dreams and goals as contemporary teens. “The play went quite well! My actors enjoyed playing characters with real depth and they had some great discussions about the themes of obedience and mental illness. Adults in attendance were also quite engaged in the themes and the idea of the “observation” as a procedure for deterring violence. In the case of our student population, ours is a daily struggle to break the cycle of violence born out of poverty… and still I choose the heavy plays!” Great work, Consuelo Mendez Middle School!

Many people deal with body issues but what happens when your body has issues with you? In the one-act comedy for high schools, Body Body by Lindsay Price body parts come to life to take charge and keep Madeline feeling insecure. But she doesn’t want to feel bad about her body anymore. It’s time to fight back. Shane Stewart and the group of student performers at McKinley Middle Academic Magnet and School for the Visual and Performing Arts in Baton Rouge, Louisiana took this body image battle on a successful award-winning journey. “We used this as a competition piece at the Louisiana Thespian Festival and were chosen as the best non musical act for the whole festival. We are also taking it to the international thespian festival in Lincoln, Nebraska to compete.” Congratulations, McKinley Middle Magnet School!

Attention all high school Drama Teachers: Get on the move with Moving by Lindsay Price. As part of Moving/Still, a collection of two one-act plays, Moving is a rapid-fire character-driven comedy with a heart. Under the direction of Krystal Deveau , the drama team at Kamsack Comprehensive Institute in Kamsack, Saskatchewan successfully moved their way through this contemporary comedy with award-winning results. “Directing this play was a blast but challenging at the same time. The kids had so much fun getting into their characters, but that was also a challenge too. Their biggest challenges were: discovering their characters, and saying the lines smoothly. Overall, we worked VERY hard together on this play: often having 6 rehearsals per week up to 3 hours per rehearsal sometimes. It all paid off in the end when we won the Regional Drama Festival! AWARDS: The Cheer Award: Breanna Bland (Darcy), SDA Certificate of Merit: Breanna Bland (Darcy), Technical Award of Merit: Shaelyn Matwijeczko (Lighting), Acting Award: Allison Thomsen (Andrea), Mary Ellen Burgess Award: Alanna Finnie (Bree), SDA’s Best Visual Production Runner-Up, Best Overall Production” Amazing work, Kamsack Comprehensive Institute! *Photo credit: Krystal Deveau

Being sixteen may not always be easy but making the decision to perform Sixteen in 10 Minutes by Bradley Hayward should be. This collection of humorous and bittersweet ten-minute plays about the lives of seven teenagers allows the characters to share their struggles, hopes and fears ten minutes at a time. As the audience drops in on these intimate moments, they will come to understand that being sixteen isn’t always easy. Leah Webster and the student performers at Gallatin County High School in Warsaw, KY brought their audience through the experience of being sixteen and all of the ups and downs that go along with it. “My school, Gallatin County High School, performed “Sixteen in 10 Minutes or Less” as our Fall Production. We used different students for each scene to ensure that all of my newer actors had time on the stage. The audience loved the scenes and even commented on how some were funny and some were sobering. We had a blast using our 3 projector screens as backdrops to keep our set minimal.” Great job, Gallatin County High School!

Writing may be a struggle but tackling Backspaceby Lindsay Price definitely is not. This movement-based high school drama explores personification in a unique and vivid manner. Where else can you bring a typewriter to life? The drama students at Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake, VA, under the direction of Dr. Shelley Nowacek, performed this one-act production with award-winning results: “We won conference for VHSL (Virginia High School League) with this show!” Congratulations, Great Bridge High School!

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!

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. Today we look at ghosts, the civil war, Walt Whitman and ice. Charlie is surrounded by ghosts. The ghost of an estranged father who leaves her an antique musket. The ghost of a classmate’s sister who cautions Charlie, The Grey will hear you. Who are the Grey? Ghosts of Lost Confederate soldiers ambushed following the first battle of Fredericksburg, 1862. As the Aurora Borealis light up the Virginia night sky Charlie must confront the living and the dead. She’s trying to find peace but will she make the right choice? What brings her to the centre of a barely frozen lake with the musket and her ghosts? Beat! Beat! Drums! Blow! Bugles! Blow! Why did we publish this play? Theatre must be theatrical. Period. Which sounds like a given, but that’s not always the case when you’re reading a manuscript. Publishers often only have the printed script to go from (rather than being able to see the play produced). We have to be able to “see” the play on stage, and “see” what it would look like brought to life. The Blue and the Grey is all that and more. It is haunting. It is exhilarating. It is theatrical. There is choral sound work that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. And I haven’t even started talking about the unique, flawed, interesting characters yet. Pick this play up now. Read it now. Buy it now. Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? The answer is a deceptively simple, as well as a little complicated. The “deceptively simple” answer is: I wrote this play for my students. The “a little complicated” answer is: Coming off the previous year’s success performing Ray Bradbury’s Kaleidoscope, I wanted to challenge the students, but felt underwhelmed by choices I was seeing from my normal publishing sources. Simultaneously, I had a hankering for a “ghost play,” and had a notion involving Walt Whitman visiting Fredericksburg, Virginia — a historical fact a colleague of mine had recently written some newspaper articles about for local interest. Those two thoughts combined led me to understand exactly how I wanted to challenge my students, and that was with a play that mixed emotion, memory, history, poetry, and hauntings of various sizes, shapes, and textures into something that was uniquely ours. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. The theme is about the difficulty to escape one’s own past — be it personal, local, or national; and how the only way to cope with that difficulty is by making obvious connections in the unlikeliest of places. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? Certainly the climactic image — which was actually my starting point. At the risk of spoiling things, I always knew the most arresting moment would be a modern, teenage girl hammering at the ice beneath her knees with a Civil War-era musket, while Confederate ghost soldiers trained their own muskets at a child in a blue, puffy winter coat. That was literally the first image that came to mind when I had the pieces in place, and I was always writing to that inevitable, inescapable choice for the main character. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Embrace the ephemera of it. I discovered through writing, and through the first production, how dreamlike and surreal the piece was — that some of the transitions and some of the moments developed a real dream-logic to it that I ultimately embraced. Charlie’s line “Was I daydreaming sleep? Or was I a sleeper wishing I was awake?” summed a lot of that quality up for me, and it was a line that we refined and refined throughout production. The sentiment of the line, though, came to me one morning before school started, in that special sleepless restlessness that comes midway through any production. I was walking into the cafeteria of the high school to go check on something in the auditorium, and I heard this underwater-sea-shell noise through the haze of my sleep deprivation. That sound, obviously an audio hallucination of some sort, struck me as the correct tone for the whole piece — the uncertainty of the way reality shifts around you when you’re half-awake and unsure of your surroundings. That’s also when the self-contradictory nature of the line came to me, and when I felt confident in exploring and expanding that quality. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? I originally intended this to be more didactic — to teach the students who performed it more about history, particularly as it happened in our own backyard, an echo of which sentiment I gave to Morrissey early on. As we developed and performed the piece, however, it became clear that dramatic license would overtake the didactic qualities, so what really replaced it? For me, it’s the sense of collaboration, both between myself and the cast, but also among each other. I still have students who remember with fondness their role in the ensemble and the difficulty in, say, matching the rain-tapping in Scene 10 with the emotional intensity of the actor playing Darren. The effect of that moment — of actually listening to, and responding with, the emotional crests effected by that particular actor, and how in tune with each other and each other’s performances they all had to be spoke tremendous volumes to the performances that they each managed from the piece. Though the play is undoubtedly Charlie’s, it’s a play that begs for an ensemble to work together to achieve its effects. So as student performers, they had to be so in touch with each other on an emotional and on a performance level, that surprises, changes, feints, new wellsprings, and old habits could be indulged, experimented with, discovered, exposed, and incorporated by all.

When you think of ‘film noir’, do you think of comedies? If not, you definitely want to check out A Lighter Shade of Noir by Patrick Derksen. Mark Ogle and the student drama group at Butte High School in Picture Butte, Alberta took on this fabulously funny and high styling take on film noir and a great and successful time was had by all. “The school I teach at is grade 7-12. They never really had a theater project that had been done in the way that I was accustomed to from my days at the University of Lethbridge. I had 27 students, 5 of which were from our feeder school that were in grade 5/6, along with having 4 staff members participate in the play as well. It was amazing! Everyone was phenomenal and it steered one student to go into the Fine Arts program at the university as well. It definitely set us up for another one this year!! – Mark Ogle”

Whether you’re technologically challenged or cellphone savvy, you’re sure to enjoy ths phne 2.0: the next generation _by Lindsay Price. This modern comedic vignette play will have audiences blogging, tweeting, and LOL’ing all the way to curtain call. Sheila Gatensby and the drama students at Blessed Cardinal Newman High School in Toronto, Canada performed the play and showed how "face to face is so yesterday“. “The design for the flats evolved out of a great group discussion – a true ensemble once they agreed on the concept -they each took a flat and chose what text would be on it making sure not to duplicate each other’s texts. Britney, our stage manager kept everyone on track! They had a great time with this show. – Sheila Gatensby” Way to go, Cardinal Newman!

_Puzzle Pieces _by Krista Boehnert mixes humour and and drama to help high school students explore teen issues through a series of monologues. Keigan Page ‘s students at The American School in Vietnam performed the play and were able to truly connect with the characters they portrayed. “We launched a new senior level drama class this year called Advanced Performance Production. The purpose of this class was to become a theatre company. We are quite a small school, the class itself was only 6 students. With a student director we chose to perform Puzzle Pieces. The students connected with their roles in a way I have never seen high school students connect. The whole show was student run with the actors/director doubling as set designers, costumes, advertising etc. This was so important, it is not just about teen issues but speaks to people of all ages. – Keigan Page” Great stuff, American School!

Being sixteen isn’t always easy, as audiences come to learn from Sixteen in 10 Minutes or Less by Bradley Hayward; a bittersweet collection of ten minute plays. From extracting a gummy bear out of a new set of braces to coping with bullies, these characters share their innermost hopes and fears with each other, ten minutes at a time. As the audience drops in on these intimate moments, they will come to understand that being sixteen isn’t always easy. Jane Purdy and the student performers at Center High School in Antelope, CA were up to the challenge. “This play was a huge success. It was different from previous plays and the students really responded to it. In fact, they still talk about it. It is deceptively simple, the dialogue and presentation is challenging for the actors. it is basically a bare set with a few props but so effective! The picture is of our program. One of the students took a picture of each cast member and made silhouettes of each character and put it on the program I loved this idea. We used it for our marquee, bulletin board in the lobby and programs. _– _Jane Purdy” Well done, Center High School!