Exercise: The Tech Effect

I greatly enjoyed directing 'A Lighter Shade of Noir' last year with my middle school theater students. It had everything I was looking for in a script for 6th, 7th and 8th graders: lots of parts for girls or parts that could be changed to female roles, action without lots of fighting, multiple character scenes that had things to do while other people were talking, a main story line but also sub-plots, links to school subjects (like literature and history), and most importantly - dialogue that I could stand listening to over and over in rehearsal that gave the students motivation to look deeper and deeper into their character development. I hope you write more for theater, especially children's theater. We need more good writing for these young actors. Sharon Boski

We had an awesome time putting this show up and it was an incredible learning experience for our students doing the research for this genre from the 'language' to recreating sound effects manually and incorporating royalty free music to set the mood. Great fun!

Our high school drama class performed Drop Dead, Juliet! The principal was so impressed with the production, that despite having only three hours sleep and planning to stay only twenty-minutes, she stayed for the entire show. What impressed me the most about this play was that the students did what I asked them to do, which was to "own" the play. They just loved it so much and they had formed a very tight ensemble. They asked me if they could do the play one last time just for themselves. After it was over, everyone was very still and quiet for a minute, they knew that we had to let it go. Thank you for such a high quality script, it gave the students such a worthwhile experience!