Chemo Girl and Other Plays is an incredible collection of plays that examines the impact of cancer through the eyes of teenagers. Sometime we have to dig deep to find the courage to overcome life’s biggest challenges. Chemo Girl and Other Plays is an incredible collection of plays that examines the impact of cancer through the eyes of teenagers. Sometime we have to dig deep to find the courage to overcome life’s biggest challenges.
Seven strangers meet in a train station. Instead of luggage, they all carry their "emotional baggage." The most unique play we sell - it has no dialogue.
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This play has been performed so many different ways. It’s been done unmasked, in neutral mask, in Commedia dell’arte masks, and in character-specific masks that the cast made themselves.
Each of these choices gives the show a very different tone. What do you want your audience to see? Or, perhaps more importantly, what skills do you want to teach to your cast?
And click here for a downloadable PDF on Getting Physical with Character Development. An excellent start to this unique play!
We had a student at the end come up with an idea----Well rounded was writing little notes to the other characters throughout and leaving them with them, and at the end she leaves the last with lost love....then as she leaves lost love starts to read it, the others slowly see this and read theirs and at the end each of them are individually in the midst of different levels of losing their emotional baggage or deciding to. It was very powerful....
Our process was putting beats to the action described in the script. We found 35 beats that turned into light and sound cues. From there we practiced memorizing the order of the play. Students would literally talk through the actions in order before rehearsing in the masks. We then made a sound track with Vivaldi's Four Seasons to practice movement in the masks. Costumes were introduced next along with rehearsal and production props. We did not have a live audience. The students responded very well to the level of work and in depth character study they had to comment to in order to produce this lovely expression of universal body language this whole world was experiencing through this pandemic.
Their biggest struggle, as middle school students, was believing something was heavy. We got weights from Five Below (8 and 10 pounds) and practiced with those before using the real props. Feel free to share that tip. It helped.
