Look Me in the Eye

Are you looking for plays for your Spanish students? These plays are available for productions or classwork and all have relatable and relevant themes, with modest technical requirements. Perfect for student performers!

Here at Theatrefolk, we’re big on cross-curricular opportunities for students. We’ve got lots of cross-curricular plays, as well as exercises for students to try, such as A Picture Tells a Thousand Words, Writing Your Research and Speeches From History. Global citizenship is applicable to so many different subjects. It touches on real-life topics and issues that are current and important to students. As we mentioned in our introductory post about global citizenship, the goal of global citizenship is to celebrate our diverse cultures while encouraging students to take ownership of their voices and use them to make positive changes for the future. Using dramatic techniques and resources taught in the drama classroom helps students make these big topics and issues more manageable and accessible. Read on for some suggestions for including global citizenship-related topics and exercises in your drama classes and rehearsals. Social Studies / Humanities• Research local performance groups from different ethnic or cultural backgrounds and take your students to see them perform. Arrange for performers from these groups to come and teach a workshop for your students in their style of performance. • Research stories/legends/fairy tales from different nations (perhaps from your students’ various cultural backgrounds). Have students summarize the stories and present them in a series of narrated tableau scenes. • Have students create their own myth, legend, or morality tale to teach a lesson about being a positive global citizen. Have students write a scene (or series of scenes) that they could present for students at an elementary school. Science / Environmental Studies• Go green for your next production, and challenge yourself and your students: • To use e-copies of scripts/scores rather than printing out paper copies. • To use and re-purpose only props and costumes that already exist within your stocks or students’ own homes – no new purchases. • To figure out low-energy alternatives for lighting and sound that use reduced electricity – perhaps performing outdoors using natural light, and found objects/foley sound effects/acoustic instruments instead of electronic sound effects. • To produce only e-programs that audience members can read on their phones. • To sell concession items in reusable or recyclable packaging (or, hygiene permitting, without packaging at all) and have appropriate recycling bins available for waste. Politics• Have students research recent a political movement or event (locally, nationally, or globally) and challenge them to create and perform three short scenes: • A dramatic presentation of the event (such as a news report, or a re-creation of the event using mime or tableau), • A scene showing what might happen if the event continues on the way it’s currently going, and • A scene showing what could happen if the event goes in a different way. • Read plays (or scenes from plays) with your students that feature politically-charged or issue-based topics, such as Look Me in the Eye, Power Play, or Virtual Family (all available from Theatrefolk!) Challenge your students to make connections between the issues that arise in these plays and issues that are currently occurring in the real world. What are the similarities and differences? • Brainstorm with your students different ways that drama and theatre can be used to raise awareness and/or money for various issues or specific charities (for example, staging a production of Matilda: The Musical with a portion of the ticket sales going to a charity that promotes children’s literacy, or creating an information packet with resources for mental health and teen suicide prevention to accompany a production of Heathers: The Musical). Your students will have many other ideas for theatrical exercises and activities that promote global citizenship. Encourage them to share their thoughts and ideas on how they can use their voices to create change in their community, and eventually work towards making the world a more equal, fair, and sustainable place.

In the haunting, futuristic tale Look Me in the Eye by Lindsay Price, good behaviour comes at a price. Teenagers in the future are obedient, polite, and respectful. This is due in large part to the government-required “Observation Sessions.” But there is a dark underside to this utopian vision. After learning her brother is scheduled to be “observed,” one of the most obedient students starts to question the system. She must decide whether to remain obedient or speak out and face the consequences. Led by Monika Rzezniczek , along with student director, Amanda Lok , the performers at Dr. Norman Bethune Collegiate Institute in Toronto, Ontario made their production of this haunting, harrowing tale a completely student-led and driven success. “This spring one of my senior classes entered Look Me in the Eye by Lindsay Price in the local festival. It is my first year teaching Drama and I took a big risk because the students at our school have never performed a play, and therefore had no acting or production experience. They got a standing ovation at the festival and the student director won the festival’s Excellence in Directing Award, and one of the girls won an Excellence in Acting Award.” Student director, Amanda Lok, shared her thoughts on her directorial debut: “This play questions what makes us human. In it, we can identify our human characteristics, such as the courage to stand up and speak or challenge the tyrants in power. In this play you will meet five teenagers who live in a futuristic authoritarian society where people are afraid of the government and afraid to stand up and freely speak their minds. They are constantly under surveillance and crime is dealt with swiftly and in a terrifying way. Each character copes with this reality in a different way. Just as there are many different people in this world, there are many different ways people respond to situations. Some people find ways to benefit. Others become desensitized. Some relish in the violence. Some live in constant, agonizing fear. There are also some who struggle to deal with the morality of the situation and are willing to risk their lives to be oppose it. In this play, you will see all of those aspects of humanity. We hope this play makes you grateful for the freedoms you enjoy. We also hope it makes you empathize with those people around the world who do not have the same freedom.” Amazing job to the entire team at Dr. Norman Bethune Collegiate Institute! *Photo credit: Monika Rzezniczek and Steven Giang

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!

Episode 186: Production Case Study: Look Me In the Eye Where do you start with a play? How do you come up with a vision that spans across character development, light, sound, set, costuming? How do you execute on that vision? In this episode we have another production case study for our play Look Me In The Eye. If you’re a director, want to be a director, or want your students to learn about directing, this is the podcast for you.

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!

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays About…Dramas. Issue plays that don’t talk down to your students. Theatrical explorations of serious topics. Read one, read them all! 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! 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. Chemo Girl 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. Chicken. Road. Why did the chicken cross the road? Why is the sky blue? What’s two plus two? Why did he kill himself? A group of teenagers grapple with unanswered questions as they struggle to understand why someone who seemed to have it all would commit suicide. Have You Heard Everybody knows a secret. Some keep them quiet. Some let them loose. This monologue-based play 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? Upon a Sea of Dreams: A Journey on the Titanic An amazing character-based drama with a unique look at this infamous event. In a tiny third class cabin sisters plan for a new life in America. Suddenly the ship stops moving and sirens blast. The girls are told to stay in their cabin. Another passenger says the ship is sinking. The Waking Moment Julie would do anything to be just like her best friend Rhonda. She gets her wish when she wakes up one morning in Rhonda’s bed – but nobody seems to notice. Julie quickly realizes that Rhonda’s perfect world is actually a nightmare. Deals with sexual abuse. Anonymous 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. Discovering Rogue Rogue has the best beachfront property – right on the ocean. Her home is a cardboard box but she doesn’t mind. Others, though, mind very much. They want Rogue to leave the beach. Now. But Rogue isn’t just running away from home; she’s running away from herself. Breathless – Three girls named Summer. Three races of discovery. Will they crash or fly? A beautiful character piece with strong female leads. Clowns With Guns (A Vaudeville) – A theatrical and absurd look at the repeated and seemingly endless cycle of school violence. This story is mean. There are guns. BONUS! NEW DramaThe Blue and the Grey – Charlie is surrounded by ghosts: her father, a classmate’s sister, and the grey. Haunting, exhilarating, theatrical. Planning on performing one of these or another Theatrefolk play? Let us know all about it with pictures and highlights – we might even feature you on our site! Click here to submit your story.

Naming characters. It’s something that I take very seriously as a playwright. Some might say a little too seriously, as I spend an hour on a baby name website instead of actually, you know, writing. But I can’t help it. If the name’s not right, then the character doesn’t start talking and if the character doesn’t start talking how on earth can I write for them? I like my character names to mean something. Even if it’s just a private inside meaning for me. I like looking at the core of the character or a defined character trait and basing the name off of that. I like giving characters cultural names. I like giving names to ensemble/group characters so that the actor isn’t just playing “Number Three” they have a place. They have a home base. Names are a big part of my process, part of how I learn about the characters, how I move them through out the play. A example of this is in Sweep Under Rug. The two girls in the play have specifically chosen names from Shakespeare’s The Tempest: Miranda and Ariel. This is their mother’s favourite play. Their mother, who we never meet, is not in a good state. It is suggested that she is a complete failure, a mess. It is also suggested that because she’s poor she is unable to rise about her situation, she can only learn so much. But I wanted to show (in a very subtle way, and perhaps only known to me) that indeed the mother is more than what she is assumed to be by what she named her daughters. So as I said, baby name websites are the bomb. Here’s one.And another. And a third. These have every name you could ever possibly think of. And they often tell you what the name means, a great bonus. Further to that, say you have a character of a certain nationality, you can look up the top ten names from that country. Want a French name? Here you go. If you want a character with a very popular trendy name, you can look that up too. You can look up cultural surnames. Last names are important. They can add another layer to the onion that is your character. In Floating On a Don’t Care CloudI knew I wanted the over-achieving Mya to come from a historically immigrant family and thus not have a standard North American or English name. She ended up as Mya Savakis. Creating a name that goes with theme of your play can be a way into the naming process. In Censorbleep, there are five girls who represent the idea of being clean, and pretty and perfect to the point of being robots. So all their names are all simple, they sound the same and rhyme in a robotic fashion: Mandy, Tandy, Randy, Sandy, Candy. The most fun plays to create names for are those that exist a little left to reality. You don’t need to be bound by that reality. But where do you start? I often look at the primary drive/trait of the character and either look up that word in another language (Google Translate is awesome for that). For example: let’s say I have a character who is brave and I plunk that word into Google translate to change “brave” from English to Spanish. The Spanish word for brave is Valiente which is ok, BUT, in the adjective list there is also Esforzado. When I look at that word, I see the end part “Zado” which I think is an awesome name. I like it so much I might have to come up with a character with that name. Hmmm. Another thing I might do is simply take the word in question and pick out a section in the middle of that word. InLook Me In the Eye, all of the character sames are plucked from the words that make up their core: • VIO comes from Violence • FEA comes from Fear • RUL comes from Rules • REA comes from Reality • TOR comes from History In _Beauty and the Bee _there is a chorus of 10 life-sized bees. They represent the “buzzing” in different characters’ brains. So instead of numbering the bees, they each have a name that has been fragmented from words that mean to think and things that happen in the brain: • COGI – first part of cogitate (means to think) • REVE – french word for dream • MARE – tail end of nightmare • RUMI – first part of Rumination, to ponder • BEAN – is another word for brain And then sometimes it’s as simple as finding the name that sounds the best. I want this character to have a three syllable first name and a hyphenated last name. I want this character to have a quick, blunt name. I want this character to have a funky sounding nickname. I want there to be some alliteration – the main character in Jealousy Jane was easy to come up with because there are only so many one syllable names that begin with J. And I also wanted something a little plain so that she could be jealous of her sister with the “pretty” name.

This week on Spread the Love, Craig talks about Look Me in the Eye, a futuristic drama by Lindsay Price.

Our website lists all of our plays with social issue themes but it struck me that they’re only lumped as “issue plays” without a good guide to sorting out which title addresses which issue. So I’ve categorized them for you to hopefully give you a helping hand in your quest to find the perfect script for your school. Check them out. As usual, all of the titles have extensive free sample pages for you to read. I think you’ll find the writing honest, fresh, and believable – three qualities sadly lacking from a lot of “teen-issue” plays out there in the world. Alienation / Feeling Alone in the World• Anonymous by Allison Green • The Art of Rejection: Two One Act Plays by Christian Kiley • A Box of Puppies by Billy Houck • Constantly, Incessantly, All The Time by Billy Houck • Huge Hands by Billy Houck Body Image• Body Body by Lindsay Price • The Four Hags of the Apocalypse Eat Salad at their General Meeting by Lindsay Price • The Battle of Image vs. Girl by Johanna Skoreyko • Hoodie by Lindsay Price • Breathless by Wendy-Marie Martin Censorship• Censorbleep by Lindsay Price Human Rights• Look Me in the Eye by Lindsay Price • Sweep Under Rug by Lindsay Price Racism• Flaky Lips by Lindsay Price • With Liberty and Justice For All by Jeyna Lynn Gonzales • Not Going Anywhere by Emma Fonseca Halverson • The Burgundy Letter by Kirk Shimano • Let Me In by Sholeh Wolpe *** Rumours and Lies• Have You Heard? by Krista Boehnert • The Redemption of Gertie Greene by Taryn Temple Individuality• Hoodie by Lindsay Price • Virtual Family by Christian Kiley • The Happiness Shop by Lindsay Price • A Deep, Poetic Journey Into Something by Forrest Musselman • Carrying the Calf by Shirley Barrie • Monster Problems by Lindsay Price • Stereotype High by Jeffrey Harr • Sixteen in 10 Minutes or Less by Bradley Hayward • Nice Girl by Amanda Murray Cutalo • Pressure by Lindsay Price • They Eat Sunshine, Not Zebras by Dara Murphy • The Super Non-Heroes by Taryn Temple • Smarty Pants by Bradley Hayward Identity• Box by Lindsay Price • Labeled by Lindsay Price • We Are Masks by Lindsay Price • Stressed by Alan Haehnel • Anonymous by Allison Green • Constantly, Incessantly, All The Time by Billy Houck • The Super Non-Heroes by Taryn Temple School Violence• Huge Hands by Billy Houck • Power Play by Lindsay Price • Clowns with Guns (A Vaudeville) by Christopher Evans • The Butterfly Queen by Christian Kiley • Life and Death in an Empty Hallway by Christopher Evans • Water. Gun. Argument. by Alan Haehnel Sexual Abuse• The Waking Moment by Bradley Hayward • Breathless by Wendy-Marie Martin Substance (alcohol & drug) Abuse• Bottle Baby by Lindsay Price • Floating on a Don’t Care Cloud by Lindsay Price • One Beer Too Many by Billy Houck Suicide• The Bright Blue Mailbox Suicide Note by Lindsay Price • Chicken. Road. by Lindsay Price • The Butterfly Queen by Christian Kiley Teen Pregnancy• The Pregnancy Project by Lindsay Price • Among Friends and Clutter (one scene) by Lindsay Price Illness/Health• Chemo Girl by Christian Kiley • The Other Room by Christian Kiley • Red Rover by Christian Kiley • Waiting Room by Christian Kiley • Breathless by Wendy-Marie Martin • Shreds and Patches by Robert Wing • Inanimate by Christian Kiley • Constantly, Incessantly, All The Time by Billy Houck Depression/Anxiety• darklight by Lindsay Price • Fidget by Bradley Hayward • Among Friends and Clutter (one scene) by Lindsay Price • Constantly, Incessantly, All The Time by Billy Houck • who are we, who we are by Forrest Musselman Bullying• Finishing Sentences by Scott Giessler • Funhouse by Lindsay Price • Power Play by Lindsay Price • The Redemption of Gertie Greene by Taryn Temple • Sixteen in 10 Minutes or Less by Bradley Hayward • Carrying the Calf by Shirley Barrie Divorce• Split by Bradley Hayward Gender• Life, Off Book by Scott Giessler • Anonymous by Allison Green • Baalzebub by Rachel Atkins (Baalzebub – One-Act Version here) • Completely, Absolutely Normal: Vignettes About LGBTQ+ Teens by Bradley Walton • Finding Jo March by Laramie Dean • Thought Traps by Lindsay Price Empathy• Discovering Rogue by Christian Kiley • Boat by Lindsay Price • We Are Masks by Lindsay Price • The Butterfly Queen by Christian Kiley Dependence on Technology• Virtual Family by Christian Kiley • Inanimate by Christian Kiley

I went to the Georgia State Thespian Conference earlier this month, and recorded a podcast about my workshop experiences. I was also thrilled to meet a couple of cast members from the Newton High School production of Look Me In The Eye. They asked me to sign copies of their poster for the cast, which I was more than happy to do.