Power Play

*Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. * Power Play by Lindsay Price is a dramatic play for your high school performers that is sure to evoke discussion and dialogue. A gunshot is heard. Which of the five characters did it and why? Was it the Goth girl? The football star? The super-intelligent geek? High school violence is a hot media topic, but it is too often simplistically portrayed by putting teens into tidy categories and pointing at the outsider. Power Play explores the realities and the stereotypes of high school violence – not just the brutal shock of the school shooting, but also verbal harassment and bullying. Violence is about power. So is high school. NOTE: This play requires the onstage appearance of a gun. Why did we publish this play? This play has absurd moments, vivid characterization, and a powerful message: school violence happens everyday and as the title suggests, it’s all about power. It’s a topic that needs to be talked about, and theatre is a great way to initiate that conversation. This is one of our more graphic plays because you can’t whitewash or dumb down violence, though many administrators would like to. We have many plays that we’re happy to adjust lines or cut lines but I knew from the beginning that this play would have to stand as is. Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? Violence, all types, physical, verbal and emotional is prevalent in school environments – it happens every day. I wanted to not only show characters going through it but how they deal with it. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. Violence is about power. So is high school. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? The contrast between the intense realism between the five characters and the exaggerated absurd nature of the presentation moments. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Don’t forget the humour. No one wants to watch intense anger or sobbing, or yelling for 30 minutes straight. Dramas need variety and humour is the way to set up your intense moments for the most dramatic impact. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? It’s an unfortunately, relatable and current topic. The play also gives students the opportunity to do some really detailed character and physical action work.

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.

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?

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays For…Small Casts. Sometimes you need something small. Not everyone needs the cast of thousands. Or maybe you have so many great students, you want to give a group something substantial to work on. All of these plays are one acts and call for a cast of 5 or less. 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! Better Than the Movie Cast Size: 3 First dates can be the worst or the best. Especially when you’re on a date with the guy or girl of your dreams. Will the giant soda cause bladder issues? Will the Heimlich manoeuvre be needed over a popcorn kernel? Will the guy in the back ruin everything? Ellenalicemonajune Cast Size: 4 Ellen, Alice, Mona, and June share those uncomfortable truths that only close friends can tell each other, particularly regarding a boyfriend who wears red leather pants. A great character piece for four actresses. Flaky Lips Cast Size: 2 Two young women live in separated societies. One skin colour on this side. One skin colour on that side. They have never seen what the other looks like, until circumstances throw them together. A small cast but a challenging acting opportunity. Carrying The Calf Cast Size: 4 A teenager fed-up with being bullied drags her reluctant friend to a self-defence class. But more important than the karate training, the instructor challenges the group to find self-confidence, independence, and to choose their own destiny. Diverse roles. Prom Night Cast Size: 3 An unlikely pair meet in the woods – the uncool Catholic girl and the linebacker Prom King. Neither wanted to go to prom and neither wanted to be with their dates. Truth and secrets come out in this gem of a small cast play. Power Play Cast Size: 5 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. Stressed Cast Size: 4 Stress is driving this quartet of teen characters crazy – so much so they can’t stop talking about it. This play is a symphony of sound and character. Little Nell and the Mortgage Foreclosure Cast Size: 5 A delightful small cast melodrama replete with broad comedy, memorable characters, and plenty of booing and hissing for the stovepipe-hat-wearing villain! Master of Puppets Cast Size: 3 Mrs Slattimore speaks to teen couples about communication. She wants Joanie to see she wears bossy pants and Chuck already has a mom. Soom the big guns have to come out – Truth puppets. That’s right, puppets who tell all. Underneath Cast Size: 5 Brittany is depressed and can’t hide it. Echo is excited but doesn’t want anyone to know. Trina has a secret and she wants to tell the world. It’s hard to keep emotions clamped down, even in winter. The snow is piling up as secrets rise to the surface. Need more? Check out some of these additional options too!Mummu Cast Size: 4 Mummu is here to bring you a story. A good story with a great emotional landscape. Even deities who exist on an eternal plane don’t have time for bad theatre. Franz Kafka Cancels His Cell Phone Plan Cast Size: 5 A modern absurdist play that puts elements from three of Franz Kafka’s works into the context of the everyday absurdities of our 21st century lives. Hamlette Cast Size: 5 Hamlet is played by a girl in this twisty-turny comedic interpretation of the classic Danish tale. Sweep Under Rug Cast Size: 5 In the future the issue of poverty is solved through separation and subserviance. A teen causes trouble simply because she wants to better herself.

Episode 76: Drama Teacher Guru Gai JonesGai Jones decided in the 5th grade that she wanted to be a theatre educator and she has been impacting teachers and students for over 40 years. She may be retired but she hasn’t slowed down. Gai travels on average to 20 states each year adjudicating, teaching workshops and fundraising for student theatre scholarships. In this podcast she talks about her drama in education journey, how she dealt with being a one man teaching band, how she empowered her students, how you can be an arts advocate, and her top tips for theatre teachers.

Episode 75: Create a Theatrical Vision: Teacher Annie LoffredoTeacher Annie Loffredo equates being a drama teacher with being an artist. She loves being able to put on shows year after year and inspiring her students because she was so inspired when she was in high school. She talks about how she creates a vision for a play, conveys that vision to students and executes a vision through production.

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