Ten / Two

*Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. * Ten / Two by Lindsay Price is a collection of short ten minute plays for two people that is excellent for classwork or competition. This collection is a drama teacher’s dream! Ten short two-person plays (inspired by the numbers 10 and 2!) in a variety of themes and lengths. The plays can to be performed as a group or individually. More flexibility than you’ll ever need. Over three million combinations! Why did we publish this play? We wanted a connected scene book – the plays in Ten / Two can be performed individually or together for a full evening of theatre. You could have an entire class working on individual scenes and then put all of the scenes together. The collection is also ideal for student directors because each play is a contained piece. Why is this play great for online performances? The framework of the Ten / Two duets will transfer well to an online platform. Each individual play only requires two actors and there are no scene changes within scenes. 1. Why did you write this collection of plays? I love writing challenges – and to write a whole collection for two actors, that were basically ten minutes in length and explored the concept of Ten and Two in the content of the scene was a fun one! 2. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? These plays are all about relationships. Some of them new, some of them well ingrained. Focus on the characters: why they are together, and what they want from each other. 3. Why is this play great for student performers? The scenes focus on two characters in a specific, vivid moment. That’s great for students to explore! Get your copy of _Ten / Two _right here, right now!Not right for your group right now? Search our play catalogue to find one that your performers will love!

Not all successful productions require a large cast. As part of Ten/Two, a collection of plays for two actors by Lindsay Price, Ms. Spitspot’s Spick and Span Play Place is a fun comedy about a germophobic children’s entertainer. On the eve of cancellation, Ms. Spitspot clings to her TV show persona. Want to find out more about her story? Download the free sample pages! Director – and Theatrefolk playwright – Jeffrey Harr was happy to share the success of his talented group of student performers from Roosevelt High School in Kent, OH: “Just wanted to share a few photos of the kids from Ms. Spitspot. The kids were awesome and the play was great. We were all a little surprised by the emotional punch it packs at the end when Ms. Spitspot and Swab hang it up for good. When the rest of the casts saw it for the first time, they weren’t ready for how moving it was after laughing so hard.” Great job, Roosevelt High School! *Photo credit: Jeffrey Harr

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays For….Classroom Production. Are you putting on a play with your class? Do you need flexible casting? Do you need ensemble driven works? Material that’s easy to stage? A show that can actually be rehearsed in a class period? We’ve got plays just for you! Click the link and you’ll be taken to the webpage for each play. There you’ll get the details and read sample pages. Hand this list over to your student directors and see what they think. All the best with your search! Mmmbeth Your class will have a blast with this one. So much fun to do as it takes a twisty turning and gender bending look at the Scottish play. A great piece to teach comic timing to your students. Large flexible casting! Ten/Two Ten plays for two actors. The plays can be performed individually or all together for a full evening of theatre. Excellent for the classroom. This collection is ideal for student directors because each play is a contained piece. Box How do middle schoolers deal with perception? A middle school vignette play with great small scene and monologue opportunities. Flexible casting and it can be run entirely within class time. Anxiety is Orange This play is all about colour. Join the characters as they navigate the world, each other, and the greens, greys, blues, reds, pinks, yellows, and oranges around them. Does orange make you anxious? Vignette plays are awesome for class projects. Everyone gets one scene to perfect. Everyone can be rehearsing at the same time and not waiting around. Myth-O-Logues Pick and choose from this must-have collection of greek mythology inspired monologues. In this play everyone gets a monologue and an ancient greek character to present. Students practice a necessary theatrical form and get cross-curricular! The Perils of Modern Education Got student directors? Give each one a scene to develop in this vignette play. A comedic romp through the stresses and struggles of making it through the school day. The Perils of Modern Education are many! Gender flexible casting, doubling possibilities, and easy to stage. The Bottom of the Lake An awesome combination of ghost stories, urban legends, teen issues, romance, absurd comedy, and film noir, all in a single play. Because this play is divided into scenes, everyone can work at the same time. betweenity This vignette play explores the beats, pauses, and never-ending silences in conversation. An excellent class project play with parts for everyone , at all levels, and a great technique exploration. How do you act in a pause? Letters Have less time but need a class project? Try this Reader’s Theatre play about war. For many wars, letters home were the only form of communication between soldiers and their loved ones. Letters is thought-provoking and character-driven. It’s not hard to visualize these characters reaching out with pen and paper. Pandora’s Fire Everybody knows the story of Pandora. Her curiosity got the better of her and she is to blame for releasing all the ills into the world. But is that the whole story? Work on ensemble acting with your students with this great greek adaptation with a modern twist.

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays For….Student Directors. Do you have a student directing class? Do you have students who show a knack for taking charge and establishing vision? Then you need plays that are perfect for student directors to tackle. Think short, think active, think character driven. Think plays that can be accomplished from audition to performance within your class periods. Click the link and you’ll be taken to the webpage for each play. There you’ll get the details and read sample pages. Hand this list over to your student directors and see what they think. All the best with your search! Ten/Two Ten plays for two actors. The plays can be performed individually or all together for a full evening of theatre. Excellent for the classroom or competition. This collection is ideal for student directors because they’re contained. Two actors, a complete story from beginning to end with specific characters. Hamlette Imagine if you will that “Hamlet” was not “Hamlet” at all, but “Hamlette” – a woman! This play is a twisty-turny interpretation of the classic Danish tale. If you have a student director who wants to spread their comedic wings, try this piece. It requires a lot of physical action, so it’s more work than it seems on the page, but your students are up to the challenge, right? Hairball A light vignette play about our obsession with hair. I’d highly recommend this for starting directors. Because it’s short scenes based on a theme, it gives a student director something short to find success. You can divide the play up among a number of directors if you have a large class. Or take one scene and see how your directors tackle it. What are the similarities? What are the difference? Smarty Pants Dallas is a real smarty pants and can’t wait to show off. But he’s in for a shock. His new class is very different. This piece gives students directors a chance to explore both character and physical action. Rainbows vs Bunnies: Annihilation A talking bunny. A talking rainbow. Plus annihilation. This piece would be a lot of fun to direct, The challenge here is taking charge of a couple of large groups and staging. If you have students who need to improve their leadership skills as a director, this is the piece to do it. Will and Whimsy Shakespeare’s Sonnets come alive in this play where modern scenes play hand in hand with the original text. With this piece you have the combination of modern scenes and Shakespeare. If you have a student who wants to tackle the bard, give them this play first. Skid Marks: A play about Driving Your first car. Getting your license, Getting pulled over. The relationship between teen and car makes a great backdrop for this vignette play. Vignette plays are always a great place to start with student directors. Ten Minute Play Series (All Girls, Girls & Guys, Be Challenged) These plays offer everything from broad flat-out comedy to quiet, intimate drama. All the pieces have small casts, have modest set requirements and well defined characters. Your student directors will find something they love in one of these collections. EllenAliceMonaJune (in Malled) Ellen, Alice, Mona, and June share those uncomfortable truths that only close friends can tell each other. A lovely four actor piece that dives deep into character. If you have student directors who need to work on bringing out a three dimensional character in their actors, this is the piece. Anxiety is Orange Join the characters in this vignette play as they navigate the world, each other, and the greens, greys, blues, reds, pinks, yellows, and oranges around them. Give this play to one director or divide the scenes up among group of directors.

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays For….Scene Work. You want interesting scenes for your students. You want a variety of scenes for your students. You don’t want to do the same scenes over and over and over and over with your students. 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 Ten Minutes or Less This collection of 10 plays can be performed as an evening of theatre. Or it offers the perfect scene work collection for a class. Each short stands perfectly well on it’s own without any prior knowledge of the characters. Ten/Two Ten plays for two actors. All the plays are easy for students to self direct and self block. Have a group larger than twenty, double up on the scenes and seen how different groups interpret the same material. Chemo Girl and Other Plays A collection of plays that examine the impact of cancer as seen through the eyes of teenagers. Each scene can stand alone which means you can have a full class all working on their scenes at the same time. An excellent project if you want to present a cross-curricular aspect to a scene unit. How can cancer be theatricalized? Close Encounters of the Undead Kind This collection has three short plays filled with unique characters. Most of which are vampires, zombies, and others of the undead variety. Have a class of beginners? Divide the plays up so that groups are dealing with smaller chunks within the larger piece. Ten Minute Play Series: All Girls Need scenes with all girls? We’ve got you covered. One of our most popular scenes comes from this collection. It shows Juliet and Ophelia in the afterlife. And they are NOT happy. C’mon and Dance What about students that struggle with lines or perhaps are learning English as a second language. Give them a non-verbal scene to work on. This piece fits the bill perfectly. Will and Whimsy: Sixteen Dramatically Illustrated Sonnets of Shakespeare Want to combine scene work with Shakespeare, but you’re not ready to tackle the bard in the original language? This is a wonderful collection of scenes that illustrates the themes in 16 of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Scene-Speare: Shakespearean Scenes for Student Actors But what if you are ready to tackle Shakespeare? This scenes are already cut down for class use and offer vocabulary help, character questions, and story specifics. A perfect place to start with students. Competition Scenes: Duets Want a collection of duet scenes that come from published plays? Use them for individual event competitions, use them in your classroom. The Middle School Scene Book And just to take care of our middle school folks. Here’s a collection of scenes that come from published plays just for middle school students. We got you covered. Image credit: Rockdale County High School (Conyers, Georgia) production of Will and Whimsy by Alan Haehnel. Directed by Dave DiPietro.

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays For…All Girls! You have an abundance of girls in your program and you want good parts for everyone. With all of these plays either all the characters are girls or gender-flexible. 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! Ten Minute Plays: All Girls Juliet and Ophelia in the afterlife. An eggplant in a bridesmaid dress. Seeing the light about your best friend and then joining the Slow Songs Make Me Puke Club. A collection of short plays with interesting, engaging, and vivid parts for girls. Every one is a winner. Just Girls Talking What starts as a meeting to finalize frivolous graduation ceremony details ends with one young woman faced with a life-changing decision. Five girls on five different paths hit head-on in a collision of values that leaves the viewer asking: What would I do? Nice Girl Mia does her friends’ homework, lets people cut in line and pretends to be someone she’s not. Being nice requires a lot of sacrifice and frustration. Mia reaches her breaking point as she tries to find the balance between being her true self and being “the nice girl.” Typecast Ms Thespis casts by look and personality – the students are okay with their set roles. Until one show when Ms. Thespis is away and all the girls are cast against type. They’re forced to learn to play the roles they’re totally wrong for. Smarty Pants All the parts in this play are gender neutral with names provided. Dallas can’t wait to show off in her new Advanced Placement class. But there’s more Play-doh than Plato and more colouring than Van Gogh. What kind of advanced class is this? Will Dallas figure out Kindergarten High or will she flunk? Who’s the real smarty pants? Flaky Lips 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 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. They Eat Sunshine, Not Zebras All the parts are gender neutral in this look at conformity and individuality through the metaphor of grass and a single dandelion. A dandelion will turn the field upside-down. A dandelion must be destroyed. Isn’t that what you do when something is different? Virtual Family In the Virtual Family, you don’t need to go outside, or do chores, or even have a real family. When technology takes away all your ills, conflicts, and concerns, you become a happier human being. Right? All the roles are gender neutral. Ten/Two Ten short two-person plays (inspired by the numbers 10 and 2!) in a variety of themes and lengths. Excellent for classwork and for competition. 8 of the 10 plays are either for 2 women or have “either” characters.

Radio plays are theatrical performances that are purely auditory; they’re meant to be performed on the radio, hence the name! There is no visual aspect, so performers must rely on their vocal performances as well as sound effects and music to convey the story to the audience. Radio plays are fantastic for students to practice and develop many performance skills like projection, diction, and using emotion, without the pressure of actually getting up and performing in front of others. It also gives students the opportunity to creatively work with playwriting, selecting appropriate music, and creating sound effects. The following exercise gives students the chance to create their own radio play using a children’s story as the source material. They will then have the opportunity to perform their play for the rest of the class (either a live or pre-recorded performance). Click below for a four class Lesson Plan version of the exercise! Pre-Assignment: Play examples of radio plays for students. This will reinforce for students that all storytelling aspects have to be oral – there are no visuals! You should also look for some examples of radio play script formatting. It’s a different medium than a regular stage play. 1. Selecting the Source Material Students will form groups of 4-6. In their groups, students will select a children’s story to adapt into a radio play. 2. Writing the Play Students will adapt the children’s story into a script. Remind students to follow the radio play script formatting. Many radio plays use a narrator to set the tone of the story, switch between scenes (“Meanwhile, back at the ranch…”), and to keep the action going between character’s lines. Focus on creating really clear, strong, descriptive lines by using adjectives and “sense” words (sight, smell, taste, touch, sound) to set the mood. For example: • “Jessica sauntered into the room in a shimmering green evening gown.” • “The scent of freshly-baked cinnamon cookies made Mike’s mouth water.” • “A frightened Kyle peeked out the window to see a tall, sinister-looking man skulking around the garbage cans.” • “The wolf grinned menacingly, revealing a huge set of glistening-white, razor-sharp teeth.” 3. Choosing Appropriate Music and Sound Effects Students will choose at least 3 clips of music (one for the beginning of the piece, one for a significant part of the middle of the piece, and one for the end) to use in the play, as well as at least 5 sound effects. These sound effects can be found online or in a sound effects library, or they can be created live. Students must ensure that the music and sound effects are appropriate for the scene while not overpowering the vocal performances. 4. Casting and Rehearsing the Play Students will each take a role in the play and develop an appropriate character voice for their part, focusing on clear diction and enunciation, and showing emotion. Remember that there’s no visuals, they have only their voice to work with. Students should rehearse their roles so they are comfortable and familiar with their words. Performances do not have to be off-book, but will be MUCH easier if students are well-rehearsed. NOTE: If there are not enough roles to go around, one student can be solely in charge of performing the sound effects, or the narrator role should be split up. Alternatively, students can adapt their play to include more characters. 5. Performing the Piece Students have two options to perform the piece: LIVE: Students will perform the piece live, in front of the rest of the class. The rest of the class will face away from the performers while they are presenting, so the group cannot use visual clues to tell the story. Music and sound effects will be performed as part of the presentation, either performed live or by utilizing prepared music and sound effects (on a computer, CD player, or MP3 player). PRE-RECORDED: Most cell phones come with an audio recorder, or students can create their performance using a microphone and audio recording software on their computers (like Audacity or Adobe Audition). Music and sound effects will be performed during the recording, either performed live or by utilizing prepared music and sound effects. The recorded performance will be brought to the class and played for the rest of the class to listen to.

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten For…Our Most Popular Plays! Sometimes you want a sure thing. So this week we offer our most popular plays. These are the works that get done time and time again whether it’s because of their subject matter, their humour, their ease of production or their unique theatrical take. 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! Hoodie Hoodie examines image and appearance in the vignette style and poses what may be the most difficult question of all – Do I stay in the clump or do I stand alone? Sixteen in Ten Minutes Or Less The lives of seven teenagers become intertwined in this humorous and oftentimes bittersweet collection of ten minute plays. Alice Alice follows the white rabbit down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, where she meets a cornucopia of strange creatures. A one-act adaptation of the famous novel by Lewis Carroll. Shuddersome: Tales of Poe The thumping of a heartbeat. The creek of a door. The sound of beating wings getting closer and closer… Specters, ghosts and ghouls come alive in this vivid theatrical adaptation of some of Edgar Allen Poe’s best-known works. Ten/Two Ten short two-person plays (inspired by the numbers 10 and 2!) in a variety of themes and lengths. Excellent for classwork and for competition. Drop Dead, Juliet Juliet has had enough! Enough with the poison, enough with the stabbing, and especially enough with the dying. She wants a new story and she wants it now. _ Romeo and Juliet_ will never be the same – or will it? The Absolutely Insidious and Utterly Terrifying Truth About Cat Hair Cat hair is infinite. It is the secret driving force behind business and politics, and is plotting the downfall of humanity even as we speak. Unbelievable? Find out for yourself in this hilarious, insidious and utterly terrifying tale… Emotional Baggage Seven strangers meet in a train station. Instead of luggage, they all carry their “emotional baggage.” This unique play is based solely on action and has no dialogue. The Bottom of the Lake An awesome combination of ghost stories, urban legends, teen issues, romance, absurd comedy, and film noir, all in a single play! Apostrophe’s Are you sometime’s amazed at how many apostrophe’s s’ome people manage to fi’t into s’entence’s? Then you’re not the only one. That’s just the problem that needs to be solved in this outrageous comedy. 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.

This week we spread the Love for Ten/Two, a collection of Ten Plays for Two Actors, all inspired by the numbers Ten and Two.