They Eat Sunshine, Not Zebras

As we start thinking about ideas for next year's season, why not dive headfirst into the entertaining world of plays featuring animals in their titles? So many creative opportunities and endless possibilities for your student performers to bring these captivating characters to life. These plays are designed to help you unleash the magic that celebrates the wild spirit of storytelling. Perfect options to grace your stage or classroom next year!

March 8th is International Women’s Day – and what better time to highlight some amazing women within the Theatrefolk community. Join us in celebrating these phenomenal playwrights and authors and their incredible contributions to the world of student theatre. Plus, keep reading to see our Top 10 Plays for Female Casts at the end of the post! Rachel Atkins • Baalzebub (and One Act Version)

The large-cast, gender-neutral play, They Eat Sunshine, Not Zebras by Dara Murphy, demonstrates that nothing stands in the way of green grass. A great ensemble piece that can lead to important discussions. The field believes in uniformity. Lovely rows of blades all the same height. Lovely rows of blades exhibiting standard behaviour of green grassness. Nothing stands in the way of their orderly life. Until they wake up one morning to see a yellow dandelion in their midst. Sunny (that’s the dandelion) is bright and warm and just wants to be friends. The field wants nothing to do with her nonstandard, non-green ways. A dandelion will turn their orderly way of life upside-down. A dandelion must be destroyed. Isn’t that what you do when something is different? Monica Andrews and the incredibly talented drama group at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, Florida challenged themselves to step out of their shells and go beyond the expected – much to the delight of audiences and students alike. We’re so thrilled that they shared their experience – and some amazing photos – of their journey with us: “I selected this show to highlight the talents of both our performers and design team. As a director, I had always done lighthearted comedy one-acts and wanted to challenge myself as well as our students with a piece that sent a message about our society. I believe They Eat Sunshine Not Zebras allowed our students to expand upon their theatrical skills and to grow (pun intended) as story-tellers. Our audiences loved it and students found it very rewarding. We are presenting this production at our upcoming District Thespian Festival and hope the judges love the show as much as our audiences did at our school.”

*Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. * They Eat Sunshine, Not Zebras by Dara Murphy takes the expected and turns it upside-down. The field believes in uniformity. Lovely rows of blades all the same height. Lovely rows of blades exhibiting standard behaviour of green grassness. Nothing stands in the way of their orderly life. Until they wake up one morning to see a yellow dandelion in their midst. Sunny (that’s the dandelion) is bright and warm and just wants to be friends. The field wants nothing to do with her nonstandard, non-green ways. A dandelion will turn their orderly way of life upside-down. A dandelion must be destroyed. Isn’t that what you do when something is different? Why did we publish this play? Dara Murphy loves looking at the dark side of life, always with a twist of humour. We love that about her writing. Also, personification is a must at the high school level. It’s one of the best ways to get students out of their shells to take on a character that just doesn’t exist in real life. Personification is one of my favourite theatrical techniques. Who doesn’t want to see talking grass? Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? When I was younger, my family owned a cabin in BC and we would visit fairly often. It had a large yard and every summer my mom and I would spend time pulling out dandelions. After digging up flower after flower, I started to feel bad for the dandelions. I thought the yellow flowers were pretty. I wondered why some plants were labeled weeds and some plants weren’t. Another part of me found the job tedious. Why spend time digging out healthy plants? Who was I to decide if they could live or die? I started to daydream about the dandelions and what their characters might be like. I ended up writing a short story about them, and eventually I adapted that story into this play. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. This play is a comment on the fear and misunderstanding that can occur when someone different moves into a community. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? I see a field of grass standing perfectly at one uniform height. The threat of the lawnmower has caused the blades of grass to continuously strive for order and perfection. Then I see Sunny, the funky, yellow dandelion. Sunny is an individual who is different in many ways. The field glares at Sunny and does its best to make Sunny feel completely unwelcome. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? The field of grass should be very lively and active. Instead of just waiting for lines, actors can mumble, cheer, shout out, and gossip about what’s going on. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? I think this play is great for a lot of reasons! • It has a large cast, gender doesn’t matter, and every character gets a moment to shine. • If there are students who don’t want lines, they can still join in as blades of grass and have fun reacting with the rest of the field. • The actors are on stage for the entire time, so there are opportunities for students to learn about ensemble acting. • The costumes and the set can be simple, yet there is a lot of room for creativity. • The theme is topical and this could lead to important discussions.

What happens when the orderly way of life gets turned upside down? Find out in the perfect comedy for high school and middle school students, They Eat Sunshine, Not Zebras by Dara Murphy. The field believes in uniformity. Lovely rows of blades all the same height. Lovely rows of blades exhibiting standard behaviour of green grassness. Nothing stands in the way of their orderly life. Until they wake up one morning to see a yellow dandelion in their midst. Sunny (that’s the dandelion) is bright and warm and just wants to be friends. The field wants nothing to do with her nonstandard, non-green ways. A dandelion will turn their orderly way of life upside-down. A dandelion must be destroyed. Isn’t that what you do when something is different? Under the direction of Tammy Roth , the talented student actors at Morris Area High School in Morris, MN were able to immerse themselves in the story line and deliver a powerful message to cast members and audience alike: “They Eat Sunshine, Not Zebras is a wonderful play to do with beginning actors! The story sends a message that is applicable to all from elementary age to adults. After casting the students were pleasantly surprised to know that they wouldn’t be dressed as a flat cutout blade of grass but as characters wearing green steampunk punk fashion. Sending a subtle message that even grass with a creative alternative lifestyle has conformity. There are many genres a director could choose from to convey this message.”

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays For….Gender Flexible Roles. Sometimes you have more girls than guys. Once in a while you have more guys than girls. And sometimes you have students who want to choose their own path. You want to give all your students an opportunity to take the stage but how do you account for your ever changing mix? Click the link and you’ll be taken to the webpage for each play. There you’ll get the details and read sample pages. Every play gives you gender-fluid options. All the best with your search! Smarty Pants (8E) All the characters in this play can be played by the gender of your choice. Name options included. Dallas is a real smarty pants but there’s more Play-doh than Plato and more colouring than Van Gogh in this advanced placement class. Will Dallas figure out Kindergarten High or flunk? Apostrophe’s (13E) Playwright Bradley Hayward knows how important it is to offer casting options. (He also wrote the above Smarty Pants) All the characters can be played by the gender of your choice. 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. The Absolutely Insidious and Utterly Terrifying Truth About Cat Hair (8E + ensemble) You can fit as many students as you need into this play. Cat Hair is infinite after all. No matter how much hair you brush off of a cat, there will always be more. Always. It is the secret driving force behind business and politics, and is plotting the downfall of humanity even as we speak. This play has a number of object personified roles as well which can be a great challenge for character development. They Eat Sunshine, Not Zebras (11E) Nothing stands in the way of the field’s orderly life. Until they wake up one morning to see a yellow dandelion in their midst. A dandelion will turn their orderly way of life upside-down. A dandelion must be destroyed. Isn’t that what you do when something is different? All characters can be played by either gender. Shuddersome: Tales of Poe (4M/5W/25E; Doubling possible, gender flexible) Specters, ghosts and ghouls come alive in this vivid theatrical adaptation of some of Edgar Allen Poe’s best-known works. The main characters in “The Tell Tale Heart” are specifically identified as “Young” and “Old” to make them as flexible as possible. And that’s just one story, feel free to change the genders in all the stories. Clowns With Guns (A Vaudeville) (16E) A theatrical and absurd look at the repeated and seemingly endless cycle of school violence. It happens, everyone is terribly upset, things continue on as normal, it happens again. All characters can be played by either gender. Inanimate (2W/16E) This play plays with personification and thus gives you a lot of gender flexibility. Life is a little different for Ani. She talks to her coffee pot and alarm clock. She even talks to her toaster. Is she living in a happy, carefree kids’ show or is it something more serious? What if you talk to inanimate objects and they talk back? What if they write hate texts to your friends? Try to control you? Make you stay inside with the blinds drawn and the lights turned down low? What if Ani’s life is not happy at all? Anonymous (1M/3W/15E) 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. The Perils of Modern Education (3M/19E) The Perils of Modern Education are many! From standardized theatre tests that call for an exact number of steps in a scene, to trying to eat green in the cafeteria, to dealing with caffeine withdrawal, to giving Shakespeare advice on his college application essay. A comedic romp through the stresses and struggles of making it through the school day. Gender flexible casting, doubling possibilities, and easy to stage. The Baloney, the Pickle, the Zombies, and Other Things I Hide From My Mother (1M/7W; Doubling possible) Together with his living baloney-minon, Meyer, Trevor is about to embark on a night in which he will face an angry neighbor, be questioned by police, bring a pickle to life, and discover that his food may actually be smarter than he is… all while trying to keep everything secret from his mother and little sister. 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.

Drama teachers: How do you teach your students about what happens when their orderly way of life gets turned upside down? They Eat Sunshine, Not Zebras by Dara Murphy is the perfect comedy for high school and middle school students alike. Nothing stands in the way of the green grass. Until they wake up one morning to see a yellow dandelion in their midst. A dandelion will turn their orderly way of life upside-down. A dandelion must be destroyed. Isn’t that what you do when something is different? Under the guidance of Kate Olena, the talented students at Nichols Middle School in Buffalo, New York had a great time exploring the themes of this fun one-act comedy: “Theatre class is mandatory for 8-weeks each year at Nichols Middle School. I had a group of students who were very shy and only moved their hands onstage, if they moved at all! This play was perfect for my thrust stage in a multi-purpose space. The characters (mostly blades of grass) had no hands and were rooted to the floor, so they had to use their bodies in ways they had never done so before to express their views. The theme of the year was “Utopia/Dystopia”. The metaphor was not lost on our audiences. – Kate Olena” Way to go, Nichols Middle School!

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.

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