Tuna Fish Eulogy

Time for a Tfolk Top Plays List For….Building a Theatre Program. You’ve had a large group of seniors graduate. You’re starting at a new school that doesn’t have a theatre program You’re taking over a program that needs some serious love. What plays should you choose to build your program? 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 – and with building your program! Choose a play with a familiar link that people know. Use the familiar as your hook.

Some drama teachers have their whole production year figured out before the first day of school. If you’re doing a big musical, you need to get that paperwork started way in advance. Or maybe you need to coordinate using the theatre space with other departments – you need to know what you’re doing and when. Or, if you’re lucky, you have an engaged drama club and they’re reading the plays and deciding what they want to do ahead of time. But sometimes all that planning goes out the window. You choose a play, hold auditions and the actors you think you’re going to have don’t show up. Or you choose a small cast play and are faced with a flood of wonderful auditions. And sometimes, just the act of choosing a play is the issue. It can be an overwhelming and frustrating experience. Auditions loom and you still haven’t chosen a script. If you’ve stared at a stack of play catalogues with panic in your eyes, we here at Theatrefolk are ready to come to the rescue! Ok. We’re not a superhero. But we can give you some guidance to what we have available and how you can swiftly navigate our catalogue. If you’re frustrated with your search, or if you have to make a last minute decision NOW, have a look at the following plays. With each play there’s a link to the website page where you can read free sample pages. Enjoy! Top SellersWant something popular? Try these! Hoodie by Lindsay Price Hands down, our most popular one act. Hoodie is a middle school play about self image and appearance. Great for classes, and the kind of play that lets you cast every kid who auditions.

Episode 68: A Student Director SharesEmma is in the middle of directing my play Tuna Fish Eulogy. She shares her vision, her struggles and what she’s hoping for with her production. Every teacher who has student directors will want their students to hear this!

Episode 65: Theatrefolk Q & A: You ask, We answerLindsay and Craig sit down to answer questions and address comments that came up from our recent customer survey. Topics include: Can students directly contact us? What social issues do we cover? And do we sell plays?

I received the trailer below for a production of Tuna Fish Eulogy and I think it’s great. It’s basically a commercial for the show, but also gives a clear indication of the style of the production, how the play is being interpreted, and provides a bit of a tease for what an audience can expect. A trailer is an excellent exercise to see if your class fully understands a text. Can they condense a text into a commercial form – letting the audience know what’s to come, providing a tease but not giving away the whole story? Can they highlight the themes visually? Can they determine a style for the work? A trailer also allows students to explore a different medium with a text- they are transforming the text, moving beyond simple comprehension. Exercise:In groups, take a text and create a commercial for it. Groups are responsible for the writing, acting in, and filming of their commercial. The commercial must be 30 seconds in length and explore the following elements: • highlight the main theme of the text visually. • Provide a set up for the story, but not give it all away. • Provide a tease so that an audience would want to see more

How do you rehearse a play like Tuna Fish Eulogy?Head over to the sample pagesto see what I’m talking about. This is no walk in the park. The play is in a ladder format, which means the actors read their lines from top to bottom instead of left to right. It’s a great way to showcase choral speaking because it’s clear when characters speak at the same time. But the format is a challenge. Elmira District Secondary School took the notion of “challenge” to a whole new level when they took a play written for four actors and turned it into a play for 18. Now 18 people have to figure out who’s speaking what and when. I talked to the cast about their experience and what advice they would give to other casts.

This week on Spread the Love, Craig and Lindsay talk about Tuna Fish Eulogy, a ladder play for high school students. Filmed live on location next to the the sea. Well, it’s actually a lake, but use your imagination.