need theater help please (ot)
- Thread starter alsih2o
- Start date
arwink
Clockwork Golem
Play-build.
Rather than showing up and saying "We'll be doing a performance of x, here start reading it," (Overstated, I know you're cooler than that clay) show up and build a show from scratch using the kids ideas and the skills they already have.
This can work particularly well in schools with low literacy levels, as it requires children to think about the writing process without being bogged down in the actual reading/writing and they feel a lot more attached to the project because it came from them rather than an outside source.
Rather than showing up and saying "We'll be doing a performance of x, here start reading it," (Overstated, I know you're cooler than that clay) show up and build a show from scratch using the kids ideas and the skills they already have.
This can work particularly well in schools with low literacy levels, as it requires children to think about the writing process without being bogged down in the actual reading/writing and they feel a lot more attached to the project because it came from them rather than an outside source.
Eridanis
Bard 7/Mod (ret) 10/Mgr 3
Don't throw Shakespeare out the window just yet. A few years back, I taught a Shakespeare class for junior high kids - few of whom had any real exposure to the Bard beyond Shakespeare in Love - and by the end of the class, they were handling the language in the scenes we selected just as well as some adults I've directed in Shakespeare. 
Get them while they're young, and before someone else tries to tell them Shakespeare is a staid old fart, instead of the righteously cool dude he is. (My wife is tutoring a kid whose teacher is forcing them through Romeo & Juliet - and doing such a bad job that the kids are talking about burning their scripts after they're done with the play. GRRRR!!)
Arwink's suggestion is a good one, too. Keep it close to what they know, and they will express themselves artistically, some for the first time.
Let me hit my books and come up with some more mainstream ideas, though. Big props to you for taking on this challenge - it just ups your coolness quotient.
Get them while they're young, and before someone else tries to tell them Shakespeare is a staid old fart, instead of the righteously cool dude he is. (My wife is tutoring a kid whose teacher is forcing them through Romeo & Juliet - and doing such a bad job that the kids are talking about burning their scripts after they're done with the play. GRRRR!!)Arwink's suggestion is a good one, too. Keep it close to what they know, and they will express themselves artistically, some for the first time.
Let me hit my books and come up with some more mainstream ideas, though. Big props to you for taking on this challenge - it just ups your coolness quotient.
G'day
How long do the plays have to be? If short one-acters will do, you might try A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum or Rinse the Blood from my Toga. Those are fun, not too demanding, and pretty accessible. And if a kid should happen to pick up an interest in history, so much the better.
If you want to get more ambitious, what about Peter Pan?
Regards,
Agback
How long do the plays have to be? If short one-acters will do, you might try A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum or Rinse the Blood from my Toga. Those are fun, not too demanding, and pretty accessible. And if a kid should happen to pick up an interest in history, so much the better.
If you want to get more ambitious, what about Peter Pan?
Regards,
Agback
Mark
CreativeMountainGames.com
I'd suggest doing Billy Edd Wheeler's Hatfields and McCoys in the first slot. In the second slot try West Side Story, playing up how it is also derived from Romeo and Juliet. Then do Shakespeare's original verion of Romeo and Juliet in the third. Along the way, implement Arwink's idea for the fourth slot, using positions as techies, writers, (add an assitant director), leads, etc. as carrots during the first three productions. The students can write their own modern version of the story to round out the season. This gives you a good through line to examine plays, helps keep students who aren't used to plays on track, since they will feel more and more comfortable with the plot as they go.
Daniel Knight
First Post
I'm going to jump in and third the idea for a Pratchett play. The scripts are very easy to read, have heaps of characters (actors can double up), and have heaps of room for outlandish accents and characterisations. I've seen them successfully performed by adults and children alike, and they've always had heaps of energy and been a lot of fun.
Try Wyrd Sisters, it's the weakest of the Pratchett scripts but it also parodies MacBeth so it could pacify the Shakespeare nuts here.
Because you live in the US, you'll probably have to get the scripts from Amazon, but I promise you they are well worth it - I've directed two of them myself.
Try Wyrd Sisters, it's the weakest of the Pratchett scripts but it also parodies MacBeth so it could pacify the Shakespeare nuts here.
Because you live in the US, you'll probably have to get the scripts from Amazon, but I promise you they are well worth it - I've directed two of them myself.
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I'd suggest the medieval Mystery Plays or Passion Plays... The "York plays" (the ones performed in York, England) are the most commonly used today. I don't know what publication of these is a good text, as I've only read selections and saw them performed in England, but here's my argument for them:
They're the Judeo-Christian bible tales, which won't likely upset parents in rural America.
They were made for casts of dozens.
They were written to be appreciated by common farmers and performed by members of trade guilds, so they aren't elaborate or complex.
They are really good theater telling the biblical tales from creation to doomsday as performed from the 13th-15th century. They are mostly told through small plays with four people, so you give each of your kids a chance to star in a vignette.
They're really beautiful, touching plays at times (Abraham & Isaac is in every drama lit textbook as one of the best English plays ever) and very funny in others (Cain and Abel is actually quite funny).
In York (and in modern performances), they were performed over several days, so you could get 2 or 3 of your plays out of them.
You might need to do a job of adapting the language to modernize it. I'm betting there's a modern language version out there. There's probably even a version specifically for kids. If you can't find one but you'd like to do them, email me -- I'd love to take on the project of modernizing them for kids.
Here's a copy of some of the plays from the York cycle:
http://tinyurl.com/9gsx
If this is too elaborate, someone's suggestion of "You Can't Take it With You," is a good one -- lots of childrens' theaters do it; it's wholesome fun. So's "I Remember Mama," though not the best for the demographics of your kids. There are lots of fantastic African-American plays out there too, though I'm not really well-versed on stuff for kids. Having them create one themselves is also a great idea, and something kids really respond to.
If you're having terrible trouble with this, email me -- my brother-in-law does children's theater education and can likely come up with a good list of stuff for you.
Aaron
They're the Judeo-Christian bible tales, which won't likely upset parents in rural America.
They were made for casts of dozens.
They were written to be appreciated by common farmers and performed by members of trade guilds, so they aren't elaborate or complex.
They are really good theater telling the biblical tales from creation to doomsday as performed from the 13th-15th century. They are mostly told through small plays with four people, so you give each of your kids a chance to star in a vignette.
They're really beautiful, touching plays at times (Abraham & Isaac is in every drama lit textbook as one of the best English plays ever) and very funny in others (Cain and Abel is actually quite funny).
In York (and in modern performances), they were performed over several days, so you could get 2 or 3 of your plays out of them.
You might need to do a job of adapting the language to modernize it. I'm betting there's a modern language version out there. There's probably even a version specifically for kids. If you can't find one but you'd like to do them, email me -- I'd love to take on the project of modernizing them for kids.
Here's a copy of some of the plays from the York cycle:
http://tinyurl.com/9gsx
If this is too elaborate, someone's suggestion of "You Can't Take it With You," is a good one -- lots of childrens' theaters do it; it's wholesome fun. So's "I Remember Mama," though not the best for the demographics of your kids. There are lots of fantastic African-American plays out there too, though I'm not really well-versed on stuff for kids. Having them create one themselves is also a great idea, and something kids really respond to.
If you're having terrible trouble with this, email me -- my brother-in-law does children's theater education and can likely come up with a good list of stuff for you.
Aaron
Trevalon Moonleirion
Explorer
Though my theatre experience is meager, here's what I've done at my high school....
*Noises Off
*The Dining Room
*a student directed/written adaption of A Christmas Carol set in the '80s
*Annie
*The Curious Savage
*Crazy for You
Of what i've done, I'd say Annie is a pretty good bet. The songs are fairly simple, there's lots of parts (orphans, servants, hoovervillians) and I know that there's at least one watered-down version of the show. Not sure if you could get someone to shave their head for the part of Warbucks like I did last year, though...
Most of the other shows up there might be a little bit tough to do for any number of reasons... Noises Off needs a pretty elaborate set that spins around, has only about 10 people in it, and has a bit of more adult-themed humor in it.
The Dining Room is a great little show, but there are adults who to a certain degree don't "get" the meaning of this great collection of vignettes all set in a dining room in the northeast
The Curious Savage is a fun show, but again there aren't too many people involved. There's nothing too tough about the text of the play, and there's a good mix of clever and pure slapstick humor.
Crazy for You is an awesome show, but there's a bit of sex and drinking involved. and my god... the DANCING! don't bother with this one unless you have a lot of people willing to learn to tap dance!!!
Sorry that i'm really no help at all, but...
Good luck with your show!!!
*Noises Off
*The Dining Room
*a student directed/written adaption of A Christmas Carol set in the '80s
*Annie
*The Curious Savage
*Crazy for You
Of what i've done, I'd say Annie is a pretty good bet. The songs are fairly simple, there's lots of parts (orphans, servants, hoovervillians) and I know that there's at least one watered-down version of the show. Not sure if you could get someone to shave their head for the part of Warbucks like I did last year, though...
Most of the other shows up there might be a little bit tough to do for any number of reasons... Noises Off needs a pretty elaborate set that spins around, has only about 10 people in it, and has a bit of more adult-themed humor in it.
The Dining Room is a great little show, but there are adults who to a certain degree don't "get" the meaning of this great collection of vignettes all set in a dining room in the northeast
The Curious Savage is a fun show, but again there aren't too many people involved. There's nothing too tough about the text of the play, and there's a good mix of clever and pure slapstick humor.
Crazy for You is an awesome show, but there's a bit of sex and drinking involved. and my god... the DANCING! don't bother with this one unless you have a lot of people willing to learn to tap dance!!!
Sorry that i'm really no help at all, but...
Good luck with your show!!!
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