Youth Theatre - Suggestions

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Permalink Reply by Geoff Goble on August 15, 2007 at 1:31pm

Hi Neil,

One play that springs to mind is Babies Having Babies, a powerful study of teenage pregnancy. The main characters are 5 teenaged girls; there is one older woman, the counsellor; one older man, the caretaker; and a pizza delivery person who could be male or female, young or old (or even cut completely). This was recently done very successfully by Storrington Dramatic Society, and was directed by one of the younger members. Not only was it part of a 3-night showing with another one-act play as part of a double-bill, but was also entered into a local one-act festival, where it was very well received.

If your female cast are up to ageing-up, then Playhouse Creatures is another to consider, though some may find the language a bit too strong for that age-group.

Alternatively, the second of Storrington's double-bill was The Day Of Reckoning a Victorian Melodrama (ripe for much over-acting and audience participation, like an adult panto!) by Michael Kilgarriff. This would also involve ageing-up, but would be great fun for the participants. Storrington's production at the play festival earned best actress award for the portrayal of Lady Audley, the villianess of the piece.

I'll have a think about a few more, in their teens my daughters were regulars at a local drama workshop and did excerpts from all sorts of weird and wonderful plays!

Geoff

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Permalink Reply by Mill G on August 20, 2007 at 11:49am

Passing Out Parade was a good one I remember doing when I was about 12 - from what I remember we were women in some sort of army base, and I found out I was pregnant... Quite an interesting one!

The Cherry Sisters was also a fun one - a spoof on Chekhov's Three Sisters crossed with The Cherry Orchard...

If you wanted a big play that everyone could be involved in, with some degree of doubling You, Me, and Mrs Jones was one that we did, quite surreal but quite fun - I played a kid's TV presenter, and one of my friends played a character who lived in a bin...

Those are the ones I mostly remember... a lot of the time we ended up with plays that had male characters in which we were able to change to female characters and the scripts would still work (with perhaps a few minor cuts here and there)... I'll let you know if I think of any more! Hope it goes well...

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Permalink Reply by toahollywood on December 13, 2008 at 6:55am

Soory, but i can't.

Have u played any drama till now?

Thanks
College for Acting

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Permalink Reply by Fay Downie on February 8, 2009 at 11:07pm

Just realised when you posted this so don't know if you're still looking. You could look at some of the John godber plays, Shakers for the girls and Bouncers for the boys. There's also Teachers which has a mixed cast. They're probably better for the older students though. Alan Ayckbourne has written a lot of amazing and origional kids plays too which are brilliant for slightly younger students.

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