Open Forum

Take a look at The Spotted Man by Walter Wykes-very funny!

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Christopher Lohse
Director of Drama
Texarkana AR

"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative"
-Oscar Wilde
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-29-2017 14:07
From: Molly Chapman
Subject: Duet scenes for beginners

Hello! Anyone have suggestions for duet scenes for beginning actors? I have a ton of scenes for my advanced class, but am struggling to find scenes that beginning actors would enjoy performing. Thank you!

These plays are comprised of scenes and monologues that work really well with beginners because they can relate to them.

Voices from the High School by Peter Dee (from 1976, I believe, but kids still like it a lot)
Class Action by Brad Slaight
Second Class by Brad Slaight
Love, Death, and the Prom by Jon Jory

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C. J. Breland
Asheville High School
Asheville NC
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-29-2017 14:07
From: Molly Chapman
Subject: Duet scenes for beginners

Hello! Anyone have suggestions for duet scenes for beginning actors? I have a ton of scenes for my advanced class, but am struggling to find scenes that beginning actors would enjoy performing. Thank you!

For my intro kids I found Garry Michael Kluger's "Fifty Professional Scenes for Student Actors: A collection of short two-person scenes" to be very useful.  The comedic ones have a nice cadence to them and the students seem to understand the characters.

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Graci Johnson
Theatre Director
Bentonville West High School
Centerton, AR
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-29-2017 14:07
From: Molly Chapman
Subject: Duet scenes for beginners

Hello! Anyone have suggestions for duet scenes for beginning actors? I have a ton of scenes for my advanced class, but am struggling to find scenes that beginning actors would enjoy performing. Thank you!

It's Not You It's Me by Don Zolidis
13 Ways to Screw Up Your College Interview by Ian McWethy
14 More Ways to Screw Up Your College Interview by Ian McWethy
Oz by Do Zolidis has some fun scenes as well

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Shira Schwartz
Chandler Unified School District
Chandler AZ
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-29-2017 14:07
From: Molly Chapman
Subject: Duet scenes for beginners

Hello! Anyone have suggestions for duet scenes for beginning actors? I have a ton of scenes for my advanced class, but am struggling to find scenes that beginning actors would enjoy performing. Thank you!

I have struggled to find scenes for my beginner classes as well. In high school I learned with scenes taken from full-length shows but when I began teaching a few years ago and tried to do the same thing, this method was not working for me at all. My intro. level students really struggled with the idea of just performing a piece of a larger story and the text and character work needed were more demanding than many of them could handle. It was frustrating for me and for them. Finally after for my third year I broke down and ordered a couple of scene books that I had avoided previously because I thought they would be too easy (and cheesy), but to my surprise the kids really liked them and did so much better with them. Obviously we work up to using more advanced scenes from plays, but these worked wonders as an introduction to scene work. The books I have are:

Sixty Comedy Duet Scenes for Teens by Laurie Allen (I prefer this one.)
100 Duet Scenes for Teens by Michael Moore

Another person mentioned Fifty Professional Scenes for Student Actors by Garry Michael Kluger. I also have that book and I like those scenes for beginner and intermediate performers as well. They're gender neutral scenes for two people- some dramatic and some comedic and they're all about 5 minutes long. I love that they don't deal with romantic relationships at all, which is another thing my intro. kids have a really hard time handling. 

I usually use a scene from the Laurie Allen book early in the year to introduce scene work and then later I use a scene from the Kluger book, then we graduate to more substantial scenes from larger works.

Good luck!


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Emily Olson
Theatre Arts Teacher and Director
Texas
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 09-29-2017 14:07
From: Molly Chapman
Subject: Duet scenes for beginners

Hello! Anyone have suggestions for duet scenes for beginning actors? I have a ton of scenes for my advanced class, but am struggling to find scenes that beginning actors would enjoy performing. Thank you!

Don Zolidas has a wonderful collection of scenes and monologues that he provides for free on his webpage. My beginning students found the comic ones to be very funny, and the dramatic scenes to be complex and nuanced; each scene gave them plenty of acting challenges. Our showcase last year featured all scenes from Zolidas, and it really was a terrifically successful, fun, and moving evening of scenes.

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Arden Thomas
theater director
Sequoyah High School
Pasadena CA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-10-2017 15:55
From: Emily Olson
Subject: Duet scenes for beginners

I have struggled to find scenes for my beginner classes as well. In high school I learned with scenes taken from full-length shows but when I began teaching a few years ago and tried to do the same thing, this method was not working for me at all. My intro. level students really struggled with the idea of just performing a piece of a larger story and the text and character work needed were more demanding than many of them could handle. It was frustrating for me and for them. Finally after for my third year I broke down and ordered a couple of scene books that I had avoided previously because I thought they would be too easy (and cheesy), but to my surprise the kids really liked them and did so much better with them. Obviously we work up to using more advanced scenes from plays, but these worked wonders as an introduction to scene work. The books I have are:

Sixty Comedy Duet Scenes for Teens by Laurie Allen (I prefer this one.)
100 Duet Scenes for Teens by Michael Moore

Another person mentioned Fifty Professional Scenes for Student Actors by Garry Michael Kluger. I also have that book and I like those scenes for beginner and intermediate performers as well. They're gender neutral scenes for two people- some dramatic and some comedic and they're all about 5 minutes long. I love that they don't deal with romantic relationships at all, which is another thing my intro. kids have a really hard time handling.

I usually use a scene from the Laurie Allen book early in the year to introduce scene work and then later I use a scene from the Kluger book, then we graduate to more substantial scenes from larger works.

Good luck!


------------------------------
Emily Olson
Theatre Arts Teacher and Director
Texas

Original Message:
Sent: 09-29-2017 14:07
From: Molly Chapman
Subject: Duet scenes for beginners

Hello! Anyone have suggestions for duet scenes for beginning actors? I have a ton of scenes for my advanced class, but am struggling to find scenes that beginning actors would enjoy performing. Thank you!