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Good dramatic script for strong women

  • 1.  Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-18-2014 06:32
    Looking to choose a dramatic piece for high school . I have a strong class of actresses any suggestions are appreciated Thanks ! ------------------------------------------- Denise Sebastiano Mundelein IL -------------------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-18-2014 10:26
    Contemporary or classical?

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    Shira Schwartz
    Chandler Unified School District
    Chandler AZ
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  • 3.  RE: Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-18-2014 21:12
    I love "A Piece of My Heart" "Women of Lockerbee" "Eleemodynsy" ------------------------------------------- Gai Jones Ojai CA -------------------------------------------
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  • 4.  RE: Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-19-2014 06:42
    We had a wonderful time doing "Wit" this year. Absolutely beautiful script! ------------------------------------------- Matthew Ward Music and Musical Theatre Carolina Forest High School Myrtle Beach SC -------------------------------------------
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  • 5.  RE: Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-20-2014 09:08
    Not a large cast, but Wendy Wasserstein's THIRD (3f,2m) is a very solid script that provides a some great acting work for females.

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    Mark Zortman
    Troupe #1649, York, PA
    PA Chapter Director
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  • 6.  RE: Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-21-2014 23:37
    "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds" by Paul Zindel has a female cast of 5.  You have to have one actress who can handle some very serious long monologues, and one character is non-speaking, but I absolutely loved directing it with the right high school cast.

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    C. J. Breland
    Asheville NC
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  • 7.  RE: Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-20-2014 12:32
    There is a brilliant Australian play by Alana Valentine called 'Parramata Girls' about the history of an infamous school for girls in a suburb of Sydney. It is written in verbatim theatre style and is quite, quite powerful. Depending upon your community, it would be not only a great acting challenge, but terrific to expose your students to verbatim theatre and the idea of researching historical attitudes towards women and the cultural biases we have about acceptable behavior.

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    Lori Constable
    Teacher; director of Drama
    Independent District 112
    Chanhassen MN
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  • 8.  RE: Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-19-2014 07:52
    Radium Girls by D .W. Gregory. We had great success with it this past year and the cast loved it! ------------------------------------------- Susan Speidel Chairman of the Performing Arts Department Morristown-Beard School Springfield NJ -------------------------------------------
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  • 9.  RE: Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-19-2014 09:16
    Several scripts that I have used in the past include Crimes of the Heart, Steel Magnolias, Agnes of God and A Piece of My Heart.  All include great character challenges for your girls.  

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    Cary Shapiro
    Ankeny IA
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  • 10.  RE: Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-19-2014 09:56
    The House of Bernarda Alba is a very strong piece and has something like 13 women in it. You might also look at Ladies of the Corridor and Radium Girls.. 

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    Josh Butchard
    Woodinville WA
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  • 11.  RE: Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-24-2014 11:02

    This might be a little late, but a One Act that could fit the bill might be Caryl Churchill's 'Blue Kettle'. It's a one act play normally coupled with 'Heart's Desire', and this one has several good female roles, though the challenge would be that the girls all need to be kinda older - the story deals with a scamming guy who is going around claiming to be the long lost son that four different women put up for adoption. As I recall it, there are three/four older women to play, plus the man's girlfriend. 

    Another challenge for this play is that as the situation  deterioriates further, language starts breaking down irretrievably, and words in sentences start getting replaced by the words 'blue' or 'kettle' at random. 

    Might be too many wacky variables to play with, and I haven't played with it with a high school cast myself, so can't speak to the pragmatism of such a selection. Could be worth it, for a laugh, though. 


    Phillip Goodchild
    Valrico FL
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  • 12.  RE:Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-25-2014 07:23
    This past year, my third year women produced Ellen McLaughlin's "The Trojan Women." The cast was made up of 15 women and 2 men. Most of the women were chorus, but they had absolutely lovely poetry to divide and recite. The class fell in love with the script on first read. Playscripts carries it. I also second the recommendations for Women and War (Jack Cunningham, Bakers Plays) and Radium Girls (DL Gregory, Dramatic), and don't disregard Twelve Angry Women. It's a classic for a reason. All three of these have well drawn characters that will give the women something to sink their teeth into.

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    Bob Ramseur
    Newnan GA
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  • 13.  RE: Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-26-2014 11:27
    Agatha Rex by Lindsay Price is great, A Piece of My Heart by Lauro, To See The Stars (Dramatic Publishing), "Marigolds" by Paul Zindel is fabulous, too. ------------------------------------------- Connie Voight Alabama Randolph School Huntsville AL -------------------------------------------
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  • 14.  RE: Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-25-2014 15:24
    I would recommend "A Piece of my Heart," a powerful story of women serving in the Vietnam war, or Sartre's version of "The Trojan Women," a very moving drama. If you want something in the very dark-comedy realm, "Crimes of the Heart" comes to mind. Hope that helps...

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    Stephen Jackson-Clark
    Portland OR
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  • 15.  RE: Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-25-2014 10:43
    Besides the ones that so many people do -- Crimes of the Heart and Steel Magnolias -- I loved working on The Clean House and Dead Man's Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl and August: Osage County.  All of those require actors who can play age well.  Then there's Eleemosynary by Lee Blessing, one of my favorite plays, which only has 3 actresses in it.  

    Good luck.

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    Kimberly Taylor
    Oakland CA
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  • 16.  RE: Good dramatic script for strong women

    Posted 06-26-2014 18:58
    Iphigenia and Other Daughters, adapted by Ellen McLaughin, has a cast of 9f and 1m and can be found at Playscripts.com. I've had a couple of girls choose monologues from it but haven't done the whole thing.

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    Shira Schwartz
    Chandler Unified School District
    Chandler AZ
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