Open Forum

Hello everyone, 

    I have spent quite a bit of time reading past forums/message threads here with wonderful ideas for One Acts.  As I haven't done many One Acts over the sixteen years of directing at my high school, I'm a bit new at what is quality and what is either over done or ends up being cheesy.  I'm looking at needing two One Acts for two different purposes.

1) I need a One Act for my first attempt at building a middle school "feeder" program into the high school program I've been directing. Step one is a simple 30-45 minute One Act presented this upcoming March.  I want no to minimal set and costumes. I'd like something funny with a message for the middle school audience that will be involved but also attending.  So I was circling AFTER MATH by Dorf (After Math by Jonathan Dorf | Playscripts Inc.). Any other fresh suggestions that meet this criteria?

2) We were just invited to attend a state One Act festival for our high school troupe.  It has been almost a decade since I've done MIFA or any other form of One Act exhibition/competition.  I had previously directed SELFIE by Bradley Hayward and was considering I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT.   I'm back and forth on doing a traditional "story" (Insanity of Mary Girard or NEVERMORE or Jeckyll and Hyde) versus more of a "message/monologue" for competition.  Not sure what works best, especially for returning back to high school one act exhibition.

Any suggestions for this?

Again, I know many wonderful thread have been written, but I was looking for any current/newer ideas or thoughts. Thank you in advance. I love this community.

------------------------------
James McCulloch
Drama Director of Mariner Drama
Marine City, Michigan
jmcculloch@ecsd.us
------------------------------

I really love that you're creating a natural bridge for middle school students into your department. I think you're definitely making the right choice: going for something easy and comedic. For as much as I thought I'd hate them based on the title alone, I'm actually going to endorse the Seussification scripts over at Playscripts for middle school students. In the hands of a strong director, they have a really snappy pace and tons of room for creative license. They're accessible for middle school students in addition to providing a solid introduction to Shakespeare for the younger students involved/watching. I've seen them done with nothing except a few dollar store props. And every production I've seen, the kids onstage looked like they were having a blast. 

My recommendation: DO NOT do a message/monologue play for one-act competition. I just got back from a long weekend of one-act adjudication, and I cannot tell you how much I dreaded sitting through those shows.

1) The monologues usually aren't well-written. It would take Meryl Streep to make some of those monologues effective, and while I love and appreciate and respect all high school actors, they aren't Meryl yet. Picking well-written material helps students to do their best work possible.

2) Monologues are one of the most challenging forms of acting. I can never understand why high school directors want to put their students at such a disadvantage by having them perform in a play consisting almost entirely of monologues. Whenever a monologue play starts, I know that there's a 99% chance I'm going to have to write in my feedback: "Who are you talking to? Why are you telling them this hyper-personal information? What's the context of any of this?" And it's not even the student's fault most of the time because, as previously mentioned, these monologues (and the framing material that surrounds them) are usually weak at best.

3) There are usually non-monologue plays out there that convey the same messages but in a much stronger way. Like Dry Land by Ruby Rae Spiegel. Good Boys and True by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph (one of my all-time favorites). Yes, you may need to add "warning for language and mature themes" at the beginning, but at the high school level, everyone's heard curse words before and the "mature themes" are what they're struggling with every day anyway.

I definitely recommend doing a more traditional story. There are so many excellent ones out there. Since you seem to have an affinity for Playscripts: Peter/Wendy by Jeremy Bloom. The Nevermore musical by Jonathan Christenson. MilkMilkLemonade by Joshua Conkel. Antigone Now by Melissa Cooper. The Miss Julie adaptation by Craig Lucas if you have the option of going small-cast. I'd definitely opt for something more along those lines.

Best of luck with your one-acts!

------------------------------
Victoria Chatfield
Executive Director
National Theatre for Student Artists
www.nationalstudenttheatre.org
vchatfield@nationalstudenttheatre.org
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-04-2017 09:34
From: James McCulloch
Subject: One Act Suggestions for Competition and for Middle School

Hello everyone,

    I have spent quite a bit of time reading past forums/message threads here with wonderful ideas for One Acts.  As I haven't done many One Acts over the sixteen years of directing at my high school, I'm a bit new at what is quality and what is either over done or ends up being cheesy.  I'm looking at needing two One Acts for two different purposes.

1) I need a One Act for my first attempt at building a middle school "feeder" program into the high school program I've been directing. Step one is a simple 30-45 minute One Act presented this upcoming March.  I want no to minimal set and costumes. I'd like something funny with a message for the middle school audience that will be involved but also attending.  So I was circling AFTER MATH by Dorf (After Math by Jonathan Dorf | Playscripts Inc.). Any other fresh suggestions that meet this criteria?

2) We were just invited to attend a state One Act festival for our high school troupe.  It has been almost a decade since I've done MIFA or any other form of One Act exhibition/competition.  I had previously directed SELFIE by Bradley Hayward and was considering I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT.   I'm back and forth on doing a traditional "story" (Insanity of Mary Girard or NEVERMORE or Jeckyll and Hyde) versus more of a "message/monologue" for competition.  Not sure what works best, especially for returning back to high school one act exhibition.

Any suggestions for this?

Again, I know many wonderful thread have been written, but I was looking for any current/newer ideas or thoughts. Thank you in advance. I love this community.

------------------------------
James McCulloch
Drama Director of Mariner Drama
Marine City, Michigan
jmcculloch@ecsd.us
------------------------------

Thank you for the wonderful and very important insight.  I'm going to check out your suggestions for sure.  I, too, have been wary of the Seussification series, but I will give them another go.

I'm also going to look into a more "story-based" approach to our return to One-Acts.

------------------------------
James McCulloch
Drama Director of Mariner Drama
Marine City, Michigan
jmcculloch@ecsd.us
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-04-2017 13:30
From: Victoria Chatfield
Subject: One Act Suggestions for Competition and for Middle School

I really love that you're creating a natural bridge for middle school students into your department. I think you're definitely making the right choice: going for something easy and comedic. For as much as I thought I'd hate them based on the title alone, I'm actually going to endorse the Seussification scripts over at Playscripts for middle school students. In the hands of a strong director, they have a really snappy pace and tons of room for creative license. They're accessible for middle school students in addition to providing a solid introduction to Shakespeare for the younger students involved/watching. I've seen them done with nothing except a few dollar store props. And every production I've seen, the kids onstage looked like they were having a blast.

My recommendation: DO NOT do a message/monologue play for one-act competition. I just got back from a long weekend of one-act adjudication, and I cannot tell you how much I dreaded sitting through those shows.

1) The monologues usually aren't well-written. It would take Meryl Streep to make some of those monologues effective, and while I love and appreciate and respect all high school actors, they aren't Meryl yet. Picking well-written material helps students to do their best work possible.

2) Monologues are one of the most challenging forms of acting. I can never understand why high school directors want to put their students at such a disadvantage by having them perform in a play consisting almost entirely of monologues. Whenever a monologue play starts, I know that there's a 99% chance I'm going to have to write in my feedback: "Who are you talking to? Why are you telling them this hyper-personal information? What's the context of any of this?" And it's not even the student's fault most of the time because, as previously mentioned, these monologues (and the framing material that surrounds them) are usually weak at best.

3) There are usually non-monologue plays out there that convey the same messages but in a much stronger way. Like Dry Land by Ruby Rae Spiegel. Good Boys and True by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph (one of my all-time favorites). Yes, you may need to add "warning for language and mature themes" at the beginning, but at the high school level, everyone's heard curse words before and the "mature themes" are what they're struggling with every day anyway.

I definitely recommend doing a more traditional story. There are so many excellent ones out there. Since you seem to have an affinity for Playscripts: Peter/Wendy by Jeremy Bloom. The Nevermore musical by Jonathan Christenson. MilkMilkLemonade by Joshua Conkel. Antigone Now by Melissa Cooper. The Miss Julie adaptation by Craig Lucas if you have the option of going small-cast. I'd definitely opt for something more along those lines.

Best of luck with your one-acts!

------------------------------
Victoria Chatfield
Executive Director
National Theatre for Student Artists
www.nationalstudenttheatre.org
vchatfield@nationalstudenttheatre.org

Original Message:
Sent: 12-04-2017 09:34
From: James McCulloch
Subject: One Act Suggestions for Competition and for Middle School

Hello everyone,

    I have spent quite a bit of time reading past forums/message threads here with wonderful ideas for One Acts.  As I haven't done many One Acts over the sixteen years of directing at my high school, I'm a bit new at what is quality and what is either over done or ends up being cheesy.  I'm looking at needing two One Acts for two different purposes.

1) I need a One Act for my first attempt at building a middle school "feeder" program into the high school program I've been directing. Step one is a simple 30-45 minute One Act presented this upcoming March.  I want no to minimal set and costumes. I'd like something funny with a message for the middle school audience that will be involved but also attending.  So I was circling AFTER MATH by Dorf (After Math by Jonathan Dorf | Playscripts Inc.). Any other fresh suggestions that meet this criteria?

2) We were just invited to attend a state One Act festival for our high school troupe.  It has been almost a decade since I've done MIFA or any other form of One Act exhibition/competition.  I had previously directed SELFIE by Bradley Hayward and was considering I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT.   I'm back and forth on doing a traditional "story" (Insanity of Mary Girard or NEVERMORE or Jeckyll and Hyde) versus more of a "message/monologue" for competition.  Not sure what works best, especially for returning back to high school one act exhibition.

Any suggestions for this?

Again, I know many wonderful thread have been written, but I was looking for any current/newer ideas or thoughts. Thank you in advance. I love this community.

------------------------------
James McCulloch
Drama Director of Mariner Drama
Marine City, Michigan
jmcculloch@ecsd.us
------------------------------