I love this thread! I am very much in your same boat AND "frantically" trying to read as many one act scropts as I can in between inservice meetings this week. :-)
Some favorites for us that can be done with minimal set (I've not done 100% actor blocks only, but you could adapt):
Cage Birds (philosophical...totally works with just actor blocks!)
The Game
Admissions (public domain!)
The Clearing (*published by Drama Notebook, extremely flexible vignette play with lots of room for creativity, relationship, and joy.)
The Shape of the Grave (about 1970's Troubles in Ireland)
Looking forward to other posts on this thread!
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Abigail Kean
Director
Kettle Moraine High School
WI
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-21-2024 15:38
From: Josh Kauffman
Subject: Favorites for competition
It's that season (isn't it always) when we're looking for the plays we want to bring to our state's theater contests. I'm historically very last-minute in making those selections, and I have a few leads, but I'm opening the door for y'all to completely confuse me and make my choice harder (or easier).
Our state festival has a contest for very simple (no set, no tech) plays 30 minutes or less, and another contest for more-realized plays of no more than 45 minutes.
What have you read and/or done, in competition or not, that you and your students have really enjoyed? What was great about them?
I'll mention that we are a pretty conservative community/district, but I myself am not, nor are most of my students - so we're looking for good stories that bend but do not break conservative social norms. (I once replaced the word "butt" with "rear end," and another time was nearly told we should not do a play because the 'student' characters spoke disrespectfully to the 'teacher' character. However, we've also done The Great Gatsby. It's a crap shoot!)
The short version of the question: What short, tech-lite plays have been successful in your programs?
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Josh Kauffman
Teacher, Thespian Society/Drama Club sponsor
Winfield City Schools
Winfield, AL
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