Open Forum

I have a class of 19 middle school students who are scheduled to give an informal end-of the semester performance at the end of May.  It's a class of 13 boys and 6 girls, made up of largely inexperienced 6th graders with one 7th grader and five or six 8th graders - some of which have been in shows with me in the past.  The class only meets three times a week and students are also pulled out on a fairly regular basis for extra study skills help in our Center for Teaching and Learning.  I used Theaterfolks "School Daze" with a similar class in the fall, and that worked well, but the group was a bit more cohesive and I've not been successful in finding a script that works for this group.  I've now focused on the idea of doing a collection of monologues that are strung together with a some kind of "framing device" or unifying location.  My thought is to use a combination of existing speeches, from age-appropriate monologue collections, and some original pieces written by the students themselves.  (We have a very strong "Writing Across the Curriculum" initiative, so that would help me fulfill that aspect of the class as well.  One idea was to set everything at an end-of-the-year assembly, where awards are given out.  I would write the "award presentations," with the monologues becoming the "acceptance speeches" that the students give. Some could be given in direct address to the audience, while others could be memories or soliloquies.  However, I'm not sure that concept will work and I may need to expand things further to allow for the disparity of performing experience in the class. Any other ideas to use as connecting tissue to string things together?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

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Susan Speidel
Chairman of the Performing Arts Department
Morristown-Beard School
NJ
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Susan,

I think having the students write their own monologues is a great idea!  Check out Theatrefolk's resources on monologues:

Free Resources for High School and Middle School Theatre Teachers

Theatrefolk		remove preview
Free Resources for High School and Middle School Theatre Teachers Are you going to be meeting with other theatre teachers? Having a conference? A weekend sharing session? A Professional Development day? We'd like to send you some catalogues, resource handouts, bookmarks, and maybe even a door prize or two! Get in touch with us here! View this on Theatrefolk >

This has more paid resources on monologue writing specifically:

Play Scripts for High Schools & Middle Schools - Theatrefolk

Theatrefolk		remove preview
Play Scripts for High Schools & Middle Schools - Theatrefolk A professional playwright kick-starts your students toward writing their first play. Playwriting Kick-Start offers students a new definition of what an idea is, how to find, create and develop that idea, tools to determine if an idea is theatrical, and what to do to move an idea toward a finished draft. View this on Theatrefolk >

Ray

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Raymond Palasz
English/Theatre Faculty; Thespian Troupe Director
Lake Central High School
Schererville IN

Original Message:
Sent: 03-23-2016 12:48
From: Susan Speidel
Subject: Creating a "frame" for monologues

I have a class of 19 middle school students who are scheduled to give an informal end-of the semester performance at the end of May.  It's a class of 13 boys and 6 girls, made up of largely inexperienced 6th graders with one 7th grader and five or six 8th graders - some of which have been in shows with me in the past.  The class only meets three times a week and students are also pulled out on a fairly regular basis for extra study skills help in our Center for Teaching and Learning.  I used Theaterfolks "School Daze" with a similar class in the fall, and that worked well, but the group was a bit more cohesive and I've not been successful in finding a script that works for this group.  I've now focused on the idea of doing a collection of monologues that are strung together with a some kind of "framing device" or unifying location.  My thought is to use a combination of existing speeches, from age-appropriate monologue collections, and some original pieces written by the students themselves.  (We have a very strong "Writing Across the Curriculum" initiative, so that would help me fulfill that aspect of the class as well.  One idea was to set everything at an end-of-the-year assembly, where awards are given out.  I would write the "award presentations," with the monologues becoming the "acceptance speeches" that the students give. Some could be given in direct address to the audience, while others could be memories or soliloquies.  However, I'm not sure that concept will work and I may need to expand things further to allow for the disparity of performing experience in the class. Any other ideas to use as connecting tissue to string things together?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

------------------------------
Susan Speidel
Chairman of the Performing Arts Department
Morristown-Beard School
NJ
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