Open Forum

I spend a lot of time the year before reading. There really isn't a rhyme or reason for me. I give myself about 4-5 months to decide what I will do the following year (having a pretty good idea of what actors I will have to work with).

If you like to give your kids more input you might assign them to read a piece and then provide a presentation to the class about why that particular piece would be a good choice, or a bad choice, for the following year. 

Good luck! ... and of course you could ask for recommendations from the hive mind for specific pieces based on your needs each year.  :)

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Shira Schwartz
Chandler Unified School District
Chandler AZ
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-23-2018 10:38
From: Erika Trahan
Subject: One Acts

Just curious as to where you guys find great One Acts!?

Every year this is such a difficult task.

My class that competes with this is often small 8-15 people

and we are restricted to 20 minutes for our district and state performances...

--

Erika Trahan

Kaplan High School

Speech and Theatre

I wade through a lot of scripts. Most of the publishers have decent search features, so you can put in a cast size range, including a range for male and female roles. After that initial search, I'll go through the options looking for anything that stands out, then read the sample or order the script. Sometimes it means I end up spending easily over $100 on scripts. I gravitate to the more mature, less high-schooly plays, so there are some publishers that I don't bother with when looking for the competition play. 

On a side note, only 20 minutes? Yikes! That's barely enough time to establish a character. In Georgia, we have 55 minutes, which

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Ken Buswell
Drama Teacher
Peachtree City, GA
http://mcintoshtheater.org/

Theater kills ignorance
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-23-2018 10:38
From: Erika Trahan
Subject: One Acts

Just curious as to where you guys find great One Acts!?

Every year this is such a difficult task.

My class that competes with this is often small 8-15 people

and we are restricted to 20 minutes for our district and state performances...

--

Erika Trahan

Kaplan High School

Speech and Theatre

Yep! 20 minutes...makes it VERY tough. I've been trying to make the argument to bump it up to at least 30... but no one has bitten yet. Just have to make it work...

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Erika Trahan
Kaplan LA
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-23-2018 12:17
From: Kenneth Buswell
Subject: One Acts

I wade through a lot of scripts. Most of the publishers have decent search features, so you can put in a cast size range, including a range for male and female roles. After that initial search, I'll go through the options looking for anything that stands out, then read the sample or order the script. Sometimes it means I end up spending easily over $100 on scripts. I gravitate to the more mature, less high-schooly plays, so there are some publishers that I don't bother with when looking for the competition play.

On a side note, only 20 minutes? Yikes! That's barely enough time to establish a character. In Georgia, we have 55 minutes, which

------------------------------
Ken Buswell
Drama Teacher
Peachtree City, GA
http://mcintoshtheater.org/

Theater kills ignorance

Original Message:
Sent: 08-23-2018 10:38
From: Erika Trahan
Subject: One Acts

Just curious as to where you guys find great One Acts!?

Every year this is such a difficult task.

My class that competes with this is often small 8-15 people

and we are restricted to 20 minutes for our district and state performances...

--

Erika Trahan

Kaplan High School

Speech and Theatre

Have the students write your show. 

We have written our Thespian One Act (along with numerous other student written one acts we do) each year for about 7 years now and have often had it move on to State and score very well there too. 

When the students write it, you can completely control content, make edits for shortening it if needed, and maintain control over number of actors involved, complexity of costuming and sets,... by giving parameters to the students writing in advance. You can have groups of students writing together, or have many different students write their own, read them aloud at a meeting or in class, and then select the best material to move on to workshopping and editing towards a one act for festival. 

It can be so difficult to find a good one act, that meets the time length, and the actors available and while there is great material out there, it often doesn't all meet every need, so we have found writing our own gives us the ability to have more control and end up with stronger material that we are happier with the outcome of. Plus workshopping new works is a great process and skill for students to learn and practice.

Good Luck!

------------------------------
Kathleen McNulty Mann
mcnulkl@bay.k12.fl.us

Program Director
Arnold High School Theatre
Thespian Troupe 6371
Panama City Beach, FL

District 10 Chair & State Logistics
Florida State Junior Thespians

Board Member
Membership Committee Chair
Florida Association for Theatre Education
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-24-2018 08:17
From: Erika Trahan
Subject: One Acts

Yep! 20 minutes...makes it VERY tough. I've been trying to make the argument to bump it up to at least 30... but no one has bitten yet. Just have to make it work...

------------------------------
Erika Trahan
Kaplan LA

Original Message:
Sent: 08-23-2018 12:17
From: Kenneth Buswell
Subject: One Acts

I wade through a lot of scripts. Most of the publishers have decent search features, so you can put in a cast size range, including a range for male and female roles. After that initial search, I'll go through the options looking for anything that stands out, then read the sample or order the script. Sometimes it means I end up spending easily over $100 on scripts. I gravitate to the more mature, less high-schooly plays, so there are some publishers that I don't bother with when looking for the competition play.

On a side note, only 20 minutes? Yikes! That's barely enough time to establish a character. In Georgia, we have 55 minutes, which

------------------------------
Ken Buswell
Drama Teacher
Peachtree City, GA
http://mcintoshtheater.org/

Theater kills ignorance

Original Message:
Sent: 08-23-2018 10:38
From: Erika Trahan
Subject: One Acts

Just curious as to where you guys find great One Acts!?

Every year this is such a difficult task.

My class that competes with this is often small 8-15 people

and we are restricted to 20 minutes for our district and state performances...

--

Erika Trahan

Kaplan High School

Speech and Theatre

I compete in 10 minute scenes and the most successful website has been Brooklyn Publishers. They have a large selection, and almost always has amazing story lines

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Lindsey Jones
Newcastle WA
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-23-2018 12:17
From: Kenneth Buswell
Subject: One Acts

I wade through a lot of scripts. Most of the publishers have decent search features, so you can put in a cast size range, including a range for male and female roles. After that initial search, I'll go through the options looking for anything that stands out, then read the sample or order the script. Sometimes it means I end up spending easily over $100 on scripts. I gravitate to the more mature, less high-schooly plays, so there are some publishers that I don't bother with when looking for the competition play.

On a side note, only 20 minutes? Yikes! That's barely enough time to establish a character. In Georgia, we have 55 minutes, which

------------------------------
Ken Buswell
Drama Teacher
Peachtree City, GA
http://mcintoshtheater.org/

Theater kills ignorance

Original Message:
Sent: 08-23-2018 10:38
From: Erika Trahan
Subject: One Acts

Just curious as to where you guys find great One Acts!?

Every year this is such a difficult task.

My class that competes with this is often small 8-15 people

and we are restricted to 20 minutes for our district and state performances...

--

Erika Trahan

Kaplan High School

Speech and Theatre

20 minutes?!

That's the reason you're having such a difficult time finding good material. Not many playwrights write for that length - (10 minute yes, or 30-40 minutes) - 20 is such an in-between awkward length. 

You might have some luck taking one-acts and cutting them down a bit, with publisher's permission. But there usually isn't a lot of fat on one-acts to cut, so that's tricky. 

I've got a few plays that are segmented - (like 10 ways to survive the zombie apocalypse, squad goals, or it's not you, it's me) - you could probably cut them down to 20 pretty easily by removing some of the sections. I wouldn't pick them as competition plays specifically (since I like the competition plays to have more of a storyline and character development), but you could at least get a good performance out of them. 

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Don Zolidis
Austin TX
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 08-23-2018 10:38
From: Erika Trahan
Subject: One Acts

Just curious as to where you guys find great One Acts!?

Every year this is such a difficult task.

My class that competes with this is often small 8-15 people

and we are restricted to 20 minutes for our district and state performances...

--

Erika Trahan

Kaplan High School

Speech and Theatre