Young Actors Project
Calling
All Playwrights
Do you have a young person's play?
So, I have recently begun teaching an after school drama club for a local school called the Dual Language Arts Academy. They are a relatively new addition to the local school system, and currently they have 6th and 7th grades class, with a total of about 46 students. Next year, when the 7th graders return, they will have an 8th grade as well. What sets them apart, and is the meaning behind "Dual Language", is that they teach the classes in English and Spanish, alternating weeks. The "Arts Academy" part of the name derives from their approach of using artistic expression in conjunction with the standard curriculum of math, science, history, and so forth. It's an interesting concept, and so far has been working well for them.
About eighteen students (3 boys, the rest girls) signed up for the drama club, but the first class only included nine girls, the other students for various reasons not in attendance. I'm not sure just yet who will be sticking it out to the end. We meet once a week (for now, may go to twice weekly if the group expands) and will be presenting a show in June as our "final project".
Along the way, I am instructing them in some acting techniques, as well as imparting a small bit of essential knowledge such as stage positioning and key terminology they will need to pull the show together. Soon enough we will move into the script memorization and blocking phase, so I want to give them some building blocks first. Most of these kids have been in shows before, but a little conversation we had the first day revealed that the same kids always get the lead roles, while everyone else has to "sit in the back and pretend to talk". One girls has been in eight plays, and the most lines she's ever had was two. Others echoed that sentiment. I told them that my plan was that everyone would get a chance to sit in the front and talk for real, and they liked that idea a lot.
Rather than presenting one full-length play with a couple leads and the rest of the cast pretending to talk in the background, my approach is to use shorter one-act plays, 10-15 minutes, each with a cast of two or three, with relatively equal roles in importance and content. All the students will be the "leads" for their play; no one will be the rock, or the tree, or the silent butler. Actually, there could be some extra roles in the plays filled by others who will be leads in their own plays, so the cast need not be limited to two or three.
Also, in the development of each one-act play, the students not in that cast will be part of the creative team, giving feedback on how they think each play could be "better". Sometimes, often times actually, the actors have a much better sense of things than directors, who can be overly focused on and blinded by that "vision" they bring to the stage. Not that every idea the kids have will be incorporated, but some most surely will, and that gives them a sense of ownership over the show, even when they will be backstage. I liken it to the bench-sitters at a basketball game, fully invested in the five players on the court and cheering them on.
I'm looking for plays for these students which are written above them a little bit. They are aged 11 to 13, but I'd like the roles to be aimed more at perhaps the high school ages, so they can act "up" a bit. I'd rather not have them trying to act like adults, especially if two of them are parents of the third. As an example of a thought I had, I could see a story where three kids are part of a Clean Up The Beach day, picking up trash along the beach. One of them isn't doing very much (perhaps shy, perhaps emotionally insecure), the other two doing most of the work. The dialogue centers around the two talking "about" the third, then rethinking and reaching out to her/him. Firstly, there is "action" to give them, secondly the concept of cleaning up the beach could be related in the dialogue to cleaning up the relationships. (Okay, I'm not a playwright, but you see where I'm headed?)
Obviously, the language content needs to be free of words we identify by the number of letters. Some might be okay, such as "damn", but the rest aren't. It's not that I'm looking for either Disney Channel crap, or ABC Afterschool Special quality. But I'd like it to be positive and un-"adult"-erated.
If this sounds interesting, if you have appropriate plays already or feel like you would like to try your hand at one, please drop me a line. I'll be planning on getting the serious rehearsals started by April 27th, so I'd need scripts by then. Please share this with anyone you think might be interested as well. I wish I could say there would be financial compensation for you, and I'll see if that's in the budget, but I can't say for sure. You will definitely receive credit in the program, perhaps a mention in the press, and I would send you a CD with pictures of the rehearsals and possibly even a video of the show. I'd like to try and get someone in to do that.
Thanks for your interest, attention and consideration. Binge On!
David
email: dlaa@intentionaltheatre.com