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73 pages

English

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An entertaining collection of new short plays specially commissioned for young people, this book is a great resource for schools, colleges and youth theatres. With contemporary themes and a wide variety of roles, this collection enables young people to engage with serious topics while enjoying all the fun of performance.Contents: LOL: LAUGHING OUT LOUD, CRYING INSIDE This is a play about bullying and bystanding - exploring the complex new world of cyber-bullying and internet trolling.'With the tragic consequences of cyberbullying being seen regularly in the media it is important that students are educated about the impact of their actions and the law surrounding this crime LOL is a script I will return to again and again.' -Year 10 teacher ROCKETFUEL A forum-theatre play about peer pressure, making responsible choices about drinking and looking after your friends. 'Every child in my class was so absorbed in the play. You seem to have really hit the message home to them. A fantastic starting point for the rest of the year's PSHE curriculum.' - Year 8 TeacherTHREE SHOES A play which explores children working on stage and screen in the past and present, taking in the backstage life of a choirboy at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, a pantomime babe in Victorian England, and a pair of young film stars in the glare of the media today.NOAH A colossal storm is brewing and the great flood is coming. Yet only one man and his family are doing anything to prepare. The rain starts to fall, the Ark's doors close and an extraordinary journey must begin. 'a terrific re-imagining of the biblical story. Rachel Barnett's writing is immediate, intelligent, bold, quirky, consistently surprising and compelling for young people.' -Youth Theatre Director, Chichester Festival TheatreReviews:'It's never easy to find inclusive, meaty plays suitable for youth theatres or schools so this contribution from well-established children's playwright Rachel Barnett is very welcome. Rocketfuel is a nicely balanced piece about risk taking and boundaries commissioned for gap year students to perform in secondary schools.' - Susan Elkin, The Stage 'Rachel Barnett's excellent play texts give voice to the concerns of young people, exploring options for dealing with the pressures of teenage life. Her production of Noah, which was performed by our Youth Theatre in 2012, was a gem of a show and makes you wonder why schools are still performing musicals and pantos when there is new writing of this standard out there.' - Jonathan Church, former Artistic Director, Chichester Festival TheatreAbout the AuthorRachel's plays have been performed in the UK and internationally, including in London at the Hampstead Theatre, the Royal Court, the Arcola Theatre, and Polka Theatre, also at Chichester Festival Theatre, the Hazlitt Theatre in Maidstone, Manhattan Theatre Source in New York, Live Girls in Seattle, and Auroville in India. She has a wide range of interests which inform her writing. Projects to date have included original work, adaptations, translations, theatre for young audiences, and dramaturgy of collaborative devised work. A sought-after workshop leader, Rachel shares her time between writing, producing, teaching and arts project management.

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Publié par	Distributed By PublishDrive
Date de parution	29 juin 2016
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781906582791
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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Extrait

Rachel Barnett
Rachel is an English playwright whose plays have been performed in the UK and internationally, including in London at the Hampstead Theatre, the Royal Court, the Arcola Theatre and Polka Theatre. Also at Chichester Festival Theatre, the Hazlitt Theatre in Maidstone, Manhattan Theatre Source in New York, Live Girls in Seattle, and Auroville in India.
She has a wide range of interests which inform her writing. Projects to date have included original work, adaptations, translations, theatre for young audiences and dramaturgy of collaborative devised work.
A sought-after workshop leader, Rachel shares her time between writing, producing, teaching and arts project management.
www.rachelbarnett.co.uk
First published in the UK in 2015 by Aurora Metro Publications Ltd.
67 Grove Avenue, Twickenham, TW1 4HX
www.aurorametro.com info@aurorametro.com
Rocketfuel © 2015 Rachel Barnett
LOL © 2015 Rachel Barnett
Three Shoes © 2015 Rachel Barnett
Noah © 2015 Rachel Barnett
Introduction © 2015 Dale Rooks
Cover image © 2015 Illustration of Noah at Chichester Festival Theatre inspired by a photograph by Mike Eddowes
Production: Simon Smith, Grace Thiele
With thanks to: Neil Gregory, Hannah Henderson, Maria Borca, Tracey Mulford and Lucia Tunstall.
All rights are strictly reserved. For rights enquiries including performing rights contact the publisher: info@aurorametro.com
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
In accordance with Section 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the author asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of the above works.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Ebook conversion by Swift ProSys.
ISBN: 978-1-906582-95-1 (print)
ISBN: 978-1-906582-79-1 (ebook)
FOUR SHORT PLAYS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
by
RACHEL BARNETT
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
THE PLAYS
ROCKETFUEL
LOL
THREE SHOES
NOAH
INTRODUCTION
‘You can’t use up creativity … the more you use, the more you have.’
Maya Angelou
Rachel Barnett is passionately committed to working with young people and inspiring them with contemporary and vibrant plays. Her writing is brave, bold, poignant and compelling. A strong feature of her work is her superb attention to detail, vivid imagination and wit. Her writing allows directors and young people to capture the world of a play with a uniqueness and originality that makes it refreshing, captivating and engaging for young people. This originates from an exceptional grasp of narrative, deep knowledge and understanding of the dynamics of a scene combined with Rachel’s profound interest in human psychology and what compels human behaviour. Additionally, Rachel’s enthusiasm and love of literature is inspirational and infectious.
If we accept that children and young people are the audiences, artists and creative workforces of the future, then we, as theatre educators, have a responsibility to introduce and inspire them with meaningful theatre-making experiences and this anthology of new short plays by Rachel Barnett offers exciting possibilities for young people to perform.
Scope for young performers
Inclusive youth theatre activities can provide an essential platform for children and young people to develop a life-long enjoyment and appreciation of the arts. If we are able to develop and nurture a nation of excellent actors, directors, producers, writers, designers, stage managers and technicians, then theatre will remain vibrant and stay alive.
Obviously, there are benefits to those youth theatre activities which take place in a working theatre that provides access to the stage for performance and to a range of professionals for mentoring and training. However, not all youth theatres have the luxury of being integral to a professional theatre and the plays in this anthology can be performed in any number of spaces, even outdors. The most important feature is to provide theatre experiences that are high quality, stimulating, challenging, innovative and fun, enabling children and young people to develop personally, socially and artistically.
The Plays in this anthology
In these four plays, combining both original work with a fresh new adaptation, Rachel offers a concoction of real and imagined observations, predicaments and revelations using themes that resonate and identify strongly to young people; from bullying and anti-social behaviour to breathing contemporary life into Noah, a story from the bible.
Rocketfuel
Rocketfuel was commissioned for gap year students to perform to secondary school students. The piece is about responsible choices linked to drinking alcohol. The play follows a group of friends as they grow up together. The piece is playful and funny but with a serious core to inspire further discussion.
The humorous, playful and child-like aspects of the first half offer a stark contrast to the more serious elements of the second. Following the story of a group of friends as they grow up together, the piece introduces some playful imagery whilst providing opportunities for a young company to consider how the notion of ‘fun’ changes throughout adolescence. It looks at risk-taking and the issue of boundaries. How should an individual behave when their peer group is misbehaving? How do teenagers keep themselves safe? What are the likely outcomes of teenagers drinking alcohol? The play will inevitably instigate discussion around the responsibilities of growing up. Rachel’s open-ended stage directions present a wonderful opportunity for young people to devise and work creatively on the transition between childhood and young adolescence, using whichever theatrical medium they choose.
LOL (Laughing out loud, crying inside)
LOL was one of Rachel’s first ever professional commissions. The brief was to write a piece suitable for Year 9 students to perform to Year 7 students and encourage a conversation about the role of the by-stander in a bullying situation. Once the play had been written, it was sent to secondary schools all around West Sussex. Teachers and young people responded that the subject matter was timely and relevant and it led on to further work in the drama studio and the classroom discussing cyberbullying and online safety.
The play is a short, thought-provoking theatre piece that is particularly suitable for 11 to 14 year olds. The relevance of cyberbullying in modern society is sensitively but accurately presented and the subject matter lends itself to provocative discussions about human nature and moral responsibility.
Alongside a small number of main characters, the play provides opportunities for an additional group of commentators which adds an interesting dimension /perspective for delivering the narrative taken from the by-stander’s viewpoint. There are vast opportunities for discussions and debate and great scope for exploring the issue of cyberbullying and on-line safety through forum theatre techniques.
Three Shoes
Three Shoes is an ambitious play for a large group of mixed age children, which could include adults as well. Spanning 500 years, the play looks at the role of child performers on stage and screen and how the roles they play have changed over time. There are opportunities for dancing, singing, magic, tumbling, in fact whatever the cast is capable of. The play has comedic parts as well as serious ones with the aim of suiting as diverse a cast as possible.
It’s an ambitious and unusual play, offering a voice to the young performers whilst presenting their story throughout the course of history. The strong and recurrent imagery offers discussion and debate opportunities around issues that concern young people. The playwright takes a novel approach to the ending by inviting the young performers to add their own ideas and voices at the end of the piece. The play also offers collaborative opportunities for older performers and, consequently, the chance to work cross-generationally, to combine youth or school companies with community groups.
Noah
Noah was a commissioned piece for Chichester Festival Youth Theatre. It provides a brave and uncompromising retelling of the traditional story of the flood, with plenty of humour. There are opportunities for dancing and singing as well as lots of potential for young companies to add as many ‘animals’ as they like. It offers terrific opportunities for the inclusion of a large cast ensemble and capacity for innovative costume and design elements for the vast array of animals. There is also great scope for new musical composition, for underscoring and for choreographing vibrant dance and movement sequences.
The play was premiered in a temporary theatre space, against the backdrop of Oaklands Park (adjacent to Chichester Festival Theatre). 86 animals stampeded across the park in a spectacular and imaginative movement routine that delighted the eye and was magnificently received by both spectators and critics.
Together, the plays in this anthology offer varied and challenging roles for young people to perform. They offer imaginative opportunities for young people to develop their skills and creativity, gain confidence and learn to work together as a group.
Why join a Youth Theatre?
Young people join youth theatres for various reasons; some with an ambition to pursue a career in the arts, others to widen their social ne