ISTA/Scene March 07

daughter / parent relationships and
friendship to name a few themes.
Excellent production notes and how to
stage using Brechtian theatre styles
therefore great for low budgets. Great
roles for girls, but the ‘dates’ are literally
cardboard cut - outs. My grade 10’s in
Australia directed, produced and
designed the whole production and did
a fantastic job. They actually cast one of
the Mum’s as a Dad and we had 2 male
fairies that worked just as effectively and
they also used males for the dates, but
these are really cameo roles. I would
use with Middle Year grade 10 students
or as a Grade 11 IB1’s play to analyse
Brechtian theatre. It could also be used
for an Individual Project for IB2’S to
direct and stage. It’s a fantastic issue
based piece of poignant play writing!
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell,
adapted by Ian Wooldridge,
published by Nick Hearn Books,
London
Approximately one hour, with no
interval
Overview – ‘George Orwell’s satire on
the perils of Stalinism’. Animals take
over the control of their farm after
ongoing neglect and ruthless treatment
by their human farmer, but with the
pigs now in control of ANIMAL FARM
things appear to go from bad to worse
with some animals becoming ‘...more
equal than others’.
At the time of writing, I am about to
audition my Grade 6-8 students for the
Middle Years play in February at my
present school. The staff at Nick Herne
books has been so helpful with
regards to obtaining performing rites
and sending the plays. I would highly
recommend them to all teachers,
especially to new Drama teachers.
Easy to apply online no matter where
your school is.
It involves a large cast or you can
double up actors to have a cast of 6 if
your school is small. IB 1’s are involved
in costume and set design as part of
their Technical involvement in
production and I am going to appoint a
dramaturg too. There are helpful
production notes included and the
students appear to be very excited
about ‘doing’ the play!
Helen Szymczak - Marymount
International School, London
I only teach girls, so it can be a real
issue finding plays that are suitable.
Here is a list of some productions I
have done.
24 | Scene | 2006-7 March Issue 3
FIND ME by Olwen Wynmark
About a girl called Verity Taylor who at
the age of 20 was charged by the
police of damaging a chair in the
mental hospital where she was a
patient. Later, she was committed to
Broadmoor ‘from where she may not
be discharged or transferred elsewhere
without permission of the home
secretary’. Using a technique of
multiple characterization the play seeks
to investigate in depth the personality
of the young girl, to ‘find’ her – and at
the same time studies the effects of
her behaviour on the family, friends and
officials in whose care she is placed. I
had a cast of 23 actresses, so instead
of one actress playing Verity I had 5.
IB CLASSWORK
I do a lot of short performances with
my I.B girls as I usually have small
classes – no bigger than 6/7, so
combine a lot of skills in one project.
One student will direct, another
focusing on design, another on
technical and the others will perform.
Throughout their two years they all
have to alternate the various roles.
These are plays that have strong
women characters, and small casts!
KINDERTRANSPORT by Diane
Samuels, written in 1992
A full-length play- will need to choose
sections to perform. The play is about
a Jewish child being sent to live in
Britain to escape the holocaust. She
has to forge a relationship with a ‘new’
mother and she changes her identity.
Later her own daughter finds some
letters and asks her questions about
them which forces her to confront the
truth about her past. Cast (4-5): Evelyn
– English middle-class woman in her
50’s; Faith- Evelyn’s only child in her
early 20’s; Eva- Evelyn’s younger selfshe
starts the play at 9 and finishes at
17 years old- Jewish German
becoming increasingly English; Helga –
Eva’s mum German Jewish woman in
her early 30’s; Lil – Eva/Evelyn’s English
foster mother. In her 80’s.
Structure is chronologically moving
forwards in present interspersed with
flash backs to the past as Evelyn’s
memories come back to haunt her.
Act 1 has some good sections for four
actors especially Act 1 Scene 2.
MY MOTHER SAID I NEVER
SHOULD by Charlotte Keatley
(written 1987)
A full length play- will need to choose
sections to perform.
Play about four generations of women
in a family, how they relate to one
another and how their different lifestyles
reflect the changing
opportunities for women in society
over the last century.
Cast (4): Doris Partington born 1900;
Margaret Bradley born 1931; Jackie
Metcalf born 1952; Rosie Metcalfe
born 1971. The set is non-naturalistic -
‘a magic place where things can
happen’. The play moves through
chronologically interspersed with
scenes of all four women playing
together as children. Scenes often
done in pairs to begin with and later all
four characters are together.
METAMORPHOSIS by Steven
Berkoff from Franz kafka‚s short
story written in 1969
Cast (4-6 – depends which section(s)
you do): Gregor Samsa, his Mother,
his Father, his sister Greta, his boss the
Chief Clerk, the Lodger. This play is a
physical theatre piece based around
the idea of Gregor Samsa waking up
one morning to discover that he has
turned into a beetle. This symbolizes
the way he feels he is treated by his
family and boss and seems to
represent his mental breakdown due to
having to work so hard and feeling the
pressure of people relying on him.
Opportunities for stylized acting,
costume, lighting and set design.
THE CONAHUE SISTERS by
Geraldine Aron, written in 1990
One act play- will need slight cutting.
Cast (3): Dunya, Rosie and Annie (all in
30s). The play is set in Ireland and is
about three catholic girls who killed a
boy when they were children. They
were curious about sex and made him
kiss them and then, feeling rapt with
guilt about what they’ve done, they kill
him. The play is based around the
three girls having a reunion and then
re-enacting the murder- taking it in
turns to play the boy they killed.
Michael Thomas – Regent’s School
Pattaya, Thailand
HAROUN AND THE SEA OF
STORIES by Salman Rushdie,
adapted by Tim Supple and David
Tushingham, published in paper
back by Faber and Faber,
ISBN 0-571-19693-4
The school is fortunate to have a large
space called the Globe and, like
Shakespeare’s original, it includes a
large balcony space behind the stage
which leant itself well to the epic scale