Drama Club

I'm running a drama club at my school and I'm really in need of a playscript that kids aged 4-13 could perform. Anyone got any ideas?

RR*

How about Annie? I performed that at my junior school! The younger ones could be the orphans, etc, and the older ones the main characters?

Yeh, that's a good idea...

Do you know where I could find a script on the internet?

RR*

My sister runs the town's local theatre company. Every year she holds a Theatre for Youth program during the summer. She's found it most effective to have the kids, the older ones of course, write the play themselves. Of course they get lots of help from the adults too. But in writing their own play, they're able to get a taste from another major aspect of the theatre. Screenwriting.

Of course, before we were having kids write the plays, we basically did the classic fairy tales: Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Hansel and Grettel, etc. They can get into it because they know the story already. And if they forget their lines, they know which direction the story is supposed to go and can sometimes get there.

As always,

Miss POKE

I remember in elementary school (6th grade, I believe) we did a spoof on Little Red Riding Hood called "The Trial of the Big Bad Wolf." It was a musical, but still pretty amusing... yeah, that was kind of off topic, sorry. But I think I was trying (in my own bizarre, convoluted way) to endorse rosethorn's suggestion of using popular fairy tales. Heck, if you go with that, you or someone you know could write a script for it. Since it's for children, it doesn't exactly have to be Wilde, after all.

Oh yeah, and the parents love it when the kids get super involved with it. If you get a cooperative group, they might be able to all come up with something together, maybe even a sequel to some famous children's story. Parents should be all extatic when they hear their kids wrote a play.

As always,

Miss POKE

*moves to writing tips*

How about a script about some mishaps in school? That's always fun!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Annie is NOT proper drama it is an over exaggerated musical. its not a good thing to start with as there is little drama actually in it - you want a simple little play to begin with not a musical.

Ok, when I just started highschool we did Shakespeare in 3 steps. Basically we took the plot of 3 hakespeare plays and made them 5 minutes each. Th glue was 2 actors who before each 5 minutes explained who they acted, then stage clears and the play begins, then actors, then play, then actors, then play.

We did:

R and J
Macbeth
12th Knight

Its an Idea, perhaps a little complicated though.

Rose is right however. I feel it is most effective to encourage kids to write themselves. Ive written many plays in my Drama class - very loose as most started out as improvisation. It really encourages them if they are acting out their own work.

Good luck.