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Plays from the Top of the Stairs - Volume One
For the Primary Educators: You may have been lucky enough to catch QTC's school holiday production of 'The Lost Property Rules' by Matthew Ryan last year. This is a joyous romp of fantasy and the imaginary, ideal for generating classroom drama activities. But did you know that the play was not only published, but also a part of a compilation of tales for the young ones called 'Plays from the Top of the Stairs - Volume One'? This short and sweet series of plays is an excellent addition to the early middle years classroom, but concepts from these plays can be used across any primary years. The rhythm of the piece is quite Lewis Carroll-esque at times, with a hint of Dr Seuss and Roald Dahl too. The script is suitably absurdist at times, without being morbidly existential, such as in the 'Big' family's scenes through their exploration of words and the alphabet. Use of make believe and simple props mean that this play could easily be recreated in a classroom setting and the flexibility of the cast size means it could be performed by a fairly large ensemble if required. With a simple but valuable moral in the end 'storytelling can help you to not be scared', this is a delightful script to incorporate into the classroom. With two other plays developed in conjunction with Backbone Youth Arts also in this compilation, it is well worth having as a teaching resource.
A Tribute of Sorts
For the secondary Educators: Benjamin Schostakowski, most recently seen as Lewis in La Boite's 'Cosi', really is a man of many talents. You may have caught 'A Tribute of Sorts', which he both wrote and directed in the 2012 La Boite Indie season. If not, QTC have wisely included it in their 2014 season, playing during Term 2 at the Bille Brown Studio. And even more wisely, Playlab have published the scripted part of their Playlab Indie publications suite, just in time to accompany this production. Whether you use it as a tool to engage students in a Responding Task or workshop some of the unique, witty and frivolous scenes through a unit on comedy, absurdism or post modern theatre, 'A Tribute of Sorts' is a delightfully self-indulgent text that is set to become iconic and firmly wedge itself in the terrain of Australian play scripts for young audiences. 'A Tribute of Sorts' comes highly recommended for use in the Drama classroom for Years Ten and up.
Please visit www.playlab.org.au for the full range of scripts available for both print on demand and photocpy licences.
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