Middle school performers and teachers are always seeking fun, lively middle school plays and musicals. We offer many middle school comedies and middle school dramas from which to choose, ranging from challenging full-length musicals to delightfully easy-to-stage one-act middle school plays and middle school comedy skits. Here is a small sample of our middle school plays and middle school musicals: (see Contemporary Drama website)  

PICNIC

Each year, on the first day of school, I would play picnic with my students, both English and drama.  After I had seated them, we would "go on a picnic."  Before we started I would remind them that it was a school-sanctioned event so they had to keep that in mind.  The first student would say their first name and then they would bring something to the picnic that began with the letter of their first name:  "Hi, my name is Margaret and I am going to bring mustard."  The next student would then say, “Hi, this is Margaret (indicating the first student) and she is bringing mustard.  I am Brad and I’m bringing a basketball.”

It would continue until half the class had responded and then we would start all over.  When everyone had “taken” something to the picnic, I would ask if anyone would like to say everyone’s name and what they were bringing.  I always had a least 2 students who could name all the items, and most of the names. I would let them go on even if they couldn’t remember.  There was always someone who would help them out. (Even two weeks after school had started we would review our "picnic," and it was amazing how the students remembered!)

CLAP HANDS
(see page 79 in The Drama Teacher’s Survival Guide)

Have everyone sit in a circle and number off. Then you start a rhythm: two claps on the thighs (using both hands), two hand claps together, and then two snaps of fingers.  Practice this until everyone can do it.  Now comes the tricky part: when the two snaps happen, the person with the number 1 is to say his/her number on the first snap and another student’s number on the second snap. Then everyone claps their thighs, claps their hands together and when it comes time for the snaps, the person whose number was called says their number on the first snap and another number in the circle with the second.  The trick is to keep a steady rhythm, not breaking it because someone does not remember his or her number. If they do not notice when their number is called, have the person who said their number start over. 

In order to make it a bit more difficult, have the person who messes up become the previous number.  Of course many people's numbers then change and the trick is to remember your new number. To make it even more difficult, various rules can be put into effect; no reverse numbers, no number to the direct right or left of you, etc. 

PERSONAL COMMERCIAL

The second day of my drama class saw commercials.  Each student created a thirty-second commercial about him- or herself. It could take any form: a testimonial, a song and dance, a slice of life, multiple characters—anything—as long as it was in commercial form and did not exceed thirty seconds.  

This will be my last blog for a couple of weeks.  I am having total shoulder replacement surgery next week and will be out of commission for a while.  When I return I will continue more improvisation games that I found helpful and fun. 

Tent theatre offers some interesting problems to overcome.  After the smoke experience, a new way of protecting the electrical equipment was instituted.  However, it was not foolproof. The Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret began singing:

“What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play.

Life is a Cabaret, old chum,

Come to the Cabaret.”

... when the entire sound system went dead. We sang and danced the rest of the song accapella and on pitch.  With the lead and 20 chorus members spread throughout the 100-foot span of the tent, this was no small feat. But the worst electrical problem by far was during the 3^rd Act of Harvey.

The show had run for two weeks without a hitch and was about to close. It was our last Friday night crowd and everything was going great.  We had just entered the doctor’s office to put Elwood away when we had a total blackout.  NO LIGHTS ANYWHERE.  We waited a few seconds and then I said, ”Well, this is a quite a place.  They don’t even pay their electrical bills!” We waited…and waited. Still no lights. The audience played along—they thought it was part of the show. I was playing Veta, and the gentleman playing the judge wondered if we should go get someone and started to exit the stage—a raised platform.  He was 20 years older than I and had trouble walking. I was so worried he would fall that I grabbed him and made him sit down telling him, “Harvey won’t let either of us go.”  Still no lights.  It was now obvious to everyone that we had had a power failure.  What to do? 

Well we continued adlibbing—about the power bill, “Could Harvey have had something to do with the missing power bill? What was happening to Elwood?” and again the judge wanted to leave.  One of my former students playing the taxi driver chimed in that she would go get the taxi to do what, I didn’t have the faintest idea, but at least we kept the dialog going.

Finally after 10 minutes (and believe me that is no exaggeration, it might have been 15) our assistant director found a floor lamp with a bare bulb that somehow was still working.  She and the light board operator dangled it out over the stage and asked the audience if they wanted us to continue the show with the limited lighting.  Their rousing answer was total applause.  We finished the show to a standing ovation. I don’t know if Mary Chase would have approved of the additional dialogue, but the audience loved it!

The most interesting technical problem however was not electrical but weather related.  It was opening night of The Foreigner, and a July thunderstorm arrived with a vengeance. The wind blew, lightning and thunder followed, and then we had a torrential downpour. The water came in through all the exits and holes in the top.  One such hole was directly above the dinning room table. During the breakfast scene the rain poured so heavily that Ellerd got a prop umbrella out of the stand and he, Charlie, and I huddled under the umbrella and tried to carry on the dialogue while Thor rumbled and the rain poured down on us. My husband videotaped the show and you could not hear the dialogue above the natural sounds.  It was over shortly and we persevered through standing and dripping water. Interestingly we had no trouble with anything electrical!

Summer theatre in the circus tent ended several years later, and the city decided to build a permanent tent-like structure in the same place (pictured above).  No summer theatre has been done since but many other wonderful city events have taken place there.