APR
12

End of the Year Ideas

Congratulations!  You’re done with your mainstage production, and your students did great!  Everyone’s feeling good and your students are asking you, “Now that the show’s over, what are we going to do for the rest of the school year?”  Good question!

Sure, there are always theatre games, improv, and that unit of Theatre History that you’ve managed to avoid so far, but six or eight weeks is a lot of time to fill!  Beyond our collection of books of theatre games, here are other solid suggestions that will keep your students engaged and still learning.

• Put on a radio play.  With no memorization, costumes, sets, or props required, radio plays require less rehearsal time and are a fun, creative way to end the year.  Think of the fun they’ll have brainstorming how to create live sound effects!  Pioneer has six radio plays that your kids will love!
• Perform a monologue play.  To a large degree, students can work independently to learn and rehearse their monologue before pulling them together to create a cohesive evening or class period of entertainment.  Two of our monologue plays, Quaran-Teens and Stuck, share teen perspectives of the pandemic, which might be perfect for your graduating seniors, who had so much of their high school time impacted.  A Bowl of Soup is a soul-warming treat that all will enjoy.  Of course, we also have a wide collection of monologue books.  Monologues from these books are always royalty-free, whether original or from published plays.
• Have fun with royalty-free skits.  Our collection of over 110 royalty-free skits are the best buys on our website!  These PDFs are very reasonably priced and come with lifetime unlimited photocopying and production rights!  Buried within these 110 PDFS, you’ll find the true hidden gems — the hysterical comedy skits of Carol Burnett!
• Work on duet scenes and 10-minute plays.  Again, in our textbook section, Pioneer has quite a collection of duet scenes and short plays and scenes ideal for teens.  Ranging from silly (Fractured Fairy Tales for Student Actors) to dramatic (Power Plays), we think your students will be especially interested in the behind-the scenes peak at historical moments in the cross-curricular Plays of the American Experience and Plays of Science & Invention.
• Introduce your students to readers theatre.  Yes, Pioneer has a collection of readers theatre books, too!  (Are you getting the theme here, that our textbook section is ripe with supplemental materials for you?)  From classic literature to how-and-why stories to multicultural folktales, these plays are all royalty-free and like radio plays, do not require memorization, sets, or props.
• Do a quick and easy one-act.  Our prices are so low that many of our small cast shows cost less than $100 for scripts and the royalties for one performance.  See the recommendations below for some suggestions.