7(ish) Great Scenes
I am constantly asked the same question by all of my students.Can you suggest any good scenes? Well, yes I can, but I’d rather you sort them out for yourself is my internal response before I smile and suggest something or offer them the run of my personal library. However, I understand that if you don’t have a background in drama, if you haven’t spent twenty years building up a library of plays, if you don’t want to buy plays just in case they have good scenes in them: it can be troubling to find material for scenes. So in order to make this all a bit more helpful and offer a helping hand to my students and the rest of you out in the blogosophere, here’s some plays that have some great scenes for a scene study class. You can click through and purchase them through Amazon if that’s helpful. I will warn you in advance that I’ll be rewarded with 4p, so don’t feel pressured into it! I’m not big on sales technique :o)
1) Anything by David Greig (that’s not the title of a play!) But there is a great collection of plays Plays One by David Greig, a great purchase, lots of excellent scenes.
3) Look Back in Anger -John Osbourne – the birth of the angry young man, a bit dated now, but still some fabulous scenes.
4) Chekhov – the biggest challenge but a huge reward when you get it right, not something for beginners, but if you want to expand your dramatic knowledge then you can’t beat him.
5) Royal Court Anthology - something for everyone, a superb collection of plays in just one volume, contemporary British writing.
6) Thirteen by Shanley - a lovely collection of plays by one of my favourite writers the Pulitzer Prize and Oscar winning genius of John Patrick Shanley.
7) Some Girls – Neil LaBute – full of great male/female scenes, saw this in Manhattan when it opened, excellent material for class. Hope that keeps you all going for a while!