Broken Voices

A Drama Playscript – By Alan Peters

A massive hit at the Fringe, this is a more serious piece.  It explores bullying – by teachers on pupils.  The simple story line sees a group of misfits lodged together in some kind of detention room on a school trip.  Told as a series of interlinked monologues, the already sombre mood takes a turn for the worse with the arrival of a Mephistophelian character who succeeds in stirring the youngsters up to extreme violence.

At the same time, the mood is constantly lightened by the Enid Blytonesque tone to their speech.

​Best for secondary age students, especially Key Stage Three it also works with a mature group of top year primary students.

​Running Time up to 45 minutes

​Directors of school plays often have a problem.  We are looking for playscripts for secondary schools, or plays for primary schools, that meet a number of criteria.

​We need to manage a large cast.  We need flexibility for rehearsal and performance.  The opportunity to change lines or add and remove characters without fall foul of licensing laws.  We need to be pitched right for the age of the students, without patronising them, or introducing themes to them which are inappropriate.

​Plays for schools need to be cheap to put on.  Every school or youth group drama director knows that budgets are always tight.

Alan Peters is a former teacher and director who understands all this.  That is why he has published a number of his own plays, all performed with great success in schools, and many taken to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where they earned five star reviews.

​Each of the plays are inexpensive to licence and offer total flexibility with regards to editing, characters and staging.  Changes can be made as the Director wishes.  Each play lasts between forty five minutes and an hour, making them suitable for both classroom drama and the annual school play.  Many come already paired for those looking to direct a full length school play.

Each offers at least eight characters, with flexibility for doubling or adding extra characters as the director wishes.  Simply buy the scripts, pay the simple licence fee (no complicated forms) and off we go.