Writing Plays for Children

By Alison Chaplin

Nearly 30 years ago I co-founded a youth theatre and it very quickly became a popular place for young people to cut their theatrical teeth. In the early days – during that stage between polished improvisation and full scale productions – I searched around for suitable plays to perform and found… nothing. I simply couldn’t find a play that would be meaningful enough to be worthwhile, that would entertain both young actors and audiences, and have a speaking role for every cast member.

So I did what any good youth theatre director does in that situation, I wrote one. Actually, with the first play I had this great brainwave – why not get the children to come up with the ideas, then write the script around that? During a week-long holiday theatre workshop, I set myself an almost impossible task: work up the ideas on Monday; write the script on Monday night; polish the script on Tuesday; type up and print enough copies on Tuesday night; read-through, rehearse and perform Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! It was one of the stupidest ideas I’ve ever had and you know, fellow directors out there, that we drama teachers are renowned for our ‘stupid ideas that seem like a good idea at the time’!

But it worked, and out of it came a play called ‘A Suitably Happy Ending’ – a fairy tale with attitude! This still sells copies all over the world and is even available as a musical, with great songs and music by Richard Scarff, a talented music teacher from Kent. The following week was even tougher, as the brief from the children ended up being, ‘a story about bullying, drugs and school set on a spaceship sometime in the future.’ But I rose to the challenge and from that workshop emerged ‘Coronation Fleet’ – a comedy set on a spaceship sometime in the future which explores the themes of bullying, drugs and school!

Although it was incredibly satisfying to write and direct something that the children had been involved in creating, I learned my lesson and wrote all future plays in advance of any workshops. Even though the children’s ideas didn’t directly feed into the creation of the scripts, they were still able to give suggestions for script changes and characterisation. Allowing myself time to write the plays also kept my stress levels down! The only exception to this rule was a play called ‘Harry Rings, Lord of the Potters’. But that’s a completely different story…

The fabulous selection of plays for children to perform can be found at www.artsonthemove.co.uk – paperback editions just £18.00; downloads just £10.00 – including your performing rights licence!