Category: drama
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The Actors Speak #1
Here are some promo sheets I made for my upcoming show. I’m really excited about this one: “The Secrets of the Magic Pool.” The script is available for purchase HERE! And now the thoughts of some of my incredibly talented actors.
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Mapping out the story
Today, I wrote up one sentence synopsis for each of the scenes of my new play “The Secrets of the Magic Pool.” This will be going into the playbill during the show, but I thought it was quite telling of how I wrote it. I like to write stories where several characters have major parts,…
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Monologue 1: Excerpt from new novel “Which Half David”
I’m finally getting around to posting some monologues that people (especially drama folk) can use for a variety of purposes. You’ll find these on the right of the website under “Monologues.” This first one is actually from my new novel, not even fully edited yet, but set to release later this summer. It’s entitled “Which…
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4 Weeks Off! Do you remember your lines?
Typically, when I’m directing a play, we will meet to do (hopefully) the whole play once a week. Then in the last month before the show, we ramp up the number of hours significantly and we’ll be ready. This time was strange. In the past four weeks, there are certain scenes we haven’t practiced at…
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Using Verbs to Color Your Acting
One of the techniques I use in my Intro to Theatre Arts class is one that I’ve drawn from several different sources. It’s the idea of using an action verb to help describe what a person is supposed to do in a scene. First, I will tell the actors to think of an action verb…
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The Sasse Food Challenge: How to Motivate Actors
It’s become somewhat of a ritual for me over the past few years: The Sasse Food Challenge. It’s a way to, hopefully, motivate my actors to memorize their lines by the date I want them memorized. On the day of the challenge, if they ALL know their lines, approximately 95% or so, then I will…
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“Dead is Dead” – A Script for Easter
I was asked to write a Good Friday script for our school’s chapel. It’s entitled “Dead is Dead.” My actors did an incredible job with it – about a disillusioned couple the day after the crucifixion. To celebrate Easter, I’ve included the full script of “Dead is Dead” below. Would love your feedback on it.…
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Photos from our Readers’ Theatre
Tuesday evening, we had our annual Readers’ Theatre – this year a re-incarnation of the Pink Panther. We had the audience rolling in laughter. A Readers’ Theatre is just like any other show except the actors read the lines instead of memorizing them. It leads to very amusing situations when Jacques Clouseau says things like,…
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Our Annual Readers’ Theatre
One of the major units of my Intro to Theatre Arts class is a readers’ theatre which the entire class has to produce. The script doesn’t need to be memorized, but the story needs to “pop” on stage as if it is memorized. A staged reading might be a synonym for what we do. We…
Author Mark W Sasse 