Debbie Lamedman

Lamedman writes that her goal is to make short scenes that teens can relate to, built from characters who teens can really understand and develop. In this, she succeeds, and the scenes here are probably well-suited to the highschool drama class searching out scenes for students who are just beginning to explore scene-work. The problems, though, might be expected as offshoots of these goals--many of them will allow students to build or choose characters who are exactly like themselves, meaning that the only acting work involved will be memorization. And, perhaps expectedly, the scenes aren't as entertaining as they might be were the characters more unique or developed. The characters and dialogues are Believable...just not overly original.

Also, while not necessarily a downfall of the book per se, it should also be noted that 90% of the material here is dramatic. There are three or four decent comedic skits (not hilarious, but funny enough to be entertaining once around), but the rest are built from conflict, much of it fairly serious (dealing with death, dating, drugs, eating disorders, etc.).

In the end, these aren't exquisite scenes, but they are age-appropriate and easily relatable if that's all that's being sought out. They are not, though, in any way challenging, which I do find a serious shortcoming of the work.… (mehr)

Really great collection of quick plays written specifically for teens.

I enjoyed reading through all of the twenty plays in this book. All were different (some better than others) but I can see a lot of them appealing to high school students. This would be a great book to use in a drama class, but could also work well in an English classroom as a quick, fun activity or introduction to a drama unit.

These plays are definitely written for high school students because of the issues dealt with such as, sexuality, college, dating, and family problems. It is sort of nice to have "fun" plays to read. Many high school students have a misconception that all plays are dramatic and boring, but this book shows them that plays can tell entertaining stories.… (mehr)