It’s your Stage!
Modular Plays is an online project designed to make plays more accessible in classrooms, holiday programmes and drama groups. Gone are the days of trying to make your class/group fit a play. Modular Play’s mission is to create engaging plays that can be adjusted to fit your students, all without sacrificing the story’s plot or characters.
How it works
When downloading a Modular Play from the online platform you are prompted to choose a level of difficulty for each character in the script.
Simplified:
Short sentences with simple wording and few syllables.
Balanced:
Balanced short and long sentences with a mixture of simple and difficult dialogue.
Advancing:
Paragraphs or long sentences filled with complicated wording and lots of syllables, providing students with a decent challenge.
Teachers can then pick between having a ‘Narrator’ or ‘Stage Direction’.
Narrator:
Narrator will add an extra role that can be given to a teacher, student or divided between a group of students.
Stage Direction:
Stage Direction replaces the Narrator with silent directions for the performers.
The scripts also include ‘Ensemble’ characters which can easily be broken down and assigned to multiple performers to account for variable sizes of groups/classes. Then you are done. Teachers can return to the Online Platform www.modularplays.com to adjust their scripts at any time!
Example Scenarios
Scenario 1: Lucy is working at a level above her peers. The rest of class required a play with a simplified script. This script is too simple for Lucy making her feel belittled by having to take part in that play.
Modular Plays can change this by allowing the teacher to set Lucy’s classmates characters to Simplified while setting her character to Balanced or Advanced.
Scenario 2: Tom is working at a level below his peers. The rest of class required a play with a more advanced script. This script is too hard for Tom, making him struggle through that script or is sidelined into being a token role in that play.
Modular Plays can change this by allowing the teacher to set Tom’s classmates’ characters to Balanced or Advanced while setting his character to Simplified.
Scenario 3: You, the teacher, would like to put on a play involving multiple students of various ages and skill levels. You have to find a play to suit everyone, meaning you have to spend hours looking for just the right play.
Modular Plays can change this since every character can be made to suit. Not only that but Modular Plays have ‘Ensemble’ characters that can be broken up into as many roles as that character has lines, making it perfect for groups of different sizes.
Scenario 4: You, the teacher, have a group of students who struggle with verbal communication and/or stage presence. You find that although you and your students are having a good time, the audience isn’t quite sure what’s supposed to be happening on stage.
Modular Plays can change this by having the teacher select ‘Narrator’ instead of ‘Stage Direction’ to add a Narrator role to guide both the students and the audience through the scene.
Scenario 5: Tom would be perfect for the role of “The Mechanic”, however since the role is too advanced for him, he has to take a different role.
Modular Plays changes this by fitting the character to the actor instead of the teacher having to find students to fit the character.