Drama Cuts

Drama Cuts provides 13 extracts from contemporary Commonwealth plays, in English. The selection includes extracts from plays written by well known Nobel Laureates, Wole Soyinka from Nigeria, and Derek Walcott from St Lucia. The anthology features issues closely related to student experiences such as: unplanned pregnancy, family conflict, social class, racial prejudice, the search for identity, religious and political freedom, love of country, poverty, attitudes towards work, cultural conflict, love and friendship and human rights. Extracts have been selected not only because of their social, political, historical and literary significance, but also because of their themes related to moral and physical dilemmas.

Contents:

• Cloudstreet: Nick Enright, Justin Monjo & Tim Winton
• Summer of the Seventeenth Doll: Ray Lawler
• Leaving Home: David French
• An Inspector Calls: J. B. Priestley
• Top Girls: Caryl Churchill
• Rudali: Usha Ganguli
• Atomic Jaya: Huzir Sulaiman
• The Pohutukawa Tree: Bruce Mason
• Ka Shue - Letters Home: Lynda Chanwai-Earle
• Death and the King's Horseman: Wole Soyinka
• Ti-Jean and His Brothers: Derek Walcott
• Sizwe Bansi is Dead: Athol Fugard
• The Man, his Son, and their Donkey: Mercy Mirembe Ntangaare

A brief introduction sets the scene for each extract. The selection includes scripts for large and small groups, as well as monologues and duologues. Reading, discussing and performing the extracts offers students a window into the lives and attitudes of people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Their hopes, fears and aspirations are laid bare in these gripping extracts which are easy to stage.

Drama Cuts is supported by Drama Cuts Teacher's Resource Book which provides background information on the play texts with a detailed synopsis of the entire play, writing and performing activities on individual plays and groups of plays and notes on the playwrights.