Box

by Lindsay Price

Boxby Lindsay Price 30 Minutes, 3M+6W+9 Either, Simple setSometimes we choose the way the world sees us. Black box - indestructible. Jewelry box - plain on the outside, shiny on the inside. Sometimes our box is defined by others - our parents, our friends, our enemies. A box built by others can feel small, confined, impossible.How do we handle the boxes imposed upon us because of our gender? Our race? From peer pressure? From parent pressure? Do we have to live with our box for the rest of our lives? Can we change?Box is a middle school vignette play with flexible casting. It can be expanded for a large cast or reduced to a cast of 10 with doubling. Excellent small scene and monologue opportunities.

43 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 8, 2016

About the author

Lindsay Price is the Vice President of Theatrefolk Inc. and the co-creator of the Drama Teacher Academy. She has been involved with theatre education for over 25 years as a playwright, adjudicator, workshop instructor, resource writer, curriculum supervisor, professional development creator and keynote speaker. Her plays have been performed in schools all over the world with over 1000 productions a year.

Reviews

[Saoirse Brandjes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This play was an outstanding example of struggling with one’s identity. In the play, each character has a ‘box,’ which symbolizes their identities. Each character has a different box and their own monologues and scenes in which they explain what it means to them. This is a fantastic representation of how confusing it can be to figure out who you are, especially in your preteen years. It is an idea I am sure a lot of people can relate to, no matter the age. While the play is set in middle school, with most of the characters being the ages of 10-13, understanding your “box” is a theme that many of us identify with. Throughout the play, there are moments of comedy, moments of poignance, and moments of sadness that make us reconsider what we really know about each other. As a society, we can never fully understand what another person is going through, just based on what their ‘box’ looks like from the outside. Lindsay Price does a beautiful job of expressing each character’s story, through the use of symbolism and dialogue. One vignette that stood out to me was the monologue of one girl, in which she describes her box as a ‘cereal box.’ Using it as an example, she takes the reader through the story of her struggles at home and implies the physical abuse her mother is experiencing. It is a heavy topic for a middle schooler and helps the reader/audience understand just how dark the world is. Overall, this play was a touching read, and I would recommend it to anyone who is struggling with their identity or just longs to see the world in a more organic way.