This is a short play of 20 minutes duration with an all-male cast; it’s a ghost story set in an English boys’ boarding school.
It is the late 1950s. A new boy, Ames, is the first one up to the boys’ dormitory at the start of term. There he meets another boy with a remarkable story to tell. But when this boy has gone and others arrive, it gradually transpires that Ames has come face-to-face with something rather spooky…
The New Boy has a cast of twelve characters, all schoolboys aged around 11-13. The play has been deliberately written with major through-roles for confident actors who want a lot to do, and smaller roles for those who want to do less. Staging, costumes, set and lighting are kept simple: the play unfolds in “real time” and the action takes place in one location – the recreation room of the boys’ boarding house.
With its short running time and comparatively large cast this would make an ideal item that could be included in an evening of short plays or extracts; it is particularly recommended for boys’ prep schools as it is set in one! The play is published by Drama Notebook and can be performed royalty free.
The opening of the play can be read on their website, and for a very modest fee this and other plays they publish can be read and downloaded; a longer extract from the play is also available here.