One

Meet Adam – it’s his fault whenever his football team loses, Angelina who sabotages her ballet classmates, Billy who can’t sit still, Dora who has decided it’s time to fall in love, Kathy who knows her own mind when it comes to fashion, Alice who starts a campaign to save the apricot tree in her backyard and Armellieery who has friends named ‘Palooma, Cheetah and Paisleee with three e’s’. These are a few of the characters who appear in One – a book of monologues for young performers. There are 81 solos in One. They are sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, sometimes magical and sometimes daring – each with something different to offer young people looking for dramatic content that is relevant, engaging and challenging. These performers may be studying Drama at secondary Colleges, university Performing Arts courses, Youth Theatre companies or preparing for eisteddfods and community events. The monologues here will also appeal to teachers of theatre and drama and prove useful in classes based on character and voice development, the use of dramatic elements and stagecraft, use of space, actor-audience relationships and the study of important theatrical theorists. These works will reward ‘digging’ beneath the surface to discover suggested or hidden meaning. One may also appeal to more mature readers and those with a love of theatre. Chris Dickins is a playwright, theatre director and teacher who has been working in the Performing Arts since 1973. He is a prolific playwright having written around 90 plays – many of which have been specially commissioned for small community companies. Chris’ plays have been produced across Australia and Internationally; been studied for VCA Drama courses; used as teaching resources at universities and at NIDA and have been nominated for Victorian Green Room awards. In 1993 Chris represented Australia at the five writers from five Nations ASSITEJ international congress (the children’s theatre branch of UNESCO) in Frankfurt, Germany where his theories on theatre were adopted into ASSITEJ archives. Chris shares his life with wife Christine and lives in the rural artisan village of Fish Creek, Victoria, Australia.