The Formal can be staged very simply or with more complex production values. The stage directions in the script indicate ways to do this but are guidelines only. Feel free to interpret the script to suit your cast, performance space and resources.

Theatre is a collaborative process. This play calls for tight ensemble performances and swift scene changes.

Acting

This play is an out-and-out comedy but the cast must take their own characters very seriously. It’s the only way to play comedy. There are also moments of quiet pathos in the script. Allow your audiences to enjoy the light and shade of the play. And use the power of stillness and silence.

As you shape your own production, you will need to resolve some of the performance challenges. For example, in the script, the cast members playing Carla and Skye become puppets in Act 2 , with the Formal Fairies speaking for them. You may decide to have the actors who play Carla and Skye speak the lines, or indeed, you might cast male actors in these roles.

Costume

Costumes are important. There is a lot of rising tension in Act 1 about the Formal outfits, which much be honoured in Act 2. One moment where costume is critical is when Maz appears wearing a tuxedo. This raises questions about her sexuality and the nature of her relationship with Dee.

Music

There are several points in the script that call for music – it’s up to you to find apt pieces to use in your production. One approach is to use live musicians.

Watch this space!

Please be patient - these will be posted soon.

How did you come to write The Formal?

The Formal started out as a short play. It grew! I had originally planned to include it in my first collection of short plays, Big Dramas. The temptation to expand it into a longer piece was irresistible.

I wrote separate scenes without having an overview of the plot, aside from the idea that I wanted to show all the chaos leading up to the Formal, then show the big night itself. I approached the local girls’ high school about the possibility of workshopping the script as I wrote it. Jill Bridgen, to whom I’m eternally grateful, saw it as a good opportunity for her Year 11 Drama class. I spent part of the first term with them, improvising scenes and analysing characters in Act 1. I then went away and wrote Act 2 and the Aftermath.

I met the class in February and handed them the finished script by Easter. The play took shape very quickly but the concepts and characters had been fermenting for a couple of years.

Why write about a Formal?

In its own way, I believe the Formal has become a rite of passage for adolescents, marking the end of their years as school students as the take their first steps into independent adulthood. This is how they see it, many of them. It has evolved since my own days at school, when the end-of-year school ball was seen as a slightly daggy and old-fashioned event – certainly much more low-key than today’s Formals.

There is so much drama and tension inherent in Formals – and so much comic potential. The awful thing is that for most people, Formals are anti-climactic. Months of planning, hundreds of dollars are invested in this one night, which ususally ends not with a bang but a whimper (and someone vomiting).

I wanted to use all of these ideas to explain the ways in which girls define themselves and the ways they behave under pressure – their mothers, too.

Why did you include the characters of Glam, Glitter and Tizz?

During the workshop process it became apparent that the script needed a character to guide the audience through some of the chaos. The idea of Formal Fairies appealed to me, with their Shakespearean overtones and their theatricality. Glam is quite Puck-like in some ways. It was also handy to have characters who could step in to become the ‘extras’ needed in some scenes. I like to write scripts that have interesting performance challenges for the whole cast, and the roles of Glam, Glitter and Tizz certainly offer challenges.

Why did you make The Formal an all-female script?

While some boys do get caught up in the Formal frenzy, it does seem to be a much bigger thing for girls. Their partners become accessories – almost literally – like shoes or handbags. I enjoyed ways of showing this on stage.

More seriously, I really wanted to focus on some of the issues faced by girls as they transition from school students to adults. And I wanted to write strong roles for females – especially as more girls than boys do Drama in most schools.

Where did you draw your ideas from?

I drew on my own adolescence and on my observations of the students I taught when I was a Drama teacher. When I was considering the setting for Act 2, at the Formal, for example, I remembered the Formals I had to help supervise. All the most dramatic and revealing action took place in the women’s toilets. I hasten to add that none of the characters are based on any one real person – they are all amalgams of girls and women I have known over the years. And yes, there are bits of me in every character, but I’m not telling you which bits of which ones!

Sue Murray