Cast of Characters
5 males, 1 female

• OLD MAN: Harry, all grown up. The narrator (can be recorded or live)

• HARRY: the hero, a sensitive, bright boy of 11 years old

• TOM: Harry’s friend, also 11 but more robust in character than Harry

• KILLER: real name Peter Jones, also 11, the school bully

• MR. BLACK: mid 30’s, a kind but strict teacher over-concerned with his own authority more than his ability to “relate” to his pupils

• VENUS: 13 years old, an alien girl, confident and assertive.

Plot Summary

Harry’s Dream is a simple play designed for adults to perform for children between the ages of 7 and 11 years of age. Simply told and presented, it tells the story of Harry, a young schoolboy who suffers silently at the hands of a school bully with the nickname of “Killer”. Early scenes outline characters, myths about violence in school and attitudes. The key scenes occur when “The Green Girl”, an extra-terrestrial visitor, accidentally crash-lands her spaceship behind the bike sheds at Harry’s school. Using her technology, she transforms three characters into bizarre and unusual animal puppets and then, with the animals as her captive audience, explains to Harry and shows by example how to tackle violence in school without recourse to violence himself - and still fix her spaceship in time to return to class on her own planet!

Devised by Tony Stowers with the help of Chief Child Psychologist Dave Smith of Durham County Council (Durham, England), “Harry’s Dream” proved enormously successful, playing around 200 performances for around 50,000 young people between 1997 and 1999 in the North East of England. It can be particularly effective if performed by school teachers.  Accompanying workshops can be easily devised whereby young audiences can explore non-violent solutions themselves.  The script would also make ideal reading material for groups.

Running time: approx 45 minutes.

The Setting

Set in an “open space” – indicative of many school halls – the show is designed to be played on the floor or on the same level as the seated audience, not on a stage. The set should be portable and bright and not rely on lights or sound SFX. Use curtains with painted images that could be pulled aside to reveal each change of scene – the playground, the classroom, behind the bike sheds, the spaceship, the alien television set etc. and which can also be used as “backstage” for the actors and a lightweight but robust looking “wall”, about waist high. The puppets are operated by the actor playing Tom and Mr Black.

The show is supposed to be played by adults, not children, but can also be used as a reading piece. However, a licence must be obtained for any full (or part) public performance.

Playwright Biography

Tony Stowers was born into a working class family in North East England in 1963. A love of literature, a supportive English teacher, school pantos, theatre and writing sustained him through his early years, despite getting up to all manner of trouble associated with disenfranchised youth in small towns. In 1979, against his better instinct, he signed up for an apprenticeship but was fired in 1981 for daydreaming. From that moment he determined to become a writer and artist. 1981-1985 saw him experimenting with various styles of theatre. He became a published poet and performed much of his work to "punk" audiences or in support of the Miners' Strike. As well as attending various drama groups, he wrote theatre plays in the search for an original voice, highlights including "The Waiting Room" which featured a young Mark Gatiss and "Norm & Ahmed" by Alex Buzo. Unable to attend The Drama Centre, London as an acting student in 1984 due to being turned down for a grant, he went on writing, performing and publishing, some of his best poems having been recently set to music and recorded by French group Insanzo. In 1985, successful as an applicant to London's Central School of Speech and Drama, he left the North East and lived in London for the next 11 years. As well as graduating as an actor, he pressed on with his own unique vision and, despite an irregular and itinerant lifestyle, wrote some of his best plays. In 1996, he returned to the North East and formed The Northern Line Theatre Company, beginning with TIE issue-based plays, 1997-2000 producing six new plays, employing up to 30 actors and technicians, giving many Equity cards and entertaining around 75,000 children. After a brief sojourn in France in 2002, he again returned to the North East and formed Associated Professional Artists and it was with this company he gained creative successes with "Space Jockey" and "X", employing up to 50 NE-based actors in a variety of workshops and read-throughs, as well as travelling in Europe and the UK to enhance his skills and knowledge. Today he lives in France and continues to create new theatre work which always strives for originality both in terms of writing and direction, as well as performing in challenging spaces. His most recent success is the one-man show "Gauguin's Ghost" which was first performed in Pont-Aven, Brittany in August 2009 in French and English at the same time! Happy to receive the label "maverick", Tony continues to write, act and direct and continues to strive to create original work and to upturn conventional ideas of what theatre is perceived to be.

$4.50/individual copy

$40/package
$30/performance royalty

Have you read Stowers' Cyrano?