act The Acto app

Class Photo

A supernatural play in three acts for ten high school students

  • Youth theatre
  • Supernatural
  • 10-character play
  • 5 women, 3 men, 2 either
  • 60 min
  • Intermediate
  • Ages 12+
PDF Word Free, no sign-up

Synopsis

The day before the bac, France’s big final exams, the ten students in the smallest class at their high school finally get their class photo. Rose, who was there the day it was taken, isn’t in it; Inès, who was absent that day, is. As the day goes on, more faces fade from the print, and the ten stay in their classroom until the school locks up, to work out what this photo is showing them.

Room 12 of a small high school in a town on the banks of the Loire, June 15th, from ten in the morning to six in the evening, the present day.

Casting

520 lines
  • ROSE Female role, Teen 17, in the class, has sat next to Lou since their first year.
  • LOU Female role, Teen 17, in the class, lives on the same street as Rose.
  • SAM No gender marker, Teen 17, in the class, picked up the photo from the photographer this morning.
  • HUGO Male role, Teen 17, in the class, has told everyone he’s moving to Paris after the bac.
  • CLARA Female role, Teen 17, in the class, has wanted to study medicine since first year.
  • INÈS Female role, Teen 16, in the class, was absent the day the photo was taken, back in May.
  • ALMA Female role, Teen 17, in the class, runs the class group chat.
  • MALIK Male role, Teen 17, in the class, arrives at school without having slept.
  • ADAM Male role, Teen 17, in the class, has been falling asleep in lessons since spring.
  • CHARLIE No gender marker, Teen 16, in the class, draws the linden tree in the schoolyard from the window every day.

Contents

  1. Act One: Ten O’Clock
    • Scene 1: The Envelope
    • Scene 2: The Flu
    • Scene 3: Ten Years From Now
  2. Act Two: Two O’Clock
    • Scene 1: The Experiment
    • Scene 2: The Magnifying Glass
    • Scene 3: The Back of the Photo
  3. Act Three: Five O’Clock
    • Scene 1: The One Who Stays
    • Scene 2: Elsewhere
    • Scene 3: Ours

Excerpt

Act One: Ten O’Clock

Scene 1: The Envelope

(Room 12, the last day. The chairs are upside down on the desks, except for a few. Through the window, the schoolyard and a tall linden tree. Clara is studying, flashcards spread out in front of her. Charlie sits at the window, drawing, a sketchbook balanced on one knee. Adam is asleep, head on his arms. Alma is typing on her phone. Malik checks the time.)

ALMA

The group chat says Sam’s on the way with the photo.

CLARA

The group chat says a lot of things.

ALMA

The group chat is always right. I am the group chat.

MALIK

A month. He took a month to develop ten faces.

CLARA

Mercier is eighty years old, Malik. He develops everything by hand, in his basement.

515 more lines, 12 scenes

The rest is waiting in the file.

Open the PDF Word

Free, no sign-up · 32 A4 pages

What you can do with it

Original text written for Acto. Read it, print it, work on it in class, perform it at an audition or on a self-tape: that is what it is for, and you need no permission. For a public performance or any commercial use, write to us at contact@acto.re.

Everything about these texts →

The same text, elsewhere

Close to this one