Working with Cue Scrolls (MS & HS ELA/Theatre)

Supplies

Printer, paper, word processing program, masking tape, ruler/straight edge, scissors, pen or pencil, scotch tape, highlighter, two wooden dowels (1/2 inch diameter, 9 inches long).

Goals

High School ELA and Theatre Arts professional development. This course will teach you how to make a Cue Scroll, just as an Elizabethan actor would have used four hundred years ago on The Globe Stage.

Inventory

Here's a quick review of the supplies you will need to make one cue scroll. Dowels can be found at a hardware store or purchased on Amazon ®. or Walmart ™. If you can't get ahold of any dowels, you can use new, unsharpened pencils instead.

Introduction

As you will discover, this technique is a powerful tool that can inspire young performers to get on their feet right away and not waste time wrestling with and turning pages on a stapled script.

How to Format a Script for a Cue Scroll

This video uses Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2 as an example. But you may choose any scene you like. Here is a link to a comprehensive online archive of all of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets: Shakespeare Folio Archives.

How to Assemble a Cue Scroll

Once your script is assembled, stay tuned for information on how to interpret Shakespeare's punctuation and find clues that can help us speak the text confidently and with purpose.

Meet the Artist

Alley Theatre Master Teaching Artist

Bradley Dean Whyte has been a Teaching Artist with the Alley Theatre for two years. He has a diverse background as an educator that includes teaching singing, song-writing, and musical theatre performance as well as acting and improvisation. He holds an M.F.A. in Theatre from Penn State and a B.A. in Theatre from UMKC. He has performed with the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, The Shakespeare Theatre, Cape Playhouse, and Nebraska Rep. He has also written music for regional theatres and self-produces his original pop music under pseudonym, The Perfectly Violent Dream.