© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com pg.

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 Advanced Scene Starters
(Ages 12-18)

Scene work is a foundation of learning theatre. Below are 28 scenes for actors to either
improvise or create a somewhat scripted piece. Here are several ways to use this printout:

1. Divide students into groups of four, give each group the situation AND the characters. They
must cast it themselves and make it into a scene with a beginning, middle and end.
2. Put four students onstage and read them the scene to improvise. You assign cast members.
3. Read students the scenario, give them their characters secretly. Improvise the scene and
let the characters reveal themselves as the scene progresses.
4. Cut out just the situation and give it to a group of actors. Let them create their own
characters.
5. Cut out just the characters and give to a group of actors. They must come up with a
situation and act it out.

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com pg. 2

 Situation: Entryway to a palace. Four people have arrived at once and the
owner is nowhere to be found. One of them has a secret.

Characters: A rich person who hates to be kept waiting; a person who has
been transported here from the future; a governess looking for a job; a
traveling salesman.

Situation: A jail cell. A bench will only sit three people and there are
four people in the cell. They have been told that one person will be
released due to lack of space, but they must decide who!

Characters: a college kid who ran a red light and crashed into a fire
hydrant; an innocent woman accused of murdering her husband; a
jewel thief; a drunk person who caused a barroom fight.

Situation: Parlor of a haunted house. Four people have been invited to

spend the night by the dead man. He wrote in his will that whoever
makes it to the next morning, wins a fortune. If everyone makes it, they
must split it, however, so they try and scare each other off.

Characters: The dead man’s niece; his brother-who hated him; his
boss; his extravagant young wife.

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com pg. 3

Situation: An elevator in a run-down building. Four characters are headed
toward different floors in the building when the elevator suddenly lurches to a
stop.

Characters: a person who is afraid of confined spaces on her way to her

therapist; a scientist turning in an important paper; a model on her way to a
fashion shoot; the mayor going to a secret meeting.

Situation: At the gates of Heaven, it’s about to close for the day and they
can only let in one more person.

Characters: the door person; a nun; a person who’s pretty sure this is a
mistake; a hero who just died saving someone; the devil pretending to be a
virtuous person.

Situation: A funeral. As the minister delivers the eulogy, suddenly the guy in
the coffin comes back to life.

Characters: dead man; grieving widow; minister; the guy who thought he
killed the dead guy.

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com pg. 4

 Situation: A fancy restaurant. Gunshots have been fired, four people are
hiding under a table.

Characters: a celebrity who doesn’t want to be recognized; an ex-cop who

is a little drunk; a waiter; an immigrant who knows very little English.

Situation: A principal’s office. Four students are being questioned about

a recent vandalism.

Characters: the principal; a cheerleader; a kid who’d like to flunk out of

school; a kid who constantly tells on people.

Situation: A bank robbery. This is clearly the robber’s first attempt at

holding up a bank.

Characters: bank robber; teller, bank manager, customer

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com pg. 5

Situation: Sitting at a fortune teller’s table. The fortune teller sees something
horrible in the future of a customer, but doesn’t want to say what it is.

Characters: fortune teller, man and his wife (one of them is getting their
fortune told).

Situation: Cockpit of an airplane. Something is malfunctioning and the plane

may go down.

Characters: pilot, co-pilot, flight attendant, passenger who has sneaked in

and overhears the problem.

Situation: A dog show. While waiting for the judge to choose a winner,
several contestants are sure theirs will take the prize. They make fun of
each other’s animals while bragging about their own.

Characters: judge; poodle owner; bulldog owner; a Chihuahua owner; a

greyhound owner.

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com pg. 6

Situation: A freshly painted room. The painters are finishing up
when the homeowner walks in, shocked at the color.

Characters: painters, homeowner

Situation: Little league game. Four parents sit in the stands. Their kids
are on opposing teams.

Characters: blue team, loud obnoxious parent; red team super

positive parent; blue team parent who is missing an important business
meeting to be there (constantly on the phone or texting); red team laid
back parent who is catching up on a knitting project.

Situation: A busy taco stand. Noon. The owner had an emergency and has
left the stand in the care of a new employee.

Characters: new employee; super-picky woman customer; rushed business

executive; a kid without much money.

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com pg. 7

 Situation: First day of boot camp. The sergeant sizes up a few new
recruits.

Characters: the sergeant; a kid who has always dreamed of joining the
army; someone who was sent to the army because of discipline
problems; a nerd who is not very physically active.

Situation: Business meeting. The boss has asked everyone to come up

with ideas for the new product, a stick of deodorant. Each staff member has
a different reason that they did not get to this assignment, and they try to
cover up by coming up with ideas on the spot.

Characters: Boss, ad campaign manager who had a long fight with his
wife the night before; the intern who is usually the first one with ideas, but
who was up late partying; the ad sales rep who was working on a different
assignment and forgot about this one.

Situation: Department store. A customer was just caught

shoplifting.

Characters: security guard; shoplifter; shoplifter’s friend;

store manager.

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com pg. 8

Situation: Museum filled with priceless artifacts, including the world’s
only blue diamond.

Characters: Tour guide; annoying tourist; jewelry thief who is taking the
tour to case the joint; a detective who suspects the tour guide of planning
a heist.

Situation: Polar bear exhibit at the zoo. A zookeeper is giving a

talk about polar bears.

Characters: Zookeeper; kid who won’t stop asking stupid

questions; crazy person who thinks he is on a safari and plans to
kill one of the animals today to take home as a trophy; protestor
who does not agree with putting animals in captivity.

Situation: A bus stop. The bus is a half an hour late. A group of people
who have been waiting for a long time decide to figure out what’s going
on.

Characters: New mom, holding baby; busy executive whose car is in the
shop; teenager late for his job at Dairy Queen; a hobo who may or may
not be waiting for the bus.

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com pg. 9

 Situation: Therapist’s office. The therapist is running way
behind and the waiting room is full of patients.

Characters: the receptionist; a patient who thinks he’s

invisible; a patient who constantly hears voices; a patient
who thinks everyone is out to get him.

Situation: Backstage at a beauty pageant. It has been

discovered that someone has stolen one of the
contestant’s evening gowns.

Characters: MC, beauty pageant contestants (one of

whom is the victim); security guard.

Situation: A detective is questioning a group of people regarding a

recent murder in a boarding house.

Characters: Chinese cook, visiting professor of mathematics, middle

aged landlord or lady, a mild-mannered seamstress, detective.

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com pg. 10

Situation: A wedding. The best man stops the wedding to declare that
he’s in love with the bride.

Characters: minister; bride, groom, best man who is in love with the
bride, mother of the bride.

Situation: An ordinary house in suburbia. A young man

arrives to pick up a date for the first time.

Characters: a young man, his date, her mother, her

father.

Situation: Waiting at an airport for take-off which will be delayed until the
plane can be repaired.

Characters: Flight attendant; business executive who has an important

appointment; a model on her way to the Caribbean for her job; a college
student going back to school.

Situation: A realtor is holding an open house. She’s

showing it to a couple who really wants to buy it when a
neighbor comes by reveals that a murder was committed
here.

Characters: realtor; neighbor; happy couple.

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com pg. 11

More helpful resources…

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com pg. 12