I'm all setting and no substance. I want to write a play that takes place in a faculty lounge of a K-12 school. That's about all I know. I have no idea what happens, what the conflict is, who the protagonist is... It's just in a faculty lounge. And it's a comedy.

I'm pretty sure there are constant and absurd announcements over the PA.
I'm pretty sure someone keeps stealing people's lunches from the fridge. I'm pretty sure there's a torrid love affair between unlikely people.
I'm pretty sure the copier never works right.
I'm pretty sure the teachers say horribly inappropriate things.
I'm pretty sure students try to peek in.
I'm pretty sure there's always mounds of food of varying quality on the table.
I'm pretty sure the presence of coffee is of utmost importance to all faculty members.

Is it set over the 4 quarters?
Is it during some emergency?
Are there zombies?
Have the kids taken over?
Does it get political at all-- NCLB bashing anyone?

Ideas? Feedback? I'll give you a gold star if you can help.

I'm fond of the zombie idea; pirates would be even better. Ninjas are so trite, though (but I admit I was not above using them in my 2007 NaNo opus).

-- Laura

Thanks, Lauragoodin! Ninjas in a NaNopus, eh? HA!

You know, I mentioned zombies mostly as a joke. But now I'm in love this them. I'm so going zombie.

I'd just like to say, I'm in love with your idea! It sounds so much cooler than mine. LoL. Go for the Zombies, they are so much fun to play with ^_^

Love it!

The students have been zombie-fied and trapped the teachers in the lounge.

One obsessive teacher, some grumpy old guy, refuses to accept the situation and does nothing but fight with the mimeograph (beastly machine) to make copies of lesson plans 'for tomorrow'.

Have at least 4 coffee pots and make your cast drink gallons of the stuff and constantly brew more (the smell alone will drive your audience mad, best go with decaf for the actual production).

The gym teacher could be Mister Inappropriate comments, zombie cheerleaders, mmmmmmm . . .

Run with it!

Do zombies smoke? Because I imagine at least some teacher smoking in that faculty lounge (whether it's permitted or not).

You could do alot with this play. You could have an absurd amount of coffee machines on stage, i.e, 2-4 machines for each actor, and they're constantly downing the stuff. I liked the idea of a grumpy old man working on the Mimeograph, you could also throw in the happy cheerful, overly honeyed Kindergarten teacher. Treating everyone like a kindergarten class. The perverted Gym teacher sounds like a good idea too. The PA should be spewing random nonsense that pretty much doesn't pertain to the play much at all. Or, have it announcing exactly what is happening in the Lounge at the time. (i.e, someone takes out a lunch and starts and eating, we'll say, Dave. Now, Dave, stole John's lunch, the PA comes on 'Dave has stolen John's lunch and is now eating it. Poor John. For extra possible comedic effect have the people be practically deaf to certain announcements. i.e, Dave and John don't hear the comment about the lunch.)

Wow!!! Thanks to you all for the enthusiastic response and friendly zombic feedback!
I'm just 2 scenes into it and have started a convention-- each scene opens in darkness with someone moaning and making some scary noise. First scene- darkness, moaning, pounding. Lights up and a teacher is beating on the copy machine, moaning. Second scene- darkness, moaning, eating. Lights up on a teacher eating the last of a huge pile of donuts on the faculty table.... I'm totally using the PA system! Ha! And my gym teacher has such a thick accent that nobody can understand him. (Nobody will notice when he goes zombie, I guess.)

I hadn't thought of the students being the zombies... I had thought that the administration might be working to zombify the faculty by feeding them the brains of the students all in some attempt to halt creativity in order to improve performances on standardized tests. Too convoluted?
I think the food on the faculty table is made of brains. And the one teacher who brings her lunch is the one who is the last to go zombie. They steal her lunch in order to force her to eat.. the uh.. brain food. Too convoluted? I'm a little worried. I love it in that I can be super silly, kinda scary, totally wacky AND still make a bit of a political statement about standardized learning. But I worry it's too too.

You could explore a rumor about a newly-transferred kid into the school. If its high school, maybe one of the teacher's thinks the student is an undercover narcotics officer, and the teacher is concerned he/she is the real target of the investigation. It its a middle school, perhaps the rumor is that the transferred student is actually a genius.