Act Normal (Paperback)

Act Normal includes 31 contemporary monologues from Too Much Punch For Judy, Hard To Swallow, Missing Dan Nolan, I Love You, Mum - I Promise I Won’t Die, Game Over … and many more of Mark’s plays and musicals.

Written with young performers in mind and available for classroom or audition use, they offer a range of characters and topics – both comic and serious - along with acting notes for each monologue. Many of the monologues are verbatim, providing a unique opportunity for actors and directors to explore this exciting form. Act Normal is the first exclusive collection of Mark’s monologue work.

‘Surprise your teacher, your friends, your family, your audience and last but not least, yourselves!’
– Mark Wheeller

Monologue topics:

 True stories and verbatim pieces

• British World War II evacuee experience
• Testimony of world champion blind athlete Graham Salmon
• Account of sisters involved in a drink-driving accident
• Story of a woman’s battle with anorexia
• A young woman’s struggles breaking into the football world
• Two pieces on the life-changing consequences of a car accident
• Recounting of a prison assault
• Dan Nolan’s 2002 disappearance
• Grooming and human trafficking
• Students excluded from the mainstream education system
• Accidental drug overdose
• Young people and self-harm
• Online predators

Fiction

• Absurdist, allegorical tale about a fantasy King
• Unplanned teenage pregnancy
• Fandom and mourning an idol (reference to David Bowie)
• Theatre in Education piece on road safety

Featured plays, with character options and ages

(NB: all are suitable for performers of any age and gender)

• Blackout - Operation Pied Piper - Jean, aged 9
• Graham – World’s Fastest Blind Runner – Junie, pre-teen/ Graham, adult
• Too Much Punch For Judy – Judy, young adult/ Duncan, adult
• Hard to Swallow – Anna, young adult/ John, adult
• Sweet (W)FA / Lethal In The Box – Miss Vallas, adult/ Spanner, adult
• Chicken! – Nut-Job, teenager/ Chris, teenager
• Legal Weapon 2 – Andy, young adult
• Wacky Soap – Storyteller, adult
• Missing Dan Nolan – Pauline, adult / Sarah, young teenager/ Andy, adult
• One Million to Stop The Traffik – Mary, adult
• Kids Who Look Out of the Window – Tonisha, teenager
• Chequered Flags to Chequered Futures – Jane, adult/ Driver, adult
• I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die – Jack, teenager
• Scratching the Surface – Louise, adult
• This Is For You – Susan, adult
• Can You Hear Me Major Tom? – Mark, adult/ Jasmine, adult
• Game Over – Lorin, adult

Mark Wheeller began writing whilst a student at Marlwood Comprehensive School, Bristol.

After teaching drama for thirty-six years he retired in July 2015 to concentrate on writing and delivering Drama/Theatre workshops to students and teachers across the world.

Mark is one of the most-performed playwrights in Britain. Too Much Punch For Judy has been performed over 6,000 times and Chicken nearly 6,000. Missing Dan Nolan and Hard to Swallow are both set texts for the GSCE Drama 9-1 exams. His work has been a staple part of the Drama curriculum both in the UK and abroad for the past three decades.

Professional productions of Hard to Swallow, I Love You Mum, I Promise I Won’t Die and Chicken regularly tour schools and many of Mark’s works are available on DVD, with digital formats forthcoming in late 2020. 

His study guides include Drama Schemes, The Story Behind Too Much Punch For Judy, Drama Club & Hard to Swallow – Easy to Digest.

He has three children and lives just outside the New Forest, with his wife Rachael, and Labrador, Dusty.