About the Play:

HARD TO FIND BOOK, only a very limited number of copies are still available.

The Field Mouse Collection contains two one-act plays for young audiences by Clem Martini. In The Field, two new friends seem to have everything in common, until they discover she is blind and he is from India. In Mouse, the youngest in a family of laboratory mice tries to overcome her fear to adventure outside his cage.

The Field is a simple story about the blindness of prejudice, aimed at children aged five and up. A young, blind girl, Lane Marshall makes a new friend, Arun Sood. Her sighted brother Ben meets Arun and informs Lane that she shouldn't spend time with Arun anymore because her parents would disapprove. The Field is about children's attitudes to each other and how prejudices are picked up from parents. (Premiered in 1991 by Quest Theatre in Calgary and toured Alberta schools widely; Cast: 1 woman, 2 men)

Mouse centres on Jess, an inquisitive little mouse who senses there's something more to life than running the wheel or doing the maze. She wonders what's outside the cage ... unlimited opportunities or the dreaded Cat. On her journey, Jess meets the Sage, a wise old mouse who guides her search. (Premiered in 1988 by Quest Theatre in Calgary and toured area elementary schools for some time; Cast: 1 woman, 3 men)

What people say:

"Drama is a wonderful way to introduce and reinforce life lessons. The Field Mouse Collection consists of two plays, The Field and Mouse, which present issues elementary age children think about while offering them positive guidance ... The staging, costuming and makeup for these plays are simple and inexpensive, giving a classroom teacher time to concentrate on the content of the plays rather than the technical demands." — CM: Canadian Review of Materials

About the Playwright:

Clem Martini is an award-winning Canadian playwright, screenwriter and novelist. He has over thirty plays, and ten books of fiction and nonfiction to his credit, including A Three Martini Lunch, which was a nominee for the Governor General's Literary Award in Drama (Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize). His texts on playwriting, The Blunt Playwright, The Greek Playwright, and The Ancient Comedians are employed in universities and colleges across the country. In addition to writing, he is the Chair of Drama in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary.