About the Plays:

Other Schools of Thought contains a trilogy of young adult plays by Morris Panych. Three provoking dramatic pieces that will encourage adults to reflect on their past and young people to reflect on their future. These plays – Cost of Living, 2B WUT UR and Life Science – address the issues of sexuality, AIDS, drug and alcohol abuse, and teenage alienation. Of the writing of these plays, Morris Panych, in the preface, remembers his adolescence as a time when his desire to learn about life was denied, and says: "Through these plays I had a chance to replay, in an imaginary way, the years I had missed living; the days and months of inexplicable sorrow and confusion that I had endured, the way most young people endure them – in solitude and in silence."

The Cost of Living is about love, respect, adolescent hormones on the rampage, the struggle to understand sexuality, AIDS, and social responsibility. It's about getting to know someone, the true nature of relationships, and about learning sexual respect. It's also very funny.

2B WUT UR takes place in the imagination of Cab, an adolescent in his final year of high school, trying to figure out who he is and his place in the world. Left to his own devices by permissive parents, Cab embarks on a journey of self-discovery by trying out different lifestyles to the confusion and sometimes consternation of his friends.

Life Science is a look at the science of living for young people.

These plays – Cost of Living (1990), 2B WUT UR (1992), and Life Science (1993) – were originally commissioned and performed by Green Thumb Theatre for Young People in Vancouver, and have toured extensively in Canada, the US and internationally. The dialogue and the point-of-view is clearly adolescent and explores problems as they perceive them. Two of the plays are staged using audio-visual equipment (slides, video) which allows the cast and crew considerable scope in producing the play.

About the Playwright:

Morris Panych is one of Canada's most significant contemporary playwrights. He has written more than 30 works for the stage and directed nearly 100. He is the winner of two Governor General's Literary Awards for Drama, the country's most prestigious literary honour. He has won 14 Jessie Richardson Awards, three Sidney Riske Writing Awards and five Dora Mavor Moore Awards.