About Classic Acts
Classic Acts was created to give teachers, directors, and youth theatre leaders better scripts for young performers. Our adaptations bring classic literature and well-loved tales to life in ways that are engaging, understandable, and fun to perform for ages 8–18.
Carmella Gates
Carmella Gates has been a public school teacher, an educational consultant, and a university professor. She taught at all grade levels for more than 30 years. She has worked with general education students, students with special needs, and second-language learners.
Carmella wrote many of these plays for her students. After retirement, she wrote and directed her plays for a performance center in Colorado. These plays have been performed to great acclaim from audiences of parents, students, teachers, and administrators. She has since added several scripts to the collection, and her plays have been performed by numerous schools and children’s theater companies around the world.
Carmella’s goal is to give children and young people an opportunity to learn about classic literature in a fun and compelling way that is both understandable and enjoyable, without being childish, as many plays for children can be. An early appreciation of literature can enrich their high school and college experience.
Meghan Gates
Meghan is a magna cum laude graduate of the prestigious Loyola University Theatre Department and has a minor in Fine Arts. She has appeared in, directed, designed sets for, and done scenic painting for numerous shows in Denver, CO, and Chicago, IL. Meghan taught middle school theatre and film for a decade and now specializes in teacher training.
Meghan has been involved with theater and art since she was a young child, so she knows firsthand that there is no tougher audience than kids. Her excellent insight into the needs and tastes of young actors greatly enhances the scripts she has worked on.
Her knowledge of theater and art was instrumental in the development of A Guide to Introducing Theatre to Young Actors. She wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Dracula, and The Odyssey, and she co-wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She is working on additional scripts in her free time, alongside her other theater commitments.
Why we created these scripts
After years of working with students across grade levels, Carmella Gates saw the need for stronger play options for older children and teens: scripts that were educational without being dry, and age-appropriate without feeling childish. Many of these plays were originally written for her own students and refined through real performance experience.
Experience behind the work
Carmella Gates has worked as a public school teacher, educational consultant, and university professor, with more than 30 years of experience teaching students across grade levels, including special needs students and second-language learners. Meghan Gates brings theatre and design experience shaped by formal training and hands-on production work as well as more than a decade of producing theatre and film with young people.
What that means for you
That combination of classroom and theatre experience shapes every script. The result is a collection designed to help young actors succeed, teachers direct with confidence, and audiences enjoy stories they already love.