The Worst Witch by Emma Reeves

A play within a play – it's a format we all know and love, and this new script follows that age-old structure. This musical is based on The Worst Witch books and tells the story of Mildred Hubble, an ordinary girl who attends a school for witches. As the plot unravels, Mildred and her friends stage a play about their adventures in witching training.

The story is uplifting, with a focus on kindness, bravery and loyalty. It's a fun, dynamic script that would be even more fun to direct.

In the opening, the stage directions instruct the cast to minglew ith the audience, telling them about the play that they are about to perform. This would be something interesting to explore with a class and a great way to introduce the idea of breaking the fourth wall to Key Stage 3 students.

The opening reminds me a little of John Godber's Teechers with the way that the characters address the audience and interact with each other during the introduction. The ‘play’ then begins and the stage directions become very detailed and ambitious.

There is the potential here to explore different set options, such as a mountain or the potions room – and even how to make the brooms hover!

The stage directions are clear and concise throughout, allowing you to clearly enact Jill Murphy's vision of the play. This includes the use of puppets which are identified clearly throughout to represent the various cats. The detail goes so far as to capture how the puppets are bought on stage and removed, making it much easier for the director and cast to navigate these elements.

You would be able to approach the production as a musical with ease as the lyrics are embedded in this script, providing you with the option to stage a scene going into song. There are also accompanying props and puppet lists.

This is a great resource for anyone studying the technical elements of theatre, capturing the way this should be done professionally.