This long list of 200 environments for drama plays will serve as suitable prompts for mostly middle or senior high school students.
Nearly all of the environments in this list are actual locations from a specific moment in world history. For students to understand them properly, these prompts will need to be researched before being applied to the drama. After the research has been completed, students should find many of these environments for drama quite fascinating.
Ensemble Performances
Imagine being in an office inside the Kremlin during the Cold War or in the tent of an early 20th-century Egyptian archeologist. Or how about being in a control room during the 1960s Soviet space program? Or what about being inside a 15th-century Aztec temple, at a Roswell UFO crash site, or in an 18th-century Transylvanian castle? These sorts of environments for drama are perhaps best suited for student ensemble work.
Students could be either allocated one of the environments from the list by their teacher or choose a setting themselves. Then, either through extended improvisation or scripting, students base their entire plot around the chosen environment, making it the trigger to create drama.
Solo Performances
Some of the environments for drama on the list in this post are actually better suited to solo work in drama. Settings such as a space station observatory, a film noir detective office, a secret underground lab, the foggy docks of Victorian London, or a 19th-century sanitorium are all appropriate prompts for a student solo performance. This is because these particular environments for drama and other similar prompts lend themselves to just one character.
Environments for Drama (Part 1)
| Cold War-era Kremlin office |
| Colonial-era Boston tea shop |
| San Francisco gold rush saloon |
| Roman senate room |
| 1920s Arctic exploration base camp |
| 19th-century New York tenement |
| 1970s American space mission training facility |
| 1980s Seattle grunge band garage |
| Ancient Roman villa |
| 19th-century opulent ocean liner |
| World War I trench dugout |
| 1930s dust bowl farmhouse |
| Early 20th-century British expedition Everest base camp |
| Spaceship control room |
| 1930s New York speakeasy |
| American Wild West ghost town |
| Industrial Revolution factory floor |
| 1930s radio station |
| Medieval tavern |
| 1930s Los Angeles private investigator’s office |
| 1950s Roswell UFO crash site |
| 19th-century tram car |
| Victorian-era secret passage |
| 1950s American diner |
| Dickensian workhouse |
| 15th-century Ming Dynasty throne room |
| 1960s Berlin wall watchtower |
| 1970s disco |
| Futuristic dystopian cityscape |
| Ancient Chinese imperial court |
| 1940s British war office |
| 1970s London punk club |
| Film noir detective office |
| Parisian hot air balloon |
| 19th-century Russian ballet studio |
| 1940s London bomb shelter |
| Early 20th-century Egyptian archaeologist’s tent |
| Old Hollywood movie set |
| Victorian-era natural history museum |
| Early 20th-century English cricket clubhouse |
| Ancient Greek marketplace |
| 1960s Soviet space program control room |
| Fairytale tower |
| 18th-century American blacksmith shop |
| 16th-century English Tudor manor house |
| Jane Austen-era drawing room |
| Jazz Age speakeasy |
| Medieval cathedral |
| 1960s suburban living room |
| Early 20th-century country estate |
| 19th-century time machine |
| 1930s Chicago mob hideout |
| 1940s Soviet gulag |
| Istanbul spice market |
| Secret underground lab |
| 1920s Alabama cotton plantation |
| Ancient Inuit igloo |
| Japanese tea house |
| 1920s Australian outback cattle station |
| Early 20th-century transcontinental train |
| 1960s Vietnam US army base |
| 1950s American drive-in |
| Ancient Polynesian navigators’ star observatory |
Environments for Drama (Part 2)
| Roman coliseum |
| 19th -century Scotland Yard office |
| 19th-century sanitorium |
| 1960s civil rights protest site |
| 1950s Hong Kong night market |
| Ancient Greek philosopher’s school |
| 1930s Texas oil rig |
| 1970s SoHo artist’s loft |
| 19th-century Colorado gold mine |
| 19th-century African explorers’ base camp |
| Renaissance artist’s workshop |
| 1850s Australian gold rush pub |
| Ancient Amazonian tribal hut |
| 18th-century British Navy ship |
| 1940s Japanese-American internment camp |
| 19th-century Paris sewer system |
| Ancient Greek athletes’ gymnasium |
| 1960s NASA mission control room |
| 19th-century gold prospector’s cabin |
| Early Christian catacombs |
| 1950s rock ‘n’ roll radio station |
| Early 19th-century Parisian fashion house |
| 1920s Prohibition smuggling ship |
| Post-atomic futuristic cityscape |
| Ancient Aztec marketplace |
| 1950s McCarthy-era interrogation room |
| Medieval Scottish clan hall |
| 1970s American roller disco |
| Italian renaissance studio |
| 1970s American skate park |
| 1950s Cold War fallout shelter |
| 16th-century Chinese Emperor’s throne room |
| 1930s American Great Depression soup kitchen |
| 1940s Los Angeles police precinct |
| Wizard’s tower |
| Post-apocalyptic bunker |
| WWII-era Pacific Island outpost |
| 1960s London mod club |
| 16th-century Chinese emperor’s throne room |
| World War II bunker |
| World War II Parisian resistance hideaway |
| 1950s Hollywood TV set |
| Elizabethan-era smuggler’s den |
| 17th-century Caribbean pirate ship |
| American Prohibition-era border smuggling tunnel |
| Parisian artist’s studio |
| Cold War-era Berlin safe house |
| 19th-century Amazon explorer’s camp |
| 1940s French Resistance safehouse |
| 1940s French resistance safehouse |
| 1930s Hollywood Hills mansion |
| Pirate ship’s cabin |
| World War I-era field hospital |
| 1940s UK fish and chips shop |
| 19th-century country fairground |
| Futuristic cyberspace server room |
| Roman gladiator training school |
| 17th-century New England witch’s cottage |
| 1920s American soda shop |
| 1930s Alcatraz prison cell |
| Ancient Mesopotamian hanging gardens |
Environments for Drama (Part 3)
| 1960s Cuban missile crisis war room |
| 1920s Mexican hacienda |
| 1930s London Underground station |
| Medieval English forest hermitage |
| 1970s Miami disco |
| Hogwarts-style classroom |
| Roman-era aqueduct construction site |
| 18th-century Transylvanian castle |
| 1950s Manhattan Madison Avenue advertising agency |
| 19th-century South African diamond mine |
| 1980s gaming arcade |
| Medieval alchemist’s laboratory |
| 1960s Paris student protest headquarters |
| 1920s New York Gatsby mansion |
| 1960s beatnik café |
| 1950s Atomic Age science lab |
| Roaring 20s Wall Street office |
| Victorian London foggy docks |
| Medieval Viking mead hall |
| 17th-century Dutch windmill interior |
| Victorian-era submarine |
| Gothic mansion |
| Ancient Himalayan monastery |
| 15th-century Aztec temple |
| Elizabethan-era alchemist’s study |
| Titanic’s first-class dining room |
| 1920s Antarctic whaling station |
| 17th-century Italian astronomer’s observatory |
| Victorian botanical garden |
| Australian convict ship |
| 19th-century child’s nursery |
| American Wild West saloon |
| Middle Ages alchemy lab |
| Victorian-era Cairo bazaar |
| 1960s Swedish furniture design studio |
| 18th-century Caribbean slave market |
| Royal court |
| Medieval witch’s hovel |
| Steampunk inventor’s workshop |
| 16th-century Venetian masked ballroom |
| 1940s Manhattan Project nuclear lab |
| American Wild West showman’s caravan |
| Medieval blacksmith shop |
| Agatha Christie-style country house |
| 19th-century Great Plains homestead |
| 1920s American prohibition coast guard office |
| 19th-century wax museum |
| Ancient Mayan temple |
| Haunted 19th-century manor house |
| Victorian parlour |
| 1970s American television newsroom |
| Roaring 20s Parisian café |
| Space station observatory |
| 1930s Detroit automobile factory |
| 1960s UK British Invasion band tour bus |
| 1960s Detroit recording studio |
| Japanese Edo-period castle |
| 15th-century Aztec royal court |
| 1920s New York newspaper office |
| 19th-century London street market |
| Ancient Egyptian scroll library |
| Futuristic Martian colony habitat |
| 19th-century African safari tent |
| 19th-century Coney Island funhouse |
