Call for scripts!
Okay everybody. I'm ready for suggestions for next year's school play. Lay'em on me in the comments section.
K
K
posted by K at 1:42 PM
Friday, May 22, 2009
Previous Posts
- Reflections on the Picasso Affair...The Incurious ...
- Steve Martin... a grace note
- Walking Picasso...the prequel resumed
- Picasso at the Lapin Agile ...completed
- Picasso...the prequel cont.
- Picasso...the prequel
- Mother's Day Bouquet
- Who votes? Who cares? School Board elections
- Aggravated by error
- Picasso at the Lapin Agile...ticket info
11 Comments:
Go for a musical - Jesus Christ Superstar. ;)
I think a variation on "12 Angry Men" (Jurors?) would be cool. The film riveted my husband's social studies class. I don't know how well it translates to stage.
The others I can think of that sound good probably wouldn't pass whatever sort of critical review will happen next year. "You Can't Take it With You" and "The Crucible" would be awesome but I'm sure there's objectionable content.
Maybe some version of "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)?" That would be fun but you probably need a larger cast than three.
They've done "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" and "The Children's Hour" here at Pendleton HS in the past few years - they were good but I thought both of these were edgier than Picasso, and I would have thought LG more open-minded than Pendleton. Go figure.
This made me laugh out loud, in light of everything. I love your spirit!
Kevin, you know I like edgy: The Laramie Project - The Matthew Shepard Story. Very educational and relevant. Pats on the back to all Picasso peeps. Set design was top-notch.
I say "No Exit" by Satre. Of course you'd probably have to do it off campus again and there's no chance the author could fund you. Indeed, hell is other people, especially when they are narrow-minded zealots who feel that teenagers can't understand and contemplate complex ideas.
- Haroun And the Sea of Stories
- Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
How about putting on Romeo and Juliet and getting some folks to stage a protest?
That's my boy! The last two are among my favorites. Has To Kill a Mockingbird been done as a play?
Count me in for the R&J protest, too. I'll start researching (through my own new Family Research Institute) teen suicide pacts--even if the stats have absolutely nothing to do with R&J.
Did they remember to put no acting out suicide on stage in the new school rules for drama? Under the
"If you can't do it in the hallway, you can't do it on stage" clause? And don't forget to include/exclude vampires--Classic or new. Kids! What's the matter with kids today?
Yes, Salem Repertory over here in the Willamette Valley just did a much-praised production of Christopher Sergel's adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird -- with the three youngsters played by adults operating banraku-style puppets -- a device that seemed to split the folk I have talked to about its effectiveness.
Carmilla, a Gothic thriller by David Campton, from a Vampyre Tale by J Sheridan Le Fanu -- not just vampires, but lesbian vampires, but more family-friendly
discreetly Victorian lesbian vampires, rather than in-your-face
Busch-y Sodomites
The Champion of Paribanou, a children's play by Alan Ayckbourn, plot inspired by a Tale of the Arabian Nights, and execution influenced by AA's love of Star Wars gadgetry -- he adds to the story a humorous magical robot and a new leading character -- a strong female action-hero type who becomes the villain by tragically succumbing to the Dark Side -- a
sort of Middle Eastern Buffy cross-bred with Anakin Skywalker.
The Scarecrow, a "Tragedy of the Ludicrous" by Percy MacKaye, after Hawthorne's Feathertop -- PUBLIC DOMAIN (copyright 1908) and royalty-free, but sets, costumes and special effects could be spendy, but again really tasty language
Tartuffe (or is that just too obvious?)
Reckless, by Craig Lucas (I saw Sherwood High do it a few years back; Canby (or Aurora?) did it last year, and Pentacle in Salem is doing it this December
George M Cohan's Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913 -- non-royalty, and a LOT of fun to do)
More:
Caucasian Chalk Circle
The Trojan Women
The Beaux' Stratagem
(needs cutting -- did you see that Ken Ludwig was commissioned by the executors of the Thornton Wilder estate to complete Wilder's unfinished adaptation of this?)
She Stoops to Conquer
Engaged by WS Gilbert
All's Well That Ends Well
Pippin (Goodspeed ending?)
She Loves Me
Patience
The Streets of New York
Well , you asked for more --
and a note about the last:
The Streets of New York which I suggested was not the Dion Boucicault original. but the Off Broadway musical based on it, licensed by Samuel French
Bridie:
Tobias and the Angel
Storm in a Teacup
Chesterton:
Magic
Shaw:
You Never Can Tell
Androcles and the Lion
Barrie:
What Every Woman Knows
Mary Rose
Quality Street
Dear Brutus
Pinero:
The Magistrate
Labiche:
An Italian Straw Hat
Thanks for the bucket list of plays, KNS and everybody else! I wonder how many will/would make it through the new guideline previewing process at LHS, with or without the Jack-knife??
Anon/Gr K
Regarding making it through the guideline reviewing process, here's a probably/definitely NOT list:
Canterbury Tales, a musical with book adapted from Chaucer by Nevill Coghill and Martin Starkie, lyrics by Nevill Coghill, music by John Hawkins and Richard Hill
Henry Fielding*
Rape upon Rape; or, The Justice Caught in His Own Trap
John Ford
'Tis Pity She's a Whore
It's probably worth noting that the late Christopher Sergel's authorized adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird was not so long ago banned from production at a high school, I think in the Midwest, when the head of the local chapter of the NAACP asked the school board to remove all instances of the N-word from the script before allowing production to proceed, and the licensing agency refused to give permission for the changes in the text. (I know that Albany Civic Theatre was also recently facing a dilemma when the only actor of color who auditioned for their production of Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men refused to continue in the part in which he was cast, which requires an actor of color, unless all instances of the N-word were removed from that script.)
* Though RUR would set off the alarms, there ARE out there several family-friendly, high-school-proved adaptations of Fielding's novel Tom Jones -- one from Dramatic Publishing Company, which was first trotted out circa 1963 when the Osborne/Richardson film that made a star of Albert Finney was released in the US, now available in both 24 and 15 actor versions. Another adaptation makes use of commedia conventions and the frame of players playing a play, so that nearly 40 roles can be divided among however many actors are available.
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