Play Suggestions: Play with minimal or no set

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Play with minimal or no set

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Play Suggestions
Forum Discription: Need help finding a show that's right for your theater? Ask here.
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4868
Printed Date: 4/29/24 at 6:02am
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Topic: Play with minimal or no set

Posted By: FFootlighters
Subject: Play with minimal or no set
Date Posted: 11/11/10 at 4:12pm

All,

My technical director, blast him, is getting married the weekend of load-in and will miss tech week entirely for our May 2012 show. We are a small community theatre and absolutely depend on his skill. (He is employed as the full-time TD by the venue that is our home.)

Therefore, we are looking for a play with minimal or no set needs. Other than Our Town, what suggestions do you have?

Please note: We are looking for published scripts that would be well-known to our suburban mid-west community. Not interested in original scripts. (Sorry, all you aspiring playwrights)

Thanks in advance!

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Fairfield Footlighters
Fairfield, OH
http://www.fairfield-footlighters.org

Replies:

Posted By: Rorgg
Date Posted: 11/11/10 at 5:34pm

Last spring, I was involved in a production of The Dining Room by A.R. Gurney. The set was a dining room table and six chairs, plus a couple spare chairs on each side of the set, which were totally optional. You can't get simpler than that, and if you want to, you can make it a little more full very simply to whatever degree.

Plus, it's an interesting piece, funny and touching in parts.

Posted By: edh915
Date Posted: 11/12/10 at 12:43pm

There are lots of shows that call for a simple "living room" or dining room" set. It sounds like you're asking for a basic, nearly non-existent set.

If you want to do a two-character pay, there are several plays to choose from. "Love Letters" and "Talley's Folly" and "A Walk In The Woods" come immediately to mind.

If you want to do a larger cast production (e.g. like "Our Town") then the simplest thing to turn to would be Shakespeare. After all, he specifically wrote his shows to be performed on a bare stage - at least the early ones before the King's Men moved to the Blackfriar's Theatre after the Globe burned down.

I love doing Shakespeare on a bare stage. It's amazing what you can do with two stools and a stepladder. You don't need the window dressing. It's all about the language and the characters anyway.

I've got a number of Shakespeare shows that I've "simplified" with an eye towards making them easier to produce for amateur or school productions. "Taming of the Shrew", "Much Ado About Nothing", "A Comedy of Errors", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and a couple of others. If you're interested, you can contact me at EasyShakespeare@gmail.com

Or just go to the bookshelf, take down your copy of "The Works of Shakespeare" and start reading.

Posted By: stockhamlj
Date Posted: 11/17/10 at 4:55pm

"Divorce Sale" by Linda Stockham. Set is a garage with minimal props. This play was done in New York City and in multiple places in USA and abroad with great receptions/reviews. A fun play. Interested, go to: lindastockham@netzero.net for a copy of the play.

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Linda Stockham

Posted By: DanielT
Date Posted: 4/01/11 at 9:13pm

Look at "The man with the plastic sandwich"

Posted By: JoeMc
Date Posted: 4/02/11 at 5:56pm

'Man of La Mancha' is a play with music rather than a musical, according to it's author.

I have done it wih no sets relying on props only & it is a fairly large cast, which always attracted full houses.

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[western] Gondawandaland
"Hear the light & see the sound!
TOI TOI CHOOKAS
{may you always play to a full house!}

Posted By: Majicwrench
Date Posted: 4/02/11 at 9:08pm

If you have never done a show with almost no set, this is gonna be a great experience for you. Is amazing how much you can do without on stage. Less is more, just keep saying it.

Posted By: Scott B
Date Posted: 4/03/11 at 9:23pm

One that I've been wanting to do for a long time is Faith County. There are several videos on youtube if you do a search for it. Reviews that I've read have been very good and they say it's really funny. As I recall it's a pretty basic set.

Posted By: KEB54
Date Posted: 4/04/11 at 1:31pm

There are tons of shows that can be done that way. Just look at competition shows, they have to fit their entire set in a 10' x 10' square.

The Fantasticks come to mind or Putnum County Spelling Bee for musicals.

You could do something like the Glass Menagerie.

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KEB

Posted By: Danny Beans
Date Posted: 4/14/11 at 4:05pm

Twelve Angry Men by Reginald rose. You can pull it off with nothing but a table, twelve chairs, and maybe a water cooler on an otherwise bare stage.

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"Vox populi, vox humbug!"
- William Tecumseh Sherman

Posted By: MusicManD
Date Posted: 4/17/11 at 12:49pm

In addition to those mentioned earlier...

"The Boys Next Door" is pretty simple. One set.

I just saw "Baby With the Bath Water," and although pretty mature, it was a fairly entertaining, if bizarre, show.

Posted By: Rorgg
Date Posted: 4/18/11 at 11:53am

While BND isn't difficult, there are a few locations beside the apartment. IIRC:

- Arnold's work
- The Dance
- The "Golf Course"
- The state "sneck" chamber
- The bus station

(all of which can just be set "off" from the main set pretty easily, but it's not all done centrally)