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Show Ideas

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Topic: Show Ideas
Posted By: Guests
Subject: Show Ideas
Date Posted: 9/15/03 at 9:16pm
Hello!
The community theatre in which I am involved is having a hard time selecting shows for our next season. Three shows have been selected so far. They are Arsenic and Old Lace, Dearly Departed, and Grease. This is only our second year. Our audiences love the comedies. So we are not ready to delve too much into the drama side yet. Our first year included the plays: Always Patsy Cline, Widow's Best Friend, The Foreigner, Neil Simon's Proposals, Driving Miss Daisy, and Steel Magnolias.
If anyone has any ideas on some more good plays, please let me know. Oh and keep in mind, this theatre is deep within the "bible belt".
Thank You,
Rob



Replies:
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 9/16/03 at 9:13am
Just a few suggestions. I can vouch for them - all were very successful. I lean more to comedy-drama.

Comedy Drama:

Over The River and Through the Woods. GREAT!! Two pairs of Grandparents, the Grandson and the love interest of the Grandson. Very definitely family fare. Don't miss the opportunity to do this one!!

Neil Simon's Chapter Two.

Tribute by Bernard Slade. PG rated.

Mainstream comedy:

The Female Version of the Odd Couple - humor works in todays world.

Offbeat:

Three Viewings (some rough language)

The Guys - September 11th theme

Visiting mr. Green - Jewish and gay themes.

I Never Saw Another Butterfly - Holocaust theme - recently won the AACT national festival.

Musicals:

Fiddler on the Roof

Oklahoma!

Annie

Ethnic:

Having My Say

National Pasttime.



Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 9/16/03 at 11:18am
Moon Over Buffalo is a great show to do, especially when you have diverse adult age groups. Greater Tuna is also a great time (but it does only have a cast of two).

John


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 9/18/03 at 4:39am
If the comedies are preferred, may I suggest DON'T DRESS FOR DINNER by Marc Camoletti? This production was the best experience I've had in theatre and the audiences said the same thing!


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 9/18/03 at 11:21am
There are a lot of farces that might work:

Lend Me a Tenor

anything by Milmore and Van Zandt such as Love Sex and the IRS

If your group is REALLY good, Noises Off or The Mystery of Irma Vepp

On the musical side, Nunsense always comes out a winner

Everything I really Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fhulgum. Real family fare.



Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 9/18/03 at 11:12pm
Hi:

I'd stick with some classic comedy and melodrama. Here's my top picks, a little off the well trod path:

HARVEY
SHERLOCK HOLMES (the Gillette version from French)
DRACULA (The original that Lugosi did in NY; available from French)
THE MATCHMAKER (Thorton Wilder--the play Hello Dolly was based on)
SEVEN YEAR ITCH
THE SHOW OFF
THE MALE ANIMAL (Thurber)

Any of these shows would work in the Bible belt. Good size casts too, for lots of parts!

Thom


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 9/29/03 at 2:38pm
We got great responce from Harvey in our last season. It is a comedy, but very heartfelt. My theatre was having trouble a few years ago where we almost shut down. Sometimes doing some big names can be great. Oklahoma for a musical is always a winner. Also Guys and Dolls, Cinderella, or Fiddler on the Roof are great musicals that draw audiences. One rule of thumb in my experience is the larger the cast the more you will feel the house. You get more word of mouth with a larger cast. Niel Simon's Fools is a extemely funny and well written play.


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 11/18/03 at 5:44pm
One company here recently did Alfred Uhry's "Last Night of Ballyhoo" (same author as Driving Miss Daisy) -- and it was a huge hit -- and their audience is across the board (younger to older). Another pick might be an evening of one-act plays (thousands to choose from), and this will get you a larger cast, more mouths to spread the word and more ticket sales. If the Foreigner was popular, try Larry Shue's The Nerd -- also a funny one.


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 12/24/03 at 4:51pm
Where can I find Marc Camoletti's plays?


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 1/16/05 at 12:45am

Hello:

I am responding to your posting.  A thought: How about calling for new plays and have the distinction of a world premiere?  Breakdown on new play entitled UP AND DOWN THE BATHROOM SCALE follows.  If interested, I can email it to you in Word.doc or Rich.txt

Sincerely, Linda

Title:   Up and Down the Bathroom Scale

Genre:   Contemporary 'dark' comedy

Issue:  Today's global obesity crisis.

Brief Synopsis:  A group of individuals suffering from obesity volunteer as guinea pigs for a pharmaceutical-research project that is testing a new super diet drug.  If the program is 100% successful, the pharmaceutical company promises to pay the volunteers' taxes for life.   However, three weeks into the clinical trial everything plummets into absolute calamity.  Thus, proving the old adage that when things go wrong, they go wrong all the way.
 
Situation: The outcome in the play is a no win/lose situation.  However, the ever-growing power of drug companies and the public's anxious belief that a pill (not common sense) will solve all problems is the premise in this play.  In other words, it comes forward at the end of the play when the testing fails and although the volunteers do not lose their agreed weight, they get even for not having been told all the truth about the research project.

Production/Publication History: To date, this play has not been produced, published, work-shopped or presented as a staged-reading.

Character Breakdowns (in order of their appearances):

PRESS SECRETARY?.A corporate public relations officer.
DR. DONNER?.A physician-investigator. 
CHARLES SAMUEL MOTH?.A New Zealand sheep farmer.
CROCKER?.DR.  DONNER'S disheveled and uncouth assistant.
BARBARA 'BABS' ABBOTT?.An Australian anthropologist.*
LOLITA LUGONIA?.An internationally famous flamenco dancer from Spain.*
WILHELM ZIMMERMAN?.A German plumber.*
FELICIA WHEATLY?.A meteorologist from the USA.*
GRACIE REESE?.A seamstress from the USA.*

*Role requires over-weight actors.

Set Requirements:   The Prologue and Epilogue to the play takes place on the stage apron of the stage.  (If produced in a non-proscenium arena, an aisle nearest the stage.)  All that is required is a standard speaker's podium.  Scenes 1-5 take place in a rather austere lounge at an isolated research laboratory.  The furniture comprises of a picnic table, two benches, two easy chairs, a sofa, and a low coffee table set in front of the sofa.

Synopsis of Scenes:

Prologue. Podium on the apron of the stage.
Scene 1. The lounge at research laboratory.
Scene 2. The same.   That evening.
Scene 3. The same.  A week later.
Scene 4. The same. The next morning.
Scene 5. The same.  Two week's later.
Epilogue. Podium on the apron of the stage.

Copyrighted:  ? 2004 by Linda Stockham


Linda Stockham, M.A., Playwright/Cultural Anthropologist
Part-time Lecturer in the Social Sciences
http://www.geocities.com/ljstockham/Mypage.html - http://www.geocities.com/ljstockham/Mypage.html (abridged resume)
http://www.scriptcircle.co.uk - http://www.scriptcircle.co.uk (plays online)
http://www.singlelane.com/proplay - http://www.singlelane.com/proplay (plays online)
 



Posted By: Stagestar2000
Date Posted: 1/22/05 at 8:22pm

I also am familiar with Ballyhoo (I played Aunt Reba).  Set in 1932 Atlanta - the story is about a Jewish (in name only) family and learning from a real Jew about antisemitism.  It may not really go over well in a non or anti Jewish community. We performed in it Ann Arbor, MI - heavily Jewish and somewhat eclectic. 

Some good Comm Theatre shows are

Steel Magnolias

Girls of the Garden Club (a real good one - lots of women - single set)

Play it again Sam

Noises off - if you have the technical ability to do a two story set with 8 working doors and windows..... that rotates! 2nd act requires a director who can function like a choreographer - but ROTF laughter

 

Please let us know what you decide.



-------------
"I am constantly amazed at the wealth of knowledge I do NOT have." -Ethyl Savage, The Curious Savage


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 2/01/05 at 6:10pm

Three plays that have worked well for our group in the past are:

When Did You Last See Your Trousers? (British farce)

Squabbles

On Golden Pond

We are currently having a great time putting together a production of "Moon Over Buffalo".

Good Luck!

 




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