One Act Plays

[joshwriting]

(cross posted, partially, from Sheroes)

I'm teaching a Play Directing class to 6 high school students this Spring. We're considering doing a night of one act plays as an adjunct to the course.

Do you have favorites, new or old?

Did you do/see it/them straight up or done with a twist? (inverted genders, serious play done for laughs, etc.)

A side question is if you've ever a) taken a play to a Drama Festival, or even b) gone to watch a Drama Festival?

Thanks!

*************
One Act Plays that have caught my eye, so far:
The Fifteen Minute Hamlet, by Tom Stoppard
http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/3934

Your Swash Is Unbuckled (Baker's Plays has a typo in their version of the typo) by Jeff Goode
http://www.bakersplays.com/store/product_info.php/cPath/7/products_id/1769?osCsid=b464e20596ce9bcf705b240fde3afa9d

Wurzel-Flummery, by A.A. Milne
http://books.google.com/books?id=AZUOAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=wurzel-flummery&lr=&as_brr=1&ei=NIZrSc8GnMAy9qallQQ

Chamber Music, by Arthur Kopit
http://books.google.com/books?id=eGTDI9j3BKcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=kopit&ei=wI1rSZXcHImsNtystZ4I#PPA6,M1
*************
Full length plays that came up and looked entertaining, while I was looking:
Iliad, Odyssey and all of Greek Mythology in 99 Minutes or Less by Jay Hopkins and John Hunter
http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/7268

Ham/thello, The Moor of Denmark by Jeff Goode
http://www.bakersplays.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/1845?osCsid=b464e20596ce9bcf705b240fde3afa9d

Romeo and Julius [Caesar] by Jeff Goode
http://www.bakersplays.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/1770?osCsid=b464e20596ce9bcf705b240fde3afa9d

Comments

[flabosib.livejournal.com]

There was a one-act that HSSP did a LONG time ago, but I can't remember the name of it--it was an all-girl cast though and one of the characters was catatonic.

Personally, I like mixing up genders and playing for the laughs. Life needs more laughs.

[flabosib.livejournal.com]

Also, our high school did one-acts every spring and my class really got into it every year. We won all four years!

[joshwriting.livejournal.com]

I would bet large amounts of money that you are thinking of Chamber Music by Arthur Kopit, with Amelia Earhart, Joan of Ark, Queen Isabella, and others.

http://books.google.com/books?id=eGTDI9j3BKcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=kopit&ei=wI1rSZXcHImsNtystZ4I#PPA6,M1

And that, too, is one of the plays I have been thinking about from having seen the same HSSP production of it that you did!

[awomanthatsblue.livejournal.com]

I did that play in college! It's lots of fun. I was the catatonic Queen Isabella, and I still use her monologue for auditions.

The other one-acts I've been involved in (and there have not been many) were definitely too raunchy for high school.

[flabosib.livejournal.com]

I'll bet you're right--I really enjoyed the production I saw.

[dpolicar]

Theatre@First (the theatre group I'm involved with) does an evening of one-acts every summer. The first was David Ives' "All in the Timing", which I recommend (I'm particularly fond of "Universal Language.").

Since then we've done mostly unpublished works. We did a couple of years of assembling one-acts from multiple playwrights, and a couple of years of working with specific contemporary playwrights whose work we showcased. If you're interested in that sort of thing, I can toss you contact info of current and previous Festival Directors who can in turn put you in touch with the playwrights.

[dpolicar]

Oh, and to answer the questions... we basically cast straight up, though sometimes we gender-swap or otherwise mess around with the play as written because of the realities of auditions. (I also directed a deliberately mixed-gender version of "twelve angry men", but that's not a one-act.) If you're teaching a class on directing, it's probably worth at least explaining the laws around directors "modifying" plays before you ignore them. (Most licensing agreements explicitly prohibit any modifications to cast of characters or to any of the dialog, even removing lines for time. That said, I have NEVER been in a production that followed those rules, and in my case I rewrote the script wholesale.)

[siderea]

BTW, you aware of 12?

[dpolicar]

I wasn't. Interesting... thanks!

[devrose.livejournal.com]

I wrote one for Playwriting class...

[joshwriting.livejournal.com]

Were you happy with it? And how many characters are in it and would you want to turn a bunch of high school kids loose on it? (Let alone me...)

[devrose.livejournal.com]

Not unless they're high school kids who could handle the content. http://devrose.livejournal.com/693689.html

[zoethor.livejournal.com]

TOST and Turned, my student theater troupe from undergrad, did a full length professional play every fall, and a night of student-written one acts every spring. We usually aimed for 4-5 one act plays, 15-20 minutes each. Exceptions were made each year, obviously, depending on the length and awesomeness of the particular student-written plays submitted. We also strongly encouraged co-directing for these plays - it was sort of the way that we "auditioned" directors for the full length fall play.

Anyway, I think I know that you have access to some writers, somewhere, in your life. Maybe you could accrue some non-professional one acts. Those, also, come without the problems mentioned above with overly protective theater world stuff about altering lines, casts, whatever.

You know where to find me if you want to hear more about how TOST did it.

Oh, and come to think of it - I am certain that nearly every TOST one-act writer for the past 5 years would be tickled pink to have their work performed elsewhere. I could even provide you with video of the original performance, for comparison in directing decisions after your students have completed it! :)

[joshwriting.livejournal.com]

That would be cool. I'd be interested in hearing about some of those shows. And you should also mention to them the link I just gave in my next post.

I'm not inordinately worried about the casting/line issues. The raunchiness factor is there for this particular group, I think. I directed Veronica's Room (Levin) twice with the MIT High School Studies Program, dropping the necrophilia, and they handled the incest all right (as well as the murder). But this group is... not quite the same, I think.

Some time, we'll try the student-written play approach, but I know *I* am not ready for that this term.

So, whatever TOST stuff you can/would share with me will be appreciated. And, while I won't promise that we'll perform any, I can assure that the plays will at least get read.

[paper-cranes.livejournal.com]

I'll confer with my playwright roommate/neighbor/bestfriend and get back to you. I recommend Tom Stoppard whole heartedly.

[siderea]

Uh, I've been with a troupe that did drama competitions. But I'd be useless for answering questions about it.

[somthng2remembr.livejournal.com]

I haven't personally been in a Drama Festival, but I have good friends who have, and have directed shows (though not for said festival), and written them whose brains I can pick if you need/can't find anyone more qualified to answer questions.

[im-weird-people.livejournal.com]

There is a quite funny one-act I read awhile ago entitled "Check, Please" about a bunch of dates gone awry. You can use a generic search engine, such as Google, to locate an excerpt of it on the Web.

[im-weird-people.livejournal.com]

Actually, a friend of mine and I also wrote one for a class our senior year in high school.... and my mother just wrote one. If you're interested.

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

I was in a play in high school (as an extra) that went to a drama competition. It was written by a friend of mine (and fellow student). I remember the basic plot, though none of the details--a guy on the T offers his seat to a woman, and she objects on feminist grounds, getting him in trouble. She gets off at a stop, and another woman gets on who gladly accepts the seat, and the guy beams at the audience.