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  • 1.  Your fav large cast ensemble plays

    Posted 07-18-2018 14:28
    What are your top three? Please include both comedies and dramas. Mine <g class="gr_ gr_65 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="65" data-gr-id="65">are</g> The Crucible, The Man Who Came to Dinner and The Laramie Project.
    Thanks, Chris

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    Chris Briante
    Theater Faculty
    The Masters School
    Dobbs Ferry, NY
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  • 2.  RE: Your fav large cast ensemble plays

    Posted 07-19-2018 11:48
    • A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare (13 men, 7 women, expandable. doubling and gender-blind casting possible) - funniest play ever written
    • Our Town, Thornton Wilder (17 men, 7 women, some doubling possible, Stage Manager could be played by a woman) - A great American classic, winner of Pulitzer Prize, for drama which every high school student should have the chance to do at least once.
    • The Time of Your Life, William Saroyan (18 men, 7 women, nine are minor can possibly be cut) - This Pulitzer Prizing-winning play is an triumphant celebration of the joys of life. As Saroyan said,  "'In the time of our life, live - so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it"
    Honorable Mention
    • Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare
    • Hamlet, Shakespeare
    • The Skin of Our Teeth,  Wilder - The history (and future) of mankind as they survive the ice age, the great flood. and the apocalypse.
    • The Matchmaker, Wilder - best known as the source material for the musical Hello Dolly!
    • Ah! Wilderness, Eugene O'Neill - his only comedy
    • The Lark, Jean Anouilh - A highly theatricalized retelling of the story of Joan of Arc.


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    James Van Leishout
    Olympia WA
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Your fav large cast ensemble plays

    Posted 07-19-2018 12:08
    Depends on how you define "large cast," but I loved the RSC Arabian Nights with my students and Still Life With Iris is another favorite. I can only think of two, because I'm always looking for the perfect large-cast play!!

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    Cassy Maxton-Whitacre
    Theatre Department Coordinator
    Fishersville VA
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Your fav large cast ensemble plays

    Posted 07-19-2018 12:22
    The Secret in the Wings by Mary Zimmerman 
    Girls Like That by Evan Placey
    The Tempest



    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Your fav large cast ensemble plays

    Posted 07-20-2018 13:11
    So good to see this list. I'm taking notes!

    I have also had great success with:
    Crucible (2x)
    The Man Who Came to Dinner (2x)**
    Midsummer (3x)
    and we did the Zimmerman version of Arabian Nights-- a true ensemble play. It's a lot of fun, especially if you have a really creative group, which I did that year. 

    As for the eternal problem of female roles, both times I did The Man...Dinner, I used female leads. They both were very strong, intelligent actors who played Whiteside as a man and did a bang up job. 

    If you're looking for classics also consider:
    Dark of the Moon
    Inherit the Wind
    Stage Door (LOTS of women)
    Alice in Wonderland (Very flexible. Used three different scripts for three different performances, but be ready to spend a lot of time on costumes, make-up and stage magic)
    Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (done 2x), not as large a cast, but large.
    And don't forget Shakespeare's romantic comedies Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It. Both are very "stageable" with young actors and plenty of room for gender-bending.

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    Rosemary M. Milsap
    Cedar Shoals HS
    Director, Cedar Theatre
    milsapr@clarke.k12.ga.us
    706-546-5375 ext.21321
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Your fav large cast ensemble plays

    Posted 07-22-2018 15:43
    Musicals:

    Big Fish

    High School Musical

    The Music Man

    Guys and Dolls

    Shrek


    Dramas:

    Dracula

    The Elephant Graveyard

    Arsenic and Old Lace


    Comedies:

    Harvey

    You Can't Take it With You

    The Real Inspector Hound

    Noises Off

    Just about anything by David Ives

    Everything by Moliere


    Adventure:

    Treasure Island (Ken Ludlow)

    Three Musketeers (Ken Ludlow has a good version with one, too)

    Cyrano De Bergerac

    Kidnapped



    Break a leg and may all your theatre seats be filled,

    Kelly Thomas

    Poteet Pirate Players


    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Your fav large cast ensemble plays

    Posted 07-23-2018 12:59
    I would greatly recommend Midsummer, The Laramie Project, and Elephant's Graveyard also.

    In addition to those mentioned, I have loved doing Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, Peter and the Starcatcher (the script offers opportunity for expansion), and A Piece of My Heart (it is only written for 6 or 7, but we were able to expand it and divide up the dialogue a bit different from the traditional version).

    I have recently read The Amish Project and Blue Stockings and really enjoyed them both.

    Cheers!

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    Sarah Gerling
    Theatre Teacher and Director
    Columbia MO
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Your fav large cast ensemble plays

    Posted 07-24-2018 12:51
    ​Midsummer, Elephants Graveyard and The Emperors New Clothes.

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    Crit Fisher
    Lighting/Sound Designer
    New Albany High School
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Your fav large cast ensemble plays

    Posted 07-25-2018 09:35
    I love Cat Among Pigeons (Or Not By Bed Alone) by George Feydeau.
    Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
    All in the Timing by David Ives
    Metamorphosis by Mary Zimmerman

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    Maura Vaughn
    The Branson School
    Ross CA
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    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Your fav large cast ensemble plays

    Posted 07-25-2018 15:07
    The Tale of Tales by Hillary DePiano (also love her "The Love of Three Oranges")
    The Five Hysterical Girls Theorem by Rinne Groff
    Anon(ymous) by Naomi Iizuka

    Cheated by letting others answer first -- would agree with a lot of the choices others have posted, too.

    I also have done some writing to create my own large-cast ensemble plays and then directed them at my school. If anyone would like to take a look at either of the following, message me and let me know -- would love to have another director work with them and/or give me feedback.

    Haven -- In 2008, Nebraska lawmakers passed a Safe Haven law but neglected to include an age limit – a loophole allowing parents to abandon children as old as nineteen, attracting national news coverage and spurring debate. Purely fictional, yet inspired by real-life events, Haven weaves together stories about abandoned teens, harried caregivers and medical staff, excitable media commentators, and a pop-culture princess eager to break free from her own dysfunctional family. (27 characters, some doubling possible)

    She Ventures, and He Wins -- Two late 17th-century women risk their reputations in order to control their romantic lives. Charlotte, a beautiful young heiress, first dresses as a man to find herself a husband, then puts her candidate through a series of trials to determine whether he is worthy of her heart and fortune. Urania, happily married to a tavern-keeper, fends off the advances of a lecherous lover. Fearful that a simple "no" would prompt the scorned suitor to ruin her reputation, she employs her womanly wiles, as well as her husband and maid, to set traps intended to keep both her reputation and virtue intact. Adapted into rhyming couplets from the 1695 original, attributed to "Ariadne, a young lady."

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    Cora Turlish
    Metuchen NJ
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    Original Message


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