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Holiday Play or Musical

  • 1.  Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-04-2017 19:19
    I am looking for a Christmas Holiday show to present as a gift to the community. All ideas welcome!

    ---------------------------------
    Mark A. Zimmerman,

    Theatre Director
    Akron School for the Arts
    Firestone Community Learning Center
    470 Castle Blvd
    Akron, Ohio 44313

    Troupe 5570

    mzimmerm@apslearn.org
    ---------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-05-2017 08:05
    ​Good morning,

    How big a cast?

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


  • 3.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-06-2017 09:33
    All suggestions are welcome!

    Big. Small. Somewhere in between.

    Like everyone else, I have lots more girls than boys.

    ------------------------------
    Mark A. Zimmerman,

    Theatre Director
    Akron School for the Arts
    Firestone Community Learning Center
    470 Castle Blvd
    Akron, Ohio 44313

    Troupe 5570

    mzimmerm@apslearn.org
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-05-2017 08:52
    I did Best Christmas Pageant Ever a couple of years ago and it was well received. It a great opportunity to incorporate students from all levels while letting your oldest ones have he leads. Fun show.

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    Ellen Augustine
    Language Arts Instructor/Theater Director
    Goshen IN
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-05-2017 10:57
    A Charlie Brown Christmas is available through Tams Whitmark! The script was adapted for stage from the 1965 movie!

    http://www.tamswitmark.com/shows/a-charlie-brown-christmas/

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    Laura Nugent
    Shreveport LA
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-05-2017 12:04
    Two of our favorites have been Elf, the Musical (Jr.) and White Christmas.  Our community enjoyed both.

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    Patricia J. Santanello
    Educational Theatre Association - Ohio Chapter
    Co-Chapter Director
    Dublin Scioto High School
    psdirector2003@hotmail.com
    Dublin, Ohio
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-07-2017 12:05
    What is the running time of ELF, JR.?

    ------------------------------
    Mark A. Zimmerman,

    Theatre Director
    Akron School for the Arts
    Firestone Community Learning Center
    470 Castle Blvd
    Akron, Ohio 44313

    Troupe 5570

    mzimmerm@apslearn.org
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-05-2017 12:24
    Two favorite plays are:  The Man Who Came to Dinner (a side-splitting comedy by Kaufman and Hart, that despite the period references, if played well, the audience loves) and It's A Wonderful Life.

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    Paula Flautt
    CPA Artistic Director
    Nashville TN
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-05-2017 12:32
    We are doing the Playscripts non-musical version of "It's a Wonderful Life" (they have a musical version, and a radio play, too) this winter.  It's nearly identical to the classic Capra movie. It is a large cast and has the ability to be even larger if you don't double cast characters and you can add as many townspeople as you want. What I'm particularly excited about is casting age-appropriately for George Bailey's children (5, 7, 9 and 12) and for the "Young George, Harry, Sam and Violet" characters, using younger siblings of my cast and crew and kids from our adjoining middle school.

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    Jodi Disario
    Director of Drama
    Willow Glen High School
    San Jose, CA
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    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-05-2017 17:14
    Look at THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER.

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    Sonja Brown, Theatre Teacher
    Thespian Troupe 1777
    Phoenix High School
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    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-06-2017 08:55
    I did this with middle schoolers a few years ago, and it was a big hit. There's also a full-length version.

    https://www.playscripts.com/play/2295

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    Dianne Rowe
    Birmingham AL
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    Original Message


  • 12.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-06-2017 11:13
      |   view attached
    Hi, 

    Charles Dickens used to do readings of A Christmas Carol for the public. I ran across the truncated version he used for his readings and adapted it for the stage. He also loved the theatre, so I imagined a troupe of actors that help narrate the story and step into the characters as needed (a la Nicholas Nickleby). To give it a modern twist and to make the ghosts have an other-worldly quality, I imagined them as puppets (Avenue Q or Lion King).

    The result was Christmas Carol: As told by Charles Dickens.

    James A. Van Leishout

    PS: I have attached a sample of the script and some notes.  If you would like a perusal copy let me know.


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    James Van Leishout
    Olympia WA
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    Attachment(s)

    docx
    Chrstmas Carol sample.docx   29 KB 1 version
    Original Message


  • 13.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-06-2017 14:44
    My small community really liked "A Good Old Fashioned Big Family Christmas." Easy staging & enjoyable.
    Michael

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    Michael Eggers
    Theatre Arts Teacher
    Mountain City TN
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    Original Message


  • 14.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-07-2017 01:45
    I have done Best Christmas Pageant Ever and included a choir to include more students.  It's A Wonderful Life has the opportunity to cast many students (I've done it twice). White Christmas for a musical if you want to go for a big gift to the community!  I did"Christmas in the Land of Oz" for younger students, of course there is always Christmas Carol and A Charlie Brown Christmas (it's short and not very many girls). 


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    Kathy Cannnarozzi Harris
    Theater Director - Mission Viejo HS
    VAPA Coordinator K-12
    Saddleback Valley USD
    Mission Viejo, CA
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    Original Message


  • 15.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-07-2017 10:46
    This is my absolutely FAVORITE version of "A Christmas Carol".  I directed it a couple of years ago and fell in love with it!!!  Great music, extremely faithful to the Dickens original.  I did it with a unit set.  Lots of potential for either a large or small cast.  Cannot recommend this enough.  Simply a great show!

    https://www.dramaticpublishing.com/a-christmas-carol-22219

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    Mike Hancey
    Musical Theatre, Drama, Theatre Guild, & Theater Manager
    Laramie High School
    Laramie, WY
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    Original Message


  • 16.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-08-2017 16:50
    Three years ago we produced one of the first productions of A Coney Island Christmas by Donald Margulies.

    It's a great holiday show with an interfaith message. My kids loved it, and I had a huge response from our non Christian audience members who appreciated the show's themes.

    Coney Island Christmas


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    Krista Carson Elhai
    Theatre Director
    Claremont HS
    An International Baccalaureate World School
    Claremont CA
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    Original Message


  • 17.  RE: Holiday Play or Musical

    Posted 07-09-2017 15:25
    We did It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play and I cannot recommend it enough!! Great experience for the kids to work with live old-fashioned props/sound effects, great experience to work in a radio setting (much harder than we expected but great learning experience), and a great experience for the audience to be transported back in time to the Golden Days of Radio. We studied a Radio Unit while doing the play.
    It's A Wonderful Life also has a musical version and a straight play version.
    Here's the link for the radio version:
    https://www.playscripts.com/play/1064#searchterm=It%27s%20a%20wonderf

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    Connie Sandoz
    Waxahachie, TX
    Retired Theatre Director
    Henderson, NV
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    Original Message


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