I'm a sucker for Doug Wright's
Unwrap Your Candy. It's a series of one-act plays (10 men, 6 women maximum), some of which have managed to stick with me despite the fact that I read the script over a decade ago. "Wildwood Park" is a one-act that works like gangbusters, and I always wish that I'd see it more in competition. It's by the author of
Quills though (another arguable horror play), so some of the one-acts (specifically "Baby Talk") are on the risque side.
There's always staples like
Deathtrap and
The Woman in Black, but those have such small casts . . . And classics like
Dracula and
Frankenstein and
Rebecca and
The Birds (which has a wonderful stage adaptation by Conor McPherson) continue to be reinvented ad nauseam, sometimes with stellar results. There's Deborah Pryor's
The Love Talker, another small cast one-act -- but definitely a strange and unsettling one. You could always go really classic with
Titus Andronicus or Jacobean revenge tragedies like
'Tis Pity She's a Whore, The Revenger's Tragedy, or
The Duchess of Malfi.
It's hard because so many horror (or "horror") plays are written for adults: Tracy Letts'
Bug, Martin McDonagh's
The Pillowman, Conor McPherson's
The Weir, Jack Thorne's stunning adaptation of
Let the Right One In for the National Theatre of Scotland . . . It's a difficult genre for theatre in general, but especially difficult for teenagers to break into.
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Victoria Chatfield
Executive Director
National Theatre for Student Artists
www.nationalstudenttheatre.orgvchatfield@nationalstudenttheatre.org------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 10-25-2017 09:25
From: James McCulloch
Subject: Horror Play
Hello everyone,
Looking for script ideas for next Fall that are truly bone-chilling and build suspense. We have already done NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and NEVERMORE (Edgar Allan Poe trapped in his own stories). Any suggestions of plays for high school performers that really got your audience on the edge of their seats? I want the audience to be scared but also have a fun time.
Thank you!!
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James McCulloch
Drama Director of Mariner Drama
Marine City, Michigan
jmcculloch@ecsd.us
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