Open Forum

 View Only

Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

  • 1.  Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 06-06-2017 15:33
    I work at an all male high school and also an all female high school- both of the religious variety (content needs to be relatively clean).  I am seeking appropriate shows which work for an all male or all female cast.  I am not looking to do the same show at both schools- the boys can handle much more serious and mature material then the girls that I work with can.  
    This year the boy's school did West Wing Follies (Eldridge) and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (Samuel French).  The girl's school did The Pinballs (by Aurand Harris) last year and Cinderella (Lowell Swortzell) this year. I can have the girls play some male roles( prince charming) but don't really feel comfortable having the boys play female roles unless its in some kind of farce. 
    Any suggestions for plays- both comedy and drama for a single gender cast?  Boys cast of about 10, girls cast of 15-20.
    Thanks!

    ------------------------------
    Rebecca Lopkin
    Director of Performing Arts
    Teaneck NJ
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 06-07-2017 07:23
    Hello,
    I did The Boys Next Door several years ago.  It's a challenging piece about men with special needs who are adjusting to adulthood.  It's very comedic at times, but has such a strong, powerful message of love and compassion.  I'm a HUGE fan of this show!

    For ladies, I just got done doing Decision Height by Meredith Dayna Levy.  The cast seems a bit small for what you're looking for.  But, WOW! It was a showstopper and had a strong, historical through line about WASPs in WWII.  Another piece that I just fell in love with :)

    Best of luck with your show choices!

    ------------------------------
    Lisa Dyer
    Henrico VA
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 06-07-2017 09:18
    Tracers is an extremely good all male play about soldiers in Vietnam. You could also consider doing A Piece of My Heart with your girls which is about nurses in Vietnam.


    I don't know if it's possible for you to get one girl into your all male show, but Terra Nova is one of my favorite plays, and it would be totally good content-wise. It's about the race to the South Pole.

    ------------------------------
    RaMina Mirmortazavi
    Deer Park High School
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 06-08-2017 14:06
    As far as a show for women - I did the play, The Women by Clare Booth Luce. It is a period piece, and at first, some of the subject matter may seem antiquated to the modern girl/women - (but the catty episodes between the women are timeless)!. Once  my actors did a bit of research related to that time period, the cast fell in love with the script. It is very well written and has all the necessary ingredients for today's inattentive audiences - gossip, jealously, chick fist fights, corruption of pride, and redemption. It was a great production!

    ------------------------------
    Holly Whiting
    Drama Teacher
    Issaquah WA
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 10-13-2021 10:49
    Can the cast be doubled at all?  This looks like fun, but I don't have quite that many girls.

    ------------------------------
    Georgann Lanich
    Theater Director/Teacher
    Rabun County High School
    GA
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 06-07-2017 15:23
    Have you thought of 12 Angry Men/Women/Jurors. We did it a few years ago and it was a big hit.





  • 7.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 06-11-2017 14:24
    For the all-female, look at "This Changes Everything" by Joel Horwood. I think it is FANTASTIC.
    https://smile.amazon.com/This-Changes-Everything-Joel-Horwood/dp/1848425007/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1497205369&sr=8-14&keywords=this+changes+everything

    ------------------------------
    Cora Turlish
    Metuchen NJ
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 07-02-2017 09:14
    For all women, I HIGHLY recommend Who Will Carry the Word?  Set in the Birkenau concentration camp during the Holocaust, it's written by Charlotte Delbo, one of the women who survived until liberation.  Delbo's character is Franciose in the script, and all of the characters have real counterparts if you do the research.  Very challenging play for my young women, and they are forever changed because of it.

    ------------------------------
    Shelly Riggs
    Logan OH
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 07-03-2017 11:22
    Carry the word is a great play. But for all male cast I would say mystery of Irma Vep. 


    ------------------------------
    Francis Considine
    Theatre Director
    Keystone Heights FL
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 10-11-2021 21:56
    Who owns the rights? Sounds interesting

    ------------------------------
    Karen Wiebe
    Drama Director
    Randall K. Cooper High School
    KY
    ------------------------------



  • 11.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 07-03-2017 07:31
    Depending on whether you want to have a small cast or not, the paired one acts Lone Star and Laundry and Bourbon by James McLure are brilliant pieces.


    ------------------------------
    Jason Robert LeClair, MA
    Artist/Arts Educator
    Director, Thespian Troupe 7444
    Beacon Charter High School for the Arts
    Woonsocket, RI
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 07-03-2017 22:33
    A long-shot perhaps, but I wonder if 'Wiley & the Hairy Man' might be a fun show to do with the all male cast and the all female cast? Could bring out vastly different aspects of the story. I think there's only one female role, if I remember correctly, Wiley's mother...

    12 Angry Men/Women
    Reduced Shakespeare Co's 'Compleat Works of Shakespeare' though it's kind of been done to death. Highly recommend their Complete History of America, or if you're in a non-bible belt community, the Complete Bible...could be scaled up/down, all female/all male, a fun night out for all. 

    For the males, you could do a Shakespeare and claim it as Original Practices, if you have a boy that is a little younger and higher-voiced...just a thought...

    ------------------------------
    Phillip Goodchild
    Theatre Arts Instructor
    Toronto, ON
    ------------------------------



  • 13.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 07-04-2017 10:53
    When I was in high school, we did "Waiting for the Parade," a show set on the homefront in Canada in WW2 (all women). It was great and we even added a bunch of WW2 era songs, as all of our girls could sing in 4 part harmony.

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



  • 14.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 07-05-2017 11:46
    Oh! I just remembered an absolutely cracking all male piece I performed in a long time ago! Definitely a challenge: 'Chips with Everything', an Arnold Wesker piece from 1962. It's a British army barracks, follows a group of new recruits and their task-master/whatever the correct military term for 'supervisor of new recruits' is, Corporal Hill. Commentary on class attitudes in Britain, some good conflicts and drama, and compelling stories. Quite a lot of fun, and as far as I can remember, mostly appropriate (not much language? Memory fails a little).

    Definitely more of a challenge, especially if you're looking for something to push them into accent work! (various accents across England needed, if again I remember correctly: everything from plummy upper class officers to cockney to Manchester to East London...though if everyone does an English accent like John Oliver, your audience will probably never know the difference).

    ------------------------------
    Phillip Goodchild
    Theatre Arts Instructor

    Etobicoke ON
    ------------------------------



  • 15.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 01-02-2018 09:56
    ​​At the risk of "blowing my own trumpet", can I suggest my own play "Arthur: Boy-King of Britain" - published by Lazybee Scripts and readable on and downloadable from their website.

    The play tells the classic story of Merlin, Arthur and the Sword in the Stone. It has an all-male cast with no female characters. There are parts for 31 actors though this can be reduced by doubling. The play runs around 75 minutes and has been performed by a number of boys' schools in England and Australia, with casts aged 10-15.

    ------------------------------
    Andrew Beattie
    ------------------------------



  • 16.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 09-29-2019 06:35
    Two other short plays of mine with all-male casts - suitable for boys' schools - are:

    The New Boy
    Ghost story set in an English prep school in the 1960s. 15-20 mins duration. Cast of 12, all schoolboys aged 10-13. Published by dramanotebook.com.

    Deep and Crisp and Even: The Play of Good King Wenceslas
    This tells the story of Good King Wenceslas - from the Christmas carol. 15 mins duration. Cast of 7 (all male characters). Published by schoolplaysandpantos.com.



    ------------------------------
    Andrew Beattie
    ------------------------------



  • 17.  RE: Looking for plays for all male cast and play for all female cast

    Posted 10-12-2021 10:38
    My all-boys Catholic high school did Billy Budd, a morality play based on Herman Melville's novella.  Might be worth taking a look at.

    ------------------------------
    Robert Laconi
    ------------------------------