Funny one act for sophisticated actors and audience: The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard. I've done it twice, and it's a real challenge, but a lot of fun. If you're still looking for serious one acts - I loved The Way We Live Now, a Susan Sontag short story that was turned into a play. It's very abstract and very moving. I also loved Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, though that is a longer one act. For many years we have done a one act and a full length play, with an additional performance for the middle school and one performance created for an Advanced Acting class:
As you can see below, I've done nearly 70 shows, and I don't like to repeat myself unless I have a sufficiently good new idea. I'm currently looking for a comedy, full-length and a comedy or drama (Irish) that includes some step dancing. (I've done Dancing at Lughnasa and could do it again.) Enjoy the list!
One Acts:
Pierre Pathelin (Anonymous; medieval comedy)
Black Comedy (Shaffer; comedy - with some cuts to make it appropriate)
Antigone (Anouilh, drama)
Baby (Davidson) comedy
Real Inspector Hound (Stoppard; comedy)
The Dining Room (Gurney) (serious comedy)
Under Milk Wood (drama, but nice comedic bits and music)
Ralph Roister Doister (another medieval comedy)
The Way We Live Now (Sontag: serious - AIDS play)
Twelfth Night (Shakespeare - one act version)
Why Do We Laugh (Gregg; comedy)
The Arabian Nights (kids version, fantasy)
The Happy Journey to Camden and Trenton (Wilder - serious)
Audience (Frayn - comedy)
Much Ado About Nothing (one act-comedy-sort of)
A Child's Christmas in Wales (Thomas; serious)
Youth (Wilder; serious)
Picnic on the Battlefield (Arrabal; absurdist comedy)
The Great Labor Day Classic (Horovitz; serio-comedy)
Spoon River Anthology (Masters; serious)
April Fish (Pezzulo; comedy)
The Radio Hour (collection of radio plays-thrillers)
Shall We Join the Ladies (Barrie; mystery)
The Devil and Daniel Webster (Benet; serious)
The Real Inspector Hound (2nd time!)
The Ugly Duckling (Milne; comedy)
24 Hours a.m./24 Hours p.m. (mixture)
All in the Timing (Ives; comedy)
Sganarelle (Moliere; comedy)
10 by 10 (various; mixture)
Museum (Howe; comedy)
The Invisible Man (Radio Show; thriller)
The King Stag (Gozzi; comedy)
Star Wars Radio Drama (sci-fi)
After Juliet (MacDonald; serious)
Small Actors (Gregg; serio-comic)
The Shakespeare Project
The Trojan Woman (Euripides, trans. Rudall; serious)
FULL LENGTH:
The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde; comedy)
The Rivals (Sheridan; comedy)
The Sea (Bond; comedy)
The Miracle Worker (Gibson; serious)
The Diviners (Leonard; serio-comic)
Caucasian Chalk Circle (Brecht (serious)
Working (Schwartz; musical)
The Hollow (Christie; mystery)
Playboy of the Western World (Synge; comedy/drama)
Ten November (Deitz; drama with music)
The Tempest (Shakespeare)
The Mousetrap (Christie; mystery)
Metamorphoses (Zimmerman; drama)
The Curious Savage (Patrick; serious comedy)
Pippin (Schwartz; musical)
Dancing at Lughnasa (Friel; drama)
Arsenic and Old Lace (Kesselring; comedy thriller)
The Lark (Anouilh; drama)
The Enchanted (Giradoux; comedy)
The Ash Girl (Wertenbaker; fantasy)
The Madwoman of Chaillot (Gradous; comedy; sort of)
The Odyssey (Zimmerman; epic)
It Is So...If You Think It is So (Pirandello; comedy)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare; with the Mendelssohn music)
Northanger Abbey (Austen; thriller/comedy)
Treasure Island (Ludwig; adventure)
Around the World in 80 Days (Brown; adventure)
Arabian Nights (Cooke; fantasy)
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Elisabeth Ledwell
Falmouth MA
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-08-2014 00:03
From: Amy Sidwell
Subject: I love this forum -- need more help! FUNNY, ONE ACT PLAY please!
I saw The Yellow Boat at Seattle Children's Theatre and LOVED it. Also, theatrefolk.com is fabulous. Some great play options in all forms.
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Amy Sidwell
Director of Theatrical Arts
Woodburn Arts and Communications Academy
Canby OR
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-01-2014 10:29
From: Ron Wells
Subject: I love this forum -- need more help! FUNNY, ONE ACT PLAY please!
For our middle school about 6 years ago we performed The Yellow Boat -- an AIDS play but not totally gay themed. It is about a boy who contracts the disease through a blood transfusion and the discrimination he and his parents have to endure. It is a fast moving, totally beautiful show based on a true story. I even contacted the author (whose son is the main character) and used his artwork as projections during the show. You need to read this script! Our show won several awards, the kids are still talking about it, and we coordinated to have the AIDS quilt on display during our run.
Give it a try - you won't regret it.
(I am happy to send you pics etc if you want to pursue it)
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Ron Wells
Summit, NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-01-2014 09:32
From: Susan Sterman-Jones
Subject: I love this forum -- need more help! FUNNY, ONE ACT PLAY please!
This forum has been incredibly useful!!! A while ago, I posted a request for telephones (for our current production of Bye Bye Birdie) and was able to connect with a woman in Michigan, who sent me a box full of multi-colored telephone receivers with cords -- exactly what I wanted! Amazing! Thank you Amy Crane! I needed a good Ed Sullivan voice-over for the same production, and got one from a guy in West Virginia -- wow! Thanks so much Andy Bowyer!
Unfortunately, my search for a gay-themed play, appropriate for our Middle School, has been (to date) fruitless. I will continue to search, but now, because I recently learned that our rehearsal time will be shortened next fall, I am going in a different direction...so I am hoping that I can have some more great forum success with this post:
I am seeking a FUNNY, ONE-ACT play that is appropriate to the middle school level. We are a private school in NYC, so the students are pretty sophisticated and can handle more mature themes than one might think, but still -- plays that are more high school related (smoking, drinking, sexual themes) are usually not entirely appropriate for these kids. This play must also be able to accommodate 20 - 30 kids. ANY IDEAS? Please help!
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Susan Sterman-Jones
Drama Teacher/ Director
New York NY
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