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Large Cast new plays please!!!

  • 1.  Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 03-29-2015 15:57

    Hi!  Does anyone have suggestions for a larger cast play that is either a comedy, murder mystery or holiday show?  Our audience responds and shows up in droves for those!  We did Lend me a Tenor this year and it was a great hit---but it was such a small cast I would like to offer more parts. (10-15) We did Neil Simon's FoOls a few  years back and got a very disappointing amount of patrons.  I dont know why---I love Neil Simon.  I am not really interested in old chestnuts like Pride and Prejudice, You Cant Take it With you or Harvey at this point. ....or anyting too abstract like Metamorphosis.  NO offense---I just dont think (after 21 years doing this) these would take off here. We've done Dracula, Any Number can Die, 13 Past Midnight, Almost Maine, It's a Wonderful Life Radio Show, Christmas Carol, Seussification of Romeo and Juliet....all big hits.  Anyone have another favorite to share?  

     

    Can someone help me with some new suggestions for straight plays?  

     

    Also, how do you get your school (or dont you) to pay for attending the Nebraska Teachers Conference in October?  I would love to attend but I live in PA and it's quite expensive.  I dont think my school would shell out that much for one teacher.  Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks again---love this forum and all your expertise!  

    ------------------------------
    Lorie Baldwin
    High School Theater Teacher and Director at Lawrence HS in Lawrenceville NJ
    Richboro PA
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  • 2.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 03-30-2015 06:33

    We did Don Zolidis' The Birds two years ago and it was one of our biggest hits. Sold out two of the four performances. Large cast, can use a lot of females, funny, a bit risqué but not too bad. It's a lot of fun.

     We're doing his new play, The Frogs, and it's great, too

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    John Perry
    Drama Instructor
    Atherton High School
    Louisville KY
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  • 3.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 03-30-2015 06:33
    Sorry! Play scripts handles them.

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    John Perry
    Drama Instructor
    Atherton High School
    Louisville KY
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  • 4.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 03-31-2015 18:42


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    Valerie Scott
    Duluth GA
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  • 5.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 03-30-2015 08:22

    Check out "Museum" by Tina Howe  A comedy that takes place in a single gallery with 44 characters to be cast. Of course doubling is possible. The characters are wonderful and your students will not only  have fun but learn a lot. Our audiences loved the comedy too. There is so much you can do with the staging including inviting the audience to walk through the gallery exhibit with many of the  cast members, especially the guards present and in character.

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    Jill Campbell
    Pine Grove Mills PA
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  • 6.  RE:Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 03-30-2015 15:37
    Thank u all for these great suggestions! I'm going to look into them! Keep em coming!!! Love this forum!

    -------------------------------------------
    Lorie Baldwin
    High School Theater Teacher and Director
    Richboro PA
    -------------------------------------------



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  • 7.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 03-30-2015 08:56
    The Dining Room by AR Gurney ------------------------------ Lisa Houston Pennington NJ ------------------------------


  • 8.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 03-30-2015 09:42


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    William Arrigoitia
    Teacher
    Lyndhurst Board of Education
    Dumont NJ
    ------------------------------
    Hi we did The Mystery of Edwin Drood last year and it was a huge success, the audience loved it!



  • 9.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 03-30-2015 12:02
    Consider Snow Angel by David Lindsay-Abaire (Playscripts).  It was commissioned from a Pulitzer-winning playwright as a work to be performed by and for teens, and it works really well.  We had a blast!  A bit mysterious, funny, and appropriate for audiences.  Lots of ensemble scenes, too, which is great.

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    Nathan Rosen
    Baltimore MD
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  • 10.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 03-30-2015 12:38

    We had great fun with, and were challenged by,The Hound of the Baskervilles:  A Comic Thriller Starring Shirley Holmes and Jennie Watson, Adapted by Kent R. Brown.  Inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Published by Dramatic Publishing.  It has an expandable cast. 

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    Kristin Hall
    Drama Director
    Lincoln Public Schools
    Arlington MA
    ------------------------------




  • 11.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 03-30-2015 18:02

    The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon is another great show with a large cast and is hysterical. The first time I read the script I was laughing out loud. You can gender bend in this, too. There's audience interaction with the possibility of improve if you have a lively crowd.

    This show was so popular, totally revived my program when I took it over, that I'm doing it again the fall of 2015 as my five-year anniversary show. This is the shoe I did when I took over here at Hebron. Many parents still talk about the show and have asked me to do it again so all kids can get a shot at being in the show.

    It's easy to stage, too.

    Good luck!

    ------------------------------
    Jared Grigsby
    English and Journalism Teacher / Drama Director
    MSD of Boone Township
    Valparaiso IN
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  • 12.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 03-31-2015 13:26

    Hi,

    I recommend Once in a Lifetime by Kaufman and Hart. Fantastic satire on Hollywood...still relevant.
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    Josh Adell
    North Hollywood CA
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  • 13.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 04-01-2015 00:37
    "Stardust" by Walter Kerr is hilarious fun.  The cast size is listed as 18, but I added a few more students. Dramatic Publishing has it.

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    C. J. Breland
    Asheville NC
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  • 14.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 04-02-2015 10:14

    I run into this issue each and every year that I direct. I cannot present a show with less than a cast of 20. Basically it is very challenging to find scripts that work for this type of cast requirement, that isn't some overdone high school spoof or silly spinoff of another piece of literature.  So few playwrights are writing really quality plays for high school actors that have the kind of writing I am looking for.  Here is a list of my past 15 years.  Maybe something from the list will provide you some ideas. (I have just read over 20 mystery plays that are just about awful, there has to be something as good as Agatha Christie with a large cast, but I certainly haven't found it yet).

    DRACULA-2000

     FIEFFER'S PEOPLE -2001

     WILD OATS-2002

     TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD-2003

     THE RESTIBLE RISE OF ARTUO UI-2004

     COMMEDIA TONIGHT!-2004

     THE THREE MUSKETEERS-2005

     YOU CAN'T TAKE WITH YOU-2006

     THE CRUCIBLE-2007

     THE CATCH-2008 (original production)

     PETER PAN AND WENDY -2009

     THE JUNGLE BOOK-2009

     MYSTERY WEEKEND-2010

     DON'T DRINK THE WATER-2011

     ICE WOLF (One Act)-2012

     ARABIAN NIGHTS-2012

     SHERLOCK HOLMES-2013

     RADIUM GIRLS-2014

     GOING OUT WITH A BANG! -2015 [original production]



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    John Rutherford
    Rochester Hills MI
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  • 15.  RE:Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 04-02-2015 14:31
    Thanks John! Do you know where I can find some of these? Great suggestions!

    -------------------------------------------
    Lorie Baldwin
    High School Theater Teacher and Director
    Richboro PA
    -------------------------------------------



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  • 16.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 04-03-2015 14:48

    They are from the major publishing companies.

     Samuel French

    Dramatic

    Dramatists

    Playscripts

    Eldridge

    ------------------------------
    John Rutherford
    Rochester Hills MI
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  • 17.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 04-14-2015 16:28

    I could have sworn I responded to this but I am not seeing it so here goes ... again. Most of these plays are available from the larger catalog houses.  Most of these shows have flexible ensembles, some more flexible than others.

    The Arabian Nights - Gay Monteverde adaptation

    Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon (senior show)

    The Taming of the Shrew

    Peter Pan and Wendy (senior show)

    The Hobbit

    The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet (senior show)

    To See the Stars

    The Learned Ladies -- Wilber adaptation, I think.

    Metamorphoses 

    Is He Dead? - only 17 (small for me! We used short scenes based on Twain novels as openers to involve others)

    The Comedy of Errors

    With their Eyes - a play about 9/11 written by high school students who were less than a mile from the towers. Can't remember the publisher.

    The Crucible

    Julius Caesar

    Pride and Prejudice

    Up the Down Staircase

    The Mouse that Roared

    The Compleat Shakespear and The Complete History of America (running on alternate nights)

    The Course Acting Show -- chose seven appropriate plays from the three books. I think Samuel French carries the books but I'm not sure.

    Much Ado About Nothing

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    Helen Dixon
    Oakley CA
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  • 18.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 04-15-2015 07:36

    Samuel French has Iliad, Odyssey, and All of Greek Mythology in 99 Minutes or Less.  I've been looking for the right mix of kids to do this with, and will probably stage it next year.  It was intended for 5 actors with multiple parts, but you can expand the cast substantially.

    I have a student-directed production of Don Zolidis's "10 Ways to Survive The Zombie Apocalypse" in rehearsals right now. It calls for 8, but it can be expanded by having multiple groups of survivors, and as many zombies as you want.  The directors have 10 kids in a zombie ensemble that is to die for...(sorry, couldn't resist!)

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    Robert Ellis
    North Richmond VA
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  • 19.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 04-15-2015 10:07

    Thanks for the shout-out, Robert!

     I also have a play similar to the Samuel French play - The Greek Mythology Olympiaganza, (published by Playscripts) which can be expandable up to 60 or so.

     I will point out that the Samuel French play is written by Jay Hopkins and John Hunter, who don't sound Greek to me at all. Whereas Zolidis is Greek, so where do they get off telling the story of my people?

     

    Just kidding. I'm sure their play is great. (Mine's probably better, but I'm sure their play is fine, as an outsider perspective on my culture, you know...)

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    Don Zolidis
    Cedar Park TX
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  • 20.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 04-16-2015 09:07

    Drop Dead, Juliet! and Postcards from Shakespeare, are both by Allison Williams, and they are both good large cast comedies which really show a lot of love and respect for the source material (Romeo & Juliet in the former, and over half the cannon in the other).

    Shakespeare is generally good for large cast productions, if you trim them down. Just did R&J with 22 and Midsummer Night's Dream with 31.

    Is double-casting an option? I found that to work quite well in one of our productions last year, where you have a different cast each night on the same play. Slight bear to work out in terms of rehearsal time, but a worthy experiment.

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    Phillip Goodchild
    Ruskin FL
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  • 21.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 04-16-2015 10:10
    One murder mystery we did several years ago that was successful was BONECHILLER.  Another one is MUSICAL COMEDY MURDERS OF THE 1940s. This year we did CLUE-although that cast is not huge.  I love LEND ME A TENOR-but wasn't that a little bit racy?  Did you get sway with it all ok? I will keep thinking.

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    Rosemary Evaul
    Wappingers Fl NY
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  • 22.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 04-20-2015 12:18

    Hi Rosemary,

    Thanks for the suggestions (all)!   For Lend Me a Tenor, I ran it by my administrators and they were okay as long as we toned out the curse words.  THe play went over really well with students and adults alike. When you think about it, the content in the play is really tame compared to what everyone is watching on tv at home. Everyone had a good laugh at the 'sex' scene ----all implied under blankets.  And the ending was really sweet and we got some "awwwwwws" from the audience when all the bells rang.  I would definitely do it. The downfall of it is that it is such a small cast. But if you have the right mix of performers, that show is a winner!

    ------------------------------
    Lorie Baldwin
    High School Theater Teacher and Director
    Richboro PA
    ------------------------------




  • 23.  RE: Large Cast new plays please!!!

    Posted 04-21-2015 10:30

    I wrote a 60s-70s version of A Midsummer Night's Dream that is fast-paced and soooo fun.  I've produced with with as many as 90 and as few as 25.  I have many of the costumes and props.  No royalties because I have only self-published.  Would love to work with you for a small stipend and mentor the show.  Lots of disco dancing and silly business.  Resonates with the parents and grandparents since it comes from our generation.

     I have a middle and a high school version on DVD, I think.

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    Carol Knarr Gebert
    Celina OH
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