Hi Jess!
I just looked up the "The Book of Everything" at the publisher's site. It says there are 5 female, 3 male. It does not give information about extra cast. There is no partial perusal to look at.
How do you have 25 cast members in this show?
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Valerie Gargus
NJ Thespians Festival Director
Retired Theatre Arts Teacher
Play & Thespian Troupe 4762 Director
Northern Burlington County Reg HS
Columbus, NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-19-2019 07:48
From: Jessica Harms
Subject: The Book of Everything
Advocating for awesome shows that allow you to put a cast of 25 on stage the entire show by recommending "The Book of Everything." We did this as a 40-minute one act, although the full-length is also beautiful! I always struggle to find shows, so hoping this helps. The emotional saturation of this piece is such a challenge for actors as they must travel from joy to sorrow and back again. A performer's and audience favorite from beginning to end! Couldn't recommend it higher! I am so grateful to have directed this show and would do it again in a heartbeat.
We won states in MA with this show, and it won in TX the year before. There are so many lenses you can use to examine the show and themes. Our season theme was speaking truth to power so we paralleled Van Amersfoort standing up to the Nazis with the family's need to stand up to Father. We focused on Thomas and how we sees everything, using the ensemble to show Thomas's thoughts and feelings. There is so much depth to each character and situation we discovered, and it was great to do something with powerful social justice themes. I am happy to share with anyone more of what, how, and why we did.
(Edit: Plays for Young Audiences has the rights for the full-length show adapted by Richard Tulloch fro the novel by Guus Kuijer. You can get cutting permission to make it a one-act)
Original Message------
I'm interested in the full-length version for next year, so let me know how your experience goes. I've never read it but just ran across a recommendation for it.
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Cassy Maxton-Whitacre
Theatre Department Coordinator
Fishersville VA
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