I second the motion for Playscripts'
Murder in the Knife Room.
That was very much a "rebuilding year" for us, and the large cast of typed characters (no names, just designations, like "Spooky Pirate" and "Wealthy Dowager") offered chances for a lot of new students to show us what they could do.
I even devised an audition method that let me see a lot of kids quickly, each in several different characters, without ever reading a word from the actual script! Since I didn't know a lot of these students, I used a text that gave short biographies of all of the American presidents. I called each kid up alone, started the first kid with the entry on George Washington, and told him to start reading in his own natural voice. After I'd gotten a bit of a "take" on him, and began thinking which roles in the play he might be able to handle, I'd call out one of them, telling him to continue reading, only now with the voice and manner of "Plastic Politician" or "Dirty Hippie" or whatever. I gave each student two to four types besides themselves, forging on from president to president in the biographies so that no two actors read the same text. I was able to cast all of the parts very well, and I avoided the repetition that can sometimes drive you off-focus during auditions.
There's one joke in the show that requires a blackout, and our 1950s-vintage auditorium has windows, which made a full blackout impossible for our matinee performance. (Blinds don't block out all light, right?) We sent the problem to Jonathan Rand, and he rewrote two pages of the script for us, changing the blackout to a momentary curtain, and replacing the blackout joke with a different yet equivalent one about the curtain.
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Jeff Grove
Theatre Teacher, Aesthetics Department Chair
Stanton College Preparatory School
Jacksonville FL
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-29-2018 21:57
From: Chris Briante
Subject: Large Cast Murder Mystery or Mystery Spoof
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We have the resources for a box set.
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Chris Briante
Theater Faculty
The Masters School
Dobbs Ferry, NY
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