Posts Tagged full-length scripts
“Klaus” called “a dark and dizzying journey”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Reviews, Uncategorized on December 5, 2014
“A dark and dizzying journey.”
That’s how producer Rose Bonczek — who teaches at Brooklyn College — describes KLAUS, my full-length Christmas play that had a staged reading in New York on December 2, under the direction of Christopher Thomasson.
She further tells me via e-mail: “I wanted to let you know that last night’s reading was terrific – Christopher put together a brilliant cast, mostly Gi60 company members, but several colleagues who he knows from Santaland (perfect!). Jay Nickerson as Klaus, and Jonathan Hadley as the headmaster were particularly brilliant – though Helen Huff as Mary was a delight, and the three young men were balanced wonderfully, with sharp and distinct characters. The fellow who played Grinchley should simply be guaranteed that role for life.”
Here’s a link to the poster.
And here’s the synopsis:
KLAUS: How it all began
Where did Santa Claus come from? There is no particular origin myth, until now. This story begins in the 1740s with an eccentric German professor of what we now call physics. He invents time travel, and when he becomes the target of the wrath of a mob who wants to burn him as a witch, he uses it to escape. Involves science fiction, treason against the king, a love story, and some cooking. Cast: Seven – six male, one female.
This was the second staged reading for the script; the first was in Roanoke in December 2012. Here’s a set of links to photos and such from that reading.
“The Other Side of Oz” to be produced in Montana in August
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on June 4, 2014
The poster that Backyard Theatre is using for THE OTHER SIDE OF OZ.
A few years ago, Kevin Jones of the Kevin Jones Performing Arts Studio asked me to write some Oz-related scenes for a theatre camp he was having. Conveniently, the Oz books are in the public domain (the movie isn’t, so things in the books can be adapted; things in the movie cannot be. All that is explained quite well here by the New Media Rights people.)
I ended up writing about two dozen pieces with Oz themes, with titles such as THE MORALLY AMBIGUOUS WITCH OF THE NORTH, featuring a witch who got written out of the story completely, and DOG CASES, in which the sheriff complains about how emotional animal incidents can be, and DOROTHY ON THE COUCH, in which Dorothy seeks psychiatric help about her ordeal. Kevin used some in his camps, and reported they went well. Since then, a few scenes have been performed here and there, such as THE TIN WOMAN, seen in this video.
I took the whole bunch and packaged them together as THE OTHER SIDE OF OZ. It’s not a true full-length play, since there’s not a single narrative running through it, although the running time would add up to a full evening of entertainment.
This week, I got word that Backyard Theatre in Billings, Montana will perform all or most of the pieces August 1-3.
If you count this as a full-length script, this would be the seventh full-length I’ve had produced.
The others would be:
* ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, a Christmas comedy produced by Santiam High School in Oregon in December 2013.
* SWEETS TO THE SWEET, a female version of Hamlet produced by Gorilla Tango Theatre in Skokie, Illinois in September 2013.
* 57 HOURS IN THE HOUSE OF CULTURE, a dark re-telling of the Moscow theatre siege, produced in Virginia in 2012.
* RED MOON RISING IN THE EAST, a one-man play about the father of the Soviet space program, produced in Virginia, Wisconsin and Minnesota in 2009 and 2010.
* VIRGINIA’S REAL, produced in suburban Atlanta in 2006.
* JOSE AND MARIA, AN OLD STORY FOR NEW TIMES, a Christmas play produced in Virgina in 2004.
This could have been my eighth full-length production; KLAUS was scheduled for production in Virginia in 2012 but the theatre closed before the season started. Instead, it had this staged reading instead.
You can find my entire list of full-length scripts here.
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