Posts Tagged Pop Culture Theatre
Poster from “The Rules Are The Rules Are The Rules” in Australia
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on July 21, 2017
Pop Culture Theatre poster
Here’s the awesome poster that Pop Culture Theatre in Melbourne, Australia has put together for my one-act THE RULES ARE THE RULES ARE THE RULES. It’s being entered in a series of festivals around the State of Victoria.
THE RULES ARE THE RULES ARE THE RULES
A farce set on an airplane. A male passenger has apparently died, and the flight attendants carry him up to first class, telling other passengers he’s simply drunk. The chief flight attendant, though, insists they go by the book and perform CPR and mouth-to-mouth on the hapless victim until the plane lands. The other flight attendants devise ways to skirt those rules, with increasing hilarity. That hilarity hits its peak when it turns out the man isn’t dead, after all. Cast: Five — four female, one male. Running time: Thirty minutes.
* Produced by the Castle Players, Lytchett Matravers Village Hall, near Poole, England. Feb. 18-29, 2011.
* Produced by Pop Culture Theatre, Melbourne, Australia, July-September, 2017.
One final show for “One Word Macbeth” coming up in Australia
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on October 8, 2015
The show poster.
My script THE ONE-WORD MACBETH has had a fantastic run in Australia, winning awards for the Pop Culture Theatre in various one-act competitions in the state of Victoria. You can read about those here.
Now there’s just one more show to go, on October 17, in the theatre’s home base in Melbourne. Here’s the poster.
Final list of awards for “One Word Macbeth” in Australia
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Reviews on September 9, 2015
The awesome poster.
Got this email today from the producer of my show THE ONE-WORD MACBETH, which Pop Culture Theatre in Melbourne has produced in various festivals this past few months in the Victorian Drama League:
Dear Dwayne,
I thought that I would do an email to you to just give you a final summing up of how we went with your piece One Word Macbeth.
I know that Bruce has been keeping you in the loop, but just so you can see it all at once in terms of awards:
Foster One Act Play Festival:
Best Production
Kyenton One Act Play Festival:
Runner up best production
Best youth actress (Madeline Hardie)
Best youth ensemble
Best clarity and diction (Chelsea Hyde)
Mt Players One Act Play Festival:
Victorian Drama League Most Promising Performer (Laura Marmion)
Youth Encouragement Award (ensemble)
In addition to the awards above they were also nominated for Best Production at Mt Players, and the adjudicator wanted to nominate them at Kyenton for Best Production by the youth are not allowed to be considered for senior awards. (Yes we are still trying to work out how he awarded them runner up in the youth, but wanted to put them into the seniors!!)
I know that you have mentioned a couple of times about the number of the cast, so just for your own records here is how it can work with 5 performers:
Witch one, Lady Macbeth, Messenger for MacDuff – Chelsea Hyde
Witch two, Guard one, Macduff, Murderer one – Josie Hardie
Witch three, Duncan, Murderer two, Messenger for Macbeth – Alicia Henry
Macbeth – Madeline Hardie
Banquo, Guard two – Laura Marmion
The costumes for all but Macbeth were just one simple thing to show the character – Banquo for example had a tartan sash.
Macbeth was a full costume.
There was lots and lots of running for the cast!
We are filming the showcase performance and we will get you a copy of it, so you can see for yourself how we did it.
Thank you for allowing us to perform your work, thank you for taking the chance and allowing us to do it with not only youth but five of them. We had hoped to get one more performance of this production in competition but the festival declined the entry in favour of an adult one. The organizer of the festival has a history of refusing youth entries and even though the girls have nearly won against adults, she deemed once again that youth are not of a sufficient level of skill to be considered. (Even though OWM kicked the ass of their adult plays at every festival!!)
You work inspired the girls to learn Macbeth, to ask questions about Shakespeare and to suddenly bring the words of the Bard to life to them because it wasn’t just sitting in class and reading. It was a fantastic tool to teach them the importance of words and inflection, a very important lesson that they will now carry with them through their performing lives.
Yours faithfully
John Jennings
There’s one more performance of the show — October 17 at the Knox Community Theatre in Bayswater, Victoria.
* More awards for ONE WORD MACBETH in Australia
* ONE WORD MACBETH wins another award in Australia
* Photos from THE ONE WORD MACBETH in Australia
* THE ONE-WORD MACBETH to be produced in Australia
More awards for “One Word Macbeth” in Australia
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Reviews, Uncategorized on September 8, 2015
The awesome poster.
The Australian production of my script THE ONE-WORD MACBETH continues to rack up awards as it makes its way through the spring circuit (it’s spring to them) of the Victorian Drama League festivals.
Here’s what the folks with Pop Culture Theatre had to say about Kyneton’s 59th Festival of One Act Plays:
It’s always a pleasure travelling to Kyneton for their One Act Play festival, amidst the Spring weather and the plenitudes of daffodils everywhere. This year the festival returned to the beloved Bluestone Theatre, host to so many wonderful plays in the past, and 2015 was no exception. Thank you to everyone for such a lovely time!
Kyneton also saw the final festival performance of our youth performers in “One Word Macbeth”. And as a final parting shot, they earned themselves a nice batch of awards!
Clarity of Speech and Projection: Chelsea Hyde (“One Word Macbeth”)
Best Ensemble Work: “One Word Macbeth”
Best Actress: Madeline Hardie (“One Word Macbeth”)
Runner-Up Best Play: “One Word Macbeth”
There’s one more performance of the show — October 17 at the Knox Community Theatre in Bayswater, Victoria.
* ONE WORD MACBETH wins another award in Australia
* Photos from THE ONE WORD MACBETH in Australia
* THE ONE-WORD MACBETH to be produced in Australia
“The One-Word Macbeth” wins another award in Australia
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Reviews, Uncategorized on August 11, 2015
One of the actresses with the award. The production was called “blood-curdingly amazing.”
Pop Culture Theatre of Melbourne won another award this weekend with a production of my script THE ONE-WORD MACBETH.
The production took “Most Outstanding Youth Production” in the South Gippsland One-Act Play Festival in Foster, Australia, one of a series of festivals through the Victorian Drama League that the group is entered in.
Next up: Kyneton’s Festival of One-Act Plays in Kyneton on Sept. 4-6 and a date TBA in October in Melbourne.
You can find photos from a previous production in Macedon here and more about the show in general here.
The production was called “blood-curdingly amazing.” One critic said: “Loved the play. A clever concept that’s difficult to do well, but they pulled it off.”
Photos from “The One Word Macbeth” in Australia
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on July 30, 2015
The Melbourne theatre company Pop Culture Theatre is producing my one-act THE ONE WORD MACBETH to enter in festivals around the state of Victoria over the coming months. The first production was July 25 in Macedon, Victoria.
The host theatre, Mount Players, tells me: “They were nominated for best production and best director. They won the youth encouragement award. Also, the girl who played Banquo won the VDL (Victorian Drama League) Most Promising Performer award. So it’s safe to say they did your work proud!”
The awesome poster.
Here’s how Pop Culture Theatre described it:
A cold weekend up in Macedon – cold, but fun! The Mount Players put on a great festival and were very welcoming to PCT for only our second outing down that way. All four of our plays went over well, as adjudicator Ray Hare was more than happy to tell all. “PCT strikes again!” he said, frequently, complementing us on our fine work, meeting the theatrical challenges of our scripts with nuanced performances and poignancy. All his words.
This weekend also saw our youth group hit the stage for the first time, with “One Word Macbeth”. And as you’ll see from the results, the kids sure came out swinging!
THE AWARDS
VDL Most Promising Performer Award: Laura Marmion (“One Word Macbeth” and “Birthin’ Baby”)
Youth Encouragement Award – Female: The Cast of “One Word Macbeth”
THE NOMINATIONS
Best Production: “One Word Macbeth” and “This Almost Joy”
Best Director: John Jennings (“One Word Macbeth”)
Best Female Lead: Imogen Martin (“Birthin’ Baby”)
Best Male Lead: Bruce Hardie (“This Almost Joy”)
Youth Encouragement Award: Laura Marmion (“Birthin’ Baby”)
The Adjudicator chose not to give Adjudication awards.
Congratulations to all winners and nominees, and to all for another great festival. Now we have a short break before heading down to Foster in August for the South Gippsland Festival! Stay tuned for details about dates!
And also this note to me:
We are very proud of our girls. The adjudicator noted that on your description you called it a play for 10, 12 or 14. You may wish to revise that as it is very much possible with just 5.
They smashed it. The adjudicator refused to split the Best Youth Actress Award and so gave it to them jointly. They were also nominated for Best Production. Not Best Youth Production, but in the overall category.
And the audience loved it. Festivals are very much a theatre crowd and so everyone knows what is going on which makes the ‘Tomorrow’ section so funny.
The witches.
A great close-up of Macbeth.
“The One-Word Macbeth” to be produced in Australia
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on April 24, 2015
I’ve just scored my first production in Australia. Pop Culture Theatre in Melbourne will produced my longish one-act, THE ONE-WORD MACBETH, this summer.
The script will be produced by the theatre’s youth ensemble, and apparently the kids picked the script, or at least had a hand in its selection. The theatre tells me: “Our youth performers are aged 15 – 18 and have asked to perform your piece this year because they want a challenge.”
As I understand it, the script will be done at the theatre, and then entered in three or four competitive festivals put on by the Victorian Drama League.
This will be the second production for the script. Here’s a synopsis:
THE ONE-WORD MACBETH
The Macbeth story, told with each character speaking lines that cost of only one word. Complete with witches and sword-fights, but limited dialogue. Cast: Ten or twelve or fourteen. If ten, 4 male, 4 female, 2 non-gender. If twelve, 4 male, 4 female, 4 non-gender. If fourteen, 4 male, 4 female, 6 non-gender. Running time: 45 minutes.
* Produced by West High School, West, Texas, Feb. 16, 2008.
I have several other “one-word” scripts:
THE ONE-WORD ANTIGONE
The classic Greek drama Antigone, more or less, in which each line consists of just a single word. Ideal for a class project. Cast: 10 – 3 female, 4 female, 3 non-gender.. Running time: Twenty five minutes.
THE ONE-WORD HAMLET
The story of Hamlet, much condensed, in which each actor speaks only one word at a time. Cast: Thirteen — 11 males, 2 females. There’s potential to double two male roles. Running time: Fifteen minutes.
• The eight-minute version of this script was performed in a staged reading in Herring Run Arts Fest, Middleborough, Mass., September 2005.
THE ONE-WORD ODYSSEY
The story of the Odyssey, more or less, in which each line consists of just a single word. Ideal for a class project. Includes monsters and a talking hamburger. Cast: As few as 18 — 9 males, 3 females, 6 non-gender — or as many as 33 — 17 males, 7 females, 9 non-gender. Running time: One hour.
THE ONE-WORD ROMEO AND JULIET
The essence of the Romeo and Juliet story, in one scene, with each
character uttering just one word at a time. Cast: Seven — 6 male, 1 female.
There’s also a slightly inaccurate version that can be done with a cast of four
3 male, 1 female. Running time: Fifteen minutes.
So far in 2015:
* Jan. 3: Staged reading of MISS COW PIE BINGO (full-length), Showtimers, Roanoke, Virginia.
* Feb. 6: Production of MACBETH GOES HOLLYWOOD (long one-act), Gull Lake High School, Richland, Michigan
* Feb. 13: Staged reading of 39 HOURS IN THE SOVIET CITY OF ROSES (full-length), Poetic Theater Productions, New York, N.Y.
* Feb. 13: Staged reading of three short pieces: CHERRY POP TARTS, MY CRIMSON LOVE and LUST, at Garfield Center for the Arts, Chestertown, Maryland.
* Feb. 25: Staged reading of THE RING (one-act) and CAT ON TRIAL (five-minute play), The Readers Repertory Theatre of San Pedro, Los Angeles, California.
* March 25: Staged reading of THE BREAK-IN (five-minute play), The Readers Repertory Theatre of San Pedro, Los Angeles, California.
* March 25-27: Production of HAMLET GOES HOLLYWOOD, High Meadows School, Roswell, Georgia.
Upcoming:
* May 1: THE MONKEY AT THE WEDDING, Acton-Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, Acton, Massachusetts.
* Summer: THE ONE-WORD MACBETH, Pop Culture Theatre, Melbourne, Australia.
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