Posts Tagged royalty-free Christmas plays
Audience comments on “Jose and Maria” in Ohio
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Reviews, Uncategorized on December 7, 2016
I had an unexpected treat recently: An audience member who had seen my Christmas play JOSE AND MARIA in Youngstown, Ohio and shared some of her happy feedback.
“It was heartbreaking,” she told me. She later said she meant that in a good way. “Well, the whole immigrant scenario was heartbreaking. Their fear, their youth. Their poverty and especially their vulnerability . . . I was crying through most of the show.”
And also:
“It absolutely is a compliment that I found it heartbreaking. I have 25+ years in social services as a clinical counselor incl time at a children’s psych hospital and supervising programs for foster children. So, I am somewhat jaded. However, this gripped me . . . The ending, telling us to concentrate on our community and doing what is right and good in an individual way was sooo good. I have heard it before, but really needed to hear it at the end of the play. . . People must be carefully guided to open their hearts to new ideas. And I think your scripts do that.”
Three Christmas scripts will be produced in Ohio
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on September 22, 2016
Victorian Players in Youngstown, Ohio will produced three of my Christmas scripts starting December 2. They will produced the one-acts A ZOMBIE CHRISTMAS, SVETLANA’S FIRST CHRISTMAS AWAY FROM HOME and an abbreviated version of my full-length JOSE AND MARIA: AN OLD STORY FOR NEW TIMES.
Interesting back story: I had sent Sam Luptak a bunch of scripts, which he liked but what he really needed was a large-cast show with parts for a lot of kids. I didn’t really have one, so I wrote him one . . . that’s SVETLANA’S FIRST CHRISTMAS AWAY FROM HOME, which made the cut.
SVETLANA’S FIRST CHRISTMAS AWAY FROM HOME
A last-minute substitute attempts to preside over a Christmas pageant, which has devolved into chaos – unruly kids, a pushy parent, a church busybody, a kitchen on fire. And then there’s the foreign exchange student, who’s supposed to be the angel, who is in the restroom in tears because it’s her first Christmas away from home. Then something unexpected happens. Cast: 21 – 6 adults (four female, one male, one non-gender), 7 teenagers (five female, two male), 8 early teens or pre-teens (one female, seven non-gender.)
A ZOMBIE CHRISTMAS
A grandfather and grandmother dress up as a zombie and a vampire to try to connect their their teen-age granddaughter. Miscommunication ensues. Cast: Four – one senior male, one senior female, one adult female, one teen female. Running time: Fifteen minutes.
* Staged reading, Princeton Theatre Group, Princeton, Illinois, July 2016.
JOSE AND MARIA: An old story for new times
The birth of Jesus, in a modern setting. On the one hand, this is based on the New Testament accounts. On the other, it’s thoroughly updated: Joseph and Mary are Jose and Maria, two Mexican immigrants on the road to the courthouse to get their paperwork straightened out. The three wise men are three astronomy professors arguing over the nature of the star. The angel of the Lord is a pizza delivery girl named, well, Angel. And there’s a radio talk show host who talks a succession of calls from callers named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Humorous, but with a point. Cast: 20 — 18 adults and 2 children. Gender breakdown: For the 18 adults, 7 male, 8 female, 3 non-gender; the two children may be of either gender.
• One of 18 semi-finalists in the 2003 Barter Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights, Barter Theatre, Abingdon, Va.
• Produced by Attic Productions, Fincastle, Va., November 2004.
More below!
“Death by Poinsettia” to be produced in Rhode Island in August
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on June 8, 2016
My quirky little Christmas one-act DEATH BY POINSETTIA will be produced in August by Artists’ Exchange in Cranston, Rhode Island.
Show dates are August 5-13; full details here.
This will be the second production of this script; the first was in December at Studio C in Hollywood, California.
It’s my first production in the great state of Rhode Island.
So far in 2016:
“A Zombie Christmas” to have staged reading in Illinois
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on June 2, 2016
My Christmas one-act A ZOMBIE CHRISTMAS has been selected for a staged reading at the Princeton Theatre Group New Works Festival to be held at the Grace Performing Arts Center in Princeton, Illinois during the weekend of July 23-24, 2016.
This will be the first reading of the script.
A ZOMBIE CHRISTMAS
A grandfather and grandmother dress up as a zombie and a vampire to try to connect their their teen-age granddaughter. Miscommunication ensues. Cast: Four – one senior male, one senior female, one adult female, one teen female. Running time: Fifteen minutes.
So far in 2016:
Photos from “Let There Be Lights!” at Seton Hall
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on December 18, 2015
Here are some photos from Seton Hall University’s script-in-hand production of my Christmas one-act LET THERE BE LIGHTS!
Some of the cast.
More photos below: Read the rest of this entry »
More photos from “On the Thirteenth Day of Christmas” in New Jersey
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on December 17, 2015
Here’s another batch of photos from ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, now in production at the First Avenue Playhouse in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey.
The show starts with all the characters singing the classic song.
Mr. Rudolph, the neighbor, can’t sleep because of all the noise. From the gifts, that is, that are outside.
More below!
More video from “On the Thirteenth Day of Christmas” in New Jersey
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on December 17, 2015
Here are some more video highlights from ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, now in production in New Jersey at First Avenue Playhouse in Atlantic Highlands. I can’t swear that these are in any kind of order:
Mr. Rudolph mistakes Pookums for his night cap.
Veronica learns the consequences of un-milked cows.
Much more below: Read the rest of this entry »
Video from “On the Thirteenth Day of Christmas” in New Jersey
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Photos, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on December 7, 2015
My full-length Christmas show ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS opened December 4 at First Avenue Playhouse in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. Here are some video highlights.
Spoiler alert! The one below gives away the ending:
ALSO:
* Rehearsal photos from the stage.
* Cast photo from ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS
* Rehearsal photos from the table reads; all the rehearsal photos here.
* Show dates and times.
* Cast photo from previous production in Oregon.
* Oregon director calls play “a true gem.”
ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS
A wild, action-packed Christmas farce. A young woman suddenly finds herself receiving the gifts from the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” apparently from an unknown suitor. The play begins on the thirteenth day as she copes with the chaos outside her apartment, as neighbors demand she do something about the noisy birds and pipers and drummers. The woman hatches a plan to shoot the birds and organize the people into an impromptu Christmas parade. Chaos ensues. Cast: 13 — 7f, 3m, 3 non-gender.
“Let There Be Lights!” to be produced at Seton Hall
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on December 2, 2015
This just in: Seton Hall University in New Jersey will produce my Christmas one-act LET THERE BE LIGHTS on December 15.
This will be the first production. A theatre in Indiana was supposed to do it last winter but the production never came off.
LET THERE BE LIGHTS!
Two neighbors plot to see who can put on the biggest display of Christmas lights, with comical, and catastrophic, results. Cast: Eight — two adult males, two adult females, two teen-age males, two teen-age females. Running time: 30 minutes.
So far in 2015: Read the rest of this entry »
Two short Christmas plays to be produced in Roanoke
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on December 2, 2015
My short pieces JOY TO OTHER WORLDS (the five-minute version, not the one-act version) and THIS IS ANGEL O’LORD REPORTING will be produced at Showtimers in Roanoke, Virginia as part of an evening of short Christmas plays on December 11-13.
The event is a toy-raiser for Toys for Tots. Admission: One unwrapped toy.
THIS IS ANGEL O’LORD REPORTING
The Christmas story, as reported on television – with Angel O’Lord as the television reporter on the scene in Bethlehem. That’s Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Cast: Eight – 1 female, 1 male, 6 non-gender. Running time: Five minutes.
JOY TO OTHER WORLDS
A man’s Christmas tree lights are so bright that they attract the attention of an alien species, which thinks it’s a coded transmission. Comedy ensues. Cast: Four: Two male, one female, one non-gender.
• Staged reading at Guerrilla Playhouse, Studio Roanoke, Roanoke, Va., Dec. 11, 2011.
• Staged reading at Attic Productions winter meeting, Fincastle, Va., Dec. 15, 2013.
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