Posts Tagged royalty-free plays
Scripts to be performed in New York and Scotland
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on May 19, 2014
I have good news to report:
* My one-minute play IT’S THE COW’S FAULT is among those included in this year’s “Gone in 60 Seconds Festival” of one-minute plays, to be produced June 13-15 in New York City. I’ve been thrilled to be part of this festival in the past and it’s great to be back for another year. Here are photos and video from last year’s entry, FISHING FOR MEN.Out of that, the festival producers created this short film version for a different competition. Also, last year I had three scripts in the festival’s UK version. Here are rehearsal photos from THIS IS THE CAPTAIN SPEAKING.
* Meanwhile, my 10-minute play SOMETIMES ELEPHANTS DIE STANDING UP will have be performed May 23 in Scotland by the Produced Moon company. (I’m a little uncertain whether it’s a staged reading or a full production; pretty sure it’s a staged reading. And I’m not sure whether it’s in Edinburgh or Glasgow; the company produces in both cities.) This will be my first performance of any sort in Scotland.
Here are the synopses:
IT’S THE COW’S FAULT
Three chickens and a cow watch a chicken cross the road. Bad things happen. Cast: Four, non-gender. Running time: One minute.
SOMETIMES ELEPHANTS DIE STANDING UP
Two lowly circus workers try to figure out what to do with an elephant dies. An absurdist look at how the economy works. Cast: Two males. Running time: Ten minutes.
Photos from “Chef Pierre Does Not Do Simple” in Newburgh, N.Y.
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on May 8, 2014
Cabot Parsons as Chef Pierre.
The Newburgh Free Academy in Newburgh, N.Y. has run an annual festival where solicits scripts worldwide, the students pick the ones they want and then produce them. Alas, the school board there has seen fit to cut the program. The final festival is coming up later in May and will include my script “The Ring.” In the meantime, director Terry Sandler, who is presumably packing everything up, came across these photos from the 2009 production of my script “Chef Pierre Does Not Do Simple.”
Here’s the synopsis:
CHEF PIERRE DOES NOT DO SIMPLE
A television producer explains to a TV chef that he need to simplify some of his language because many younger viewers do not understand them. He reacts badly and winds up creating a mess with broken eggs and flour. Cast: Four — One male, three non-gender. Running time: Ten minutes.
Terry writes:”The gentleman playing Chef, Cabot Parsons, made a huge mess; eggs went flying, milk spilled everywhere, and tons of flour. There are still remaining stains on the curtains and ceiling from that performance. But it was bloody hilarious.”
Thanks, Terry, for finding and sharing the photos. Here are some more: Read the rest of this entry »
“The Ring” to be produced in Wisconsin in May
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on April 22, 2014
My one-act “The Ring” is one of three one-acts that will be produced May 17 by The Haylofters in Burlington, Wisconsin in the troupe’s annual one-act competition.
The other two are “My Date With The Pope” by Ron Frankel and “a Serious Person” by John Doble.
I’m always excited to have a script selected but especially thrilled by this one, which is one I’ve wanted to see produced for quite some time. Here’s the synopsis:
THE RING
Sixty years after a close call in a state championship girls basketball game, the star of the losing team still can’t reconcile herself to losing — so she breaks into the home of the star player on the winning team, hoping to steal her championship ring. A poignant story about regrets and sportsmanship. Cast: Two senior females.
I wrote this a few years ago after watching a state championship girls basketball game. One team (the winning team, as it turns out) featured a much-acclaimed star who was destined for college ball. She was guarded throughout the game by a player who was not so heralded and, if she went on to play in college, I never heard about it. For purposes of my script, I envisioned the star and the other play in their retirement. It’s a sad little script, with a smile at the end.
I also have a five-minute version of this script — the genesis of the one-act. That five-minute script is also being performed in May, at the Newburgh Free Academy in Newburgh, New York. Details on that here.
“The Ring” (in either version) is unpublished, so, like all my unpublished work, is available royalty free. Details on how and why here. Here’s a full list of my scripts.
“The Ring” is also part of what has become a small collection of sports plays for women and girls. None have sports action, though all use sports as a backdrop or a motif. I have the full-length script “Softball Is Life” — which had a staged reading in January 2014 — plus the one-act “Powderpuff” and several five-minute scripts, including “The Recruiter,” which is play of my full-length baseball play, “The Old Ballgame.”
“God and the Devil Meet for a Business Lunch” by the Lake Players
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions on March 31, 2014
Blake Lipscomb as the devil and Mary Anne Leslie as God. Photo by Heather Yvonne Brush. Note the Sopranos hat.
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I have a series of short pieces involving God and the Devil, which always end the same way, with the angelic Almighty getting the better of the harried Prince of Darkness. The Lake Players, at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia, included the 10-minute “God and the Devil Meet for a Business Lunch” as part of their reading series on March 28.
Here are some photos from the evening, or you find the entire set here.
A full house! The show was in the social hall of Resurrection Catholic Church in Moneta, Virginia.
The devil (Blake Lipscomb) shows up at an out-of-the-way diner, hoping to make a business proposition to the Almighty. Marlene Truesdell is the sassy waitress.
Guess what’s on the menu. Loaves and fishes.
Want to see more?
* Here’s video of a group in Sacramento, California doing the same piece in 2005.
* Here’s audio from when Falcon Radio Theatre in Seattle did the script in 2013.
* Video: “God and the Devil Settle a Contract Dispute”
* Video: “God and the Devil Debate The Issues”
Video: “A Spork in the Road” at the Liminal gallery
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized, Video on March 10, 2014
The February reading at the Liminal gallery in Roanoke dealt with “intersections.”
For me, that meant my short piece, “A Spork in the Road.”
Lake Players to produce one of my ten-minute plays March 28
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on February 28, 2014
The Lake Players — at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia — will include my script “God and the Devil Meet for a Business Lunch” in a night of ten-minute shows on March 28.
The director sends this word: “We had our first read thru on Monday and it got big laughs all around.”
GOD AND THE DEVIL MEET FOR A BUSINESS LUNCH
God and the devil meet in an out-of-the-way lunch spot to discuss a business proposition: The devil thinks the Almighty should reimburse him for punishing the wicked. Comes in two versions, one 5 minutes, one 10 minutes. Cast: Three — 2 males, 1 female. Running time: Five minutes or ten minutes.
Here’s the audio from when Falcon Radio Theatre in Seattle produced this as a radio play in 2013, and video from when a troupe in Sacramento produced it in 2005.
Video: “Choose Your Companions Carefully” at the Liminal
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized, Video on February 14, 2014
A few years ago, I read a book about Antarctica, which inspired several pieces — a one-act called “Lionized,” and three short pieces called “Countdown to 2041” (when the treaty governing the continent is set to expire), “Fairweather at the Pole” and “Choose Your Companions Carefully.”
Most of those pieces (“Countdown to 2041″ is the exception”) deal with the same uncomfortable topic — explorers forced to resort to cannibalism to stay alive.
On January 27, the Liminal gallery had one of its regular readings, with the theme “A Midwinter’s Night Dream.” I didn’t really have any odes to winter, but I did have “Choose Your Companions Carefully.” If Antarctic exploration isn’t winter, what is?
Mike Allen read the piece for me — putting on a full-fledged shivering act. Weeks later, I still have people who were there talking about it. As for the people who were there, you’ll notice an empty auditorium in the video. That’s because the audience was on the stage, and this video was shot from a side view.
Bon apetit.
Director praises “The One-Word Macbeth” as “one of the funniest things I have read”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Reviews on February 10, 2014
I have a series of scripts in which I have taken classic works — usually by Shakespeare — and rendered them into scripts in which each character speaks a line of just one word.
The opening of “The One Word Macbeth” reads like this:
WITCH ONE: Thunder!
WITCH TWO: Lightning!
WITCH THREE: Rain!
WITCH ONE: Meeting!
WITCH TWO: Who?
WITCH THREE: Us!
WITCH TWO: Time?
WITCH ONE: Sunset!
WITCH TWO: Battle?
WITCH THREE: Finished!
WITCH TWO: Location?
WITCH ONE: Heath!
WITCH TWO: Subject?
WITCH THREE: Macbeth!
WITCH TWO: Ah!
WITCH ONE: Fair!
WITCH TWO: Foul!
WITCH THREE: Foul!
WITCH ONE: Fair!
A prospective director recently read this script (and a few others) and sent this praise:
“I’m pretty sure that One Word Macbeth is one of the funniest things I have read. So much so that I immediately handed it over to my stage manager with the instruction “You need to read this.” Then I just sat and watched her read it and laugh. (She agrees it’s hilarious!) I would LOVE to see the other ones. I just picture how it would play out on stage and it makes me happy. Also, I loved Hamlet Goes to Hollywood. So great!”
I’m hoping to get a production (or two) out of this.
Photos from “Sweets to the Sweet” in suburban Chicago
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions on February 4, 2014
Hamlette (left) and Laurita (right) in their sword fight at the climax of “Sweets to the Sweet.”
In September, Gorilla Tango Theatre in Skokie, Illinois (an offshoot of the one in Chicago proper) staged my full-length script “Sweets to the Sweet.” At last, here are some photos from the show.
“Sweets to the Sweet” is my re-write of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I’ve switched the genders — so Hamlet becomes Hamlette, Laertes becomes Laurita, Ophelia becomes Phil, Claudius becomes Claudia and so forth — and set the show in a modern-day slumber party. The language is modern, but includes all the famous Shakespeare lines. To me, it’s a way to help introduce audiences to the real thing. Plus, it creates a lot of female roles in what otherwise is a male-heavy show — and allows for some girls to try out stage combat.
Director Jessica Sawyer has shared these photos. So here goes: Read the rest of this entry »
“Hurleyburg Twirling Society” is finalist in Michigan festival
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized on February 4, 2014
My full-length script “The Hurleyburg Twirling Society” was one of 10 finalists out of 107 entries in a festival sponsored by the Branch County Community Theatre in Coldwater, Michigan.
Alas, it didn’t finish in the top three to qualify for production, but this marks the first official recognition of a script I’ve always thought would be fun to produce.
Here’s the formal description:
THE HURLEYBURG TWIRLING SOCIETY
A twirler from back East finds herself stranded in Texas, in trouble with the law for accidentally setting fire to a motel room with her fire baton. To make amends, the judge orders her to teach baton twirling to the girls in the town. However, there are only three — all daughters of a local survivalist, who would rather spend time in weapons training than in baton classes. Meanwhile, the state of Texas drops the town from the highway map. To get back on the map, the town busybody thinks it would be a fine idea for this new baton corps to march in the Cotton Bowl parade. Comedy ensues, involving batons, armadillos, chickens falling from the sky, and many other things Texan. Cast: Eight — five female, three male. The females consist of one senior, one late teens or early 20s who can twirl a baton, and three teens.
Congratulations to Thomas J. Misuraca, Richard Manley and Jeff Stolzer, who finished in the top three.
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