Posts Tagged royalty-free plays
“Follow The Money: A Modern Day Fairy Tale” to be produced in West Virginia in June
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on May 16, 2013
A few weeks ago, I departed from my usual rule, which is to never pay to enter a contest.
However, I had a script which I thought was a sure winner for the New Voices Play Festival, an annual new works contest put on by the Old Opera House Theatre in Charles Town, West Virginia.
That script was “The Ring,” a sad little one-act about an elderly woman who breaks into the home of another elderly woman to steal her state championship ring, won many years back in a high school basketball game.
I was also motivated by the fact that a few years ago, I had a staged reading in the same festival of my one-act, “Larry’s New Guardian Angel.” Also, it’s the town where my maternal grandparents once lived, and now are buried.
The rules allowed for two submissions, so I also packed off “Follow the Money: A Modern Day Fairy Tale,” a cute little take on where the tooth fairy’s money comes from. That’s a script I’ve also been proud of, and entered elsewhere, but to no avail.
This week, I was informed that . . . low, “Follow the Money” had been accepted and will be one of four scripts produced June 21-23, with the audience voting on their favorites.
You can find details here.
Here’s my official synopsis:
FOLLOW THE MONEY: A MODERN FAIRY TALE
A precocious youth attempts to find the secret to the tooth fairy — by kidnapping her. Where do all those teeth come from? And the money? Cast: Six — two female, four male. Running time: Fifteen minutes.
“Fishing for Men” to be produced at Gone in 60 Seconds Festival in New York
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on May 16, 2013
I got word this week that my short script “Fishing for Men” has been accepted into this year’s Gone in 60 Seconds Festival.
This is an annual festival of one-minute plays, some of which are produced in New York, others in Great Britain.
“Fishing for Men” will be in the New York version, June 7-8 at Brooklyn College — details here. This will come a little more than week before another one of my scripts hits New York — the staged reading of my full-length script, “The Ballad of Alejandro Lopez,” on June 17 by the Barefoot Theatre Company.
You can find videos of some my previous work in earlier editions of the festival under the “video” category.
Here’s my synopsis of the script — which previously had a staged reading at No Shame Theatre in Roanoke, Va., in spring 2012:
FISHING FOR MEN
A brooding man sits by the water, waiting on a victim to come along. Cast: Two males.
Video: “Busier Than” at Gone in 60 Seconds Festival in U.K.
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on May 15, 2013
My short script “Busier Than” was produced in June 2012 at the U.K. branch of the Gone in 60 Seconds Festival of one-minute plays.
The video took longer to get up, but here ’tis.
Video: “The Liberal Arts Pirates” at Gone in 60 Seconds Festival in U.K.
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on May 15, 2013
My short script “The Liberal Arts Pirates” was produced in June 2012 at the U.K. branch of the Gone in 60 Seconds Festival of one-minute plays.
The video took longer to get up, but here ’tis.
This script was also done this year as a radio play at Falcon Radio Theatre in Seattle.
It began its life as a staged reading at No Shame Theatre in Roanoke, Va.
New York theatre to hold staged reading of “The Ballad of Alejandro Lopez”
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized on May 10, 2013
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I’m thrilled to announce that the Barefoot Theatre Company in New York to hold a staged reading of my full-length script “The Ballad of Alejandro Lopez” on June 17.
The particular details: It’s at 7 p.m. at The Loft near Broadway and East 3rd, specifically 682 Broadway, #5W.
UPDATE: The venue has changed. The reading will now be at the Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street. To get on the list, you need to email barefootrsvp@aol.com.
For those of you not familiar with Barefoot, it’s been described as a “scrappy, young Off-Off Broadway company” whose past productions have included the first stage adaptation of Sidney Lumet’s “Dog Day Afternoon” in 2008, and a revival of Lanford Wilson’s “Balm in Gilead” in 2005.
The Boston Globe has called it “a company to notice in New York.”
I’ve had one-minute pieces performed in New York in the Gone in 60 Seconds Festival, and some New York City high schools have produced some of my one-acts. But this is the first longer piece of mine to break into The Big Apple.
As for the script itself, it’s superficially about baseball, but really about immigration. Here’s my official synopsis:
THE BALLAD OF ALEJANDRO LOPEZ
A play about baseball – and immigration. The immigrant-hating and baseball-loving sheriff of a rural Texas county faces a dilemma when he discovers a Hispanic boy who can throw a 90-mile-per-hour fastball. Cast: Ten – four female, six male, but three of those males have small parts.
I’m indebted to Rose Bonczek for helping make this reading happen.
Photos: “The Ancient Texts of Love” at No Shame Theatre
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, No Shame Theatre, Photos, Uncategorized on February 19, 2013
The mystic ponders the ancient texts.
Here are some photos of Darlene Fedele and Todd Ristau doing a staged reading of my short script “The Ancient Texts of Love” at No Shame Theatre in Roanoke, Virginia on Feb. 15, 2013. It’s a three-minute (or so) piece in which a woman seeks help from a mystic to cure her love life.
Unfortunately, the ancient text he consults is “snips and snails and puppy dog tails.”
No Shame is a weekly open-mic venue for original performance; the Roanoke one is just one of many around the country.
The mystic advises that he needs escargot. “In the vernacular, snails.”
The mystic’s robe began its life as a Jedi costume at Halloween for my son.
Seattle radio station produces more of my scripts as radio plays
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Radio plays, Uncategorized on February 19, 2013
Falcon Radio Theatre airs Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on kspu.org
Falcon Radio Theatre on KSPU.org — affiliated with Seattle Pacific University — has been producing, well, a bunch of my scripts as radio plays.
Here are some that the group did before I started listening in.
* On January 17, 2013, Falcon produced my one-act “The Angel of Brooklyn”.
The script deals with a Brooklyn Dodgers fan who swore never again pay attention to baseball until his team was back home. Now, in his old age, an angel shows up to release him from that vow.
This was the third performance. The production history:
* Produced by Hovey Players, Summer Arts Festival, Waltham, Mass., July 2005. The Boston Globe called the show “hilarious and sweet.”
* Staged reading at Studio Roanoke, Roanoke, Va., April 2009 (the first piece ever performed in that theatre).
* Produced as radio play by Falcon Radio Theatre, KSPU, Seattle Pacific University, January 17, 2013.
* On January 24, 2013, Falcon produced my ten-minute script “God and the Devil Meet for a Business Lunch”.
This was the third time the script has been performed; the fifth if you count a five-minute cutting.
Here’s the production history:
* Five-minute version done as staged reading at No Shame Theatre, Roanoke, Va., August 2004
* Five-minute version done as staged reading at No Shame Theatre, Roanoke, Va., October 2004 as part of The Best of No Shame.
* Ten-minute version produced as video by Homespun Productions, broadcast on Channel 18, Sacramento, California, October 2005. (You can see that video here.)
* Ten-minute version performed as classroom presentation, Averett College, Danville, Va., Dec. 3, 2007.
* Produced as radio play by Falcon Radio Theatre, KSPU, Seattle Pacific University, January 24, 2013.
I have several “God and the Devil” pieces, mostly in the 5-to-10 minute range. Here’s video of “God and the Devil Debate the Issues.”
I previously posted what Falcon Radio Theatre produced of mine on January 31 (the one-act “Occupations” and a short piece) and on February 7 (the one-act “Lucy” and some shorter pieces.)
Now we’re all caught up!
Seattle radio station produces four more of my scripts as radio plays
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Radio plays, Uncategorized on February 9, 2013
Falcon Radio Theatre airs Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on kspu.org
A Seattle Internet radio station — KSPU, affiliated with Seattle Pacific University — has produced four more of my scripts as radio plays.
This is the second week in a row that Falcon Radio Theatre has done some of my work, and this time I got the whole hour.
I’m big in Seattle!
The scripts that were done Feb. 7 were:
* “Lucy,” a one-act about the devil, that’s been previously produced in Virginia and Maine.
* “Somewhere Tonight, the Last Washington Senators’ Game Plays On,” a ten-minute play about baseball that was produced for the first time.
* “The Liberal Arts Pirates,” a five-minute piece about career counseling that was a favorite when it was first done at No Shame Theatre in Roanoke, Virginia.
* “The Secret Lives of Goldfish: Pirates!,” a five-minute piece in my series of goldfish shorts.
Here’s what Falcon Radio Theatre did last week.
You can tune in (can you still say tune in if it’s Internet radio?) on Thursday at 7 p.m. Pacific time — 10 p.m. for us East Coasters — at kspu.org.
I have two plays about Richard III; Shakespeare only had one
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized on February 4, 2013
Portrait of Richard III of England, painted c. 1520 (approximate date from tree-rings on panel), after a lost original, for the Paston family, owned by the Society of Antiquaries, London, since 1828. From Wikipedia Commons.
You can file this under “shameless self-promotion.”
The big news of the day, at least for some of us, is that announcement that the skeleton exhumed from under a car park in Leicester, Great Britain really is that of the infamous King Richard III, whose death at the Battle of Bosworth ended the War of the Roses in 1485 and gave rise to Shakespeare’s great play.
Shakespeare only had one play about Richard, though.
I have two!
Richard III has always been one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and I have a sub-genre of Shakespearean riffs. My two attempts to improve on The Bard, or at least imitate him, are:
* “The Making of the King, 1483-1485,” a political thriller with pollsters and campaign operatives (and apologies to Theodore White’s great series of “The Making of the President” books.)
* “This Sun of York” is a newspaper drama, of sorts. Instead of a war for the crown, it envisions two branches of the same family fighting for control of the family newspaper, with Richard as the lawyer for the victorious Yorks. Except now, with the paper safely in Yorkist hands, he’s bored — and plots his way to the publisher’s office. I’m rather proud of the wordplay that turned “this son of York” into “this Sun of York.” I’m also rather pleased with this: Instead of poor George drowning in a butt of malmsey (a wine cask, of sorts), an ink barrel in the pressroom does the job just as well.
Neither has been produced. However, “The Making of the King” was a finalist in 2004 in the Peterson Playwriting Contest at Catawba College in North Carolina and two scenes from it were later workshopped in a public performance by Another Chicago Theatre in November 2004 in their “Last Play Standing” competition.
And might I add: Both are available royalty-free (as are all my unpublished scripts). I like to think both of them would be suitable for schools (or community theatres) who want to do Shakespeare, but might find the original too daunting. You can find a more detailed synopsis and cast requirements for each here. (Keep in mind most Shakespearean performances include lots of doubling and tripling; you can too.)
Interested? Inquire within!
Video: “Deanna Dupes the Devil” plays to full house at Studio Roanoke
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on March 26, 2012
Studio Roanoke in Roanoke, Va. hosted one of its quarterly “Big Idea” variety shows on Saturday, March 24, with Chris Shephard as the impresario.
Chris had asked me to put on a staged reading of a short play as part of the evening; I offered up “Deanna Dupes the Devil,” a light comedy about a young woman who tricks the Old Trickster himself.
The piece stars Lianne Jackson McCray (soon to head off to Yale Divinity School!) as Deanna, Kevin McAlexander as the devil’s minion and Mike Allen as the devil.
Katerina Yancey directed the piece.
The evening opened with readings by Ben R. Williams and concluded with a film by Chris Shepard, “Kitty Man.” The other highlight of the evening included an appearance by the Angels of Assisi, and some of the adorable kittens they have for adoption.
Best yet, we had a full house!
dwayneyancey 