Posts Tagged royalty-free scripts
Photos from ‘Red Moon Rising in the East’ in Norfolk
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Photos, Productions, Uncategorized on November 11, 2020
Sergei talks about the first time he saw an airplane.
Little Theatre of Norfolk has produced my one-man play about the father of the Soviet space program as a virtual show. The theatre staged the show without an audience, filmed it, and has posted it online through the platform ShowTix4U. Here’s Brian Cebrian as Sergei Korolev. This marks the fifth production of the show — at the moment, it’s my most-produced full-length show.
Showing off the design for the N1 moon rocket.
Watching the launch of the first Sputnik.
Video: Reading of ‘Freeda’s Fascination With Fire’
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Uncategorized, Video on October 18, 2020
My newest full-length play is the comedy FREEDA’S FASCINATION WITH FIRE. On Oct. 17, I held a Zoom reading with an international cast (and a small audience that included former U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, a big fan of live theatre).
FREEDA’S FASCINATION WITH FIRE
A teenage pyromaniac in Texas is sentenced to an unusual community service punishment: To serve as fire baton twirler for a high school that doesn’t have a football team but needs a halftime show. Comedy ensues. Cast: Eight – five female, three male.
The cast:
Stage directions: Charlie Boswell (Roanoke, Va.)
Freeda: Emily Solomon (Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Miss Battleaxe: Alyson Bates (Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Ramona: Martha Boswell (Roanoke, Va.)
Judge Hardhammer: Brian Otto (Waterloo, Ontario)
Cee Cee: Sally Miller (Roanoke, Virginia)
Dee Dee: Emily Bolyea-Kyere (Hamilton, Ontario)
Fast Eddie: Stephen Baltz (Christiansburg, Virginia)
Slowhand Sam: Mason Micevski (Hamilton, Ontario)
‘The Weird Sisters Go Rogue’ in Georgia
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on October 17, 2020
In August, I wrote the short play THE WEIRD SISTERS GO ROGUE as play of a 22-hour play festival through the Honestly Speaking theatre group in Washington (although it didn’t get produced until September). Now it’s gone on to a second life in a virtual production by the Pumphouse Players in Carterville, Georgia. Here are some screenshots of the three actresses playing the witches from Macbeth.
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Video: ‘Bolivia!’ in London
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on October 16, 2020
My short monologue BOLIVIA! is getting a lot of traction in virtual festivals in this year of the pandemic. So far, it’s been performed in festivals in New York, Missouri and now this festival out of London by a group called The Queens of Cups. Here’s the video — BOLIVIA! is the third one in the order. It was performed by Georgia Goodman who was featured in a Super Bowl ad in 2017.
Review of ‘God of a Dead Universe’
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Reviews, Uncategorized on September 12, 2020
New York playwright Larry Rinkel has posted a nice review of my full-length play GOD OF A DEAD UNIVERSE on the New Play Exchange:
” Yancey’s themes are clear – the destructive effects of climate change, here applied in a parable-like manner to Mars rather than earth. And his characters are clear as well rather than being rounded – the intrepid investigative reporter, the courageous scientist imprisoned for speaking unpalatable truths, the pompous but corrupt empty suit of a president. But what makes the play work is its skillful fast pacing and well-written dialogue. A good choice for theaters looking for a cautionary tale on climate change.”
He also had nice things to say about the short play THE MATH LESSON, which began life as a stand-alone short but was later incorporated into one scene of GOD OF A DEAD UNIVERSE.
GOD OF A DEAD UNIVERSE
A dark look at the last days of life on Mars. The Martian civilization has mismanaged its resources and is now running out of water. The rival political factions appear to have come together to install a new government, one that has embarked on a massive canal project to bring water from the poles. A newspaper reporter covering the canal project notices a discrepancy, though, and he/she begins investigating. The reporter suspects embezzlement. When the reporter confronts the chancellor, the chancellor freely admits to siphoning off money, but not for personal use. Instead, it’s to build a giant underground library in which to store Martian artifacts. The chancellor confesses that the canal project is merely a diversion to keep people busy – there’s no way it will work. The planet will run out of water long before it’s completed, and the underground library is an attempt to save at least some remnant of Martian life in case other intelligent beings ever discover it. Cast: 12 or 13, all non-gender.
Review of ‘The Math Lesson’
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Reviews, Uncategorized on September 12, 2020
New York playwright Larry Rinkel has posted a nice review of my short play THE MATH LESSON on the New Play Exchange:
“Skillfully alternating between the perspectives of two girl students and their teacher who is being grilled by her institutional higher-ups, the play creates a parable about climate change by situating the action on Mars. All characters – the stooges at the top of the school’s hierarchy, the teacher who cleverly provokes political conclusions based on irrefutable facts, and the girls caught in the middle – are well-drawn, allowing us to see each one’s point of view while clearly siding with the teacher. (This short play is clearly adapted from Yancey’s exciting full-length “God of a Dead Universe.”
It joins one from another New York playwright, Scott Sickles.
THE MATH LESSON
A math teacher at a Martian school for girls teaches a forbidden subject – how to compute the rate of evaporation of the planet’s last, dying ocean. Cast: Five – one adult female, two non-gender adults, two teen-age girls.
Review of ‘The First Vampire in Toronto’
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Reviews, Uncategorized on August 4, 2020
The Canadian playwright Christine Foster has posted this nice review of my one-act THE FIRST VAMPIRE IN TORONTO on the New Play Exchange:
“A very entertaining piece on a very unusual asylum seeker who wants to stay in Canada. A witty romp with great dialogue and lots of zany action, a truly funny “interview with a vampire.”
THE FIRST VAMPIRE IN TORONTO
A comedy about a vampire who turns up in Canada and is interviewed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Cast: Five – one female, four non-gender. Note: Three of those non-gender actors play a variety of roles. Some are male, some are female, some are gender-flexible. The traditional breakdown there would be one female, two male to accommodate certain scenes but directors should feel free to cast these parts however they wish.
Review of ‘The Unopened Valentine’
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Reviews, Uncategorized on August 4, 2020
The Canadian playwright Christine Foster has posted this nice review of MY 10-minute play THE UNOPENED VALENTINE on the New Play Exchange:
“This is such an intriguing piece on memory and regret. Do you really want to know what you don’t know?
Will the discovery only make your emotional state more painful? If you don’t investigate the mystery now, could you leave it for another time or is it better to destroy the possibility (and the knowledge) now and get it over with? One of the lovely things about the play is the resolution of this puzzle, which fully engages the audience’s imagination.”
THE UNOPENED VALENTINE
A grumpy widow with a tendency to worry is packing up her things to move into a smaller place .Her enthusiastic granddaughter is helping her, when the granddaughter opens an old schoolbook to find a valentine her granddaughter had never opened. The granddaughter wants to open it; the grandmother worries about what it might contain, and whether the course of her life would have changed if she’d opened it when she received it. Note: There also are five-minute and one-act versions of the same story. Cast: Two females — one senior, one teen-ager. Running time: Ten minutes.
Reviews of ‘The Ferryman’s Apprentice’
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in Reviews, Uncategorized on May 29, 2020
My 10-minute play THE FERRYMAN’S APPRENTICE popped up randomly as the featured script of the day on the New Play Exchange on May 27, which generated a whole bunch of nice reviews:
“ An eerie, haunting tale set in Greek mythology. For a ten-minute play, it sure packs an emotional punch.”
— Kate Danley
“ Dwayne Yancey bookends “The Ferryman’s Apprentice” with Greek mythology, but I was emotionally moved by its core: a story of grief, guilt, and the impossibilities that death brings. This 10-minute play also is about perspective and acceptance, the kind that people will never have while alive. And, oh, it’s bitter to realize that.”
— Steven G. Martin
“ Touching, haunting, and raw, this elegiac fable is a masterwork of the short play form. The only thing better than reading it would be to see it performed ”
— Doug DeVita
“ Having just recently been through the loss of my father, this play struck me deeply. But it did not hurt; in fact, the wisdom and comfort of the story is to realize that death is more than just the ending of one life, but the continuation in another way: memories, cherished moments, even unremarkable times spent together. Dwight Yancey uses the Greek myth of the River Styx and Charon the boatman and inspiring poetry to tell a universal tale of loss, regret, understanding, and love. ”
— Philip Middleton Williams
“Losing a parent is devastating. But to suffer that loss as a child can be soul crushing. And if you were culpable in their death? Unimaginable. Dwayne Yancey takes us to the River Styx in this ten-minute Greek tragedy packed with hubris, catharsis, and choral wailing that will undoubtedly haunt ”
— Greg Burdick
“I highly recommend reading this around with English accents! The raw elegance of the language almost requires it. Yancey provides a fresh take on Orpheus as a son bargains for passage to the Underworld to bring back his father. The dialogue is jaunty and the negotiations clever. The use of a choir enhances the classical feel of the proceedings. Most importantly, there’s so much love, regret, and forgiveness between father and son, the reader can easily envision the richness of their life together and the magnitude of its loss. There’s also a mythical inevitability that intensifies the suspense. Terrific piece!”
— Scott Sickles
Video reading of ‘A Maple Leaf on the Wind’
Posted by Dwayne Yancey in News, Productions, Uncategorized, Video on May 17, 2020
On May 16, I held a reading via Zoom of my play A MAPLE LEAF ON THE WIND, a romantic comedy in which half the characters are non-human and one is non-corporeal. I also did it with a cast from Canada.
Stage Directions: Arlene Thomas (Kitchener, Ontario)
Veronica: Ella Kennedy (Hamilton, Ontario)
The Wind: Emily Bolyea-Kyere (Hamilton, Ontario)
Tex: Owen Lapsley (Hamilton, Ontario)
Rex: Mason Micevski (Hamilton, Ontario)
A MAPLE LEAF ON THE WIND
A quirky international love story. The Wind tries to play matchmaker between a lonely Canadian girl on the prairie of Manitoba and a lonely American boy in Texas. There’s also a talking chicken. Cast: Four – two male, two female.
* Finalist, Best Medicine Rep, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 2018.
