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M E M B E R S > S L U S H P I L E
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The slush pile is a list of plays suggested for future production by members of the group.
If you're interested in advocating something, or directing, but aren't sure where to look for suggestions, this is an excellent place to start!
If you have a suggestion for the slush pile, send it to the
chairman
, including numbers of male and female parts and a short description as below.
PLAYWRIGHTS/AUTHORS/COMPOSERS COMING OUT OF COPYRIGHT 2007 - 2010:
2007:
J.M. Barrie (but Peter Pan remains in copyright)
H.P. Lovecraft (Call of Cthulu etc.)
George Gershwin
Edith Wharton (The Buccaneers, Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence)
Jean de Brunhoff (Babar the Elephant)
2008:
Karel Čapek (dystopian writer, invented the term "robot")
2010:
Mikhail Bulgakov
F. Scott Fitzgerald
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F U L L L E N G T H P L A Y S
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AmDram, The Musical
by Matt Board and Joe Slabe
More details
4F/3M, licence to be negotiated
AmDram the Musical is a new musical about a community theatre group putting on an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The tangled relationships and hidden emotions are revealed through the characters’ inner monologue, which is presented as musical numbers, or musical interjections in and around dialogue. The show takes the audience through the auditions, rehearsals, and finally the disastrous end product. The play is hilarious, touching, and full of surprises.
suggested by Tim Saward
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Lysistrata
by Aristophanes
7-8F/4-5M, licence free
The translation that I have used recently sounds a lot like a panto, and can be performed with a slightly panto-esque flavour for extra comedy. Again, not really one for the kiddies since the entire male cast has to run around for half the play with erections… (fake ones, we used strap-on soda bottles in our production) Cast, flexible. Quite nice because there are several single parts for men and women, plus chorus. Staging… it would be a challenge on the Welsh Church stage, I feel, unless the chorus was kept small. But it all can be performed in front of one backdrop which is nice.
suggested by Syreeta Peddlesden
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The Seagull
by Anton Chekhov
5F/7M, original is licence free (although most translations are recent enough to need a licence)
Why not get a bit serious for a while and have some Chekhov? I suggest The Seagull because I am familiar with it and have performed in it. I find the story to be less convoluted than other Chekhov plays.
suggested by Syreeta Peddlesden
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Bouncers
by John Godber
4M, licence to pay
Originally piloted with Hull Truck Theatre company, this story of the four men outside the club became a big success on the rep circuit and amateur clubs alike, with its minimal staging and its contemporary costumes it's quite attractive in that regard...!
suggested by Jackie Braithwaite
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The Laramie Project
by Moisés Kaufman / Tectonic Theater Project
8 actors (either sex), modern dress, American accents, licence to pay
A play about the reaction to the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, widely considered to be a hate crime motivated by homophobia. The play draws on over 200 interviews conducted by the theater company with inhabitants of the town, company members' own journal entires, and published news reports. Eight actors portray more than 60 characters in what have been described as scripted "moments," rather than traditional acts and scenes.
Would be ideal as one of our "studio" productions, either in the February or Whitsun slots, or might even have some schools outreach potential.
suggested by Tim Saward
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Great Expectations
by Hugh Leonard, after Charles Dickens
5F/c.9M, licence to pay
Based on the famous Dickens novel, this adaptation compresses the story to its core. There is a raft of memorable and interesting parts for both men and women: bitter old Miss Havisham; spiky Mrs Gargery; violent criminal Magwitch and the eccentric gentlemen (Wemmick and Jaggers) of the legal profession.
A good solid classic, with a lot of name recognition.
suggested by Tim Saward
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The Strip
by Phyllis Nagy
5F/5M, modern dress, licence to pay
Opening with the memorable line, "Female impersonation is a rather curious career choice for a woman, Miss Coo", The Strip follows the fortunes of the aforementioned Ava Coo, along with a love-struck repo man and an obsessive lesbian journalist, as they cross America in search of fame and self-gratification at the Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas. Meanwhile in Earl's Court, an enterprising astrologer, a family of fugitive white supremacists and a gay pawnbroker set off to Liverpool in search of justice. Moving amongst them all is the mysterious Otto Mink.
suggested by Tim Saward
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Shock Treatment
by Richard O'Brien
8F/8M, licence to pay
Loose sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. 90min musical film
which continues the story of Brad & Janet from the original musical/
movie. Slightly surreal plot which also satirizes television and
psychiatric medicine. There are several musical/dance numbers and all
of the action takes place inside a television studio.
suggested by Mansoor Mir
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Agnes of God
by John Peilmour
5F/5M, modern dress, licence to pay
It's a two act play, three female roles, it was popular in the early nineties. It's set in a nunnery and is about a novice nun whose been found with a dead baby(Her's), and the psychriatrist whose been sent to establish if she's guilty of infanticide/sane enough to stand trial, and the novice's aunt, the mother superior, who tries to protect the novice. It might be suitable to do as a lowkey autumn production if the Halloween production is going to be major in terms of budget, special effects and cast.
suggested by Ita Hill
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Our Day Out
by Willy Russell
?F/?M, modern dress, licence to pay
A story about a class trip.
It would be a great excuse to use the performance space in a different way, and also a great way for potentially stressed and tired players to have a laff and act like a kid.
suggested by Jackie Braithwaite
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Othello
by William Shakespeare
3F/10M, licence free
The well-known tale about jealousy and manipulation.
suggested by Mansoor Mir
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The Merry Wives of Windsor
by William Shakespeare
4F/<20M, licence free
Shakespeare's light spin-off comedy about the farcical debaucheries of Falstaff. Lots of great character parts.
suggested by Jan Prendergast
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Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
?F/?M, licence free
The most famous story in the world about love, and in particular love across boundaries.
suggested by Jackie Braithwaite
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Pygmalion
by George Bernard Shaw
?F/?M, licence to pay
"My Fair Lady" but without the songs, and in a slightly different tone, more in line with the feminism Shaw was trying to put across.
suggested by Shauntelle Benjamin
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Fat Men in Skirts
by Nicky Silver
2F/2M, licence to pay
This isn’t really for the kids… it’s a bit heavy. A private plane crashes on an island. The only survivors are Phyllis Hogan, the wife of a famous filmmaker, and her son Bishop. During their time marooned on this island, Bishop becomes a man… a very strange man, and Phyllis goes crazy. (well, crazier than she was when she started.) Meanwhile, in the civilized world, the filmmaker begins a new life with his former bit on the side, getting her pregnant just in time for the surprise return of Phyllis and Bishop.
It’s a black comedy with flashback monologues. Small cast for this one, although there are a couple of cameo roles (1M 1F) that are usually doubled. It’s American too, so prepare for accents! This would be good for a workshop thing where most of the work is done individually, between the director and each character on their own. It also means that the necessity for rehearsal in the actual space is less than other productions, so if this was being rehearsed at the same time as another production such as a rehearsed reading or one-act, clever scheduling could mean that both productions could get sufficient space to work.
suggested by Syreeta Peddlesden
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Barefoot in the Park
by Neil Simon
2F/4M, licence to pay
A young newly married couple move in together into the draftiest place
at the top of a building with no lift. Corrie is an romantic thing who
likes the idea of the place. Her mother thoroughly disapproves and her
husband despairs. We meet a strange neighbour whom Corrie decides to fix
up her mother with much to her husbands horror. Chaos begins to reign.
Corrie and Paul argue and wonder why they are together. He soon
remembers why : sometimes you need to walk barefoot in the park.
It is comic in places but it does have a serious element underlying the
piece. It all occurs in the apartment. It was written in the 1960's and
says set in the present. I think it could be done set in our present
day. It is up to whoever directs it.
suggested by Rob Bettelheim
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A Night on the Tiles
by Frank Vickery
3F/4M, licence to pay
Two brothers: Gareth and Kenneth. Kenneth takes Gareth out on his stag
night the night before his wedding. Gareth wakes up with a terrible
hangover to be married to his three month pregnant bride. The grandad
gets confused over who she is marrying - rightly so. Things do not get
better after the marriage when Gareth realises Kenneth and his wife had
had a fling in the past and he is trying it on even thought she is now
married. It follows the next few months and ends interestingly with
Kenneth hearing something that changes things forever.
It is quite a serious piece. It takes place in the back yard of the
family home so it is easy to stage. It was written in the late eighties
and says it is set in the present day so it is up to the director for
costumes. Late 80's or present day.
suggested by Rob Bettelheim
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Fawlty Towers
by John Cleese and Connie Booth
5F/9M (but some could double), modern dress, licence to negotiate
I've always thought any episode of Fawlty Towers would make a great one-act play. In particular, I'm thinking of "Communication Problems" which featured deaf Mrs Richards, as this has pretty much no location work and doesn't require complex set changes like The Builders or Gourmet Night.
suggested by Tim Saward
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Gotcha
by Barrie Keeffe
2F/2M, modern dress, licence to pay
This is a one-act play with a single set. Very Play for Today and very simple to stage. On the last day of term, a teenager at a school in Rainham captures two of his teachers, and holds them to ransom with a lit cigarette over the petrol tank of his new motorbike. A play about low aspirations and the frustration of adolescence.
suggested by Tim Saward
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Deadline
by Rob Shearman
2F/4M, licence to pay
Originally an audio play starring Derek Jacobi produced by Big Finish
Productions as part of their Doctor Who range. 1 hour play about the
mental breakdown of the central character. Martin is the fictional
creator of Doctor Who who is now having trouble distinguishing
fiction from reality. Most of the action is based in Martin's room.
suggested by Mansoor Mir
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A Fair Deal
by Jill Woods
8 char, licence-free
Bernie, facing bankruptcy and a certain descent from a well-off working-class lifestyle, is suddenly a Lottery triple millionaire, which he would never have known had a suicide bid not been thwarted by an anonymous rescuer, whom Bernie now resolves to find and share his fortune with. But
Bernie's generosity is not matched by wife Alma, who has her own plans for the future that do not include her husband, or by son Darren, who almost finds a way of scuppering the proposed largesse. Until a most unexpected deal is struck...
suggested by Jill Woods
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Playing A Part
by Jill Woods
2F/2M, licence-free
Cyril is a middle-aged self-employed car mechanic living with an elderly mother. Mainly through monologue, we follow his progress towards winning
the part of Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls with his local amateur operatic society, a path that takes in premonitions, peccadillos, and penance.
suggested by Jill Woods
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We've recently been talking about how the Woodhouse year is shaped, and have come up with the below loose guide. This is far from set in stone, but provides us with a basic sort of framework. Members are free to suggest additional activities or changes at any time.
February Studio Production
One of the "studio" slots, allowing experimental stuff, new writing, small casts and low budgets! This is chosen in September. Auditions and rehearsals start in November or December, depending on the scale of the production; performances are in the half term in mid-February
Double Bill
Two (or sometimes three) one-act plays. Often used as a showcase for new writing. Plays are normally chosen in September (possibly through a writers' workshop); auditions and rehearsals start in January; performances at local drama festivals are in March with performances at the Welsh Church Hall in the Easter holidays usually some time in April
Cabaret
A selection of sketches, songs, monologues and other small acts. Performs in early May
Whitsun Studio Production
Usually a full-length play. The play is selected in February; auditions and rehearsals start in April; performances are in late May/early June
Summer Production
Usually a full-length play. The play is selected in February; auditions and rehearsals start in May; performances are in July. Past Summer productions have been Macbeth, Hay Fever, Sense and Sensibility, Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
Term-Time Production
Usually a full-length play. This is selected either in February or May; auditions and rehearsals start in July; performances are usually in late September/early October Past Autumn productions have been Woman in Mind, They Came from Mars..., The Memory of Water. Because this is our only production to fall in term time, this could be the focus of attempts to bring in school groups.
Oct Half-Term Production
Usually a full-length play. This is selected either in February or May; auditions and rehearsals start in July; performances are usually in October half-term, around Halloween. Past Autumn productions have been Wyrd Sisters, Dracula, Jekyll & Hyde.
Pantomime
Usually a home-written panto with popular songs. This is selected in May; auditions and rehearsals start in October/November and performances are usually in the two weeks after Christmas in December/January
Experimental/one-off slots
Smaller productions/projects such as rehearsed readings, 24 hour filmmaking etc. that fit between the main productions and give us a chance to try new things. They can be selected at any time, but are most likely to have performances in July (Leytonstone Festival) or November.
Workshops
Workshops in various theatre skills are run to support particular productions, but are open to all.
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