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Underground > Creation >

Director ISO another goddamn play

wembley can change in 28 days

08:50 / 01.04.04

Like it says on the summary, the terse, obviously-not-real-theatre-people folks at Samuel French told me I can't get the rights to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, because it'll be all over broadway. I swear, if broadway existed I'd divorce it.

Help. I need to put in a proposal next week for directing something that can be done with a small budget (I know that's everything, really) and takes a relatively small cast. In the meantime, I'll be re-reading Endgame and all my Pinter to see if I get inspired. Even something very recent is welcomed. I don't have time to sink any claws into a Shakespeare, unfortunately. Unless it's madly truncated, and I don't have time to do a truncation. Do I sound stressed?

Grey Area

10:59 / 01.04.04

The Hypochondriac?

We put this on at my last school and it works well on a small budget with minimalist set and costumes...especially since some roles can be played by two people (some creative costuming required for this though). You could tie it in to the current health scare and make it topical. It's got romance, comedy, some drama...and it's not too long.

grant

20:02 / 02.04.04

I like pinter's the lovers (cast of 3), but have developed an obsession with you can't take it with you, a play that Frank Capra made into a movie in the 30s, Drew Barrymore's grandfather in the leading role.

woodenpidgeon

08:34 / 03.04.04

Take a look at Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.

Not a big cast-- one set-- and lends for some interesting blocking.

It's a little avaunt garde in a very fun way. Involves some mathmatics and Lord Byron as well.

wembley can change in 28 days

06:49 / 04.04.04

thanks all for the tips. last time i read Arcadia I remember thinking it's got a jolly lot of stage business that requires clever props and costuming. I seem to have backed away from that challenge, but now I'm not sure why. Or perhaps simply "live turtle on stage" made my alarm bells go off. i'll read it again, because i've always been very fond of that play adn it has excellent parts for just about everyone involved. as for grant's suggestions, it's a trip to the library for me...

The Strobe

11:49 / 05.04.04

Well, in all the productions of Arcadia I've seen - one student, one radio so it doesn't count, and the original West End transfer - Plautus/Lightning doesn't actually move an inch, even when people feed him lettuce. So that's not a problem.

It requires a little costuming but relatively simple props - books, an old ledger for the gamebook or similar; the mathematical solids can be made out of cardboard, really. It's all about the dialogue, anyhow.

I'd also recommend Christopher Hampton's The Philanthropist which is slick, funny, and rarely-performed (a modern companion to the Misanthrope, which he also translated). Minimal specific set/costume/prop requirements that'll be too hard; the only tricky thing is the gidget to fling brains and blood over the back wall in the first scene. The production I saw used something involving a Pringles tube for this, though...

Jack Vincennes

08:37 / 06.04.04

This might be too late (not sure if your proposal needs to be in by now) but The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is excellent, has a cast of four and a very minimal set ; as far as I remember, it's all set in the same room.

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