Okay, I've been offered a spot to direct the fall dinner theatre show for a small local company, but I'm stymied on the show selection.  I'm more or less allowed to pick my poison, but it has to fall under these guidelines:

* Straight play
* Cast size of approximately 5-10
* Very simple set requirements -- a single-set or close to it would be ideal, the performance space is not a stage.
* "PG" rated.  While it's a liberal denomination, the company is sponsored by a church, and the performance will be at the site.  So it should be appropriate for ages 10+ or so.  My initial suggestion of Brighton Beach Memoirs just barely missed the cut here.
* An established piece would be preferred.

I do better with comedy than heavy drama, so that'd be nice, but I'm not opposed to something else.

Thanks in advance.

"Second Samuel" by Pamela Parker

TITLE: Divorce Sale
PLAYWRIGHT: Linda Stockham
GENRE: Contemporary Comedy
LOGLINE: Neighbors hold a séance to contact the deceased husband of one’s ditsy mother-in-law.
CAST OF CHARACTERS: 10 (6f,4m)
SCENIC REQUIREMENT: Double-car garage. (Relative simple set.)
TIME: Spring, early 1990s.
APPROXIMATE RUNNING TIME: 80 minutes.
PRODUCTION HISTORY: Divorce Sale: Perry Stagecoach Community Theatre, Perry, Oklahoma. Opened November 3, 2007. Directed by Kandi Gibson. Freeport Players, Regency Theatre, Freeport, Bahamas. Opened October 25, 2007. Directed by Tiffany Dennison. Solomon Islands premiere produced by The Honiara Amateur Musical Society, Honiara, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Opened on October 1, 2005. The Dalby Players Little Theatre, Inc., Dalby, Queensland, Australia. Opened August 8, 2003. Directed by Adele Jasper; produced by Nancy Evans. (Australian premiere.) The Manhattan Players, The Duality Playhouse, New York City, New York. Opened on June 11, 1993. Directed by Matthew FitzSimmons. (World premiere.) These are known productions. Recent emails from companies in Africa and Italy for performance rights indicate future productions. The play is available online for anyone to download or contact the playwright at lindastockham@netzero.net for copy (would be sent in Word.doc).

Thanks for the suggestions.  The producer and I looked over some of these, plus other suggestions from other sources, then started just yanking plays off the shelf at the library, and it was from that last stack that we ran across "The Skin of Our Teeth" by Thornton Wilder -- a show neither of us had ever even heard of, despite its Pulitzer.

The sets are a LITTLE trickier than ideal, and the cast should probably be a dozen minimum, but I think those are minor hurdles, given how much we both liked what we read.

We need to meet once more to confirm, but it looks like we're going that way.

Just a little update: we're a little over two weeks from open.

I LOVE this play.  Not only is it absurd and funny and a little silly and fun at the start, but it's incredibly passionate and moving at the end, and there are some opportunities for great performances that I'm getting from my cast.

However -- I do wish I had a couple more weeks.  Due to my own acting schedule, we were shoehorned into about a 6 week rehearsal schedule, which is light for any CT program, and particularly for a play like this.  This is tricky, layered stuff.  My cast is great, but I'm not going to quite get all I could out of them in the time allotted.  We'll get as close as possible.

The other bit is that there's a LOT to deal with for a straight play -- ongoing set changes and costumes and video and props and lights and moving sets and sounds ... well, let's say I'm very glad for an active producer AND an AD AND a SM.