Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Outdoor set?

Author

Message

sir2u
Walk-On
Walk-On

Joined: 6/15/06
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 0

Topic: Outdoor set?
Posted: 6/15/06 at 8:18pm

I am looking for a comedy that is set outdoors as my stage is really small and this is our first show and have very little budget. I figured it would be easy to put on if I only had a tree or some benches. I was thinking of a play like "The Foursome" but I don't want to open this theatre with an all-male cast as I have no idea what kind of actors will be audtioning. I was thinking a cast of 4-7, more women than men. Thanks in advance!

Matt Garry

Shakespeare = Crap
O'Neill = Hack
Stanislavsky = Moron.
Man getting hit in groin = genius.

IP Logged

castMe
Celebrity

Joined: 11/02/05
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 206

Posted: 6/15/06 at 10:11pm

Hey, Matt. This show isn't set out of doors, but check out The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate's Townswomen';s Guild Dramatic Society's Production of "A Christmas Carol". (heck of a title, huh?)

There are a number of plays in the Farndale Avenue series (Samuel French), but this may be my favorite. No set required, it can be done on a bare stage. Four or five gals and one guy. Funny as all get-out. Lots of props, but can be built out of cardboard or styrofoam. The cheaper looking the better.

We did it a few years ago and the response was so good I was asked by a neighboring theater company to direct another in the franchise for them the next year.

P.S. I love the "hit in the groin" tag line. I have a theater friend who swears there's nothing funnier on stage than a guy in his boxers.

Investigate. Imagine. Choose.

IP Logged

GoldCanyonLady
Celebrity

Joined: 2/05/05
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 172

Posted: 6/16/06 at 9:42am

Take a look at Faith County. The set is so very simple (county fair -sky grass backdrop and not much else) that we are thinking of doing it plus our regular play in 2008. This play is wonderfully funny. It is described in the French catalog as this:

A colorful set of good ol' folk gather for the county fair, and there's stiff competition in the arts and crafts category. There's an inspirin' poetry readin' by Faye McFaye, Mildred's ceramic depiction of The Last Supper, Ruthann's divinity (and rum) cake, Naomi's chic hair stylin' and Violet's appliqued toilet seat covers! And bein' spring, luuuuuv is in the air! Originally produced for radio, Faith County enjoyed a thirty five week run on WLYK and national notoriety before being adapted for the stage. "Hilarious." Studio Theatre. "We received standing ovations!" Bowbells Community Theatre. "Hilarious prepare yourself for non stop laughter!" Foundation of Arts.

Do a search on Google for Faith County and you will see what other theatres had done for their set.

Barb

Barb Hofmeister,
MountainBrook Village Players, Gold Canyon, Arizona.

IP Logged

upstager
Walk-On
Walk-On

Joined: 6/17/06
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 0

Posted: 6/18/06 at 1:55pm

Read "Catfish Moon"...it's 3 guys and a gal. It takes place out on a Louisiana Bayou.

IP Logged

Gaafa
Celebrity

Joined: 3/21/04
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1181

Posted: 6/19/06 at 11:06am

Matt why restrict yourself with the choice of play to suit the set?
You can do a lot with a bare space & allow the punters to use their imagination, similar to what Castme suggested in the Bye Bye Birdie topic.http://www.communitytheater.org/discuss/forum_ posts.asp?TID=1889&get=last#6889
Just use Legs & Boarders as masking & the odd rostra or riser!
It will help your suit your budget & possibly fit or be more flexible with the assortment of beginners who may front up!

Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

IP Logged

Shatcher
Celebrity

Joined: 2/21/05
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 251

Posted: 6/23/06 at 11:30am

I have to agree with Gaffa here. You can do almost any play with almost no set. I like the idea of levals and maybe a backdrop of you can use gobos and do the "set: with lighting.

IP Logged

tristanrobin
Celebrity

Joined: 4/25/05
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 704

Posted: 6/23/06 at 8:58pm

One of the most exciting evenings in the theatre I've ever spent was at the
Edinburgh Festival Theatre about 15 years ago. A troupe from some
midwest American college was performing "Gypsy." Somehow, their sets,
costumes and orchestrations were lost in shipment to the venue. They
performed the entire play with no sets - no costumes - and a pianist
playing from a piano/vocal score. The cast was riveting - the direction
was perfection. It was genuinely thrilling and electric to be in the
audience.

The trappings are great (I love sets, costumes, fancy light plots, etc.) -
but they ARE just trappings. If you have a good cast and they give 110%,
the audience won't care if the play is supposed to be in a forest and
they're really looking at cement brick walls. Remember - nobody ever
REALLY believes that's a forest up there on the stage anyway.

Good luck!

IP Logged

castMe
Celebrity

Joined: 11/02/05
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 206

Posted: 6/23/06 at 10:29pm

Tristan is absolutely right. It's all about the play.

By the way Tristan. I am currently looking for a show to mount for travel with minimum sets and costumes. We'll arrive on venue telling one and all we've lost our gear, but are willing to give it a go with what we've got.

Investigate. Imagine. Choose.

IP Logged

Gaafa
Celebrity

Joined: 3/21/04
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1181

Posted: 6/24/06 at 6:06am

Originally posted by castMe

Tristan is absolutely right. It's all about the play.

By the way Tristan. I am currently looking for a show to mount for travel with minimum sets and costumes. We'll arrive on venue telling one and all we've lost our gear, but are willing to give it a go with what we've got.

Gawd that reminds me of a farce I wrote, in a previous life, with the same genre!
I think I titled it ?Let?s get on!? but that was in the dark ages & it is well & truly decomposed on the tip, where all my better scripts ended up!
Why don?t you workshop it Castme & write your own!
A farce of course is an ideal format, especially when the doors are a window flat & a fireplace, while a bunch of flowers is the phone or was that what they used the banana for?
I seem to remember one piece where the leading lady in a state of undress, gets the shirt of the leading man caught in the her zipper! But how that happened? I will leave to your imagination, because I can?t remember. The only thing I do recollect was to ensure every untoward situation was carried out very seriously & the punters thought it was a riot!
Even if you get any old script in the public domain or whatever & apply the situation you suggest in your post!
It would work!
Now back to the topic?

Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

IP Logged

tristanrobin
Celebrity

Joined: 4/25/05
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 704

Posted: 6/24/06 at 7:42am

castMe - are you looking for a one-act or full-length? a single character,
or
a cast with several people?

I traveled for almost two years in a one-man one-act called Travelin'
Show by Jane Martine. It was paired with another one-act play. It
required a park bench - period. And, lol, I'm pretty sure it could have
been done without that.

I'm a big big fan of one-act plays. They seem to do well on tour- though,
when they appear on our schedule as part of the season, they are always
a huge disappointment, audience-wise. We've done evenings of Tennesse
Williams' one-acts, Lanford Wilson's one-acts, William Inge's one-acts,
Christopher Durang's one-acts. It's a great way to work on both sad and
funny plays at the same time - it gives a larger number of people a
chance to be in the plays (without the headaches of directing huge cast
scenes ... visions of Auntie Mame come to mind LOL).

Another need-nothing play is The Lottery based on the Shirley
Jackson story. All you need is five bazillion papier mache rocks LOL.
Schools like it, because they have to read the story in 6th or 7th grade.
It's a good creepy play with roles for quite a few people of all different
ages.

IP Logged

Play Suggestions
Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board :Producing Theater :Play Suggestions

Topic: Outdoor set?( Topic Closed)
	Page of 2 Next >>