We are a multi-age group of people in a rural area looking to work on a play this winter as a way of amusing/keeping ourselves busy and out of trouble.  Our "talent pool" has about 15-20 people, artists, musicians, puppeteers, fire spinners, carpenters, electricians.  2 maybe 3 people with solid theater experience for production and directing.

We are looking for something that will be fun to do, but we don't want a variety show, we want a play with characters and a story.  Lysistrada has been put forward;  a vague "maybe we could we do a Shakespeare comedy or The Tempest",  or an Agatha Christie-type whodunit

We plan to review scripts and make a choice by mid September.
Any suggestions?

Cindy Hanson
Harry Brown's Farm
Starks, Maine
www.myspace.com/harrybrownshill
www.mainevocals.net

Hi Cindy..."castme" has a valid question....how many actors in terms of men and women?  If you want to do Shakespeare you'll soon see that there are very few roles for women.....and speaking from experience The Tempest is rather lame if you don't have some technology and experience with stage effects..there are storms and ship wrecks etc. to deal with.  There are other Shakespeare plays that are easier to stage and a lot more entertaining.  If the women in your group have a sense of humor try The Taming of the Shrew....we just closed it and it did well.  One word of caution however, Shakespeare is interesting to us as "theater people" but the audience is sparse....do you really want to go through all of the work to get a production open and then have very few people show up to see it?  Maybe get some suggestions from the people on this board for a more popular type of play......good luck.

Agatha Cristie is always fun.

Neal Simon always draws an audience.

We had a ball with "The Odd Couple" and 2 experienced males with 2 experienced females will work.

Check out Beth Henley's plays - they're contemporary, quirky, and poignant.
Her most famous, "Crimes of the Heart," is very good - but my favorites,
"Lucky Spot" and the "Wake of Jamie Foster" are wonderful plays. If you have
a dynamite female actor, "The Miss Firecracker Contest" is another Henley
piece is that is just terrific - fun for the cast and the audience.

Good luck!