Play Suggestions: tiny country town theatre

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tiny country town theatre

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Play Suggestions
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URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3306
Printed Date: 12/13/25 at 12:40pm
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Topic: tiny country town theatre

Posted By: theatregeek101
Subject: tiny country town theatre
Date Posted: 7/23/08 at 5:46pm

Hey everyone!
There might be a chance that I'm going to be moving soon to a very small town in rural OK- I've been teaching theatre in a large ISD for close to 16 years. I might have the opportunity to take a year or so off once we're settled and fulfill my dream of starting a community theatre. Any ideas for a show to start off with? This is a town that has never had live theatre. The closest might be 25-30 miles away. Yikes! Thanks for your help!

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"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." -Emerson

Replies:

Posted By: Nanette
Date Posted: 7/23/08 at 11:15pm

That depends on the type of people you're casting ... kids, adults, combination?! If you want to make a lot of money, cast kids (and take a lot of asprin!). Everyone will come see them. Might I suggest 'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever' for a holiday show.

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In a world of margarine, be butter!

Posted By: theatregeek101
Date Posted: 7/24/08 at 11:04am

Thanks for responding! I would hope to cast kids as well as adults. That was one of my favorite books as a child and have never seen it staged. I will definitely look into it.

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"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." -Emerson

Posted By: pauliebonn
Date Posted: 7/25/08 at 4:02pm

You could always think of casting "OLIVER!"

Posted By: joanna
Date Posted: 8/27/08 at 12:01pm

Miracle on 34th st. is good for the holidays if you have adults and kids- also It's a wonderful life. I've worked with many small ct- and the stuff I've done there is pretty varied- I suppose it just depends on what your target audience wants! Break a leg!

Posted By: skoehler
Date Posted: 8/27/08 at 4:26pm

Anything with a large cast of kids will guarantee a large audience, which is just what you need. Of course many of these shows will have larger up front costs.

Best Christmas Pageant Ever is great, can be done very nicely with very little set. Although set a few decades ago, I don't recall any specific time references in the script so it is possible it can be done modern. Cast can be as large as you need, and with the exception of 5 or 6 adults it is all kids.

Another way to go could be with a well known comedy, Neil Simon comes to mind. As most of his shows were made into movies, and of course their is The Odd Couple (several TV shows, couple of movies). People will come out because they know the show, and casts are large enough that the friend and family tickets will help.

Good luck

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Steven Koehler
Managing Director
Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette
www.lafayettecivic.org

Posted By: whitebat
Date Posted: 8/27/08 at 6:59pm

How small is tiny? Our town is ~9,000-12,000+. Our community theater started a few years ago. We had some meetings and potential members discussed what kind of shows they would be interested in doing. I would advise you try to get some grants, possibly from the state or county (or equivalent) arts groups. We actually did "Something's Afoot" as our first show. The previous CT did a lot of melodramas. I think doing a fairly difficult show to start with worked because our director had a lot of prior experience, which is sounds like you do too. Break a leg!

Posted By: stageright
Date Posted: 10/23/08 at 11:14pm

I know alot of people are scared of musicals but go for it. You won't regret it.

We are a small town childrens community theatre that was started 4 years ago. Our little theatre has exploded and we can hardly contain it. We live in a town of 4000 and we had over 140 kids in our last production.

We performed the Back to the 80's production last fall. The only word I can use to describe it was unbelievable!! We sold out all of our shows and were asked to carry over into the next week because of calls for tickets which we were unable to due to licensing.

People were literally dancing in the aisles when the muscial parts of the show were performed. So many people have written & called still a year later talking about how great the play was! On closing night, the performance ended just before 10 pm and it was midnight when we shut the doors forcing people to leave. Everyone was dancing, reminicing, and having a great time! I would highly reccomend this production.

We had kinda a pre-show that showcased some famous 80's moments that people kept giving standing ovations for and that was even before the prodcution even started. We had a cast of 75 in this production ranging from 7th - 12th grade! Kids did not care if they had a big part or not, they just wanted to be a part of the fun.

The greatest thing for me as the director and a graduate of the 80's was watching the kids fall in love with the 80's music and soon the kids were wearing even leggings and clothes to school from the 80's. Also, there was a great interaction between the kids and their parents because the majority of their parents also graduated from the 80's.

Unbelievable show!

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Small Town America Rules!

Posted By: Unclepeter
Date Posted: 10/26/08 at 12:20am

Concur with the recommendation for Best christas Pagent ever. Definitely draws an audience.

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"Good judgement comes from experience - and a lot of that comes from bad judgement." (Will Rogers)

Uncle Peter