Easy Replacement
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Play Suggestions
Forum Discription: Need help finding a show that's right for your theater? Ask here.
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4049
Printed Date: 11/23/24 at 12:39am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Easy Replacement
Posted By: brianwolters
Subject: Easy Replacement
Date Posted: 5/29/09 at 3:32pm
|
Help! We had a poor turnout for auditions for our summer musical...so instead of pressing on and hoping we can fill the roles, we may just postpone it and do another show with our regular players instead...what is a full length (non-musical) comedy we could do with limited time and set? Something we can whip together but also still be very good and entertaining for our audience.
Thanks!
Brian
|
Replies:
Posted By: Dough Boy
Date Posted: 5/29/09 at 4:56pm
Bedtime Stories by Norm Foster available from the Canadian Playwrights Guild. if your audience can handle a little sexual humor. One set. Clever and Funny.
Messiah on the Frigidaire. One set. Southern Trailer Park. Funny with a message. available from Samuel French
|
Posted By: BUMRRR
Date Posted: 5/29/09 at 4:58pm
Share a few more details with us, how many men/women and age range can you count on to do the show?, how long do you have to put it together? and whats the audience demographic usually?
-------------
...and now, On With the Show !
www.FremontCommunityTheatre.org
|
Posted By: brianwolters
Date Posted: 5/29/09 at 4:59pm
Originally posted by Dough Boy
Bedtime Stories by Norm Foster available from the Canadian Playwrights Guild. if your audience can handle a little sexual humor. One set. Clever and Funny.
Messiah on the Frigidaire. One set. Southern Trailer Park. Funny with a message. available from Samuel French
|
Yeah, we tend to aim for the family friendly shows considering our demographics, so may look at "Frigidaire."
|
Posted By: brianwolters
Date Posted: 5/29/09 at 5:03pm
Originally posted by BUMRRR
Share a few more details with us, how many men/women and age range can you count on to do the show?, how long do you have to put it together? and whats the audience demographic usually? |
As far as people I know we have in our pool, we have:
Young looking 39 year old male
2 "40 something" females.
60 year old male.
14 year old girl.
And plenty of parents who want their kids involved if we have to do a kids show.
We will have about 1 1/2 months of 2-3 days a week rehearsals.
Thanks,
Brian
|
Posted By: BUMRRR
Date Posted: 5/29/09 at 5:06pm
personally i have mixed feeling about "frigidaire" sure some scenes are hysterical, others slow and drag and you do walk that fine line anytime you dance around religious topics, i think this show has been over rated but that is MHO., maybe a Simon classic like Barefoot in the Park, Come Blow your Horn, Plaza Suite still holds up well too and if you use 3 couples it is easier to rehearse in a shorter time.
-------------
...and now, On With the Show !
www.FremontCommunityTheatre.org
|
Posted By: BUMRRR
Date Posted: 5/29/09 at 5:32pm
just thought of another option, check out The Kitchen Witches, by Caroline Smith, from Samuel French. 2 women, near 50ish, one man who could be their son, and an on stage actor, either sex, with 1 line. a tv studio kitchen, very funny, clean. we are producing it this next season, so i can comment on audience reaction, so far everybody that has read it here LOVES it, silly, martha stewart with a touch of jerry springer!
-------------
...and now, On With the Show !
www.FremontCommunityTheatre.org
|
Posted By: doubleirish
Date Posted: 5/30/09 at 2:08am
We had that same problem this year... we had to drop The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker after doing ten rehearsals when two of the cast had to drop out and our director surfed the net and found a one hour version of James And The Giant Peach. It was a funny, sarcastic show and the parents and kids loved it! It took some doing to get the special effects going, but we did most of it with lighting effects and the simplest of sets. We also added some time by doing a pre show comedy bit. We would pretend to lose the Peach and would hide a small peach ball in the theatre and have the kids find it and give a small prize to the winner/finder. that would usually get our audience their two hours.
Last summer we didn't have much time to get a show together and we did a revue of Andrew Lloyd Webber songs that went over well.
Good luck with the show! That's a rough spot to be in, but everything will work out.
|
Posted By: Dough Boy
Date Posted: 6/02/09 at 12:28pm
Probably a topic for another day, but I think community theatre is the last bastion for people who are afraid to offend anyone in any shape or form. No controversy allowed, religion is off limits, sex is off limits. language must be clean and pristine. We all say we are doing it because that's what our patrons expect (me included) and then we wonder why our audience is dwindling. If I'm pointing fingers, I'm pointing at myself as well. The conversation just has me thinking. If theatre is dying, are we the ones killing it? What can we offer a generation that grows up sending nude pictures of themselves over their cell phones. Somehow Barefoot in the Park becomes a quaint look at an innocent time. Not what Mr. Simon intended.
Oh yeah, as for my suggestions, I was too chicken to do Bedtime Stories even though it's not really over the top, it just deals with the s.e.x. topic. As for "fridge" Our audiences LOVED it. The cast had a ball. Only 2 negative comments from those in the seats, which is about normal for anything but Cinderella. In fact we held it over for an extra weekend. $$$
|
Posted By: Melvin
Date Posted: 6/02/09 at 3:24pm
|
You might try "Tartuffe in Texax." 4m, 5w, 3 flexible. http://www.histage.com/playdetails.asp?PID=2212 - http://www.histage.com/playdetails.asp?PID=2212
|
Posted By: brianwolters
Date Posted: 6/02/09 at 3:33pm
|
Thanks for all of the suggestions...!
|
|