ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN

This ensemble comedy/drama is based on the writings of Robert Fulghum, whose set of essays called ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN created a publishing sensation. This adaptatation takes essays from that book, plus others (among them UH-OH and IT WAS ON FIRE WHEN I LAY DOWN ON IT) and crafts them into an evening of scenes, songs and monologues. They range from very funny (a kids' version of Cinderella with a pig as a featured character, a tale of a disatrous wedding day) to poignant and sentimental (contemplations of a graveyard, a meditation on the meaning of life). The scenes shed light on what it means to be alive and traveling through the ups and downs of life. The whole show is fast-paced and contemporary, with a wide range of interconnected scenes that hang together.

WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT - provides ample opportunity for a lot of performers to shine. The style is more storytelling than monologue, so each segment could be conceived with its own unique style - to include monologue performances, mimed physical movement, interactive dialogues, etc. The play could be profoundly moving as well as consistently funny. There are 7 songs in the show, which gives our singers a chance to shine but doesn't leave out those who don't want to sing. Written for 5 but could easily support 15 and still give everyone enough to do. Many parts not gender specific so casting could be flexible. Best to use a non-realistic setting that could allow for a lot of creativity on the part of set designers. Familiar title might help to draw in audience. OK for kids but with lots to say to teens and adults. the musical numbers seem be in a mostly pop mode.

WHAT'S NOT SO GOOD - we have not done much in a true storytelling style before, so performances would take work to bring to perfection. Some people are afraid of monologues or longer spoken passages. Any essentially plotless show relies on the cast and crew to maintain the style needed for the audience to buy into it. All performers would have to be leads - everyone would need to be able to "bring it" in that sense. On the other hand, dividing the show up for 15 players will result in smaller pieces of the pie for each. The set would have to be challenging enough for our student designers to tackle yet be flexible enough to accommodate 20 or more stories.

What do you think? You can read more about the show at www.dramaticpublishing.com, and there are various youtube clips from groups ranging from middle schools up to adult/senior citizen casts.

THROUGH THE FUNHOUSE MIRROR - An Evening of One-Acts

We've done a fall play evening of one-acts once before - THE SEEING PLACE in 2006. It was quite a successful event and we were able to feature a larger-than average casts in a collection of 3 one-acts related by a theme. The funhouse mirror idea is just a working title for a one-act set that's related to the art of the playwright. Two of the plays have actually been done here, but not as "mainstage" pieces. The three plays are: 1. "Audience" by Michael Frayn (a play performance is seen through the eyes of the audience only - a silly farce along the lines of the same author's "Noises Off") - a playwright drops in on a performance of his play and offers a running commentary about the audience members, whose thoughts are audible.. 2. "S.P.A.R." by Stephen Gregg, the author of our recent one-act "This Is A Test" - in which the author himself interrupts an earnest conversation of two teens to inform them that they are just characters in a play - the line between reality and fiction are blurred beyond belief. 3. "Home At Six" by Lee Falk - this seems at first like a simple domestic sitcom except for the fact that the author wrote the whole thing using only one-syllable words - to amazing comic effect! In the story, Dad comes home one day at 4pm when he usually comes home at 6 - he finds his entire world in an uproar (the kids are behaving strangely, mom is carrying on with his best friend, Grandma and the maid are showing various bizarre unexpected traits. All three pieces offer a nice evening of entertainment revolving around the playwright's art.

WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT - ample opportunities for plenty of performers without anyone having to be burdened with carrying a whole show on their shoulders. With some kind of turntable set, we could get three complete settings as needed. All three pieces are extremely funny, very entertaining and also very smart. Mostly modern costuming, which is a nice change of place from recent shows. A one act night is a good way to employ three assistant directors who get more hands-on experience.

WHAT'S NOT SO GOOD - some would prefer having one story told through instead of three shorter ones. Some think fall one acts could adversely affect the winter set (although that did not happen last time). Scheduling of three play rehearsals at once can be challenging. Being in only one of the three plays would have everyone with larger amounts of backstage downtime.

What do you think? Post comments!

LUCKY STIFF

I told you I'd look at musical titles if they offered something sufficiently different - i.e. a more intimate size or style that wouldn't be quite like the big spring shows. This one fits that bill very nicely. It's the first show by Ahrens and Flaherty (Seussical, Ragtime, Once On This Island), and it fits not only in the musical genre but the comedy mystery as well. A bland, unassuming British shoe salesman learns he will inherit 6 million from his deceased uncle whom he's never met - on the condition that he takes the uncle's embalmed body on a whirlwind tour of Monte Carlo. If he fails, the money goes to the uncle's favorite charity, the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn. The chief representative of that home is the leading man's chief antagonist and eventual love interest. Add to the mix a legally blind, gun-toting jealous wife, a nervous dentist and a French chanteuse, among other interesting characters.

WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT -
Funny, funny, funny! There is truly a laugh a minute in this one, and the songs carry the comedy as well as the book. The play is written for 10 actors playing 20 or so roles - so a cast of 20 is possible. The songs are clever and fun and very well written, as you'd expect from Ahrens-Flaherty, and can be performed with piano only. The sets feature a number of locations and could provide an interesting challenge to keep the flow of the scenes going. Yes, one actor will spend the evening being dearly departed Uncle Anthony in a wheelchair. Hilarious nightmare scene. Movement could be done by a student choreographer. All cast members don't have to be great singers, although all of them do sing.

WHAT'S NOT SO GOOD:
Some folks vehemently disagree with the concept of doing more than one musical property (others would do only musicals if they had their way). Roles are a little heavier on the male side, although the female roles are wonderful. There would have to be some lightening of a few sexual scenes, although it would be easy to bring it into community standards. Is the humor too dark for some?


You can look at more about Lucky Stiff at the MTI website - www.mtishows.com. What do you think? Post a comment!

RUMORS

RUMORS is one of the prolific Broadway playwrights's most popular comedies and high on the perennial list of most-produced in high schools. It's a fast paced farce with 10 characters - 5 men and 5 women, and a full two-level set to represent an upscale home in Suburban New York. In the show, 4 couples are coming to the home of New York Deputy Mayor Charley Brock to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Charley and Myra. When the first couple arrives, they find Myra missing and Charley upstairs, suffering from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound to the earlobe. Desparate to avoid any hint of scandal, and prone to vicious and self-centered gossiping, they decide to make up a story about why Charley and Myra have not come down for the party - a story that spins wildly out of control as new couples arrive, the story keeps changing and the party guests try to cope with the escalating confusion. Two police officers arrive to try to sort everything out, but not before the 8 friends become hopelessly tangled in lie after lie.

WHAT'S GOOD

Typical of Neil Simon's comedies, this one if funny from page 1 and the laughs do not let up until the end. The writing is tight, consice and consistently entertaining. The required set offers great opportunities do design a BIG playing field to set these characters in - complete with two levels of doors to slam. The play is 20 years old now but still crackles with contemporary urban style. 8 of the 10 characters will wear elegant tuxedos and evening gowns.

WHAT'S NOT SO GOOD:

10 characters might seem a smaller cast than we've used in past years - that's correct. And of those characters, they are introduced to us in couples - so one couple is on from the start, another enters in 10 minutes or so, and so on until all 4 couples are on stage. The cops don't show up until the last 10 minutes of the show, and one of them is a close-to-silent role. The girls might think the guys get all the best bits - they don't, really, but I think the male characters do outshine the female ones by a bit. Sligo MS has done watered down version in the recent past. The set would be very expensive and take a huge amount of time, effort and manpower to erect. Many people see the language as a negative - there is a lot of bad language that would have to be dealt with. And, even though the play feels modern, there are some plot points that anchor it firmly in the late 80s - particularly theatre trips to a sold outt PHANTOM, doctors with answering services, and gigantic car phones that serve as unintentional weapons.

What do you think? Post comments!

EXIT THE BODY

I've been searching and searching for a really good script in the "comedy-mystery-farce" genre for a long time. We've done a hilarious show called THE MUSICAL COMEDY MURDERS OF 1940 a couple of times, and it was such fun for everyone. Problem is, most of the shows in this genre that I've found and studied have been AWFUL - not really funny, not much material for the creation of characters, and in general just all-around LAME.

WHAT'S IT ABOUT?
EXIT THE BODY is one of the better ones. The author specialized in this genre and this was the best of his that I read. It's strictly community theatre level material - no broadway pedigree. The even cast is 5 men and 5 women and the play is set in (of course) an isolated mansion. A female mystery writer rents a New England mansion which is rumored to have been a rendezvous point for stolen jewels - and of course the rumor turns out to be true. The focal point of the set is a closet that opens both into a living room and to an unseen library. Bodies are discovered in the closet, they disappear from the closet only to be replaced by others, and the story climaxes with a 2 AM treasure hunt with four different couples trying to get their hands on the loot.

WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT?
The main roles in this mystery comedy are female. Each offers a different type of style to supplement the story. Some of the character's wisecracks are pretty funny, and the chase scene could be a lot of fun to put together. This is usually a popular genre of piece, and this one could be marketed as a family-friendly comedy. The set is a full one, with good design possibilities. Costuming could be modern, which is always a big money saver.

WHAT"S NOT SO GOOD?
The script may be the best of the ones I've found, but it still sometimes registers a bit high on the lame meter. For a mystery there is not a lot of action, and not even too much mystery. The set design requirements may not be different enough from last year - we do always want to build on what we've done in the recent past and not repeat ourselves too much. Similar to "Staircase", I wonder if it will satisfy our insatiable need to challenge ourselves.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Comment away! If you want to read more about this title go to www.samuelfrench.com or look the title up on googlebooks - I think there is an excerpt.

Up The Down Staircase

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Up the Down Staircase is a comedy/drama based on a best-selling novel from the 1960s about the adventures of a brand new young teacher in a tough inner city high school The original novel was told through pieces of paper - memos, letters, notes, entries in a suggestion box, etc - and is both very funny and an unflinching look at what's wrong in education - overworked teachers, mountains of paperwork, kids who are hard to reach, etc. The play reflects the comic sensibility of 60s tv shows like LAUGH-IN, with short comic blackouts and characters popping out of walls to deliver a line or two, only to be replaced by others popping out of a different spot. The basic set is a classroom, surrounded by some kind of apparatus to allow for the quick-time one-liners. The major conflicts of the show involve the efforts of the new teacher, Sylvia Barrett, to maintain her idealism about teaching while learning to handle all the disruptions and distractions. Comedy is provided by the students, a very well-written ensemble of characters who maintain individuality while still reminding us of "types". The antagonists are a no-nonsense assistant principal and a brooding, troubled boy that Sylvia tries endlessly to reach.

WHAT'S GOOD - there are about 30 roles for characters ranging from students to teachers. The lead character is an idealistic female teacher. There is plenty of humor in the personalities of the characters and the trials and tribulations of an urban high school, all of which are depicted cleverly and without talking down to the audience. Even now, 40-some years later, the play retains a fresh and contemporary feel. The set could be fun for a creative team - how to build the multi-level fantasy set-up behind a more or less realistic classroom setting. There is good name recognition for those who are old enough to remember the original.

WHAT'S NOT SO GOOD - with 30 roles, lots of them have very limited stage time. There is not much action, and the teacher characters are (mostly) not as interesting as the students. The leading character is onstage almost every minute of the play. The writing is a little inconsistent - some scenes land beautifully, others are not quite as successful. One subplot involves the attempted suicide of a student, inadvertently caused by the actions of a teacher - a plot that is pretty much dropped midway through the script. The show might rank fairly low on the "acting challenge" index - maybe better for developing talents than for more experienced performers.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Post comments! I'll comment on another script in my next posting.

The State of the Fall Play Search

Hi all - Tomorrow is the statistical middle of the summer break for the teachers - so I guess it's time to get serious about getting a fall play nailed down!

I've been doing lots of reading this summer, looking for just the right title for production in the fall - and it is quite a challenge every year. It's tough to find a piece with enough roles for actors AND enough challenging technical work - and to make sure we are working with a quality script! There is a whole lotta junk out there, as I am discovering in my reading.

As far as genres for the fall, I've been focusing on a few types as likely candidates - we talked about some of this in the spring:
---Farce or off the wall comedy - our recent comic forays have been fairly gentle
---Comedies with some strong dramatic tension as well - as we have recognized the dramatic talent among us
---smaller-scale musical pieces - the type we wouldn't be able to do as a full show because of a smaller cast (10-20)
---murder mysteries - particularly mysteries with a comical center

I'm ready to start bouncing some ideas off of you - so bookmark this page and check back in this space regularly for updates. And please post comments and reactions to shows as my little blurbs about them begin to show up. If and when we come to a decision, the choice will be announced here!

Please keep your comments "professional"! Posts by any and all STAGE members are welcome, as are comments by parents and alumni!

Expect a blurb about the first possibility sometime on July 20!

Welcome to the NEW Einstein STAGE Blog!

Hopefully this blog will be a useful resource for information related to Einstein High School's theatre program. Check back regularly for news about play selections, casting, rehearsals and performances!