One Acts!

[TweeneySodd]

Posted: 6/18/03 at 11:24am

I have to direct a one act next fall, and I'm looking for a killer comedy with a fairly large cast (6-15 people, somewhere in there). If anybody has any suggestions from experience, throw them out! Any help would be appreciated.

I've already looked at/seen:
Hard Candy
Take Five
This is a Test
David Ive's Plays

Thanks! Updated On: 6/18/03 at 11:24 AM

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 6/18/03 at 11:36am

oh, in high school, I did a one-act version of Moliere's Tartuffe. It was hilarious! I will look up the name of the person who adapted it for you if you would like.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 6/18/03 at 11:47am

I found it.

TARTUFFE : A One-Act Play from Moliere
by Noyce Burleson
The Dramatic Publishinc compnay.

The show runs at just under 40 minutes.

Here is the cast breakdown ::
Madame Pernelle
Elmire
Dorine
Damis
Mariane
Cleante
Monsieur Orgon
Valere
Tartuffe
Officer Loyale

There is an optional prologue that takes place on a stage before a perfomance of tartuffe. the Breakdown for that is::
1st Actor (Valere)
2d Actor (Damis)
3d Actor (Orgon)
1st Actress (Madame Pernelle)
2d Actress (Mariane)
3d Actress (Dorine)
Moliere (Tartuffe)
Madama Moliere (Elmire)
Stagehand (Cleante)

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 6/18/03 at 1:12pm

that's really interesting, because if I remember theatre history class between naps, Moliere actually played Orgon and not Tartuffe. He wrote Orgon as a vehicle for himself.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 6/18/03 at 1:13pm

we actually dicussed that during rehearsals. LOL.

[TweeneySodd]

Posted: 6/18/03 at 3:18pm

Thanks alot! I'll look into that.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 6/18/03 at 3:24pm

no problem. Another good one is Daddy's Dyin', Who's Got The Will? It is a comedy for 3 men and 5 women and it is full length, but we did for a competition and cut it down to 40 minutes. It is about a family in a small texas twon who come back together when their father is dying from a series of progressive strokes. there is the old man who is dying, his elderly mother in law, his beautucuan daughter who never laft home, his divorced daughter who is trying to becaome a singer and her hippee boyfriend, his preacher's wife daughter, and his drunk son and his overweight wife. It is very funny, but very touching. There was a REALLy bad screen version made in the early 90s. The stage version is A LOT better.

[alterego]

Posted: 6/19/03 at 9:02am

Christopher Durang's Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You. Comedy, cast of six runs about 75 minutes.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 6/19/03 at 2:06pm

LOL. That one is a RIOT!

Posted: 6/21/03 at 7:21pm

Try Thorton Wilder's "Pullman Car Hiawatha"--28 parts!

Also Thorton Wilder's "The Long Christmas Dinner"--cast of 12.

Human comedies...but I don't know if anyone gets killed.


Yours for a better Broadway!

[JakeB]

Posted: 6/22/03 at 8:22am

My favourite one act play is The Browning Version by Terrence Ratigan. Very Upper Class English, so a nice challenge perhaps. There's about 6 people if I remember rightly.