Producers' Choice: Six Plays for Young Performers PDF Download

Author: Megan Barker
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1408144883
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
Producers' Choice: Six Plays for Young Performers showcases some of the best plays for young people produced by the UK's leading theatre companies. The plays are ideal for young performers aged 13-25 and offer a diverse range of challenges, styles and subjects. The volume will prove essential for teachers and students of Drama and for youth drama groups. The plays include modern reworkings of classics, such as Simon Reade's witty and brilliantly inventive adaptation of Lewis Carroll's much-loved fantasy, and DJ Britton's version of Sophocles' Theban plays, the tragic Oedipus/Antigone. Contemporary teenage issues are dealt with in Megan Barker's beautiful and uplifting Promise and Sarah May's The Butterfly Club. Simon Stephens' hit-play Punk Rock set in a grammar school explores dislocation and aggression among sixth form pupils; James Graham's Tory Boyz is a fast-paced, political comedy about prejudice and ambition in Westminster. Each play features production notes and the volume is introduced by Paul Roseby, Artistic Director of the National Youth Theatre. For schools, youth theatre groups and drama colleges this anthology of thematically and stylistically diverse plays will prove an invaluable resource.

Author: Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1408176505
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Book Description
A companion volume to Modern Asian Theatre and Performance 1900–2000, this anthology contains nine emblematic scripts from twentieth and twenty-first century Asian theatre. Opening with a history of modern Asian drama and a summary of the plays and their contexts, it features nine works written between 1912 and 2009 in Japan, China, Korea, India, Indonesia and Vietnam. Showcasing fresh contemporary writing alongside plays central to the established canon, the collection surveys each playwright's work, and includes: Father Returns by Kikuchi Kan Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech by Okada Toshiki Sunrise by Cao Yu I Love XXX by Meng Jinghui, Huang Jingang, Wang Xiaoli, Shi Hang Bicycle by O Tae-sok The Post Office by Rabindranath Tagore Hayavadana by Girish Karnad The Struggle of the Naga Tribe by W. S. Rendra Truong Ba's Soul in the Butcher's Skin by Luu Quang Vu The chronological and geographical breadth of the anthology provides a unique insight into modern Asian theatre and is essential to any understanding of its relation to Western drama and indigenous performance.

Author: David Adjmi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472503430
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 526

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Book Description
The Methuen Drama Book of New American Plays is an anthology of six outstanding plays from some of the most exciting playwrights currently receiving critical acclaim in the States. It showcases work produced at a number of the leading theatres during the last decade and charts something of the extraordinary range of current playwriting in America. It will be invaluable not only to readers and theatergoers in the U.S., but to those around the world seeking out new American plays and an insight into how U.S. playwrights are engaging with their current social and political environment. There is a rich collection of distinctive, diverse voices at work in the contemporary American theatre and this brings together six of the best, with work by David Adjmi, Marcus Gardley, Young Jean Lee, Katori Hall, Christopher Shinn and Dan LeFranc. The featured plays range from the intimate to the epic, the personal to the national and taken together explore a variety of cultural perspectives on life in America. The first play, David Adjmi's Stunning, is an excavation of ruptured identity set in modern day Midwood, Brooklyn, in the heart of the insular Syrian-Jewish community; Marcus Gardley's lyrical epic The Road Weeps, The Well Runs Dry deals with the migration of Black Seminoles, is set in mid-1800s Oklahoma and speaks directly to modern spirituality, relocation and cultural history; Young Jean Lee's Pullman, WA deals with self-hatred and the self-help culture in her formally inventive three-character play; Katori Hall's Hurt Village uses the real housing project of "Hurt Village" as a potent allegory for urban neglect set against the backdrop of the Iraq war; Christopher Shinn's Dying City melds the personal and political in a theatrical crucible that cracks open our response to 9/11 and Abu Graib, and finally Dan LeFranc's The Big Meal, an inter-generational play spanning eighty years, is set in the mid-west in a generic restaurant and considers family legacy and how some of the smallest events in life turn out to be the most significant.

Author: Cicely Hamilton
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408176599
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
The Methuen Drama Book of Suffrage Plays is an anthology of eight exciting pieces written for and by members of the Actresses Franchise League from 1909-13. Immediately playable, they offer strong, varied roles for female casts, while also providing invaluable source material to students and scholars from a wide range of disciplines. Featuring 'How The Vote Was Won' which remains one of the most popular and well known suffrage plays, the volume also includes seven shorter works: 'Lady Geraldine's Speech' (1909), a fantastic, fun piece for actresses. Lady Geraldine hasn't thought through the Suffrage cause and, on a visit to an old school friend meets some charismatic, successful and intelligent women who soon enlighten and encourage her on to the right path! 'Pot and Kettle' (1909), a comic piece in which a young woman returns to her family in great distress having assaulted a suffragette who was sitting near her at a Anti-Suffragist meeting. 'Miss Appleyard's Awakening' about an anti-suffrage campaigner who finds herself in the home of a sympathizer but ends up inadvertently drawing her hostesses' attention to the contradictions in her arguments 'Her Vote' by the actor and playwright Henry Esmond which provides an interesting male viewpoint on the movement, criticizing the young suffragist for wanting to be part of a movement about which she seems to understand little. 'The Anti-Suffragist or The Other Side', a charming, clever monologue about a sheltered young woman who finds herself increasingly involved with her local Anti-Suffrage society and increasingly puzzled by what she learns there. 'The Mother's Meeting', an entertaining monologue that uses a working class character to expose the inconsistencies in the Anti-Suffrage arguments. 'Tradition' was first performed at a matinee for the Woman Suffrage Party held at the Berkeley Theatre in New York City on Saturday 24 January 1913. The plays featured articulate the arguments of the Suffrage Movement through a variety of styles, both comic and serious, and perfectly illustrate the use of drama as a medium for social change and entertainment. Together with illustrations and an introduction charting the history of the Actresses Franchise League and exploring the context and provenance of the plays, this is an excellent resource for both study and performance.

Author: Tim Etchells
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408176548
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
This diverse anthology features eight contemporary plays founded in testimonies from across the world. Showcasing challenging and provocative works of theatre, the collection also provides a clear insight into the workings of the genre through author interviews, introductions from the companies and performance images which illustrate the process of creating each piece. Bystander 9/11 by Meron Langsner is an impressionistic but wholly authentic response to the catastrophe as it unfolded and in the days following. Big Head by Denise Uyehara is an interrogation of current perceptions of "the enemy now" as seen through the lens of Japanese American internment during World War II. Urban Theatre Projects' The Fence is a tale of love, belonging and healing. It is a tender work that looks at the adult lives of five family and friends who spent their childhoods in orphanages, institutions and foster homes in Australia. Come Out Eli: Christmas 2002 in Hackney, London, saw the longest siege in British history. Using interviews collected at the time and further material gathered in the aftermath, Alecky Blythe's play explores the impact of the siege on the lives of individuals and the community. The Travels: members of Forced Entertainment undertook a series of journeys during one summer, each travelling alone to locations in the UK to complete tasks determined only partially in advance. This began a mapping process and the creation of a landscape of ideas, narratives and bad dreams. On the Record by Christine Bacon and Noah Birksted-Breen circumnavigates the globe to bring true stories from six independent journalists, all linked by their determination to shed light on the truth. Created by Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deavere Smith and Susan Yankowitz, Seven is based on personal interviews with seven women who have triumphed over huge obstacles to catalyse major changes in human rights in their home countries of Russia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Guatemala and Cambodia. Pajarito Nuevo la Lleva: The Sounds of the Coup by María José Contreras Lorenzini focuses upon sense memories of witnesses who were children at the time of the 1974 military coup in Chile.

Author: James Graham
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472587820
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 105

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Book Description
I just remember, even as a, as a young . . . man, not even man, just a boy . . . when nothing makes sense, and you're not sure who you are . . . the idea of – the strength of the person that stands alone, carves their own path . . . of it not being who you are or where you're from but what you do. Sam, a working-class northern lad, is a Tory researcher working in the office of an education minister. His colleagues know that he's gay, but aware of his career prospects as a possible future MP, he prefers to keep it under wraps, much to the dismay of his Labour opposite number, James, who is trying to keen to have a relationship with him. Has Sam got any chance of rising through the Tory ranks if he comes out of the closet completely? Discovering that he is working in the same office in which Ted Heath originally began his career inspires Sam to research the man and the rumours about his sexuality. Through juxtaposing two careers – Ted Heath's and that of the young, modern Tory researcher – Graham questions whether sexuality matters in today's political world and, if it does, then why. Tory Boyz was first performed by the National Youth Theatre Company at Soho Theatre, London, on 21 July 2008. This edition contains the updated script from 2013 as well as an introduction by Anthony Banks, director and Associate Director for National Theatre Learning.

Author: Lewis Carroll
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1472572637
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
When Alice falls down a mysterious rabbit hole she stumbles upon a magical fantasy world where anything can happen . . . Take tea with the Mad Hatter, meet the White Rabbit, grin with the Cheshire Cat, and play croquet with the Queen of Hearts, but whatever you do . . . don't lose your head! Lewis Carroll's classic characters spring to life in an enchanting show for the whole family, bursting with music, madness and mystery. Simon Reade's adaptation of Lewis Carroll's much-loved fantasy classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a witty and brilliantly inventive re-working, which won the TMA Award for Best Show for Young People.

Author: James Graham
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408183927
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
This collection brings together four of Graham's most successful and entertaining plays, each representing a relationship with a theatre with which he has worked and introduced by the author. One of the plays, Sons of York, has never before been published, but earned James Graham a nomination for the Empty Space Mark Marvin Award. A History of Falling Things is a gentle love story about a young man and woman forced to confront their fears of the outside world and discover what really matters to their lives. Tory Boyz is a fast-paced, political comedy about prejudice and ambition in Westminster, looking at homosexuality in the British Conservative party, both today and in the past. As Ben, self-employed, skint and emotionally vulnerable, begins to stitch together the patchwork quilt that was the Tax Year 2009/2010, he relives a year that was both hilarious and tragic, all mixed up in one shoe box of receipts. The Man is an affectionate and funny portrait of an individual's year-long experience, pieced together from receipts, shopping and commercial transactions. The Whisky Taster is a contemporary, subtle and witty exploration of feeling and perception in the modern world of advertising, and about seeing things too clearly in a city that never stands still. Sons of York Described as 'undoubtedly one of the best new plays of the year' (British Theatre Guide), Sons of York depicts three generations of the same family moving in together in Hull as the Winter of Discontent of 1978 builds up.

Author: James Graham
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1472507029
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 133

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Book Description
This House explores Westminster and the 1974 hung parliament through a combination of dialogue, comedy and political comment; and historical and contemporary concerns.

Author: James Graham
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350055026
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
I want to tell you a story. And it's true. That's what makes it a good fucking story, right, 'cause all the best stories are true. Fleet Street. 1969. The Sun rises. James Graham's ruthless, red-topped play leads with the birth of this country's most influential newspaper – when a young and rebellious Rupert Murdoch asked the impossible and launched its first editor's quest, against all odds, to give the people what they want. Ink was first published to coincide with the world premiere of the play at the Almeida Theatre, London, on 17 June 2017, in a production directed by Rupert Goold.