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Adaptation

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16 characters

Notes: from John Neihardt

Synopsis: The power of the play is not simply that it's superbly written drama but that it's all true. The play has color, flair, flamboyance. It has at other times an almost insufferable grief and fear. This is the death and destruction of the original Americans, and it hurts to watch. They are a people with a rich past and absolutely no future. This play is harnessed dynamite. Black Elk lived the experience of the Native American people from the moment before white people entered his world through the end of Indian independence at the massacre of Wounded Knee. His unique eloquence and that of his cousin Crazy Horse make this play a very special event. The play moves quickly and with mounting excitement through this history and through a vision of life as it once was for the Indian, and as it could be for all people. Area staging.

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Adaptation

9

7

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Notes: from Frank Gilbreth & Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

Synopsis: Suppose you're an attractive high school girl and you're not only a member of a large and unique family but your father is, in fact, one of the great pioneers of industrial efficiency. Then suppose he decides, for no apparent reason, to apply his unorthodox methods to you and to the rest of your big family. The results are embarrassing, funny and - it must be admitted - extremely effective! To Anne, however, the chief effect seems to be that of making them seem ridiculous to everyone else at school - especially to the boys! Dad pushes ahead with better organization for his large and delightful family. He puts up a chart for the young people to initial after completing each household task, uses a rung as an imaginary bathtub to demonstrate how to take a really efficient bath and appoints a utilities officer to levy fines on wasters of electricity. While the situations are often uproarious, there's a serious reason. Dad has a heart condition which he's keeping secret. The children don't understand them. Anne, the oldest, rebels. Both Dad and she are miserable at the lack of understanding between them. Then in a deft and moving scene, Dad becomes aware of how much Anne has grown up.

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Adaptation

9

15

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Notes: from Christopher Gore & David De Silva

Synopsis: "You want fame? Well, fame costs. And right here is where you start paying". "Right here" is the School of Performing Arts in New York City, and the first problem for the hundreds of young people eager to start paying their dues in pursuit of fame in the performing arts is to get accepted. As the play begins, the school is in the midst of auditioning applicants. They're every size, shape and attitude. They're scared, they're brave, they're rich and they're poor. They've got nothing in common but a compelling dream  and each pursues it in a special way just as each must deal with the special problems of their various lives. Doris, pushed and prodded by her stage mother, has to learn to be beautiful on her own. Montgomery has to come to terms with his loneliness, his considerable talent and his need for a friend. Ralph must deal with his intensity and anger that threaten to drive him to the same fate that claimed his idol Freddie Prinze. Coco knows it all too quickly. Michael is so handsome and talented it would seem impossible for him to fail. Bruno, living with the music in his head and intolerant of the "moldie oldies" (such as Mozart), frustrates his teacher who hates his attitude but admires his talent. Leroy, an angry young man from the ghetto, is streetwise but a scholastic disaster whose passion for dancing could transform his life  if he'd allow it. The dramatic riches explored and developed in this play as the various students interact with each other and with their teachers  who must present a tough exterior but who care so very much  create an exciting theatrical tapestry in this useful and fulfilling play. Like the School of Performing Arts, this play goes to the essence of young people and of theatre. While this is a play and not a musical, there is some music and some dancing, though this may be adapted to suit the particular talents of your performers

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Adaptation

7

10

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Notes: from Helen Doss

Synopsis: When a young minister and his wife found that they couldn't have children of their own, they set out to adopt some. After adopting young Don (now a handsome, interesting teenager), they wanted many more children. They discovered that nobody wants children with Mexican, Oriental or Indian blood, and so they adopted a house full of "unadoptables" who grew up together, all part of one family. Now Don, the oldest, is asked to deny these brothers and sisters for the sake of the one girl that matters to him. The stirring resolution, with its laughter and pathos, makes this a unique combination of high ideals and high entertainment.

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Adaptation

10

17

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Notes: Mel Brooks & Buck Henry

Synopsis: In this marvellous spy-spoof Maxwell Smart stumbles into action to stop the sinister organization known as KAOS from blowing up the Statue of Liberty!

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Adaptation

13

9

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Notes: from Earl Hamner Jr

Synopsis: Known on television as The Waltons, they're called The Spencers in the original book, which is how they're named here. The time is the Great Depression and the large Spencer family, living at the foot of a Virginia mountain, is struggling hard just to survive. With his father having to take the only available job a long way from home, Clay-Boy is stuck with unusual responsibility for his brothers and sisters. Just reaching manhood, Clay-Boy has a secret yearning that's quite extraordinary for the practical, earth-bound community in which he lives. He wants to write! Such foolishness is utterly foreign to his hardworking father, who tells him to prepare to become a responsible man - to build a home and raise a family. Clay-Boy could explode with frustration at his inability to communicate with this man that he admires most. He is also worried because his father is already long overdue in getting home. In the climax, the father makes it - just as they are in despair about him. He brings a special gift for his son, a gift that reveals unexpected understanding and the strength of a loving family.

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Adaptation

7

7

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Notes: written by Anne Coulter Martens & Christopher Sergel from James Hilton

Synopsis: The point of this play - which put "Shangri-La" into our language - has an even greater urgency now than ever before. Four travelers from a wrecked plane are brought to Shangri-La. An elderly Chinese tells them they're "expected". Conway is fascinated by the strange atmosphere of the place and by a lovely girl whom he finds there. In a moving scene, the High Lama reveals to Conway their secret - that people do not grow old in Shangri-La, which is dedicated to preserving the culture of the past until the storms of war outside shall have passed. An unusual play with a special meaning.

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Adaptation

7

9

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Notes: from Sally Benson

Synopsis: Four attractive sisters eagerly anticipate the wonderful World's Fair that is about to open in St. Louis. The girls also worry and interfere with the love life of their only brother, whom they suspect of ditching his hometown sweetheart for a snob from the East. Then Father adds to the drama by announcing he's been offered a job in New York which means leaving St. Louis and missing the fair! And so the girls unite for action . . .

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Comedy

14

16

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Notes: -

Synopsis: Hilarious, rib-tickling comedy, wrote one leading critic, adding that he considers it "the funniest on record" The wonderful audience response to this show has been shared in the enthusiastic reaction of the critics who admire not only its sharp wit but also its wisdom. Pretty woman and Duchess Gloriana, ruler of a tiny country in the Alps founded centuries ago by a roving band of English bowmen, declares war on the USA in a mad-cap scheme to avoid national bankruptcy !

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Adaptation

4

3

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Notes: Original Playwright - Ambrose Bierce

Synopsis:

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Musical Comedy

Musical

7

14

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Notes: written by Christopher Sergel, David Rogers & Mark Bucci - from R.J. Mann

Synopsis: As Miss Brooks tries to deal with school problems, she sings of an exotic vacation on which she may meet a wonderful man. Actually, the man for Miss Brooks is the athletic coach, but all he thinks of is the team and, unfortunately, Miss Brooks has stolen his top athlete for her show. The principal tells his problems in the hilarious song, "The Principal of the Thing." The coach sings a reprise on the title song but changes it, happily, to "My Miss Brooks." A sparkling school musical.

Bolton Little Theatre, UK (UK premiere) >>>

2006

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Adaptation

10

8

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Notes: from a novel by S. E. Hinton

Synopsis: This entirely practical stage adaptation deals with real people, seen through the eyes of young Ponyboy, a Greaser on the wrong side of life, caught up in territorial battles between the have-it-made rich kids - the Socs - and his tough, underprivileged "greaser" family and friends. In the midst of urban warfare, somehow Ponyboy can't forget a short poem that speaks of their fragile young lives: Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, so dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. "Robert Frost wrote it," Ponyboy tells Johnny. "I always remembered it because I never quite got what he meant by it." Cherry, a beautiful Soc, comes to share a special sensitivity with Ponyboy as she discovers that he remembers poems and needs to watch sunsets. At the same time, Cherry's attracted to the older, tougher Dallas, and in a sense she's caught in the violent space between the Greasers and the Socs. While the Socs appear to have everything, the only thing a Greaser has is his friends. As these young people try to find themselves and each other, as the sadness of sophistication begins to reach them and their battles and relationships reach a resolution, Ponyboy's dying friend, Johnny, sends him a last message. . . I've been thinking about the poem that guy wrote. He meant you're gold when you're a kid, like green. When you're a kid everything's new, dawn. It's just when you get used to everything that it's day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That's gold. Keep it that way. It's a good way to be." This is a play about young people who are not yet hopeless about latent decency in the midst of struggle. Area staging.

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Adaptation

6

15

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Notes: from the screenplay by Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin

Synopsis: Jan Morrow is a successful young interior decorator who is forced to share a party line with a man named Brad Allen. Brad is so frequently talking to one girl or another that Jan, in desperation, breaks in on one of his conversations, only to have Brad accuse her of snooping. This hurts her feelings because she'd never do that. She's a lonely girl who has been giving everything to her work, and her evenings are spent alone, talking to her pillow. Through a friend, Brad finally meets Jan. He passes himself off as a naive young fellow from Texas named Rex Stetson, and Jan is entranced. When Brad, over their party line, gives her dire warnings concerning Rex, she is indignant. Brad's dual identity as the Texan and the cynical commentator on Jan's increasingly important love for the gentle Rex makes this a very special comedy

Greenwich, London

1988

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Adaptation

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large cast

Notes: from novel by Harper Lee

Synopsis: the audience becomes the jury overseeing the trial of the young black man accused of raping a white teenage girl in deep south Alabama during the 1930s

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Adaptation

12

18

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Notes: from Bel Kaufman

Synopsis: Hi, Teach! are the first words to greet attractive Sylvia Barrett. There's a special happiness in walking into the still-empty classroom and for the first time writing her name on the blackboard. Students pour into the classroom - cautious, testing, challenging. Simultaneously, there's a blizzard of paperwork, warnings, contradictory orders, indecipherable instructions. Frantic, Sylvia begins to fear she doesn't even understand the language. An experienced teacher translates: "Keep on file in numerical order" means throw in wastebasket. "Let it be a challenge" means you're stuck with it. "Interpersonal relationships" means a fight between kids. And "It has come to my attention" means you're in trouble. Soon Sylvia finds herself the most involved person in the school- involved in the start of a romance and in a near war with a discipline-over-everything administrator, but, most of all, involved in the unexpected, sometimes heartbreaking problems of her students. The simple stage arrangement makes the play easy to produce and serves to convey a sense of the whole school. One critic said, "Seldom has a humorous work been at the same time so important."

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Adaptation

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large mixed cast

Notes: from Kurt Vonnegut Jr

Synopsis: Vonnegut begins with a moving episode about right now in which a young man searches for companionship and identity through participation in amateur theatricals, appropriately entitled Who Am I This Time? An edged satire of the future concludes the first act. The final scene, entirely realistic and modern, gets to the heart of what really concerns young people as a music teacher fights to salvage a rebellious young man, explaining to him how one might bring beauty into the world. "Love yourself," the teacher tells him, "and make your instrument sing about it"

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Adaptation

One Act

3

7

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Notes: from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

Synopsis: Harry Nash, an insecure young man, searches for identity through participation in amateur theatricals. With a real life personality as bland as the leaf rakes in the hardware store where he works, he's of no interest to anyone. When handed a script, however, he asks, "Who am I this time?" and on the stage he becomes the role he plays. It can be powerful, witty or even cruel but, body and soul, Harry lives the role until the curtain falls. And then a girl falls in love with him - but it's with the Harry who is "in character."

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Adaptation

12

4

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Notes: from Sherwood Anderson

Synopsis: "Everyone wants to get their story told," an Anderson character suggests, "so the terrible isolation of their lives can break" Through this play, the complex people of Anderson's small town break their isolation. The central role  that of Elizabeth Willard  has been played by Eva Marie Saint, Jean Peters and Dorothy McGuire. As a girl, Elizabeth failed in her rebellion against the limitations of her life. Her hope now is for her son to escape and, perhaps, express something for them both

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Spoof

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8

18

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Notes: -

Synopsis: This spoof will probably set astrology so far back that the ancient Chaldeans will have to start over! The play begins with an unexpected astrologer in direct and devastating communication with your audience. This wild astrologer, we secretly discover, is actually the quiet and sincere high school science teacher who couldn't get adequate funds to equip his classroom. In a sense, this comic spoof becomes a modern retelling of the classic situation in which astronomers could only get help for scientific study by telling horoscopes. In the disguise of an outrageous astrologer, our modern science teacher rediscovers the same thing-the world is his, along with the girl he cares about, if he'll just remain an astrologer! This is a comedy in which hilarity is ascending and, if you produce it, our unofficial horoscope says your house will be full!