From the Ground Up
Fall 2010: "No Mother to Guide Her, or, More to Be Pitied Than Censured"Melodrama
This revival of the old style proved great fun for the cast and the audience alike as the characters broke the fourth wall to chat with the audience and respond to the cheers for heroes and hissing boos for the villains. Plot When a beautiful young girl is found on the walk outside the Vandenburgh home, she is carried inside. She is suffering from a complete loss of memory. Identification in her purse reveals only that her name is Spring Overton. That black hearted rogue, Talbot Twillingham, takes one glance at the chaste young heroine and decides that she will be chased as well. He reckons without the presence of a manly hero, Casper Vandenburgh. When Spring repulses Talbot's advances he shoots old Sylverster Vandenburgh and places the blame on Spring. Talbot drugs Spring with a rare poison. Of course, Spring is rescued in the nick of time by Casper. |
Spring 2011: "The Revenge of the Space Pandas" by David MametYes, THAT David Mamet
The playwright notorious for such works as Sexual Perversity in Chicago and Glengarry Glen Ross wrote a production specifically for junior high students, and it's great! Plot Binky Rudich, his friend Viv, and his almost human sheep Bob tinker with a two-speed clock with the idea that, as Binky says, "Time on Earth moves at the same speed all the time, but there is another speed, a slower speed, and if we could find it, everything would stand still on Earth and we would spin off." And they do! To Crestview, Fourth World in the Goolagong System, ruled by George Topax and guarded by the Great Space Pandas. The excitement really begins when the Supreme Ruler commands that Bob be brought to him, never again to leave Goolagong, and he steals the two-speed clock just to make sure. Only a very serious playwright could produce such an insane comedy! |