We’ve been crazy busy here at Plays To Order since the last update. Tomorrow will be the world premiere of our newest musical, HORRIBLE SHAKESPEARE: A MINI-MUSICAL, at the Tri-Dac Summer Theater Program in Columbia, SC. This is a really fun musical about a group of AP English students who are trapped in the Horrible Productions of Shakespeare’s Plays Museum. As they check out the various exhibits for Horrible Shakespeare Past, they are magically transformed into the characters from each display – The Scottish Play set in a fast food restaurant; “Taming of the Shrew” starring a real shrew; “Romeo Mime vs. Juliet Clown”; and “Twelfth Night of the Living Dead.” Clocking in at 30 minutes, HORRIBLE SHAKESPEARE features 6 songs with music by Ryan O’Connell (who also composed HORROR HIGH: THE MUSICAL), and lyrics by Ryan and Sean. This is a perfect musical for festivals – 30 minutes, plus zombies!
We also had our world premiere of WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF…? SIX 10-MINUTE PLAYS OF IMPROBABILITY. Kankakee High School in IL, under the direction of Deena Badr-Cassady, mounted the very first production of this weird and funny collection of short plays.
And, finally, just a few weeks ago, “Dr. Jekyll and Little Miss Hyde,” one of the short plays in EXPOSED! EIGHT 10-MINUTE PLAYS ABOUT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED, premiered at the 10 By 10 in the Triangle International 10-minute play festival in NC. A couple of reviews:
“Mark Filiaci directs Dr. Jekyll and Little Miss Hyde by Sean Abley, a take off of Charles Ludlam’s The Mystery of Irma Vep, in which two people play several parts, including both genders for each actor. In Ludlam’s play the two actors must of the same gender, but Abley twists the gender-changing one step further by using a man and a woman. And the humor/drama is enhanced by having the changes occur behind a Wayang style white screen. Owen Daly and Leanne Heinz camp it up beautifully; pay particular notice to Daly’s “problem” when he changes back to male roles.”
“Of the night’s offerings, the seed-play most in need of expansion as a full-length work was “Dr. Jekyll and Little Miss Hyde.” In this rewarding gender-role comedy, playwright Sean Abley gives the Robert Louis Stevenson potboiler the Charles Ludlam (Irma Vep) treatment, assigning multiple roles across gender to two actors. Abley’s witty writing hinges on the definitions of monstrous behavior that differed substantially for men and women in Victorian England—before connecting Stevenson’s “horror” to the rise of the suffragettes.”
“Judging by the reactions, the favorite of the evening was “Dr. Jekyll and Little Miss Hyde”; the laughter and applause meter peaked for this entertaining little examination of Victorian mores.”
