Verdun, Quebec and Hudson’s Hope, British Columbia.

I am very honored that these brave high school students (and their fearless drama teachers) will be bringing Promedy to life on the stage.

Verdun is a part of the beautiful city of Montreal. Apparently it’s very close to downtown. LIt will be performed by the drama department at Buering Academy. et’s see what random Google image I can come up with:

I am not sure if it will be performed in English or French. (That might actually make the show funnier.)

On the west sit of Canada, way up in the northeastern corner of British Columbia, you’ll find the town of Hudson’s Hope.

The population of the town is just over 1000. So, I’m not sure how many tickets they will sell — but I wish them all the best. I have been reading a lot about both communities. They both sound like wonderful places — I hope the school and the entire community enjoys the show.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll sing the Canadian anthem.

But here’s the good news:

As you may or may not know, I have written a play called PLAY. (It’s world premiere takes place on Oct. 16th — at the SCV Space Theater.) Well, I am happy to announce that the full-length PLAY will soon be in print — all thanks to the good folks at Heuer Plays.

For anyone familiar with my educational satires: Conflict and Genre — I think you will really enjoy this PLAY. When it gets closer to its release date, i will definitely be blogging about it again. In the meantime, here’s a humorous monologue from the “Irony” portion of the show:

CASSANDRA:

No, I am not enjoying the party. Behold poor souls! The fates turn backwards on themselves. There is danger looming ahead. I can see our bleak future. I am doomed to know all of the catastrophes that will befall us, yet no one believes me. Therefore, hark, Paris, Prince of Troy. All is twisted and sour — and I am not just talking about the fruit punch. Can you not see all of the signs? They are all around us, even as we celebrate. Look there, Hercules the strongest man in the world can break anything, but he cannot break dance. And look here, Hades is the Lord of the Dead, yet he’s the life of the party. Sisyphus refuses to rock and roll. Prometheus the Titan gave us the gift of fire, but he’s banned smoking. Ares has made peace with the fact that his brother Apollo isn’t very bright. Narcissus broke up with himself. Orpheus only speaks the truth, but he plays a lyre. Dionysus is sober but Icarus is high, Poseidon is sloshed and Medusa just got stoned. Atlas is on top of the world. Athena is proud of her humility, and Hermes thinks that hubris belongs on pita bread. Zeus knows everything except how to spell the word omniscient, and Thor — What the hell is Thor doing here? Midas has the Golden Touch but thanks to Aphrodite he also has a touch of herpes. Medea is offering advice on parenting. Antigone is agreeable. An audience smart enough to understand these jokes is too intelligent to be amused by them. And Oedipus’ date looks old enough to be his mother! And what do all these foreboding signs forebode? We are all doomed to die. The Greeks are preparing an attack. They will lay siege to this city and destroy this city and everyone within these walls shall perish by flame and arrow and sword. Oh, and you’re out of napkins.

Somewhere, lurking in my office, is a disk with photos. Hopefully I’ll find it and upload some of the images onto this blog. But for now I’d just like to thank some of the following people:

Randy Aronson — who secured a $1500 donation from a company called Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain — for donating the money.
Billy Davis — for his generous pledge.

Laura Lanoil — who was with me during every rehearsal, making sure I stayed sane through the creative process.
Leah Di Paola — who helped with vocal direction and choreographed “Don’t Stop Believing” and “Somebody to Love.” Both show stoppers.
Leslie Berra — who offered lots of excellent advice (because she’s the expert on these cabaret events) and who directed the Purple Group numbers (the beautifully serious songs “Purple Summer” and “Light”)
Kamber Moen — who helped us quite a bit despite her busy schedule. She worked on the Orange Group (Monkey) numbers.
John Morris — for doing such a great job with the food (with a very moderate budget, no less!)

And of course my wife, Cheri — she is the most supportive person in my life. I am so lucky to have such a kindred spirit to share my world.

There are many more folks to thank, but it’s almost time for me to teach a class! Gotta go!

It’s the first part of my ten minute play, “Romeo Revised.” There’s some directorial changes I might make — and its not how I envisioned the acting. But overall, I think the young performers do a great job. The audience seems to like it, at least.

Enjoy! (Oh, and if you’re interested, you can order the play at Heuer Plays)

I am performing Junipers wonderful monologue for my A Level drama piece, I have already downloaded the whole play and read it through but i was wondering if there are any extra notes I may have on the character of Juniper, for example where exactly she lives in America and whether or not she has shy moments etc.

This will greatly help me in performing my monologue to the best of my ability and it would be lovely to know all the minor details in order to achieve full marks for my written work as well as practical.

Thank you very much,
Grace Painter

Well, Grace, I imagine that Juniper lives somewhere in Oregon, about 50 miles from the nearest town. I have a Great-Uncle who lives in a tiny town called Monument, Oregon. There’s no cell-phone reception. The one cafe is in someone’s trailer. His ranch — with its horses, goats, barn cats and sheep– is how I picture Juniper’s home.

Megan and Gary don’t live in a thriving metropolis. They live in a typical suburban town — maybe one that has the great outdoors nearby… A place like Klamath Falls, Oregon, perhaps.

However, I don’t mention specific locations in my play because I want students and actors to choose the setting. Some students have given Juniper a southern accent — and that’s fine by me. To me, the characters seem very American — but perhaps they could be British or Irish or who knows!

As to whether Juniper is shy — she’s sometimes around people that obviously don’t understand her. She is not very out-going around Brandi or Mrs. Dunbar, for example. She senses their rudeness and tends to shy away from them.

Although Juniper’s past is gradually revealed in “Tomorrow’s Wish”, there are still many elements about her character that remain a mystery. It’s your job as an actress to develop that character yourself — but I can give you some useful questions to steer you in the right direction.

Why does Juniper believe her mother abandoned her?

How does Juniper spend a typical day on her Grandmother’s ranch?

Has her grandmother been over-protective or appropriately cautious when it comes to raising her grand-daughter?

How does Juniper feel about her special abilities?

Why is Juniper so fond of her cousin Megan? What was their relationship like when they were younger?

Hope this is helpful! Remember, even though I am the playwright, the answers to the questions are your to imagine.

Thanks Grace! Break a leg!

I have lots of unpublished manuscripts hanging around my office. But most of them are old novels or screenplays. I am very fortunate in that most of my plays have been published by either Eldridge Plays, Heuer Plays, or Playscripts or Big Dog Plays. There are a coupl plays that I wrote during my teens that are just plain horrible — so those will never see the light of day. However, there is a play of mine that I LOVE and it has yet to be published.

That play is Tomorrow’s Wish. It’s been a labor of love of mine since 2002 when I started kicking the idea around. It is currently being looked at by Eldridge Plays and Heuer Plays. But they haven’t gotten back to my yet. (Not with this current draft, anyway.) It’s about a teen named Megan (named after my niece) who dreads the idea of her eccentric cousin Juniper coming over for a visit.

In the first drafts, Juniper was a very loving, mentally handicapped 16 year old girl. And this is perhaps where the first major problem of the play arose — Juniper kept fluctuating from childlike to emotionally distraught, to surprisingly mature and well-spoken. So, trying to write a mentally disabled teen-age girl proved to be the wrong direction. But it took me a LONG time to understand that and be able to revise the work. Now Juniper is a homeschool student who lives on a secluded ranch with her grandmother. She is very bright, but not used to being around others– so she shifts from introvert to extrovert with the snap of a finger. (Oh, and she has a very special power — but that’s top secret.)

But I finally did! I’ve recently submitted the play to a couple places. So I’m hoping that Tomorrow’s Wish will someday be published and performed by talented high school students. I’ve gottena lot of terrific feedback about one of the monologues from the play (it’s available at my About.com GuideSite).

A few brave actresses have even posted performances of the monologue on YouTube.

And here’s another…

And this one is during someone’s drama class:

About a year ago, they wanted to create a play that was about artists, adventurers, and inventors from the turn of the century (late 1800s – early 1900s). So, I toyed around with a few ideas and TADA — I wrote “Impressions of Yesterday.”

The premise: two sisters discover an old trunk that is magically connected to an art studio in Paris, 1899. Out of the trunk pops Mary Cassatt, Monet, Degas, and many other iconic figures from the era.

The play is available at Playscripts Inc.

Writing for children’s is a fun and challenging art form. You want the dialogue to be easy enough for the performers — but you don’t want to “talk down” to the audience or to the cast members.

As with Mermaid in Miami, I was adapting a Hans Christian Andersen story. And if you are an Andersen purists, you might not care for my adaptation. His story ends with Thumbelina marrying a fairy prince and living with the flower people — and thereby never returning to the human woman that raised and nurtured. My tale of Thumbelina focuses on a little girl (very little) who is trying to find her place in the world — and realizes that she and her mother need each other.

My good friend Fiona Perry starred as Thumbelina in the world premiere — and my two daughters had some good parts too!

Here are some photos from Mrs. Stafford’s drama class — (She also directed JT and the Pirates — thanks for your support, Mrs. Stafford!)

Learn more about Wade’s plays.

]]> http://wadebradford.com/blog6/2009/08/25/thumbelina-back-to-childrens-theater-basics/feed/ 0 http://wadebradford.com/blog6/2009/08/21/conflict-a-comedy-with-a-cantaloupe/ http://wadebradford.com/blog6/2009/08/21/conflict-a-comedy-with-a-cantaloupe/#comments Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:09:11 +0000 Administrator http://wadebradford.com/blog6/2009/08/21/conflict-a-comedy-with-a-cantaloupe/ My friend Joshua and I, when were were struggling artists (unlike now — ha, ha), lived in Orange County without a car and without very much money to entertain ourselves. But we did have our roommate’s video camera. So we would often make these strange yet funny videos. One of them involved us just wandering the video store and using the produce for our prop comedy.

We made up a Headless Horseman character who used a cantaloupe instead of a pumpkin — and ever since then (even though I hate the taste) I’ve had an affinity for the fruit.

So — if you’ve ever seen my play “Conflict” and wondered why the playwright created a story about a young man who is obsessed with a cantaloupe — the source of his inner and outer conflicts — now you know why. No symbolism or anything. Just a fruit I admire.

“Conflict” was a script I wrote specifically for the Repertory East Playhouse. I entered their Page 2 Stage competition — and happily the script won! “Conflict” was produce and directed by a top-notch crew — and performed by a cast of talented actors. It was a joy to watch.

“Conflict” runs about 25 minutes, and like some of my other shorter plays, it has done quite well at drama student competitions.

Learn more about Wade’s Plays.

I’ve always loved stories such as Peter Pan, Mary Poppins, and of course more modern kid’s books such as the Harry Potter series. But you know what I’ve never liked? CSI television shows. It started off with just one show — then they spun off with CSI Miami and CSI New York, and some CSI Navy show or something. And I thought it was a ridiculous amount of over-kill worthy of being lampooned. So, that was the seeds of CSI:Neverland.

So far this has become my most popular show — mainly because I full-on embrace silliness. And I had such a fun time creating the Peter character — this obnoxious, fun-loving man-child that has unlimited energy. I’ve had the pleasure of watching several schools perform the play — and each time, the director did a brilliant job of casting the right kid to play the lead role.

Check out this awesome commercial that some students posted on YouTube:

And here’s a breife scene which someone kindly posted:

Here’s an image from a different school production. Peter Pantaloon is talking to the “Lost Boys” — they haven’t aged as well as Peter, unfortunately.

Some of the monologues from the play have become popular too. There’s a Neverland 911 Operator speech that has been embraced by YouTube thespians.

Learn more about Wade’s plays.

]]> http://wadebradford.com/blog6/2009/08/17/csi-neverland-my-comic-tribute-to-childrens-literature/feed/ 1