With every year comes a slate of school productions staged for the public to enjoy. As students flex their theatrical muscles on an artistic journey, modern favorites are revived, classic are re-imagined, and brand new pieces premiere.
Given this year鈥檚 pandemic, the thrill of a school production is harder to pull off. Not all is lost, though.
半岛体育 has uncovered some plays and musicals perfect for staging online in a digital production鈥攚e generally recommend virtually staging plays that have a small cast or that are designed so that it is easy for an ensemble to play multiple roles. Check out a list of titles to put on a show this year while studying remotely.
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
For the uninitiated, the public domain contains thousands of written works not protected by copyright, and therefore they are available to read and perform for free. This rule currently applies to pieces written before 1924, with some exceptions. For more information, visit Stanford University鈥檚 explanation .
Greek classics like Oedipus King of Thebes or Antigone by Sophocles work well for an introduction to the birth of theatre. The entire catalog of Shakespeare is available to be performed, as well. More modern classics like Oscar Wilde鈥檚 The Importance of Being Earnest and Henrik Ibsen鈥檚 A Doll鈥檚 House are also worth mounting.
In addition to using plays already written, students can get creative and create their own adaptations of works in the public domain. That means you could make a modern-day Othello, or a new version of Charles Dickens鈥� A Christmas Carol. An important caveat: you can鈥檛 stage other people鈥檚 contemporary takes on these works鈥攊t must an adaptation or take on the original author's material.
SMALL CAST MUSICALS
While a musical with a small cast doesn鈥檛 come around very often, they鈥檙e perfect for a virtual production. Thankfully, two major licensing companies have created special live stream presentation options that allow performers to create a streaming theatre experience.
Music Theatre International is offering the rights to Jason Robert Brown鈥檚 1995 Off-Broadway staging of , which requires four performers. Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald鈥檚 two-hander is also available. For a full list of works available at MTI, .
Another licensing giant, Concord Theatricals has available, and a special adaptation of its follow-up, , especially designed for online performance. These musicals from Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell feature four main characters. For a full list of musicals available at Concord, .
PLAYS FOR A NEW GENERATION
In addition to musicals, Concord offers access to a number of plays from the 20th century. Among them are the 1943 Pulitzer Prize winner by Thornton Wilder and by Allan Miller, based on the short play by D.H. Lawrence.
Theatre students looking for a more modern piece reminiscent of yesteryear can license Alex Webb鈥檚 , a two-hander set during the Civil War.
For a full list of plays, .
