But . . . should I really give the scripts of my plays away for free?

Well, maybe you shouldn’t. If you’re able to get all of your plays into print and are happy with the kind of distribution they get, inside and outside of your country, then you’re doing fine without us (though we’d be delighted if you wanted to sign on just the same). Frankly, we think this describes a small minority of professional playwrights.

We also think playwrights are in a special position. Unlike poets and novelists, our work exists primarily to be performed. By making texts available on the Web, we hope to encourage further productions that will return royalties to playwrights many times those they might expect from publishing — while also (no small consideration) giving the play further life on the stage.

Of course, some of the plays we publish electronically on our website will also continue to be available in print, and, where possible, we will provide a link for those who prefer to buy the script in that form. Many will: schools, others. In fact, if we promote ProPlay properly — and we intend to — we think we can probably boost sales of these plays in their printed versions, even while we offer them for free online. Everyone wins. Especially the playwright.

Or perhaps you’ll choose to publish some of your scripts with ProPlay but withhold those that have already been published elsewhere. That’s fine too. We expect, though, that many of our associates will be professional playwrights whose scripts — for whatever reason — haven’t appeared in print at all, and who want to use us as a convenient way to make them more widely available. There are a lot of good plays out there that should be better known, not to mention more often produced. That’s why ProPlay has been created.

 

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Notes: Babes in America

Playing Time: 90-100 minutes

Setting: The present

Cast (6+):

2 women 40-50
1 woman about 16

2 men 40-50
1 man about 18

1 Shadow, either gender, may be doubled

Set: 1 interior/exterior set, suitable for black box

CHARACTERS LIZ and CHAS SMALL, a couple who perceive themselves as being much younger than they are. They use extravagant amounts of cosmetics and herbal supplements and wear youthful wigs. Their youthful clothing may be a size too small. LIZ is obedient to and admiring of her husband, CHAS, an ad copy writer who puts an exhausting spin on words.

BETH and CHUCK SMALL, a couple who are LIZ and CHAS’s neighbors and contemporaries. They share LIZ and CHAS’s values.

BETSY and CHARLIE SMALL, LIZ and CHAS’s children, ages 16 and 18 respectively, whom LIZ and CHAS perceive to be babies. THEY wear baby clothes over their appropriate dress and continue with the masquerade in hopes of guiding their parents to a life of fuller awareness. CHARLIE needs a shave.

The SHADOW, may be doubled. The SHADOW is a reflection of LIZ’s perception of the world around her.

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Notes: Cat as Cat Can

AUTHOR’S NOTE

“But how to play the cat?” The question was often asked before the play was performed. The answer: through imagination. The way children — with no costumes or acting training — totally convince us by their simple joy in make-believe that all by themselves they can add up to an entire zoo. That’s how Gérard Martin, who created the part in Paris, became my cat . . . his left arm undulating like an “inquisitive” cat’s tail . . . then he’d scratch his chin in fast motion with his right hand, used as a paw-with-claws. He’d sniff his acting partners to make their acquaintance.

CAST: 4 actors who play:

1. Prince Charming
2. The Queen, The Aunt, Claudette, Merlin.
3. Valerie, Veronika, Gaston 2.
4. Gaston, Gustave, Gilbert, Valentine.

or 12 actors:

The Queen
Valerie
Veronika
Her Aunt
ClaudettePrince Charming
The Cat-Prince
Gaston
Gustave
Gilbert
Merlin
Valentine
Two passers-by

Time: the present. A mobile set

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Notes: Just Desserts

Just Desserts: Playwright’s Notes

Just Desserts concerns our portions in Life and how we select our options for Life. In all three plays we get our Just Desserts and this depends as much on what we get served as on our choices. Freedom to choose is often an illusion.

As children we say Yes to Life – Easter Eggs is fast, fun and messy, with the text in verse. As confused adolescents we say both Yes and No to Life. Lemon Soufflé is dreamy, romantic, mysterious. As adults our choice is already made. Omlettes (consciously misspelt) is potent, controlled, sinister.

The plays operate on several levels. Linked by a unifying sense of irony, the language and style of each piece is particular to itself. Eggs, used as a symbol of creativity, feature in all three plays.

The recommended playing order is:

Easter Eggs (Short Play)
Lemon Soufflé (50 mins.)
Omlettes (45 mins.)

At the first performance in Andrews Lane Theatre, Dublin there was a brief pause after Easter Eggs and a 15 minute interval after Lemon Soufflé.

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Notes: Stuff

The cast of Characters

Milton Stack:
Mid 40’s, rough around the edges, cigarette smoking, blue-collar clearance professional. Physically strong, caring and famous for offering amazing insights and spinning giant yarns about relatives real and imagined. A nurturing soul, friends are important to him, things are not. He likes words that begin with G, the color crimson and a good one liner.

Bobby Warren:
A late 30’s black man, unmarried. Bobby lives alone in a trailer and likes collecting everything. He’s a protector, troublemaker and hot head. At first you think he’s smarter than Milton. But just as Milton surprises with flashes of brilliance, Bobby amazes with his cerebral deficiencies. He likes the three stooges, the color orange and management by intimidation.

Michael Price:
Mid 30’s, yuppie, married with a young daughter, well educated with a hint of the upper crust peaking through into his vocal style. Michael owns a media company and his focus is to clear the stuff from the space so he can build his new movie complex. He is driven, even hyperactive. He likes himself; he’s colorblind and wishes he could get that membership to the Belle Meade Country Club.

Sergeant Gary:
A forties drill Sergeant who is filled with violent hate and consumed with hurting those who are different than he is.

COPYRIGHT 2002

Registered with the Writers Guild of America all rights reserved

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Notes: That Darn Plot!

Playwrights’s Notes:

This play was written for an Edmonton audience and there are some local references. The author allows for changing any geographical references and local references to fit the locality of the production. Brad Fraser is a Canadian playwright known for pushing boundaries into areas sometimes uncomfortable for conservative audiences. Calgary is the nearest major city to Edmonton.

This play essentially takes place in three worlds: the real world of Mark W. Transom, the world created by Transom inhabited by every other character in the play and an undefined twilight zone where the two worlds mingle. The first two worlds need to be onstage at all times once introduced, the third should be played not designed. No lighting changes, please. The play should be performed without black outs. With the sole exceptions of the act break and the transition from Act Two into the Epilogue, each scene should flow smoothly into the other.

The typewriters used in this play are both manuals. This means that they produce not only the percussive rhythms of the keys, but also the whine of the rollers as papers are being pulled out and the slam of the carriages being returned. I strongly encourage directors to use the auditory offerings of these machines as a means of punctuating and underscoring scenes, or to cover scene transitions.

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Notes: The Hearing Trumpet

CAST: 12 actors: 2 men, 10 women

Marian: a ninety-two year old woman whose family no longer wants her.
Carmella: Marian’s best friend, nearly as old but financially independent.
Galahad: Marian’s son.
Muriel: Marian’s daughter-in-law.
Robert: Marian’s twenty-five year old grandson.
Dr. Gambit: Director of Lightsome Hall for aged women.
Mrs. Gambit: His wife.
The Bard Taliessin/the Mailman.
Majong: a Chinese chauffeur.
Marlborough: an old friend of Marian’s who resembles Santa Claus.
Anubeth: Marlborough’s sister who has the head of a wolf.
Pontefact, King of the Wolves
The Voice of Abbess Dona Rosalinda
The Voice of Bishop Fernand

Old Ladies of the Institution:
Anna Wertz: resident of the Cuckoo Clock, A giddy and energetic woman who talks non-stop.
Maude Somers: resident of the Birthday Cake, a gentle self-effacing woman who is hiding the fact that she is a man.
Veronica Adams: resident of the Boot, Maud’s (Arthur’s) sweetheart, about as bent over as an old lady can get.
Cristabel Burns: resident of the Railway Carriage, an elegant black woman who believes herself to be 184 years old. Austere, sincere in her mission.
Georgina Sykes: resident of the Circus Tent, a flamboyant Southern Belle, defiant and sarcastic.
Natacha Gonzalez: resident of the Igloo, scheming and spiritually ambitious, in love with Dr. Gambit.
Vera van Tocht: resident of the Red Mushroom, fleshy and motherly on the outside, inside a maker of poisonous fudge.

Note: Doubling of actors in these roles is highly desirable. The actress (or actor) who plays Maude Somers can play Majong. The actress who plays Muriel plays Mrs. Gambit and Anubeth. The actor who plays Robert plays Talliessen, Pontefact and the Mailman, and the actor who plays Galahad plays Dr. Gambit and Marlborough.

Another Note: Those scenes in which Marian has trouble hearing another character, the actors should develop a comic patois containing both nonsense words and real ones. An actor may make him or herself heard clearly by “shouting” or over-enunciating with an increase in volume.

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Notes: The Lost

Christopher Isherwood, one of the famous British writers of the first half of the twentieth century, left England to live in Berlin in the 1920’s to avoid frustration and possible persecution for being a homosexual.

In this pre-Hitler period Germany was one of the few places where homosexuality was tolerated. In this haven Isherwood wrote his Goodbye to Berlin which included the chronicles of “Sally Bowles”, who went though many transformations — on stage and film in I am a Camera, adapted by John Van Druten, and ending up in the lavish if inaccurate stage musical and award-winning film, Cabaret (1972).

His friend, the poet, W. H. Auden, wrote from abroad saying: “There are thirty-seven boy-bars in Berlin where attractive young men trade their favours for a small fee, or a gift.” Germany sounded like paradise. The cult of the body was in full swing. Money was scarce, but the young folk lay on the banks of rivers, drinking in the sun, swimming naked and cultivating a fashionable tan. While in the nightclubs every form of deviant sex was to be found. The famous Transvestites Ball encouraged men in elaborate drag, made up to the eyebrows and girls in dinner jackets with cropped hair and monocles to show their form.

Christopher, in this heady atmosphere of sexual freedom sought the ideal German boy. First, there was Bubi, dreamy-eyed and sensuous, then Otto, a lissom youth, from a poverty-stricken family, who was ready to travel with him, and ready to sell his body, but not his soul — both these turned out to be wanted by the police — and finally he met Heinz, who became his lover and constant companion for years, until Hitler’s purges began and homosexuals began to be hunted down. This passionate love affair had a tragic ending — Heinz was picked up by the Gestapo.

In l939, on the eve of the Second World War, Christopher and Auden left England for America. During this dreary winter voyage Isherwood relives incidents from his life. In the isolation and limbo of the ocean, he feels alienated from his life in Europe and unsure what the future in America may hold for him. He is writing a book called The Lost which is to reflect the lives of the emotionally bankrupt folk, the lost generation which has lost its way — the victims of the Nazis, the survivors of the Spanish Civil War, the desperate and the confused. On this journey he feels he has joined their ranks. The novel was abandoned but the individual stories were published separately and are among the most sensitive and perceptive of his works. The play begins as the ship leaves England and ends as the towers of Manhattan loom out of the fog.

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Playwright’s Notes: Arthur of the Little Round Table

CAST

(In order of appearance)

ARTHUR HONEYCUTT

PENNY HONEYCUTT

GUY WILLOWTREE

HARRIET VANDERHORST

MARCIA STEINHARDT

ANDREW CANNON

JEFFREY DILLSWORTH

ACT I

Scene 1……Little Acorns-Arthur’s Consignment Shop, Friday
Scene 2……Woe Is Us-Shop, next day
Scene 3……In Pursuit-Willowtree’s shed, nighttime
Scene 4……Temptation-Shop, a weekday

ACT II

Scene 1…..Broken Promise-Shop, a Saturday morning
Scene 2…..A Rescue-Shop, later that morning
Scene 3…..Behold-Willowtree’s shed, same day
Scene 4…..All Good Things-Shop, Saturday afternoon

Character Descriptions for ARTHUR OF THE LITTLE ROUND TABLE
(In order of appearance)

ARTHUR HONEYCUTT: A decent and ultra-honest but naive and rather uninteresting man, essentially an idealist who wants to devote his life to doing meaningful and exciting things, like searching for, finding, and preserving the material expressions of the past; in brief, antiques, especially from the Arts and Crafts period, of which he is enamored. He has much to learn both about antiques and life in general, but is capable of learning and “growing”.

PENNY HONEYCUTT: Arthur’s wife, a legal secretary, is far more practical, probably more intelligent, definitely more skeptical than Arthur, and fairly bored. She is a good wife who, despite misgivings, goes along with her romantic husband both to support and protect him from the real world, although he often annoys her. Personalities and good looks superior to her husband’s can definitely attract her attention.

GUY WILLOWTREE: This sleazy character is not nearly as stupid as he acts. His fumbling ways, his speech blunders, and sometimes pathetic (seeming) ignorance have all become part of his presentation. He is a picker who grubs about for things to sell to dealers. There is still something almost lovable about the rogue.

HARRIET VANDERHORST: A patrician whose divorce left her rich, she is an important collector of Arts and Crafts antiques as well as a snob who pretends indifference to almost everything, but she would kill for the right item to add to her collection. She is close, initially, to her advisor, the renowned and obnoxious Arts and Crafts specialist, Jeffrey Dillsworth, but beneath her refined exterior lurks a sharp-tempered fighter.

MARCIA STEINHARDT: A wealthy, philosophizing, local and big-time gossip who patronizes Arthur’s shop in her quest for jet and Bakelite jewelry, although Arthur will attempt to interest her, unsuccessfully, in Arts and Crafts items. She can be quite compulsive in her buying habits, resisting temptation by yielding. Despite a very mild demeanor, she has very strong opinions.

ANDREW CANNON: Rough-hewn, pompous, impatient man, something of a blustering bully, who visits Arthur’s shop as a consignor. He brings very odd items, any of which he feels are supremely important and that Arthur has no right to reject. Doesn’t mind creating a scene, but can also be something of a gentleman from the old school.

JEFFREY DILLSWORTH: One of the most important and knowledgeable collector/dealers in the field of Arts and Crafts as well as one of the most obnoxious. He will stop at nothing to gain what he wants, short of murder. This Renaissance man is both respected and hated by all the other dealers and collectors. He is frequently holier-than-thou and superior to all. A rather heroic figure, he is most attractive to women.

These images might be helpful:

Sideboard
Gustav Stickley’s Missing Sideboard

table
Arthur’s Little Round Table

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Playwright’s Notes: My One and Only

PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTES

My One And Only is a fictional account of the time Marilyn Monroe spent in Banff and Jasper shooting the film The River Of No Return in 1953. I have taken great liberties with the facts surrounding the shooting of the film. While it is true that Marilyn shot the film in Canada, in both Banff and Jasper National Parks, everything else in the play is pure fiction.

Audiences and readers alike should be warned that the facts tend to get in the way and diminish one’s enjoyment of the story.

Marilyn Monroe is a modern icon — as powerful and pervasive to us as images of the goddess were to cultures in ages past. Even those who take little interest in her life cannot escape her pervasive influence. This play is not by any means a biography of Marilyn Monroe, even though a Marilyn impersonation is critical to its telling. While she figures largely in the story, the Marilyn of this play is her own creature, as much a fictional creation as the other characters. The figure of Marilyn and the details of her visit to Canada are the starting point, not the facts of the case.

It is partly the story of our culture’s fascination with Marilyn Monroe, and partly a variation on that stalwart of Canadian literature — the coming of age story. Ultimately, it is a play about the trials of becoming a man.

It is my belief that a script is only a blueprint for production, and that it is an error to mistake the text for the play. Directors and actors are therefore invited to give free reign to their imaginations and to discover inventive ways to stage the episodic scenes.

Dialogue from the film The River Of No Return has been quoted in the text. Directors may feel free to make as much — or as little — use of the film in other ways as they see fit. While the script may suggest the inclusion of images in one form or another, these choices are left to the director’s discretion. One director might include video projections while another may prefer still images; one director may choose to use images from the film, while another may seek to include voice-overs; still others may wish to allow the text to speak for itself. I encourage all of these options.

CHARACTERS
Scout
Policeman
Mom
Reverend Clark
Lilly
Marilyn
Photographer 1
Photographer 2
Townie

The play is set in both 1953 and 1962 in both Banff and Los Angeles.

Several locations are required, including a hotel room, a car, a movie theatre, the porch of a house and a mountain-side. Rather than being literal, a design should be poetic, allowing for easy and instantaneous transition from one location to another. Many of these transitions might be best accomplished through the use of light, sound or imagination.

“Those who genuinely loved her never fell out of love with her – in spite of everything.”
-Neil Synard, biographer

“The past didn’t go anywhere.”
-Utah Phillips, storyteller

These thanks must be reproduced in the program of any production of the play:

My One And Only premiered at the Enbridge playRites Festival of New Canadian Plays in 2004, produced by Alberta Theatre Projects.

My One And Only was developed with the assistance of The Alberta Playwrights’ Network (which receives funding support from Theatre Alberta), Workshop West Theatre and the Springboards New Play Festival and the 2002 & 2003 Banff playRites Colony (which is a partnership between the Canada Council for the Arts, The Banff Centre for the Arts, and Alberta Theatre Projects).

Ken Cameron is a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.

Special thanks to: Ron Jenkins, Bob White, Vanessa Porteous, Eddie Hunter, Dave Lange, Allister & Carolyn Cameron and Rita Bozi.”

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