Information on shows being presented at the 2017 PA STate Thespian conference
MAIN STAGE SHOWS
Council Rock North - THE DIVINERS - The story of a young man and his friendship with a disenchanted preacher in Indiana in the early 1930s. When the boy was young he almost drowned. This trauma, and the loss of his mother in the same accident, has left him deathly afraid of water. The preacher works as a mechanic for the boy’s father. The town doesn’t have a preacher and the women try to persuade him to preach – while he tries to persuade the child to wash. When the preacher finally gets the boy in the river and is washing him, the townspeople mistake the scene for a baptism. They descend on the event and, in the confusion, the boy drowns.
Penn Manor - AND THEN THERE WERE NONE - And Then There Were None is the dramatic adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic 1939 novel Ten Little Indians, which has sold 100 million copies worldwide. As is true of all Christie’s stories, it is a masterpiece of plot twists and turns; although, it does not have at the center the detective Poirot or Marple. Nevertheless, it is a murder mystery.
This story centers on the interaction of ten strangers who are lured to a barren island on various pretexts, only to discover that they have all been marked for death a la the children’s rhyme “Ten Little Soldier Boys.” Their unique and complicated life situations have made each of them open for the judgments that the murderer intends to inflict upon them. The crimes they committed have, thus far, gone unpunished; and the murderer, not satisfied with the results of normal justice, chooses to carry out punishments without revealing his or her identity. As each death takes place, ferreting out the murderer grows more desperate, and the audience feels the horror and the mystery along with the characters.
This version of And Then There Were None restores the original ending of the novel. Agatha Christie and her producers in the 1940s had decided that a more palatable ending might be more well-received at that time. Since then, Christie’s estate, under the auspices of her grandson, has given the publisher permission to offer the alternative ending, which stays true to “and then there were none…”
Peters Township - DADDY'S GIRL - Benard Muloovy is the proprietor of Maudie's Diner; he is the most no-nonsense cook you've ever met. Benard gets served a full plate of chaos when his deceased wife, Maudie, decides to take up residence as a talking portrait on the diner wall. Enlisting the services of an angel, Maudie hopes to reunite Benard with their long lost daughter, Elizabeth! In this contest of laughter and tears lines are drawn, sides are taken and rules are broken as one young lady reveals a secret and ultimately claims her paternity, but not without a twist.... or two!
Ridley - HOW TO SUCCEED - How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying was turned into a musical by the legendary Frank Loesser, with book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert. It was based on the 1952 satirical best seller of the same name, written by Stephen Mead during his rise from mail-room clerk to Vice President at the Benton and Bowles Advertising Agency, and exposes, as only an insider could, the hilarity of the corporate world in the 1950's and 60's. Originally opening at the 46th Street Theatre in 1961, it won 7 Tony Awards, The New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with two known revivals starring Mathew Broderick (1995) and Daniel Radcliffe (2011) as the cunning and charming, Pierrepont Finch. Every song, every line is tongue in cheek comedy that satirizes American Society-- it's addiction to the corporate ladder, workplace sexism, advertising schemes, the towing of the company line, collegiate glory days, and even the absurdity of fashion. While it's not the most challenging music we've ever attempted, Loesser and Burrows (Guys and Dolls) were a legendary theatrical team, and produced in this project, some of the catchiest and most entertaining tunes of musical theatre history, all of which also happen to be laden with wit and humor that has recently become appropos as a businessman sits in the white house. I think that's what we all like about it so much . . . how smart it really is, how surprisingly current, and how fun it is to romp through the sixties for a bit making fun. : )
Wilson - GODSPELL - GODSPELL was the first major musical theatre offering from three-time Grammy and Academy Award winner, Stephen Schwartz (WICKED, PIPPIN, CHILDREN OF EDEN); and it took the world by storm. Led by the international hit, "Day by Day," GODSPELL features a parade of beloved songs, including "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord," "Learn Your Lessons Well," "All for the Best," "All Good Gifts," "Turn Back, O Man" and "By My Side."
A small group of people help Jesus Christ tell different parables by using a wide variety of games, storytelling techniques and a hefty dose of comic timing. An eclectic blend of songs, ranging in style from pop to vaudeville, is employed as the story of Jesus' life dances across the stage. Dissolving hauntingly into the Last Supper and the Crucifixion, Jesus' messages of kindness, tolerance and love come vibrantly to life.
Wilson High School will present the 2012 revival version of GODSPELL.
ONE ACTS
Neshaminy - Mirrors - We know that history repeats itself. What about family patterns of life—do they also repeat? Mirrors shows two generations of a family simultaneously—the 1960's family at Stage Right and the modern family at Stage Left, as if one were a mirror reflection of the other: the happiness, the sadness, the love, the hate, the dreams, the reality.
Spring Grove - Womanspeak - Womanspeak addresses the manner in which women have been treated historically as seen through the eyes of historical characters from Abigail Adams to Sojourner Truth; Susan B. Anthony to Margaret Sanger and more. We decide to perform the play with a talk show format that will allow the women to interact with each other and therefore learn about each other's efforts towards achieving equality for all women. While not necessarily feminist in its premise, it does come across that way. Our hope as a cast is just to inform and educate the audience about the struggles that all women had to go through, not only for the right to vote but for equal rights for all human beings.
Dallastown - The Diary of Anne Frank - The students of the Dallastown Performing Arts Club chose The Diary of Anne Frank last October because we were due for a straight drama, and it is a classic play the membership was excited to read. We had no idea then that events around the country in the months that followed would make this production so much more relevant that it already was. In this production, the audience is invited to empathize with the trauma Anne's family and friends endure not as a distant stain on human history, but a very real possibility for any one of us right now. As much as it is a reminder of the horrors the Nazis inflicted on anyone unlike themselves, this play is also a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit. Dallastown will perform the entire full-length play The Diary of Anne Frank for our community at the end of October. We are cutting it to a one-act to comply with the conference rules stating a school's first performance cannot be a main stage production.
Kennard-Dale - The Absolutely Insidious and Utterly Terrifying Truth About Cat Hair - It is a comedy about cat hair. As we all know, cat hair is infinite. No matter how much you brush a cat, there will always be more hair and it just might take over the world.
Canon-McMillan - But We Don't
Parkland - Love Song - Beane is an exile from life—an oddball. His well-meaning sister, Joan, and brother-in-law, Harry, try and make time for him in their busy lives, but no one can get through. Following a burglary on Beane's apartment, Joan is baffled to find her brother blissfully happy and tries to unravel the story behind his mysterious new love, Molly. Funny, enchanting and wonderfully touching, John Kolvenbach's offbeat comedy is a rhapsody to the power of love in all its forms.
Springfield Township - The Swimmer - The Swimmer is a highly theatrical contemporary tragicomedy. The story involves a young man at a corner bus stop who is absolutely convinced he is drowning though there is no water in the vicinity. Each person who passes by becomes somehow involved in the situation, but each is more interested in promoting his own point of view than helping the man. One woman calls him a bore; a policeman writes him a ticket; a business man throws him a quarter. The play builds to a climax in which the young man dies — yet his death has no emotional impact upon those around him.
Pennsbury - Final Dress Rehearsal - It is a farce about putting on a play where things do not go as planned.
Upper Dublin 2 Precious Maidens Ridiculed!From the Samuel French website, "Here is devastating satire on people who try to look trendy and smarter than they are."
DuBois - 101 Breakups - The one where you'll feel all the feelings, but most especially, you'll feel hilariously moved in this dram-com that's bound to break your heart. 101 times.
Council Rock North - THE DIVINERS - The story of a young man and his friendship with a disenchanted preacher in Indiana in the early 1930s. When the boy was young he almost drowned. This trauma, and the loss of his mother in the same accident, has left him deathly afraid of water. The preacher works as a mechanic for the boy’s father. The town doesn’t have a preacher and the women try to persuade him to preach – while he tries to persuade the child to wash. When the preacher finally gets the boy in the river and is washing him, the townspeople mistake the scene for a baptism. They descend on the event and, in the confusion, the boy drowns.
Penn Manor - AND THEN THERE WERE NONE - And Then There Were None is the dramatic adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic 1939 novel Ten Little Indians, which has sold 100 million copies worldwide. As is true of all Christie’s stories, it is a masterpiece of plot twists and turns; although, it does not have at the center the detective Poirot or Marple. Nevertheless, it is a murder mystery.
This story centers on the interaction of ten strangers who are lured to a barren island on various pretexts, only to discover that they have all been marked for death a la the children’s rhyme “Ten Little Soldier Boys.” Their unique and complicated life situations have made each of them open for the judgments that the murderer intends to inflict upon them. The crimes they committed have, thus far, gone unpunished; and the murderer, not satisfied with the results of normal justice, chooses to carry out punishments without revealing his or her identity. As each death takes place, ferreting out the murderer grows more desperate, and the audience feels the horror and the mystery along with the characters.
This version of And Then There Were None restores the original ending of the novel. Agatha Christie and her producers in the 1940s had decided that a more palatable ending might be more well-received at that time. Since then, Christie’s estate, under the auspices of her grandson, has given the publisher permission to offer the alternative ending, which stays true to “and then there were none…”
Peters Township - DADDY'S GIRL - Benard Muloovy is the proprietor of Maudie's Diner; he is the most no-nonsense cook you've ever met. Benard gets served a full plate of chaos when his deceased wife, Maudie, decides to take up residence as a talking portrait on the diner wall. Enlisting the services of an angel, Maudie hopes to reunite Benard with their long lost daughter, Elizabeth! In this contest of laughter and tears lines are drawn, sides are taken and rules are broken as one young lady reveals a secret and ultimately claims her paternity, but not without a twist.... or two!
Ridley - HOW TO SUCCEED - How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying was turned into a musical by the legendary Frank Loesser, with book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert. It was based on the 1952 satirical best seller of the same name, written by Stephen Mead during his rise from mail-room clerk to Vice President at the Benton and Bowles Advertising Agency, and exposes, as only an insider could, the hilarity of the corporate world in the 1950's and 60's. Originally opening at the 46th Street Theatre in 1961, it won 7 Tony Awards, The New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with two known revivals starring Mathew Broderick (1995) and Daniel Radcliffe (2011) as the cunning and charming, Pierrepont Finch. Every song, every line is tongue in cheek comedy that satirizes American Society-- it's addiction to the corporate ladder, workplace sexism, advertising schemes, the towing of the company line, collegiate glory days, and even the absurdity of fashion. While it's not the most challenging music we've ever attempted, Loesser and Burrows (Guys and Dolls) were a legendary theatrical team, and produced in this project, some of the catchiest and most entertaining tunes of musical theatre history, all of which also happen to be laden with wit and humor that has recently become appropos as a businessman sits in the white house. I think that's what we all like about it so much . . . how smart it really is, how surprisingly current, and how fun it is to romp through the sixties for a bit making fun. : )
Wilson - GODSPELL - GODSPELL was the first major musical theatre offering from three-time Grammy and Academy Award winner, Stephen Schwartz (WICKED, PIPPIN, CHILDREN OF EDEN); and it took the world by storm. Led by the international hit, "Day by Day," GODSPELL features a parade of beloved songs, including "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord," "Learn Your Lessons Well," "All for the Best," "All Good Gifts," "Turn Back, O Man" and "By My Side."
A small group of people help Jesus Christ tell different parables by using a wide variety of games, storytelling techniques and a hefty dose of comic timing. An eclectic blend of songs, ranging in style from pop to vaudeville, is employed as the story of Jesus' life dances across the stage. Dissolving hauntingly into the Last Supper and the Crucifixion, Jesus' messages of kindness, tolerance and love come vibrantly to life.
Wilson High School will present the 2012 revival version of GODSPELL.
ONE ACTS
Neshaminy - Mirrors - We know that history repeats itself. What about family patterns of life—do they also repeat? Mirrors shows two generations of a family simultaneously—the 1960's family at Stage Right and the modern family at Stage Left, as if one were a mirror reflection of the other: the happiness, the sadness, the love, the hate, the dreams, the reality.
Spring Grove - Womanspeak - Womanspeak addresses the manner in which women have been treated historically as seen through the eyes of historical characters from Abigail Adams to Sojourner Truth; Susan B. Anthony to Margaret Sanger and more. We decide to perform the play with a talk show format that will allow the women to interact with each other and therefore learn about each other's efforts towards achieving equality for all women. While not necessarily feminist in its premise, it does come across that way. Our hope as a cast is just to inform and educate the audience about the struggles that all women had to go through, not only for the right to vote but for equal rights for all human beings.
Dallastown - The Diary of Anne Frank - The students of the Dallastown Performing Arts Club chose The Diary of Anne Frank last October because we were due for a straight drama, and it is a classic play the membership was excited to read. We had no idea then that events around the country in the months that followed would make this production so much more relevant that it already was. In this production, the audience is invited to empathize with the trauma Anne's family and friends endure not as a distant stain on human history, but a very real possibility for any one of us right now. As much as it is a reminder of the horrors the Nazis inflicted on anyone unlike themselves, this play is also a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit. Dallastown will perform the entire full-length play The Diary of Anne Frank for our community at the end of October. We are cutting it to a one-act to comply with the conference rules stating a school's first performance cannot be a main stage production.
Kennard-Dale - The Absolutely Insidious and Utterly Terrifying Truth About Cat Hair - It is a comedy about cat hair. As we all know, cat hair is infinite. No matter how much you brush a cat, there will always be more hair and it just might take over the world.
Canon-McMillan - But We Don't
Parkland - Love Song - Beane is an exile from life—an oddball. His well-meaning sister, Joan, and brother-in-law, Harry, try and make time for him in their busy lives, but no one can get through. Following a burglary on Beane's apartment, Joan is baffled to find her brother blissfully happy and tries to unravel the story behind his mysterious new love, Molly. Funny, enchanting and wonderfully touching, John Kolvenbach's offbeat comedy is a rhapsody to the power of love in all its forms.
Springfield Township - The Swimmer - The Swimmer is a highly theatrical contemporary tragicomedy. The story involves a young man at a corner bus stop who is absolutely convinced he is drowning though there is no water in the vicinity. Each person who passes by becomes somehow involved in the situation, but each is more interested in promoting his own point of view than helping the man. One woman calls him a bore; a policeman writes him a ticket; a business man throws him a quarter. The play builds to a climax in which the young man dies — yet his death has no emotional impact upon those around him.
Pennsbury - Final Dress Rehearsal - It is a farce about putting on a play where things do not go as planned.
Upper Dublin 2 Precious Maidens Ridiculed!From the Samuel French website, "Here is devastating satire on people who try to look trendy and smarter than they are."
DuBois - 101 Breakups - The one where you'll feel all the feelings, but most especially, you'll feel hilariously moved in this dram-com that's bound to break your heart. 101 times.
