Small-Cast Classic Plays?

[Donna Pedaci]

This evening, our artistic director announced his wish to find a small-cast
classic play for next year's season. For the life of me, I can't think of a
one. We've got a pretty wide definition of 'classic', too. Pretty much
anything pre-modern 20th C would be considered.

Any ideas? Cast should be 5-6 or less.

[Γεωργίου Σταματία]

Ο Donna Pedaci <dpe...@mindspring.com> έγραψε στο μήνυμα συζήτησης:
94r7ag$jq0$1...@slb2.atl.mindspring.net...

What about Strindberg?"Jouons avec le feu" I am not sure about the english
title, possibly "playing with the fire"? Only six persons, but a play of a
great interest, very succesfully played in Athens, Greece this year. It's
not 20th century, but 1892 is close to 1901, isn't it?

[Geralyn Horton]

All the Great Greeks were written to be performed by
2-3 actors (doubling under those masks) and a chorus.
I've seen a very good "Antigone" with a chorus of 3.

Geralyn Horton, Playwright
Newton, Mass. 02460
<http://www.tiac.net/users/ghorton>

[Kim Flintoff]

Ah - beat me to it Geralyn!

I was about to suggest the same thing - I worked on a new interpretation of
Medea last year and am looking at Hippolytus this year...

but I wonder if the original question refers to the Classics or merely
classics...

there are many that might consider plays like Waiting for Godot as
classics... No Exit by Johnny Sartre is a classic to my thinking - a very
subjective term I've found...

I'd be looking to some of the following for pre-20th century classics...

GB Shaw (19th/20th)
Strindberg
Jarry
Chekhov
Ibsen

then again - why not consider some of the Yuan plays or Noh drama?
Certainly classics!

"Geralyn Horton" <gho...@tiac.net> wrote in message
news:3A7224C7...@tiac.net...

[CCORRIS]

>This evening, our artistic director announced his wish to find a small-cast
>classic play for next year's season. For the life of me, I can't think of a
>one. We've got a pretty wide definition of 'classic', too. Pretty much
>anything pre-modern 20th C would be considered.

Long Day's Journey into Night and A Moon for the Misbegotten come to mind, as
does Miss Julie, The Father, and The Stronger. Several Checkhov one-acts have
small casts
Finally, I don't know when The Fourposter (Jan de Hartog) was written, but I
believe it might qualify.

Skip

[Jarrod]

(Skip-- pretty sure all of these were written in the 20th Century...
Though The Father and Dance of Death are close enough and full-length.
Julie and Stronger are one-acts, and you need the peasant dance crowd
in Julie.)

From at or near the turn of the 20th century, Ibsen has a number of
smallish casts (Ghosts, Master Builder) as does Shaw (Mrs. Warren's
Profession, Candida). I've seen a modern adaptation of the classic
Brothers Karamozov (by Richard Crane) that uses only four characters,
if that might work for your artistic director, and there are many
other modern adaptaions of classical works by other writers.

There just aren't that many pre-20th century "small-cast" plays. (For
its day, The Importance of Being Ernest was a fairly small cast, but I
think we're over the century line on that one, or pretty close.)

[Opus (:>]

> but I
> think we're over the century line on that one, or pretty close.)
>

Don't think it really matters. Generally, the line for defining
classics is up to, and including Ibsen, around 1910.

--
Opus (:>

I was fired from my job at a Howard Johnson's when somebody asked me the
ice cream flavour of the week and I said, "chicken". --Mike Nichols

Opus Graphics-- http://members.home.net/coble/OpusGraphics

[Hey Jude]

Back in the 60's, I went to a play - I belive it was in Redondo Beach,
Ca. and the name of it was "Rattle of a Simple Man" which was about a
man "discovering love". I belive this play was originally from England.
I thought it was one of the funniest plays I've ever seen and I never
forgot it. Good luck in your quest...

[bpe...@tickets.com]

Thanks for some good suggestions, folks. Guess I could have been
clearer in my original post. I was just trying to rack my brain trying
to think of anything pre-"Modern" (not necessarily pre-20th C, but
definitely pre-WWII) that had a small cast.

Part of our theater's mission is to present classic plays refocussed
through a contemporary point of view (let's not even get started on
what that means exactly or the relative merits of resetting the time
and place of classic plays to the here and now).

By extension, contemporary adaptations (ala Another Antigone) of
classic themes is something we find interesting.

Any favorite "under-performed" classics, regardless of cast?

Thanks again for the input, and I only suggest extending the
conversation because I suspect there are plenty of theaters in our
situation...wanting to revive classic plays, but unable to support
casts of 15+ all the time.

-Brian Pedaci
Bad Epitaph Theater Company
www.badepitaph.org

In article <94r7ag$jq0$1...@slb2.atl.mindspring.net>,

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[alistai...@gmail.com]

I spend a great deal.of often frustrating time looking for classic plays with small casts currently looking for 4/5m 2/3f. Recent projects include winters tale and 12th night with 8/9. These included lots of doubling but without making the play about the changes. I've seen All Well that ends well and cymbeline with casts of 5/6/7 both worked really well. i work for an actor training company in exeter uk so have to consider playing age to some extent.
I often look at Ibsen , stringberg, checkout, Shaw - arms and the man widowers houses and Candida are great.
If anyone has managed to find other Shakespeare or 16/17 th century plays that work with small cast I'd like to hear.

Thanks

[egr...@royallatin.org]

If it was me I'd go down the root of "the Price" by Arthur Miller, under performed classic with a cast of four