Favorite emotionally moving play?
Favorite emotionally moving play?
Rentaholic2
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/14/04
#0Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 3:58pm
(edit number 3)I need some ideas for our Contest Play (any play)...I'd like to do something with a lot of heart...something poignant...uplifting. Right now we are looking at The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, but I still want to bring something else to the table.
suggestions?
P.S. Due to environment and situation, I definately won't be doing anything that deals very straightforwardly with homosexuality and AIDS
Updated On: 12/12/04 at 03:58 PM
#1re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 4:12pmMy favourite emotionally-moving play is The Normal Heart, but it isn't one-act.
Rentaholic2
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/14/04
#2re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 4:15pmOh, it doesn't have to be one act. We cut it to be one act. Since I've been it school we have done Three Musketeers, Look Homeward, Angel, and Hamlet
#3re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 4:19pmBang Bang, You're Dead
--Aristotle
#4re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 4:44pmIt's not a one-act, but Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" is, in my opinion, THE most moving play ever written. I was practically sobbing, and it is *not* easy to make me cry.
AuBrie
Swing Joined: 11/23/04
#5re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 5:03pm
I second Bang Bang you're dead.
my school did that play the year after I graduated. I went to see it and was in tears. Its a very difficult play to do but as long as you have actors that are very good at drama and a good director.
QueenMuppet
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/29/04
#6re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 5:05pm
'night Mother almost killed me... very upsetting.
QM
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#7re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 5:11pm
The best most moving play in the entire world will always be
ANGELS IN AMERICA but that is not quite a show you can cut to one act. AT ALL.
Perhaps something from Craig Lucas. He did some great shows.
Blue Window. Prelude to a Kiss. Reckless.
#8re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 5:15pmcturtle SHUDDERS at the idea of cutting ANY full-length play to a one-act :-o
#9re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 5:18pmPrelude isn't a One-Act. Our college is doing that this year.
--Aristotle
BWayBoy88
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/23/04
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#11re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 5:21pmBut high school's do it. We cut Our Town to two acts. I don't know why. What about The Diviners? That's emotionally moving, right?
#12re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 5:22pmThe Normal Heart, but it's not one act.
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#13re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 5:37pm
As far as one acts:
The Lottery
#14re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 5:43pmGotham, is THE LOTTERY based on the short story by Shirley Jackson?
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
Angel Dumott Schunard
Understudy Joined: 8/2/04
#15re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 5:46pmTHE BOYS NEXT DOOR is very moving, but I'm not quite sure about the amount of acts.
#16re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 5:47pmLaramie Project, but thats pretty long
#17re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 6:31pm
Yeah, I'm really disturbed by the idea of editing a play into one act. Who does it? How do you know it's still what the playwright intended?
Personally, I think it's very hard to pull off an intensely emotional experience in just one act -- there just isn't enough time to develop those relationships and the dramatic inertia to have that emotional climax. There are a few exceptions, like 'Night Mother, but there aren't many others out there.
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#18re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 7:17pmStick, yes it is a dramatic adaptation of Shirley Jackson's short story.
#19re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 7:24pmyou could do West Side Story. but, it's just a suggestion.
#20re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 7:25pmStraight plays, IBF.
Sondheimluvchild
Swing Joined: 12/9/04
#21re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 7:26pmThe most emotionally moving play I've seen is "Wit". Probably wouldnt be able to do in high school but it is still worth looking at. The HBO movie version is also excellent.
#22re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 7:58pm
I was in the P.A. premiere of the one-act play "Sottopassagio", and it is extremely emotional. It deals with homelessness in Italy, and the sacrifices that the homeless must make.
I don't know how you could get the rights normally, but I know the author and could contact her if you want.
#23re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 8:17pmEquus, by peter shaffer, is incredible
"I think it was the Korean tour or something. They were all frickin' asian!" -Zoran912
Rentaholic2
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/14/04
#24re: Favorite emotionally moving play?
Posted: 12/12/04 at 8:28pmJust to clear up again, by ONE ACT, I mean we would cut it to be 40 minutes long. In Texas, the UIL One Act Play Contest is the contest for high school plays all over the state where you can compete and advance, just like a football state championship. If you go over 40 minutes, you are disqualified. Many of the plays you've mentioned are done all the time, just cut to 40 minutes. Great suggestions though.
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