Great Plays - Small Casts
Great Plays - Small Casts
#1Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/27/11 at 6:05pmHi everyone. I was hoping to get some ideas for great plays with small casts (say a max of about 5ish ppl). It's for a Senior Project I'm a part of - we have 1 guy and 2 women in it but we can always hold auditions for the remaining roles. Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you!
egghumor
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/9/11
#2Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/27/11 at 6:19pm
luva, do you mean "senior" as in senior citizen or as in high school? Providing a general age range of the actors will help posters make suggestions.
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#2Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/27/11 at 8:27pm
Reasons to be Pretty, Neil Labute
The Substance of Fire, Jon Robit Baitz
God of Carnage, Yazmina Reza
Chapter Two, Neil Simon
Deathtrap, Ira Levin
Angel Street, Patrick Hamilton
#3Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/27/11 at 8:33pmNo Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre
Those Blocked: SueStorm. N2N Nate. Good riddence to stupid! Rad-Z, shill begone!
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#4Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/27/11 at 8:34pm
Extremities (3 W & 1 M)
One Acts:
Actor's nightmare (3W & 2M)
And then....my mind went blank...when I clicked on reply, I had about six titles in my head. I'll come back and post more later.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
#5Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/27/11 at 8:58pmDeuce (in case you mean SENIOR CITIZEN)
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
Madcap Maisie
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/10/08
#6Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/27/11 at 9:10pm
Harvey
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
"You know what really makes me mad? When girls think they can sing just because they are on the Disney Channel."
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#7Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/27/11 at 9:28pmThe Glass Menagerie (2m, 2w)
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
#9Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/28/11 at 11:35pmWhose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
You look absolutely terrific, honestly.
hairspraydude1962
Leading Actor Joined: 7/20/09
#10Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/28/11 at 11:42pm
I second The Glass Menagerie.
I'd consider David Auburn's Proof.
EvelynOakleigh
Understudy Joined: 4/23/11
#11Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/29/11 at 12:13amGod of Carnage is a great choice to consider...
#13Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/29/11 at 1:40am
I'd suggest Waiting for Godot, but since you have two women and one man whom you'd like to cast, that might not be the best choice (although some of my suggestions below have only one woman, that was hard to avoid, and one has no men).
Some ideas:
The Last Yankee by Arthur Miller (3 women, 2 men)
Old Times by Harold Pinter (2 women, 1 man)
Bosoms and Neglect by John Guare (2 women, 1 man, but slightly complicated scenic demands so perhaps not the best choice.)
A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur by Tennessee Williams (4 women)
Serenading Louie by Lanford Wilson (2 women, 2 men)
Doubt by John Patrick Shanley (3 women, 1 man)
Lovers by Brian Friel (3 women, 2 men. This consists of two one-acts, one of which has a very simple set.)
Fool for Love by Same Shepard (1 woman, 3 men)
The Faith Healer by Brian Friel (1 woman, 2 men)
Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel (1 woman, 2 men)
The Dying Gaul by Craig Lucas (1 woman, 2 men)
The Chairs by Eugene Ionesco (1 woman, 1 man)
Benefactors by Michael Frayn (2 women, 2 men)
Talley's Folly by Lanford Wilson (1 woman, 1 man)
The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh (2 women, 2 men)
Also, lots of playwrights have written one-acts with small casts that can be done with very simple sets. Two, three or even four of these (depending on the lengths of individual plays) could work. Chekhov, Guare, Harry Kondoleon, Durang, Ionesco, Beckett, Pinter, Lanford Wilson, and Williams are some playwrights whose one-acts I think might be especially worth looking at, but there are plenty of others. Doing several one-acts gives the actors opportunities to show versatility. It can be fun for actors to play two or more characters during the course of an evening (or afternoon).
A few of the earlier suggestions that were made are not examples of what you asked for. Harvey has 13 characters. Perhaps a couple could be doubled (though I'm not sure that would work too well), but it still would be over the max of five that you stated. The Miracle Worker requires a minimum of 10 or so. And I'm guessing (perhaps wrongly) that the person who suggested A Minority of One meant a A Majority of One, which has a dozen or so characters (of which several are Asian so you'd need a bunch of interested Asian actors) and several sets.
And while God of Carnage is a good show and has only four characters, it requires a projectile-vomiting effect for one of the characters, which is apparently not so easy to pull off. So if you're going to have a small tech budget (which sounds likely), it may not be a good choice.
Updated On: 6/29/11 at 01:40 AM
Hugh Panaro<3
Swing Joined: 7/18/07
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#16Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/29/11 at 11:23amMiracle Worker has a cast of 14. Harvey has a cast of 12.
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#17Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/29/11 at 1:26pm
I doubt God of Carnage is available for amateur production.
How about some Mamet?
Speed the Plow - 3
Sexual Perversity in Chicago - 4
Oleanna - 2
American Buffalo - 3
Updated On: 6/29/11 at 01:26 PM
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#18Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/29/11 at 1:34pmBarefoot in the Park - Neil Simon
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
hhaarriissoonn
Swing Joined: 6/27/11
#19Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/29/11 at 1:49pmThe Foreigner- Larry Shue its absolutely hilarious
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#20Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/29/11 at 2:07pm
Goth -- a GREAT suggestion!
another Neil Simon suggestion:
I Ought to Be in Pictures (1M, 2f)
to the OP...it would be helpful if you gave us more info: are you interested in full length or one act? comedy or drama? contemporary or classical?
These suggestions, while mostly great, are all over the place.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
Updated On: 6/29/11 at 02:07 PM
#21Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/29/11 at 2:13pmDeathtrap
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
Wildcard
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/21/06
#22Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 6/29/11 at 3:21pm
If you can transpose one of the male roles into a female (both of which would play multiple characters anyway):
The Woman in Black
The 39 Steps
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#24Great Plays - Small Casts
Posted: 7/1/11 at 9:34pm
Look at 'The Fox' by Alan Miller; 2 women, 1 man
Based on the D.H. Lawrence novel.
Videos