"Mystery of Edwin Drood" possible as a one-act?

A good friend of mine is the drama director at a local high school and is looking at the possibility of cutting down Drood to fit into the 30 minute time limit. Since I don't know the show, I wondered if those of you who know the show well think this is possible at all. How plot-driven are the musical numbers? If the book is cut so drastically, is the plot still able to be understandable? Thoughts of any kind?

Side note -- high schools have cut down musicals before to fit into the time limit for one acts. One of the best I have seen was a 30 minute version of "A Chorus Line".

Not mention it's ILLEGAL.

Heh...yes, illegal, but it happens all the time. Superstar, Once on the Island, Fame...all have been cut to one-acts in our area.

Yes, I'm sure the "theatre police" wouldn't find you if you changed it (or hacked it to pieces, as you're suggesting). I think they have enough trouble chasing down Equity and other union productions that are in violation. I DO know of a union theatre that was fined for casting "white folks" as the trio in Little Shop. The producer had to scramble around to prove that he had done his best to cast minorities in the show. I think he couldn't do that convincingly and got slapped with a nice fine, plus HAD to use non-traditional casting in a future production to compensate. Those are the kind of issues they're hunting around for. As well as shows that cast non-union members, etc.

They're probably not going to arrest you... probably.

---

Allamarane is correct. I've judged these competitions before -- they are pretty standard fare and most playwrights okay it for "educational purposes." One exception was always Peter Schaeffer -- who won't allow his plays to be cut -- unless he's recently changed his mind.

That said, most of the competitions I've seen like this have been one hour. I don't know how you can make a compelling cut of any full length play in only 30 minutes.

Updated On: 10/12/05 at 03:15 PM

I'd say yes. How can you even do a musical in 30 minutes. Do people do like ten seconds of each song?