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It’s pretty darn cold out there right now so it’s hard to remember that Spring is right around the corner. For schools, this means you’ll need to start thinking about your next musical. But money is tight everywhere and musicals can be so expensive… if only you had something that could showcase a large number of students and a wide variety of talent without all the extra costs of a musical.

Have you considered The Love of Three Oranges? It’s not a musical but it has many of the same elements of the usual staples and it’s less than half the cost to perform! Let me explain why ditching the show tunes for the trio citrus can not only save your school big bucks… it may actually be a better fit for your student cast.

1. Emphasis on the ensemble instead of a single male and female lead. Wouldn’t it be nice not to have the tears and drama when you post the cast list? There are not only up to 16 major roles, the play is written so that each character gets their moment to steal the scene and take the spotlight. Instead of having to turn away budding talent, you’ll be able to showcase as many students as possible to nurture your drama program for years to come.
2. Flexible cast size and gender ratio. You can’t really predict your audition turn out. Need more female roles? Less? No problem! Most of the roles are written to easily be played by either gender. Need to increase or decrease the cast size? Not only can several of the speaking roles be played by the same actors if need be, the ensemble (think of it as a non-singing chorus) can be as large or as small as you need to include everyone you want to include.
3. Opportunity to showcase a variety of talents including puppetry, dance, juggling and, yes… music and singing. One of the best things about the show is that there are multiple scenes that leave room for you and your cast to get creative. Many schools have inserted musical moments in past productions so the opportunity is there if you want to highlight a particular vocal talent without having to pay for a whole score. But beyond music, it’s a great chance to highlight unusual skills your students don’t normally get to show off.  Have a tumbler in your ranks? A gymnast? How about a ventriloquist, song writer or musician? The extra flexibility lets you play to the strengths of your cast, instead of trying to cram them into a show they may not be a good fit for.
4. Teenager (not to mention curriculum) friendly. I was a student actor. The old standards like Rogers and Hammerstein et al are… dated. Sure, I have the same affection for those old shows as any theatre alumni but, when I was actually in them as a teen? They felt like ancient history even then. Three Oranges gives you the opportunity to update the show as much as you want so your cast can relate more closely to the material they are putting on. Even better? Think of the lesson plan tie-ins! Commedia dell’arte, puppetry, comedy, Italian theatre… A wide variety of teachers can require their classes to attend for the educational tie-in giving you even more audience. You won’t get that with yet another production of Carousel!

In short, Three Oranges gives you many of the things you love about a musical… while eliminating many of the things you don’t. You aren’t just being thrifty with your budget without sacrificing that musical feel… you’re giving your actors meatier material to work with and a show your audience hasn’t already seen hundreds of times.

Still not sold? You can read the play for free on the Playscripts website and decide for yourself if it’ll be a good fit.

I usually just pop onto Goodreads to add whatever I’ve read recently and I don’t always remember to look at my own books which is why it took me so long to notice this review from Katie:

A big thank you to Katie for taking the time to write all of that up. This has inspired me to finally write up some of the disasters that happened during the original production for future blog posts. If anyone else has been in a production and want’s to share their stories on the blog, drop me an email!

Now I’m just left with one question… lightsabers?

Over the summer, I took a playwriting class. One week, for our assignment, I handed in a scene from The Muppet Play which happens to take place in a subway car. The instructor praised this scene as being an unusual setting, one you didn’t often see in plays, which made me insanely self-conscious. Not because I can’t take praise but instead because…

I realized as he said it that have never written a play for adults that DOESN’T have at least one scene that takes place in a subway. In fact, the entire play of Daddy Issues takes play on a subway platform. There even was a subway scene in TheLibrary before I self-consciously cut it out after noticing my apparent obsession with subways on stage.

Why am I seemingly incapable of not writing subways into my adult stage plays? OK, I did work in New York for many years and commute via subway every day but I also took a bus everyday and I haven’t had the urge to add buses into any of my plays.

Then I noticed something else… The two short stories for adults I’ve outlined recently? Both have subways, one featuring subway cars in a very major role.

But of all the YA novels, short stories and plays I have in various states of finished… there is only one subway and it’s really more of an underground train station, not NYC type subway like the others. My YA is mostly subway free, even the ones that take place in cities.

What the heck? What is going on in my subconscious that content for adults = subways. Is it because I commuted via subway for my first real adult job and I associate it with being an adult? Is it some NYC centric world view that everyone commutes to work via subway train? Is it symbolic of my relationship with rats? What?

I give you permission to psychoanalyze what is going on in my mind here with the subway obsession. Have you ever noticed an unintentional theme in your writing?

Oh, and today is the last day to grab a free copy of Daddy Issues (aka the subway play to end all subway plays) if you haven’t already. You’ve only got until midnight PST so get on that before the train leaves the station, if you will.