This week we spread the love for Alice, adapted by Lindsay Price from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Recorded live on some very spinny teacups!
Can’t see the video? Check it out here.
There's an unwritten rule when it comes to choosing plays for the catalogue: we must love it. We must be able to talk about it with enthusiasm and excitement. We must be able to suggest a play wholeheartedly to you, because we believe in it.
If there's a Theatrefolk play you love, let everyone know! Send us a one minute video and we'll spread the love for you.
Recorded live at the 2009 California State Thespians Festival!
Lindsay Price of Theatrefolk talks to El Dorado High School student-director Mary Sherg about her experiences directing Much Ado High School.
.
This week we spread the love for The Canterbury Tales adapted by Lindsay Price from Chaucer.
Transcript
Craig: Psst. Lindsay. Lindsay, what are you doing? You’re supposed to be introducing this week’s Spread the Love.
Lindsay: Craig, I’m very busy. I’m trying to figure out which is the right way to Canterbury. I mean, is it back there? Or is it over there? I can’t figure it out. So, since I’m sorta at an impasse, I might as well talk about this week’s Spread the Love, which is very conveniently– The Canterbury Tales! Adapted from the original by me, the original by Geoffrey Chaucer. In our adaptation of Geoffrey’s tale, we have eight travelers who are making a pilgrimage to Canterbury, and in order to pass the time, they decide that each of them are going to tell a story, and the best story is going to get a prize at the end. Craig, what do you love about The Canterbury Tales?
Craig: Well, what I love about The Canterbury Tales is it’s a blast to do. I got to be a part of the original workshop of the show, and we all had an awesome time doing it. Plus, it’s a really, really flexible cast. It can be done with a cast as small as eight, where the travelers themselves portray all the characters that are in the stories, or it can be done in a cast as big as thirty-five, where everyone gets a small part in all the different stories throughout the play. Lindsay, what do you love about The Canterbury Tales?
Lindsay: Well– I am an adaptation freak. I love adapting works. And, bar none, The Canterbury Tales was one of my most interesting experiences– and not for, I think what a lot of students will think. The Canterbury Tales is something they have to study in High School and, there’s no doubt about it, the language is a bear. It’s almost impossible– it’s worse than Shakespeare!– to get your head around, and it’s really impossible to get into the stories. And that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to be able to show the stories as Chaucer intended in modern English, but still keeping Chaucer’s intention alive. And when you do that, you find out that the stories are fun, that they’re totally entertaining, fun to play, fun to tell, touching at times– an amazing experience. There has not been one cast who has done our version, who has come back to us and hasn’t said that they didn’t have the most wonderful time doing the play. And that’s what I love to hear– that is what makes this play exciting for me, exciting for TheatreFolk, and you should take the time and have a read of it.
Okay, we gotta get back to figuring out which way we’re supposed to go.
Craig: I think we’re going this way.
Lindsay: Okay. That way. That’s the way we’re going. That’s it for Spread the Love!
This week we spread the love for Upon a Sea of Dreams: A Journey on the Titanic by Kathleen Donnelly.
Transcript
Lindsay: Craig? What are you doing?
Craig: I’m king of the world!
Lindsay: Craig– Craig? Are you being Leonardo DiCaprio? Are you pretending to be Leonardo DiCaprio again?
Craig: Just give me the camera, alright…
Lindsay: Hey everybody! So we’re here for “Spread the Love,” and okay, so this isn’t the ocean– it really is Lake Erie– but it acts as a beautiful introduction to this week’s “Spread the Love,” which is Upon a Sea of Dreams: A Journey on The Titanic,” by Kathleen Donnelly. And really, the title says it all. The play takes place on the Titanic, on April 14th, 1912, in a third class cabin, where Emma and her sisters and making that fateful journey. Everything is going really well, and then the boat stops and the sirens sound and the play evolves. Craig, what do you love about Upon a Sea of Dreams?
Craig: What I love about Upon a Sea of Dreams is that it’s so unexpected. We’re used to hearing the Titanic story on a grand scale, on a massive, ethics scale, but this story is told on a human scale, a very intimate scale. It’s an intimate little drama, and it takes place in a small, tiny cabin, way way below deck, with real human people going through real human things, and it’d be a killer competition piece. Lindsay, what do you love about Upon a Sea of Dreams?
Lindsay: I think both Craig and I, when we got the play, we gave a little groan. It’s like, “A Titanic play? Really? Really? What high school’s gonna be able to do this?” And the answer is: Every high school is gonna be able to do this! It is a people play, and whenever you can take something on a grand scale and make it about human emotion and people, that’s when you have something really really special. This is a wonderful character piece and an extraordinary situation. Okay, that’s it for “Spread the Love!” Thanks, see you next time!
Craig: Alright Rose, let’s get out of here!
Welcome to Spread the Love!
This week Lindsay spoke with the cast at Park Street Collegiate Institute about their production of Floating on a Don’t Care Cloud.
.
Lindsay and Craig spread the love for Apostrophe’s by Bradley Hayward.
Transcript
Lindsay: Hello! And welcome to Spread the Love. This week, we are talking about Apostrophe’s by Bradley Hayward. And – Do you see this? Do you see this? Do you see what this is right here? This is a misused apostrophe! And that’s what this little gem of a play is all about: The misuse of apostrophes, the excessive use of apostrophes is ruining the lives of students at westfield high, and it’s time to remedy the situation. Craig, what do you love about Apostrophe’s?
Craig: Well, there’s a lot to love about Apostrophe’s. First of all, it’s got a very flexible cast – 13-16 performers, and totally gender neutral. Second of all, it’s hilarious. It’s like a distorted Our Town where a MC brings you from scene to scene in a school where apostrophes are being abused. And thirdly, it starts off breezy and simple, but toward the end it has a nice little challenge for the actors. A really fun piece to do. Lindsay, what do you love about Apostrophe’s?
Lindsay: Craig, I think you’ve crystallized my thoughts eloquently. Everything that you love about this play is what I love about this play, and I’ll just sum it up by saying: If you do this play, you’ll never look at apostrophes the same way again. That’s it for Spread the Love, see you next time!
