Through the Looking-Glass

Through the Looking Glass by Lindsay Price is a fantastical physical journey for both actor and audience, and a great companion to our adaptation of Alice. Alice is back in Wonderland and things are more confusing than ever – Flowers talk, the White Queen cries before she pricks her finger, and there’s a life-sized chess game going on. Alice wants to play, but mostly wants to be queen. Will she make it to the eighth square? Director Laura Michels was thrilled to sing the praises of the amazingly talented student performers at North Branch Area High School in North Branch, MN – and we can see why! “We placed first at subsections, sections, and are performing at the state level at the Minnesota State High School League One Act Festival.”

Are you looking for a fantastical physical journey for your actors and your audience? Through the Looking Glass by Lindsay Price is a movement-based classical adaptation that you won’t want to miss. Alice is back in Wonderland and things are more confusing than ever – Flowers talk, the White Queen cries before she pricks her finger, and there’s a life-sized chess game going on. Alice wants to play, but mostly wants to be queen. Will she make it to the eighth square? Under the direction of Juliet Cottrell , the student performers at The Drama Workshop in Havelock North, New Zealand were able to truly come together and take their audience on a truly magical – and _ wonder _ful – journey with their production “The show features children from all over Hawkes Bay who come together once a week to rehearse. Creating a safe emotional environment is paramount to our work and many parents and students comment that they have found their ‘tribe’ in Drama.”

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays About…Classical Adaptations! Who’s looking for a little arts integration? How about some cross-curriculum? Or how about a great story turned into a great play. It’s time for ten classical adaptations. Adaptations are my favourite type of play to write. It’s an intriguing challenge to take a story in one form and determine what will make it a theatrical experience. Click the link and you’ll be taken to the webpage for each play. There you’ll get the details and read sample pages. All the best with your search! Shuddersome: Tales of Poe Original: Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe Not only our most popular adaptations, but one of our most popular plays! Specters, ghosts and ghouls come alive in this vivid theatrical vision of Edgar Allan Poe’s best works including: The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Masque of the Red Death. Hamlette/Mmmbeth Original: Hamlet & Macbeth by William Shakespeare The first of many of Shakespeare adaptations. We’ve paired Hamlette and Mmmbeth together because they make for a hilarious evening of theatre. Imagine if you will that “Hamlet” was not “Hamlet” at all, but “Hamlette” – a woman! Great for competitions. AND in Mmmbeth everything goes wrong. The witches take over the storytelling, Queen Duncan would rather open a donut franchise than die, Lady M’s a bloodthirsty June Cleaver, and the murderers are preoccupied with creating a commercial for their services. Introduce your students to the world of the Bard with these parodies. Will and Whimsy Original: Sonnets by William Shakespeare Shakespeare was meant to be performed, not read. This vignette play does that by bring his sonnets to life. Modern scenes play hand in hand with the original text. Mix and match the sonnets to your whimsy! Lord of the Pies Original: Lord of the Flies by William Golding In this parody piece a pie shop erupts into panic after Franny, a brash cat-lady, announces the arrival of the apocalypse. SHe starts to reconstruct society and takes out anyone who stands in her way with baby food and scotch tape. Drum Taps Original: Drum Taps by Walt Whitman The poems in Drum Taps represent Walt Whitman’s first hand account of the Civil War. See the words, the emotion, the blood come to life in this theatrical adaptation. This is not your typical poetry reading. This is war. Alice/Through The Looking Glass Original: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll These two make excellent theatrical companion pieces. Both are one-act adaptations of the famous novels by Lewis Carroll. They follow Alice’s adventures down the rabbit hole and across the life-sized chess game. Fantastical physical journeys! The Canterbury Tales Original: *The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer* Chaucer’s classic collection of tales comes to life! A group of travelers set out for Canterbury on a pilgrimage. Each and every performer gets a chance to shine in this spirited, charming script. Text uses modern English. Pandora’s Fire Original: Pandora’s Box, Ancient Greek Myth Everybody knows the story of Pandora. Her curiosity got the better of her and she is to blame for releasing all the ills into the world. But is that the whole story? Pandora’s Fire is a wonderful mix of Ancient Greek choral storytelling with a modern twist. Hamlet, Zombie Killer of Denmark Original: Hamlet by William Shakespeare Denmark is plagued with zombies led by Hamlet’s uncle/step-father, the current king. Will Hamet become a zombie himself? A gruesomely comic adaptation of the Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, this version blends original text with new, zombified dialogue – written in iambic pentameter! The Tragicomedy of Julia Caesar Original: Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare Sarah and Dave think it would be fun to direct a play for drama club. And they both love Julius Caesar. What could go wrong? Oh, a post-death dance number, Brutus is allergic to peanut butter, Rome is now Georgia, and giant killer robots. That’s all….

I was one of those math and science kids. But I also loved drama. I started university as a computer science student but left with a degree in theatre. I enjoyed studying calculus, chemistry, physics, etc. But when I think of the atom, when I think of all the lectures I sat through, the drawings, the protons, the neutrons, the electrons, the periodic table and so on, the clearest picture in my mind is still Venus Flytrap’s explanation on the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati. WKRP in Cincinnati, for the uninitiated, was my favourite sitcom. On this particular episode, one of the DJ’s (Venus Flytrap) befriended a cleaning woman at the station. Her son was getting involved with gangs and she asked Venus for help to straighten her son out. Here’s the resulting scene: