Playwriting Commons^™

From Mrs. Packard, Emily Mann

Ontario Review

Emily Mann is the Artistic Director and Resident Playwright of The McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, where she has overseen over 100 productions. Her plays have been produced on and Off-Broadway and in major theaters around the country and abroad. Her plays include Annulla, Still Life, Execution of Justice, Having Our Say, Meshuga, Greensboro: A Requiem, and Mrs. Packard.

Playback Theatre

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 2014 performance of Playback Theatre.

Interactive and spontaneous, Playback Theatre bases its material on the stories of the community. During a performance, audience members respond to questions from the conductor and share their stories, then watch as the company immediately “plays back” their words as a theatrical moment.

Playback is an opportunity for stories to be heard and acknowledged in a meaningful way. In every occasion, central to our theatre experience is our faith in Jesus Christ and applying the truth of Scripture to the reality of the everyday stories presented throughout the evening.

Wit

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 2014 performance of Wit by Margaret Edson.

Wit (or W;t) takes place over the final hours of Dr. Vivian Bearing, a university English professor, who is dying of Ovarian cancer. The course of the play is her reflecting on her life through the intricacies of the English language, particularly focusing on the wit found in the poetry of John Donne.

In this program the Jason Francis Memorial Scholarship Fund is announced.

Dark Awakening: Transmedia And Narrative Transportation, Rafeeq Roberts, Kimberly Neuendorf

Undergraduate Research Posters 2014

Media convergence has led content creators to produce narratives that stretch across platforms, known as Transmedia. A Transmedia narrative titled Dark Awakening was created using three different platforms: A short film, an interactive short story, and a text based role playing game. All of these share overlapping themes, characters, and settings. Each narrative platform was designed to be taken and understood on its own, or viewed in conjunction with the others. A study of audience response to the Transmedia experience of Dark Awakening has been planned. The conditions for the study include the order in which the media are consumed, …

Deweese Family Papers (Mss 504), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 504. Materials collected by Ray Paul DeWeese and Carolyn DeWeese, a brother and sister. Most of the collection is photocopied material of writings about the DeWeese family and Butler County, Kentucky history.

Miller, Russell Hale, 1905-1968 (Mss 498), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 498 and full text of "Shakertown Revisited" (click on "Additional File" below). Working copies of scripts for two plays, “This Fair Land” and “Shakertown” by Russell Miller, a faculty member of WKU’s Department of Speech and Theater. Also includes working copies of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Herbert Kanzell and “The Boor” by Anton Chekhov, two plays that were staged by Miller.

On Technically Love: Discovering My Voice, Defining A World, Delving In, Nathan L. Eckstein

Lawrence University Honors Projects

This Honors Project is a two-part exploration of the playwriting process though application. The script itself, Technically Love; an Exploration of Love, Technology and Same-Sex Marriage, tells the story of Max and Danny, a same-sex couple living in Minnesota in 2013. The play follows their yearlong journey of posting YouTube videos about their wedding planning process that coincides with Minnesota’s fight for marriage equality. The second part of the project is my paper On Technically Love: Discovering my voice, defining a world, delving in. The paper explains the process that I went through to write the play and gives an …

Opening Remarks To Outing Lorraine At The Schomburg Center, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Publications and Research

This article is an edit of the opening remarks for the event held on May 22nd, 2014 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture as part of the In The Life Series supplying Black LGBT programming coordinated by Steven Fullwood. Outing Lorraine included panelists: Alexis DeVeaux, Joi Gresham, and Steven Fullwood and was moderated by Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz. Opening remarks provide a biographical description of Lorraine Hansberry's life, prepare the audience for a conversation on the implications for "outing" a black iconic figure, details the purpose for use of primary and secondary sources when, and provides a bibliography for …

Announcing Tdf's First Creative Writers' Festival Poster, Department Of Theatre, Dance & Film

Promotional Materials

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

Smith Center Green Room

Announcing TDF's first Creative Writers' Festival

Friday, May 2, 2014, 8pm

The Miracle Worker

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 2014 performance of The Miracle Worker by William Gibson.

The Miracle Worker is based on the autobiography of Helen Keller.

This show was in memory of Dr. Oliver Hubbard, former professor and director of Taylor Theatre. The performance was directed and designed to be as close to the previous performance of The Miracle Worker Dr. Oliver Hubbard directed in 2002. The performance on May 3 was part of a full day dedicated to honoring his work and service. (See the playbill of "The Servant of Two Masters" for the schedule.)

Elsie: A Screenplay, Eileen M. Spath

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Elsie is a 57 page, one-hour screenplay. A modern adaptation of a true story, Elsie tells the tale of Elsie Whitman, a young housewife unhappy in her marriage and looking for a way out. When her estranged sister arrives, she finally finds the strength to do the unthinkable.

Our story opens with the arrival of Elsie's sister, Marianne, and the departure of her husband, John. Alone in the house together, the sisters relationship grows complex. Marianne begins to see Peter, a young man with a mysterious past. However, when Elsie is wronged by John, she jumps into bed with Peter. …

How To Be Alice: A Feature-Length Screenplay With Production Package, Alison Joy

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This Capstone consists of a feature-length dramatic screenplay of 110 pages along with a production package including schedule and budget. The production documents, created using Movie Magic software, detail a shooting schedule of 21 days and a budget of $890,979.

The film centers on a successful magazine editor who loses her job and her fiancé in the same day. Professionally disgraced, financially stunted, and unexpectedly hearbroken, she is forced to take on a “How To” blogging gig to pay the bills while she gets back on her feet. She begrudgingly accepts mentorship from an eccentric older neighbor to help her …

Ten-Minute Playwriting: A Study Of Design, Method, And Structure, Jeffrey Peacock

HIM 1990-2015

The purpose of my research was to discover the most effective ways to write ten-minute plays. I adapted various "suggestions" proposed in the many playwriting books I gathered to find the way that worked best for me as an artist. The majority of the books I read suggest writing ten-minute works before attempting a one-act or even a full-length play. My resources yielded a plethora of information on how to actually write a play. Three of my sources that proved to be enlightening were The Art and Craft of Playwriting by Jeffrey Hatcher, Playwriting for Dummies by Angelo Parra, and …

A Den Of Thieves, Robert F. Gelberg

English Honors Projects

A Den of Thieves is a three-act play detailing the final three days of Jesus of Nazareth from the point of view of the two "thieves" with whom he was crucified. However, rather than a retelling of the Gospels, A Den of Thieves approaches the story through a historical lens, presenting a portrait of Jesus as a Jewish revolutionary leading a populist rebellion against Rome for which he was ultimately publicly executed for sedition. The play offers an examination of both faith and the foundations upon which we build faith.

"Mythos": A Play In Two Acts About The Ability To Choose, Jacob F. Filegar

Senior Honors Theses

This paper presents a two-act play in the fantasy genre about the ability to choose, titled “Mythos.” The goal of the play is to persuade audience members to consider that regardless of their past, they still have the ability to choose their future. Although this play is written from a Christian perspective, it does not deal directly with Christianity. “Mythos” centers on Margaret, a young woman who is afraid of making the choices necessary to progress her life. Instead, Margaret is waiting on her “call to adventure,” which, according to Joseph Campbell, was the beginning of most heroes’ adventures in …

The Next Meeting For Tdf's New Creative Writers' Festival Poster, Department Of Theatre, Dance & Film

Promotional Materials

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

Bowab Studio Theatre

The next meeting for TDF's new Creative Writers' Festival

Tuesday, April 22, 2014, 6pm

Organizational Meeting For Tdf's New Creative Writers' Festival Poster, Department Of Theatre, Dance & Film

Promotional Materials

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

Bowab Studio Theatre

Organizational meeting for TDF's new Creative Writers' Festival

Tuesday, March 25, 2014, 4:30pm

The Servant Of Two Masters

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 2014 performance of The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni, translated by Jeffry Hatcher and Paolo Emilio Landi.

The Servant of Two Masters is a comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1746. It follows the story of Beatrice and her comical servant, Truffaldino. Beatrice goes disguised as her dead brother to find her lover, Florindo, plotting to acquire money from her brother’s betrothed to help her run away with her lover. Meanwhile Truffaldino secretly takes on an additional service to Florindo, and must do his best to serve his two …

Chaffin, Cyndi M. (Sc 1290), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1290. Research paper, written 1981 or later, by WKU student Cyndi Chaffin, titled “Russell Miller and His Contributions to the Theatre in Bowling Green [Kentucky] from 1947-1968.” Miller taught drama and speech and directed theater productions at WKU.

The Cherry Orchard

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 2014 performance of The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov.

The play follows an aristocratic Russian landowner who returns to her family estate (which includes a large and well-known cherry orchard) just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage.