That play you've always wanted to do.

grantwatson | 29/09/2009 - 12:05

Just looking for people's own choices here: is there a play that you've always wanted to be involved with, but so far haven't done it? Maybe it's just too obscure or unpopular for anyone to put it on, maybe you've auditioned for it in the past but never got in, maybe you just haven't got around to staging it yet.

My pick is Shakespeare's Coriolanus - it's an awesome and, I think, deeply underrated tragedy.

What's your choice?

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Robert E Lee's "Inherit The
Author: jeffhansen
Date: 29/09/2009 - 12:22
jeffhansen's picture

Robert E Lee's "Inherit The Wind".

Doesn't exactly fit the criteria, as I had a small role in it as a youngster in QLD. Was my first taste of REAL theatre, and holds fond memories. I looked it up recently with a thought to directing it, but the cast is a bit large, and being relatively unknown, I think it would be difficult to cast.

It's a courtroom drama set in Tennessee in 1929ish, and based on the Scopes Monkey trial.
www.meltheco.org.au


It's an awesome script,
Author: grantwatson
Date: 29/09/2009 - 13:29

It's an awesome script, from memory (been a few years).


Fur Coat And No Knickers by Mike Harding
Author: JoeMc
Date: 29/09/2009 - 12:31

Mike Harding - complete guide to the Playwright, Plays, Theatres ... 


The odd one out
Author: Labrug
Date: 29/09/2009 - 13:32
Labrug's picture

I want to do all the old boring stuff like Hamlet, Algernon in Importance of.. and so forth, yet I am rapidly getting to old to play these parts. So now I find myself looking towards parts I am still too young to play like Fagin from Oliver!

My odd one out is 16 Words for Water (Billy Marshall Stoneking). Read it years back and loved the script. Far too young to be Mr Pound but that is for the future. I have submitted it for a season some where and they are still to finalise their 2010 season so I may get a chance to direct it... here's hoping.

Absit invidia (and DFT No no no)

Jeff Watkins
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What's the standard phrase?
Author: grantwatson
Date: 29/09/2009 - 15:05

What's the standard phrase? Too old for Hamlet, too young for Lear?


Something like that.
Author: Labrug
Date: 29/09/2009 - 15:48
Labrug's picture

It has a familar ring to it, although I much like another phrase...

"I am not young enough to know everything." Nothing to do with what we're talking about, just wanted to say it.

Absit invidia (and DFT No no no)

Jeff Watkins
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"ƃuıʇsǝɹǝʇuı ǝɟıן ƃuıʞɐɯ"


And I hope you had a very
Author: grantwatson
Date: 30/09/2009 - 14:17

And I hope you had a very special special day today, btw.


Ta Grant
Author: Labrug
Date: 30/09/2009 - 21:37
Labrug's picture

Yet another birthday wish... Thanks Grant. 

Absit invidia (and DFT No no no)

Jeff Watkins
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"ƃuıʇsǝɹǝʇuı ǝɟıן ƃuıʞɐɯ"


Young Enough?
Author: Tari-Xalyr
Date: 20/10/2009 - 18:55
Tari-Xalyr's picture

Young enough, Jeff dear, it's awefully clever. . .

Sorry thought I'd join in. Returning to my hovel now.

~ Bec

Inside every adult is the child that was and inside every child is the adult that will be. (John Connolly)


Oh I like these games!
Author: Manuao
Date: 29/09/2009 - 17:41
Manuao's picture

I would like to...

Direct/Choreograph

  • La Cage Folles

Perform

  • Gypsy (Tulsa)
  • West Side Story (Bernardo, Just one more time before I am too old to play him again)
  • Sound of Music (Ralph, But I'm too ethnic looking!)


I'd come see all of
Author: jeffhansen
Date: 29/09/2009 - 18:35
jeffhansen's picture

I'd come see all of those.

Except maybe Sound Of Music Sticking out tongue
www.meltheco.org.au


*clears throat*
Author: Garreth
Date: 29/09/2009 - 20:50

Directing list:

St Joan of the Stockyards - Brecht
The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui - Brecht
The Good Woman(person) of Setzuan - Brecht
Threepenny Opera - Brecht and Weill
The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahaghonny - Brecht and Weill
Oleanna - Mamet
Something by Neil Labute, just haven't read enough of his work yet.
The Frogs - Aristophanes
Lysistrata - Aristophanes
The Poet and the Women - Aristophanes
Oedipus Rex - Sophocles
The Plough and the Stars - Sean O'Casey
Agamemnon - Aeschylus Trans. Berkoff
Inner Voices - Louis Nowra
The Golden Age - Louis Nowra
Cosi - Louis Nowra
The Dumbwaiter - Pinter
The Caretaker - Pinter
The Birthday Party - Pinter
This Story of Yours - John Hopkins
Lear - Edward Bond
Amadeus - Peter Shaffer
Equus - Peter Shaffer
Sleuth - Anthony Shaffer (although I would love to use Harold Pinter's treatment)
Dr. Faustus - Marlow
More Light - Snoo Wilson
The Number of the Beast - Snoo Wilson
Sweeney Todd - Sondheim & Wheeler
Urinetown - Cotis & Hollowman
Oliver! - Lionel Bart
Cabaret - Kander & Ebb
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) - The Reduced Shakespeare Company
Waiting For Godot - Beckett (Would like to do it again)
Endgame - Beckett
Happy Days - Beckett
Footfalls - Beckett
Krapp's Last Tape - Beckett
Act Without words I & II - Beckett
Shakespeare's -
Cymbeline
Macbeth (Coming March 2010)
Richard III
Henry V
Titus Andronicus
King Lear
Troilus and Cressida
Romeo and Juliet
The Tempest
The Winter's Tale
Julius Caesar
Antony and Cleopatra

Performance list

Othello - Iago (Coming November 2009)
King Lear - Edmund
Romeo and Juliet - Mercutio and Tybalt
Hamlet - Hamlet and Edmund
Titus Andronicus - Titus (one day i'll be old enough)
Midsummer Night's Dream - Bottom
Richard II - King Richard II
Henry V - King Henry
Richard III - King Richard III
Agamemnon - Agamemnon (considering I've played him in nearly every other bloody play he features in!)
Measure for Measure - Antonio
Julius Ceasar - Antony, Ceasar and Brutus
Tempest - Caliban and Prospero
Arturo Ui - Arturo Ui
Threepenny Opera - Macheath and Tiger Brown
Amadeus - Salieri and Mozart
The Birthday Party - Stanley
Dr. Faustus - Faustus and Mephistopheles
Caucasian Chalk Circle - Azdak
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and The Player
and pretty much anything else that people are willing to cast me as.

So this list should keep me busy for the next decade at least


...
Author: Labrug
Date: 29/09/2009 - 21:02
Labrug's picture

Speechless...

Absit invidia (and DFT No no no)

Jeff Watkins
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"ƃuıʇsǝɹǝʇuı ǝɟıן ƃuıʞɐɯ"


Sorry ignore the Edmund in
Author: Garreth
Date: 30/09/2009 - 00:46

Sorry ignore the Edmund in Hamlet... Dunno what happened there


I said play not
Author: grantwatson
Date: 30/09/2009 - 09:37

I said play not plays!!!!

I've always had a keen interest in playing Edmund in Lear as well. I actually got cast in the role once, but then the production was cancelled after the first readthrough.


I'm sorry Grant, I'm just
Author: Garreth
Date: 30/09/2009 - 17:09

I'm sorry Grant, I'm just not a one play kind of guy.


You're so unfaithful.
Author: grantwatson
Date: 02/10/2009 - 12:10

You're so unfaithful.


Well
Author: Logos
Date: 29/09/2009 - 21:22
Logos's picture

I don't act any more although I am trying puppetry for the first time,some phrase about old dogs and new tricks rings a bell here.
Given my recent fascination for new work the next play I want to direct probably hasn't been written yet.

I always wanted to play Arthur in Camelot and Don Quixote in La Mancha

Is that all there is? Well if that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing.
www.tonymoore.id.au


Miss Marple.
Author: JustSuse
Date: 30/09/2009 - 00:17
JustSuse's picture

Please, Please, PLEASE, will someone let me play Miss Marple! There HAS to some reward for having looked like Margaret Rutherford all my life. Please will someone do an Agatha Christie and cast me as Miss Marple before I get too old to be able to learn lines. Everyone I've mentioned it to agrees that I would be ideal for the role, but no-one will let me DO it! Someone take pity on an old lady before its too late.


Miss Marple.
Author: JustSuse
Date: 30/09/2009 - 00:20
JustSuse's picture

Please, Please, PLEASE, will someone let me play Miss Marple! There HAS to some reward for having looked like Margaret Rutherford all my life. Please will someone do an Agatha Christie and cast me as Miss Marple before I get too old to be able to learn lines. Everyone I've mentioned it to agrees that I would be ideal for the role, but no-one will let me DO it! Someone, take pity on an old lady before its too late. Anytime after September next year - I'm busy till then. Please?


The Twelfth Night
Author: jessmess
Date: 30/09/2009 - 00:39

I'm not sure if I'd prefer viola or olivia, viola is the bigger part but olivia has the better lines. 'item two, lips, indifferent red...'


Blind as...
Author: Paul Treasure
Date: 30/09/2009 - 08:40

For soome bizarre reason I've always wanted to play Gloucester (?) in Lear, the one that gets his eyes put out...

That has to say something that this role has ALWAYS fascinated me!

Have also always wanted to play Lady Bracknell in Earnest...
Thank the Gods there is a tradition of her played by blokes!

Actually always wanted to play Lady M in an all-male production of MickyB as well...

One of these days I will also get to direct Nine and Hal V

And the Gods help me if I get my hands on Les Miz or Phantom - I have two BRILLIANT regietheater productions in my head that would probably get me lynched
Smiling


Gloucester's an awesome
Author: grantwatson
Date: 30/09/2009 - 11:58

Gloucester's an awesome part.


Think I'm too old now
Author: jmuzz
Date: 30/09/2009 - 10:34
jmuzz's picture

but Alex in A Clockwork Orange for me


I've always wanted to play
Author: LibbyDaniewska
Date: 30/09/2009 - 15:11
LibbyDaniewska's picture

I've always wanted to play Joan (Saint Joan - Bernard Shaw)


Hmmm . . .
Author: Tari-Xalyr
Date: 01/10/2009 - 12:50
Tari-Xalyr's picture

Always wanted to perform as Rosencrantz in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" by Tom Stoppard. Keep being told I should direct it but I don't have enough idea developed to scope the entire play. . .yet!

Otherwise I'm hunting for a decent juicy evil female role. . . the roles I generally fall in love with are male (as you can see from Ros mentioned above) . . . MY psych friends tell me I suffer from the dramatic version of Freud's penis envy, which for some reason I can agree with, don't watn to be a man they just get such awesome roles!

Recently fell in love with the classic female role of Hedda from Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" but again want to play Judge Brack in that also.

Inside every adult is the child that was and inside every child is the adult that will be. (John Connolly)


Surely there are many evil female roles
Author: jessmess
Date: 01/10/2009 - 14:26

Lady Macscottishplay, The Wicked Witch of the West...nope can't think of any more that aren't shakespearean or pantomime...but other, more educated thespians, help me out? Who are the villanous women in theatre?


Well
Author: Logos
Date: 05/10/2009 - 10:14
Logos's picture

"Women Beware Women" by Middleton, Medea, Mother Courage is neither villain nor hero in my opinion, "The Personal Enquiry Officer" in Scapegoat (One of mine, I couldn't resist.) Abigail in The Crucible (I think she's a villain) Also take a read of Strindbergs "The Stronger" and "The Father" and "Miss Julie". I'm not sure about any of those characters.
"The Maids" is an interestingly ambiguous performance for two women.
What about "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf." is the central character villain or victim?
Seriously there aren't enough good evil roles for women that don't become stereotypes.

Is that all there is? Well if that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing.
www.tonymoore.id.au


Precisely. . .
Author: Tari-Xalyr
Date: 20/10/2009 - 18:59
Tari-Xalyr's picture

Precisely my point. . but I was cast as Abigail Williams a litle while back but had to withdraw from the show after first rehearsal because of family stuff.

I'm just a sucker for side kick sort of roles. .

Inside every adult is the child that was and inside every child is the adult that will be. (John Connolly)


good evil roles for women
Author: stinger
Date: 25/10/2009 - 10:59
stinger's picture

It is heartening to see young local writers seem to be getting this message. In Grant Watson's CRY HAVOC (currently playing at the Blue Room in Northbridge), based on Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR, the "lean and hungry" conspirator is congresswoman Cassandra Ford, chillingly portrayed by acclaimed Perth actress Mia Martin.
Mia reports that when she walks into the bar after the play, she gets many a cold glare from the patrons - a response she takes as a compliment - and she is relishing the role of villain rather than victim this time around.

Ssstinger>>>


Dead Guilty
Author: DazzaB
Date: 06/10/2009 - 11:27
DazzaB's picture

There's a great little black comedy titled Dead Guilty written by Richard Harris. The role of the widow (I think the character's name is Mrs. Hadril, but don't quote me on that) is deliciously evil at heart. And the play only needs four actors on one set...

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." Scott Adams


i missed it :(
Author: Garry D
Date: 01/10/2009 - 15:42
Garry D's picture

Ever since high school I wanted to do The Crucible. I'm devastated that I missed it at Roleystone this year.

Oh well, those interfering holidays to Europe are a decent substitute!


I have a monologue ive been
Author: Julia Stafford (not verified)
Date: 03/10/2009 - 12:34

I have a monologue ive been doing for years from Angels in America...my absolute dream role would be to play Harper in that


Not that I'm an opera singer...
Author: Paul Treasure
Date: 05/10/2009 - 09:34

Not that I'm an opera singer...
But I would love to play Dr. P in Michael Nyman's "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat"

(Have just been listening to it in the car and remembered how much i love it)


Once upon a time
Author: Labrug
Date: 05/10/2009 - 09:36
Labrug's picture

I had a hankering to play Marius from Le Mis, just so I could sing "Empty Chairs" - love that song.

Absit invidia (and DFT No no no)

Jeff Watkins
SN Profile
Photographer


I recently saw a film
Author: Frellis
Date: 06/10/2009 - 07:27
Frellis's picture

I recently saw a film called "The Moon is Blue" on ABC2, it was originally a play by Herbert somebody rather and I think they shot the film in the 50s. It was so witty, nobody writes stuff like that anymore!!

The other one is 'The Weir' by Conor McPherson. I did a monologue from it in year 12. It has a really sedate pace and gets really spooky sometimes. One of those plays where everything and nothing happens. Love it.

"I have two giraffes... the State requires me to learn the Harmonica..."


There are alot
Author: Rh1ann0n13
Date: 20/10/2009 - 11:04

Well, if I could narrow it down, I would love to produce and direct Crave (Sarah Kane) in conjunction with mental health week. I already have a whole portfolio prepared but I don't think I'll be able to handle such a project for a while Sticking out tongue

As for roles I would like to play... the shortlist (at the moment) would be: Baker's Wife (Into the Woods), Cathy (The Last Five Years), Eponine (Les Miserables), Ruth (Pirates of Penzance), Kate/Lucy the Slut (Avenue Q), Cordelia (King Lear), Lady Anne (Richard III), Martha or Honey (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf), and Algernon (The Importance of Being Earnest) and I know he's a boy but I'm sure I would be awesome Laughing out loud While on the subject of being a man, I would love to play Volpone in Jonson's Volpone or the Fox. Ah... I know there are so many more than that but they are fresh in my memory


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