New from Barbara White Morgan is Digital Natives.  A mysterious outage in a coffee shop forces cell phone users to reluctantly connect with each other.  An excellent youth or workshop piece, this short play includes 3 male characters and 2 female characters with multiple character types from this generation - gamer, texter, blogger... you'll be online with this new selection.

 

Making his debut with JAC is playwright Isaac Rathbone.  Rathbone's short play Death and Motor Vehicles. Jim is waiting at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).  He is greeted by Death, who has come for him...and to turn in his old plates.  After all, why not kill two birds with one stone, right?  As they wait, mysteries of the beyond and poor reading at the DMV are discussed.  A cast of 1 man and "Death".  Simple set... or just a bench in a black box!  A short for any budget.

 

Another playwright enjoying their JAC debut is Melanie MacQueen, who has TWO plays recently released.  The first of the two is the humorous Pandora's Bum Rap.  When Prometheus steals fire from the gods for lowly men; Zeus decides to make the good life of mortal men not so warm and cozy.  He commissions Hephaestus to make a beautiful statue of gold and then brings it to life as the first human woman, Pandora.  After the other gods give the lovely Pandora gifts of their own, Zeus gives her his own deadly gift to take down to earth with her.  The other gods warn her not to open it, but Zeus has given her curiosity.  Can she resist the temptation to open the box and, if she doesn't, what will be unleashed upon the world? The cast includes 7 men, 5 women, 5 either and a Greek chorus!

 

Also from Melanie MacQueen, The Monarch's New Raiment is a one-act suitable for adult and/or youth productions.  It looks like the business of Penelope, the village seamstress, is being undermined by a couple of traveling rascals who dupe her best customer, Geraldine, into thinking they can sew her a finer dress in less time than Penelope.  Such is their skill at deception; they even have the Queen of the land believing they can make her the finest gown she has ever worn!  The jester is thrown into the dungeon; the royal treasury is overdrawn!  Will the tricksters succeed or will they, and the vain Queen, be revealed by the truthful words of a child? There are 4 men, 6 women and 4 either in the cast.

 

If the above title sounds like a familiar... The Emperor's Second-Hand Clothes probably does, too!  In this case, though, it is just the title that rings a bell.  The story itself has no real relationship to the well-known fairy tale.  You might say Hans Christian Andersen pays a visit in this one-act by the late Malvin Wald, though! Irving is a thoroughly discouraged young writer who is tired of making his living as a bike messenger and decides to end it all in Central Park.  Enter H.C., a dark stranger who befriends Irving and, with the help of another writer making his living as a policeman, and a pretty photographer from Irving's past, Irving's personal disappointment turns to hope and everything movies right back into its proper place (as does H.C.)  There are 3 men and 1 woman in the cast.
 
For more information about this or any of JAC's play selections, visit us online, or drop us an email!

Newton Country Players will be presenting The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at MassBay Community college in Wellesley (MA), April 16, 17, 23 & 24 at 8:00pm.  Laura Espy directs and choregraphs, with musical direction by Christine Kasparian.  For more information and tickets, visit the players online!

 

Also coming in April is Hot Day At The Zoo, playing at the Unity Centre for the Performing Arts in Unity (ME) on April 17 at 8:30pm.  A fiercely progressive 4-piece string band grown in Lowell, Hot Day at the Zoo is quickly spreading their eclectic roots up and down the eastern seaboard and as far west as Colorado. Their bluesy, grassy, jazzy, old-timey, reggae, Americana infused rock and roll was inspired by many great musicians spanning a broad spectrum of time and genre. Visit the Unity Centre online for more information and a full line-up of guest stars.

____________________________________

 

AUDITION Listings  or  PRODUCTION Listings