ACTIVE SHOOTER Is Your Theatre Prepared for the Unthinkable?
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Volume LVIII Number 4 • Fall 2017 • $8.00 PANTO Could Britain’s Hottest Holiday Show Draw New Audiences to Your Theatre? ACTIVE SHOOTER Is Your Theatre Prepared for the Unthinkable? [MISS] Getchell Play Explores 1960s Thalidomide Scare GRADUATE Master of Arts Theatre Arts Master of Fine Arts Arts Administration Design Performance and Pedagogy Playwriting Doctor of Philosophy Interdisciplinary Fine Arts UNDERGRADUATE Bachelor of Arts Dance Theatre Arts Bachelor of Fine Arts Acting Design Musical Theatre Learn more at www.theatre.ttu.edu award-winningaward-winning students students seniorsenior acting acting events events in in NYC NYC & & LA LA nationallynationally recognized recognized guest guest artists artists renownedrenowned professional professional directors directors professionalprofessional faculty faculty with with extensive extensive BroadwayBroadway credentials credentials BFA,BFA, THEATRE THEATRE performanceperformance scenicscenic design design costumecostume design design lightinglighting design design stagestage management management BA,BA, THEATRE THEATRE MFA,MFA, PEDAGOGY PEDAGOGY overover 125 125 alumni alumni currently currently teaching teaching inin higher higher education education MFA,MFA, SCENIC SCENIC DESIGN DESIGN MFA,MFA, COSTUME COSTUME DESIGN DESIGN uniqueunique professional professional working working opportunities opportunities arts.vcu.edu/arts.vcu.edu/theatretheatre ForFor more more information: information: email email [email protected] [email protected] or or call call (804)-828-1514 (804)-828-1514 922922 Park Park Ave., Ave., Richmond, Richmond, Va Va 23284-2524 23284-2524 CVolume LVIII Numberontents 4 l Fall 2017 l Southern Theatre – Quarterly Magazine of the Southeastern Theatre Conference Features 6 Panto Could Britain’s Hottest Holiday Show Draw New Audiences to Your Theatre? Departments by Adam D. Howard 4 Hot off the Press 18 Active Shooter Is Your Theatre Prepared for the Unthinkable? New Plays by Women by Megan Monaghan Rivas by Stefanie Maiya Lehmann and Dominic Yeager Cover 2017 Charles M. Getchell Award Ariana Grande (left), Neil Patrick Harris and Charlene Tilton appear in the December 2012 25 The Playwright: W.L. Newkirk production of Lythgoe Family Panto’s A Snow White Christmas at Pasadena Playhouse in Getchell Award-Winning Play Spotlights Thalidomide Scare Pasadena, CA. Grande portrays Snow White, and Tilton is The Wicked Queen, while Harris interview by Darren V. Michael makes an on-screen appearance as The Magic Mirror. Pantos, traditionally performed in Britain during the holiday season, are now 29 The Play: [Miss] being performed at some theatres in the U.S. as well. Read the story, Page 6. (Photo by F. Scott The first act of the 2017 winner of the Charles M. Getchell ward,A given Schafer; cover design by Deanna Thompson; by SETC to recognize a worthy new play, is published. Act II is available Photoshop work by Garland Gooden) for reading online at www.setc.org/miss. Fall 2017 x Southern Theatre x 3 New Plays by Women by Megan Monaghan Rivas ur regular column on newly available plays and musicals focuses in this issue on plays written by women. In the 2016-2017 season, women wrote just over 20 percent of the plays produced by the Theatre Communications Group’s (TCG) member professional O theatres – a figure that is lower than the previous season. In an effort to bring those statistics more in balance, this month’s column will raise up works by female playwrights. Take a look and find some powerful women’s voices to showcase in your next project or season. To develop the following list of suggested titles, we surveyed major play publishers’ offerings during the past six months. With each play, you’ll find the cast breakdown and a referral to the publisher who holds the rights. Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, by of the powerful Hitler Youth organization. surgeon with a family and a lively mind, is Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon But behind Viktor’s perfect façade lies a tested to the limit when Hurricane Katrina Opening two years after the events of Pride secret – his beloved sister, a ward of the threatens to drown his beloved town. and Prejudice, this holiday delight focuses state due to her developmental disabilities. Cast breakdown: 4 females; 4 males; 1 boy on Elizabeth Bennet Darcy’s scholarly, When the Nazi government begins to enact Publisher: Samuel French perpetually overlooked middle sister Mary. racial and genetic purity policies, Viktor www.samuelfrench.com The flamboyant Bennet family’s Christmas must decide which to protect: his secret, Wonderland: Alice’s Rock & Roll gathering at the Darcy estate becomes the or his sister. Adventure, adapted from Lewis Carroll’s setting for a funny and heartfelt romance Cast breakdown: 3-7 females; 5-13 males classic novels by Rachel Rockwell, that has earned critical praise. Publisher: Playscripts, Inc. music by Michael Mahler Cast breakdown: 5 females; 3 males www.playscripts.com At seven and a half, Alice is full of potential Publisher: Dramatists Play Service Tuck Everlasting, adapted by Claudia – and of fears, doubts and all the challenges www.dramatists.com Shear and Tim Federle from the novel of growing up. With a sound as varied as Not Medea, by Allison Gregory by Natalie Babbitt, music by Chris Miller, Alice’s own imagination – a little bit of When a working mom takes a desper- lyrics by Nathan Tysen punk, some ska, some classic R&B, and ately needed night off at the theatre, her Eleven-year-old Winnie lives a safe life even a Bollywood dance number or two – fantasy about a different life – a child-free behind her family’s picket fence, but her Wonderland shows that all children can face life – crashes up against that night’s play, a heart longs for adventure. She finds it in fear and find their own confident voices. tragedy she has no desire to see. She takes abundance when she gets wrapped up in Cast breakdown: 4 females; 6 males; cast over the play and its audience in what The the highly unusual Tuck family. This multi- can be expanded Washington Post called “a resonant medi- generational charmer features a singable Publisher: Dramatic Publishing tation on guilt, alienation, resilience and score of country- and folk-infused music. www.dramaticpublishing.com double standards for men and women.” Cast breakdown: 3 females; 6 males; 1 girl; Megan Monaghan Rivas is Cast breakdown: 2 females; 1 male plus ensemble an associate professor of Publisher: Playscripts, Inc. Publisher: Samuel French dramaturgy in the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon www.playscripts.com www.samuelfrench.com University. Recipient of the Elliott Hayes Prize in Sending Down the Sparrows, by Laura The Play About My Dad, by Boo Killebrew Dramaturgy, she served as Lundgren Smith Set in Gulfport, MS, this “epically intimate” literary manager of South Viktor seems to have everything a 17-year- family-biographical play shows Killebrew’s Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, CA; the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta; and Frontera@Hyde old would want during the Third Reich. father through his daughter’s loving eyes. Park Theatre in Austin, TX. She is a member of He’s a fine, upstanding boy and a member Dr. Larry Killebrew, an emergency room the Southern Theatre Editorial Board. 4 x Southern Theatre x Fall 2017 s o u t h e r n heatre From the SETC President TSETC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR New Plays by Women Betsey Horth EDITOR Deanna Thompson ADVERTISING Clay Thornton, [email protected] This issue of Southern Theatre provides readers with the opportunity to jettison BUSINESS & ADVERTISING OFFICE preconceived notions on a variety of topics. We invite you to expand your view Southeastern Theatre Conference 1175 Revolution Mill Drive, Studio 14 of pantomime to include a very different British model, and we urge you to Greensboro, NC 27405 contemplate the inconceivable by attending to security concerns in your theatre. 336-272-3645 PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE TWe also introduce you to the play [Miss], which highlights the value of standing J.K. Curry, Chair, Wake Forest University (NC) up to conventional thought. Finally, we introduce you to a handful of new Becky Becker, Columbus State University (GA) plays that may help you incorporate more female voices into your production Laura King, Gordon State College (GA) EDITORIAL BOARD season. Karen Brewster, East Tennessee State University We start with a story on pantomime. Here in the U.S., the word conjures Lamont Clegg, Osceola County School for the Arts (FL) Larry Cook, University of North Georgia up images of silent performers clothed in black. However, it has a whole other F. Randy deCelle, University of Alabama meaning in the British Isles. There, panto is an over-the-top comedy with music Kristopher Geddie, Venice Theatre (FL) (often based on a fairy tale) that is the cornerstone of holiday entertainment – and Bill Gelber, Texas Tech University Sarah Grammar, Harvard University (MA) a huge money-maker, drawing the largest crowds of the year to British theatres. H. Duke Guthrie, Valdosta State University (GA) Adam Howard shares this tradition, spotlights how some American theatres have Scott Hayes, Liberty University (VA) Edward Journey, Alabama A&M University adopted it for their stages, and explores how it could help create a new tradition Jen Nelson Lane, AEA Stage Manager (AL) – and an annually returning holiday audience – for theatres in this country. Stefanie Maiya Lehmann, Lincoln Center (NY) Scott Phillips, Auburn University (AL) None of us want to think that an active shooter incident or other violent act Megan Monaghan Rivas, Carnegie Mellon University (PA) could happen in our theatres, but experts say it is essential that performing PROOFREADERS arts venues make the time to prepare for such events in today’s world. Stefanie Kim Doty, SETC Communications Specialist Denise Halbach, Independent Theatre Artist (MS) Lehmann and Dominic Yeager share information from security experts on the Philip G.