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The Golden Fleece Based on Homer’S the Golden Fleece Jason and the Golden Fleece

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The Golden Fleece Based on Homer’S the Golden Fleece Jason and the Golden Fleece Excerpt Terms & Conditions This excerpt is available to assist you in the play selection process. You may view, print and download any of our excerpts for perusal purposes. Excerpts are not intended for performance, classroom or other academic use. In any of these cases you will need to purchase playbooks via our website or by phone, fax or mail. A short excerpt is not always indicative of the entire work, and we strongly suggest reading the whole play before planning a production or ordering a cast quantity of scripts. Family Plays The Golden Fleece The Based on Homer’s The Golden Fleece Jason and the Golden Fleece. Adventure. By Alan Cullen. With music by Jeremy Bar- FamilyPlays • /Barlow • Cullen low. Based on Homer’s Jason and the Golden Fleece. Cast: 10m., 5w. This ballad-style play from England is based on of the legendary tale of Jason and the Golden Fleece. The sea runs high, and though their families are hungry, for days the fish- ermen have been unable to launch their boats. Father Poseidon is The angry. To appease him, the fisher folk decide to sing and play for him something big, an epic about a big man, like Jason. Begin- ning with song, they don homely costume touches and, picking up a few handy props, they improvise the king’s court at Iolchos. From there, caught up in the vast sweep of Jason’s adventures, they Golden quite forget the high seas as they pursue this enthralling tale. Bare stage, which lends itself to various settings. Ancient Greek costumes. Approximate running time: 85 minutes. Music in book. Code: G97. Fleece Cover design by Jeanette Alig-Sergel. Adventure by Alan Cullen. With music by Jeremy Barlow. ISBN-10: 0-87602-130-5 ISBN-13: 978-0-87602-130-9 311 Washington St., Woodstock, IL 60098-3308 Phone: (800) 448-7469 / (815) 338-7170 Fax: (800) 334-5302 / (815) 338-8981 www.FamilyPlays.com The Golden Fleece © Family Plays Golden Fleece Cover.indd 1 4/4/2013 3:01:25 PM The Golden Fleece The Based on Homer’s The Golden Fleece Jason and the Golden Fleece. Adventure. By Alan Cullen. With music by Jeremy Bar- FamilyPlays • /Barlow • Cullen low. Based on Homer’s Jason and the Golden Fleece. Cast: 10m., 5w. This ballad-style play from England is based on of the legendary tale of Jason and the Golden Fleece. The sea runs high, and though their families are hungry, for days the fish- ermen have been unable to launch their boats. Father Poseidon is The angry. To appease him, the fisher folk decide to sing and play for him something big, an epic about a big man, like Jason. Begin- ning with song, they don homely costume touches and, picking up a few handy props, they improvise the king’s court at Iolchos. From there, caught up in the vast sweep of Jason’s adventures, they Golden quite forget the high seas as they pursue this enthralling tale. Bare stage, which lends itself to various settings. Ancient Greek costumes. Approximate running time: 85 minutes. Music in book. Code: G97. Fleece Cover design by Jeanette Alig-Sergel. Adventure by Alan Cullen. With music by Jeremy Barlow. ISBN-10: 0-87602-130-5 ISBN-13: 978-0-87602-130-9 311 Washington St., Woodstock, IL 60098-3308 Phone: (800) 448-7469 / (815) 338-7170 Fax: (800) 334-5302 / (815) 338-8981 www.FamilyPlays.com The Golden Fleece © Family Plays Golden Fleece Cover.indd 1 4/4/2013 3:01:25 PM The Golden Fleece A play for young people by ALAN CULLEN With music by JEREMY BARLOW Family Plays 311 Washington St., Woodstock, IL 60098 © Family Plays *** NOTICE *** The amateur and stock acting rights to this work are controlled exclusively by FAMILY PLAYS without whose permission in writing no performance of it may be given. Royalty must be paid every time a play is performed whether or not it is presented for profit and whether or not admission is charged. A play is performed any time it is acted before an audience. Current royalty rates, applications and restrictions may be found at our website: www.familyplays.com, or we may be contacted by mail at: FAMILY PLAYS, 311 Washington St., Woodstock, IL 60098. FAMILY PLAYS is a wholly owned imprint of THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC. COPYRIGHT LAW GIVES THE AUTHOR OR THE AUTHOR’S AGENT THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO MAKE COPIES. This law provides authors with a fair return for their creative efforts. Authors earn their living from the royalties they receive from book sales and from the performance of their work. Conscientious observance of copyright law is not only ethical, it encourages authors to continue their creative work. This work is fully protected by copyright. No alterations, deletions or substitutions may be made in the work without the prior written consent of the publisher. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, videotape, film, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. It may not be performed either by professionals or amateurs without payment of royalty. All rights, including, but not limited to, the professional, motion picture, radio, television, videotape, foreign language, tabloid, recitation, lecturing, publication and reading, are reserved. ©MCMLXXI by ANCHORAGE PRESS, INC. Printed in the United States of America All Rights Reserved (THE GOLDEN FLEECE) ISBN: 978-0-87602-130-9 © Family Plays IMPORTANT BILLING AND CREDIT REQUIREMENTS All producers of the musical must give credit to the author/composer of the musical in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the musical and in all instances in which the title of the musical appears for purposes of advertising, publicizing or otherwise exploiting the musical and/or a production. The name of the author/composer must also appear on a separate line, on which no other name appears, immediately following the title, and must appear in size of type not less than fifty percent (50%) the size of the title type. Biographical information on the author/ composer, if included in the playbook, may be used in all programs. In all programs this notice must appear: “Produced by special arrangement with FAMILY PLAYS of Woodstock, Illinois.” © Family Plays © Family Plays INTRODUCTION The early Greeks are said to have organized expeditions to the Black Sea in search of gold, dredged from the river bed by means of sheep skins laid in the current. The pelts, thick with gold dust, be came a valuable trading commodity and Colchis is seen as the El Dorado, or perhaps the Klondike, of the Achaeans. Later generations, choosing to ignore the mercenary motives implicit in the tradition, have transformed what was probably bare-faced pi- racy (or at the best, exploitation) into a saga of heroic adventure. This is the way of myths. Behind the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur is probably the reality of the fall of Crete as a mari- time power; behind that of the siege of Troy is probably the strug- gle for the trading route through the Hellespont. But happily for our culture, these events took place before the invention of writing and the advent of factual historians. The rich inventions of a great oral tradition have seen to it that these stories have finished up as poetic expressions of the beliefs, fears, dreams and aspirations of an extraordinary people. Many of the incidents contained, if we are to believe the psychologists, archetypal images of universal significance. To transform one of these great myths, then, into a theatrical entertainment, is no small undertaking. There is the danger of minimizing it, of distorting it, of viewing it too much through our own eyes, and applying our own values to it. One can only hope that in this attempt to present it on the stage, something of the richness and something of the vitality of the original leg- end of “The Golden Fleece” have managed to elbow their way through to you tonight. Whoever the Argonauts were, the driving force behind their exploits cannot have been so very different from that which ani- mates the cosmonauts. The golden fleece or a handful of moon- dust—the goal is merely an excuse for the business of getting there. —Alan Cullen © Family5 Plays The premiere production of The Golden Fleece was presented in December, 1969, at the Sheffield Playhouse, Sheffield, England. The Sheffield Repertory Company Limited (In association with the Arts Council of Great Britain) Presents The Golden Fleece by Alan Cullen Directed by Frank Hatherly Settings designed by Edward Furby Costumes designed by Elaine Garrard Costumes created in the theatre wardrobe by Madge D’Alroy Music by Jeremy Barlow A group of Greek fisherfolk entertain Poseidon, God of the Sea, with the tale of Jason and the Argonauts. Jason ..........................................................................John Pickles Orpheus ................................................................Brian Robinson Heracles/King AËTES .......................................... David Bradley Hylas/Prince Absyrtus ............................................Neil Boorman Castor .................................................................Michael St. John Polydeuces ............................................................... James Fagan Phalerus/King Amycus ........................................... David Howey Argus/King Pelias/King Phineus ......................James Tomlinson Nauplius/Bull-man ...................................................Mick Rodger Typhys/Bull-man ..................................................... Terence King Bebrycan Soldier/Guard ..........................................Jeffrey
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