Picking a Play...lucky number 8!

Tis the season for picking a play! For the last five years, July and August have brought with them a slew of scripts to mull over and eventually pick a fall production from. Every year that I do this I find decent material...though decent material and the "right" material are not always the same thing. I do have a small production "wish list" to stage someday, but the conditions have to be right for these particular shows. Currently, the "right conditions" include next year's completion of the new performing arts space. Having a real stage will make all the difference in the world. In the meantime, I've become somewhat adept at choosing and staging shows in little niche spaces. And thus, this year I believe the choice has come down to two potential options...

 
If you're unfamiliar with the choices, "And Then There Were None" is the classic Agatha Christie murder mystery (also known as "Ten Little Indians.") I've considered staging a mystery during my last few rounds of script selection and read a couple mediocre stories in the process. ATTWN is not mediocre, would be fun and different from other things I've directed, and would have some title/author name recognition to help bring people in. Downsides? Recommended staging/set is bigger and more elaborate than anything I'd really want to build. Male to female ratio isn't ideal casting and doesn't provide a lot of room for gender flexibility. Still...not a bad option.

Choice number two is Neil Simon's "Fools." I've considered directing this show twice before, and it's made the final two of my script selection once in the past as well. That probably means I should go ahead and stage it. Merits: it's funny! Neil Simon is obviously a classic playwright. It's got a small, manageable cast, that probably provides me more flexibility than ATTWN. Downfalls: Multiple locations in the story make for trickier staging. The cast is small...only 10 or so speaking parts.

Of course, because I've named these as the two shows I'm considering picking between, the very real possibility exists I will not choose either option!

I mean...there's two months left this summer...that's a lot of time to read and consider other possibilities. And yet, the sooner I choose something, the easier the transition back to school and rehearsals will be. So (for now) it's narrowed down to these two. What would you buy a ticket to see?

Happy Trails,