Is anyone familiar w/this play? I played Karen Wright in college in November 2002. It is my favorite role I've ever done as well as one of my favorite plays. This play changed the way I thought about my career & the way I viewed people in general. Any thoughts? Anyone else been involved w/this show?
Kindest regards,
Mandee
my school is doing a production of it soon. i've auditioned for either karen or martha.... i think it's brilliant.
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Welcome! To the! Tragic! Kingdom!
It seems to get performed a lot ... I'm just about to do a production of it as a matter of fact ...
"When I was a young boy growing up in The Hood..." - Colin Mochrie
My school's doing the play! I just auditioned and I have the part of Mrs. Tilford
shareThat's great! Congratulations. :) WHere do you go to school?
Kindest regards,
Mandee
Mckinney High School... THat's probably irrelevant, though. It's in Texas (Dallas area)
shareWell, break a leg in your performance. It's a very moving play. A lot of the audience members during my performance cried & we got standing ovations every night we performed.
This play changed me emotionally & made me focus intently on my career.
I am very interested to hear how the play is received in a high school. The subject matter is questionable in general & uncomfortable for many people, but I think it would especially be questionable & uncomfortable in such a conservative state like Texas.
Once again, break a leg (to all the cast as well).
Kindest regards,
Mandee
www.tecumsehdrama.com
www.cincyplay.com
[deleted]
Break a leg & have a ton of fun!
Kindest regards,
Mandee
www.tecumsehdrama.com
www.cincyplay.com
Mandee,
I saw your posts and thought I'd give you a little feedback on a production of the show which I saw, produced by a high school, 2 years ago. I'm from Texas, very central, lot sof small towns with small ideas in the middle of Southen Baptist country.
Every year, there's a statewide One-Act play contest. Schools are divided up into groups by general student size, and must face 5 rounds of competition: zone, district, area, regional, and state. Each competition puts 4-8 schools against each other, and advances 2 of the plays on to the next round, until about 6-8 from each size school arrive at state.
A very small school in my area produced the play 2 years ago, and surprisingly, it was greatly accepted, and got through several rounds of the OAP competition. The roles of Karen, Martha, Mary, and her grandmother were all rewarded with acting awards, and the play really hit home with a lot of people.
It was my first experience with the show, and after seeing it, I was moved deeply, and even moreso by the fact that a high school had shown the courage to produce such a quality piece of theater, knowing that they could have taken great heat for doing it, in their location. Much of the audience, even unlikely theater-go'ers were moved to tears and buzzing about the themes of the show, long after the performance.
The director was a young woman in her early 20's, and seemed to be very open minded. I think that had a lot to do with it's success and the general performace of the show, as well. I think it really served well to open some people's minds who previously wouldn't have thought about discrimination, had they not been exposed to the piece.
It's something I think many people should see. I know I'd love to see another stage perfomance of it.
Cheshirechris-
Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that w/me. I am fascinated as to how they filtered it down into a one-act play, however. It seems that every single line in that play is relavent. I couldn't for a moment think about condensing it down into a one-act.
I'm so glad that this piece touched you. It changed the way I worked in my career. I am a better person for playing Karen Wright.
Once again, thank you. :)
Kindest regards,
Mandee
www.tecumsehdrama.com
www.cincyplay.com
Hi,
yeah i saw this play at my mum's college (she teaches at a drama college) and i thought it was fantastic, particularly the girl who played mary (who was of course in real life the same age as all the others in it).
However, there was something about it that I thought didn;t quite work, and i wondered if it's to do with the play, or just that production. The problem was that the first half seems to focus almost entirely around Mary, but then she barely features in the second half and the attention shifts completely to the two teachers. Has anyone else seen this play and been left with the feeling that either Mary should have come back, or been less significant at the beginning? I definitely thought she was the lead role until after the interval.
It's possible that I only thought this because the girl playing Mary was so incredibly good and dynamic, but I just wondered what other people thought...
I was just reading this thread and I realize this is an extremely late response to your question but I thought I'd still throw something out there.
I played Mary in a production of this play, and while I think Mary was a lead for sure, I think if she had returned in the third act, it would have distracted the audience. I think the first two acts were the developmental acts, in which Mary has to take the lead, since she's the entire reason the lives of Karen and Martha are destroyed in the end.
I think the third act went on sans Mary because the emphasis now had to be on the resulting tragedy of the lies and rumours. This makes it so that each individual member of the audience can have their own picture in their head of Mary and her macliciousness, and develop their own hatred for her. Besides, at this point in the play, I think that every time Mary reappears on the stage, you'd assume something bad was going to happen. But then you realize that Mary no longer has to be there for evil to prevail. It shows that bad things still linger due to her actions, which is the essence of the play: rumours and lies have lasting and permanent effect.
Sorry that was so long!
I just watched the movie for the first time this evening, and followed along with the play (which I had in a Lillian Hellman collection) . It was a pretty close adaptation, though the play seemed a bit edgier in places, and I liked the ending of the play MUCH MUCH better than the movie.
I still really enjoyed the film but UGH, what a sore thumb of a moralizing Hollywood ending. I'm glad I had the play in front of me in order to find out the original (much more nuanced and interesting) ending.
How does the play's ending differ from the movie version's? I have only seen the Audrey Hepburn film, and I hated the ending (but you know how the movie is going to end because the movie pushes you to expect such an ending).
shareI did this play a couple of years ago in high school; I was Peggy. Yes, we used high schoolers for the girls' parts. I was a kid because I was short ;)
One of my best friends directed the show, and the other played Karen. It really was a fantastic show, we performed it for the entire school and had break-out sessions of discussion and everything.
I am auditioning for this play in the fall...I am not sure what part to go for, but I was thinking either Karen or Mary. It will be my senior year so it should be interesting! My town is very conservative though so I hope that it is received well. ~Katie
shareI wish you nothing but luck & broken legs. Go for it! Have a fun time & keep your heart in the right place.
Kindest regards,
Mandee
www.tecumsehdrama.com
www.cincyplay.com
I'm in this show at my high school. I play Evelyn.
shareThat's such a cute role. Have a great time w/it!
Kindest regards,
Mandee
www.tecumsehdrama.com
www.cincyplay.com
They did this play my sophmore year in college back in 1977. The play is a little more open about its subject matter than the movie was. The movie was definitely watered down because it had to be.
shareAs a person who grew up in the 50's and 60's, I used to find it as frustrating as could be when they would make movies about "mature subjects" but be so obtuse that even a pretty sharp person could not figure out what was going on!
Back in the fifties and early sixties, you had to know that there was such a thing as homosexuality in the first place before you could *possibly* understand the movie. An adolescent during those days,I could not even have fathomed about such a thing.
It reminds me of the time my husband who is my age went to the local movie house and came home asking his mother, "Mom, what is rap?" "What is what?" she asked. "What is rap?" Very carefully she asked him, "Do you mean what is rape?" "Yes, what is rape?" He had just seen "Anatomy of a Murder" with James Stewart; it was the first time that movie house had shown what would have been an R-rated movie to a matinee audience. Jimmy Stewart's father who had his son's Academy Award in his store window took it down after his son was in that movie. My husband's mother uncomfortably answered him, "It's when a man forces his attentions on a woman" and went on to another subject. In the fifties, our mothers were always going on to "other subjects..."
Flanagan
well, subtext is powerful if used correctly.
today's special: shrimp ceviche!
I did this play a year and a half ago, and I played Mary. I had initially wanted the role of Karen - in fact, by myself I didn't even rehearse the lines of Mary before auditions since I thought I could never, ever play a character as malicious as Mary. But I was given the role since I supposedly look too innocent for the role (reverse type casting; gives the audience a shocker), and when I played her, I acted cunning and sneaky, whereas other girls who auditioned for her were too over-the-top. Or so says my director.
Though I don't think you can play Mary too over-the-top. I ended up screaming and banging on the floor in fits during the play, torturing my best friend (who played Peggy), and getting out virtually every bit of anger I had in me during rehersals and performances!
You see, I'm not a very angry person at all. I've often been posed the question, "Do you EVER get angry at all?" So this was quite a stretch. People approached me after the play and said they found themselves in such confusion, sitting in the audience and hating me, yet they know me as a generally nice person.
...I just read over everything I've written and I've realized it could come off as narcissistic, but know that I'm not trying to be! Haha, I just have so many stories from that play since it was my favourite production that I was ever in. Glad to hear that someone else enjoyed it as well. :)
I don't think you come off as narcissisistic at all...I just think you presented an honest breakdown as to how you approached the role. It sounds like you knew what you were doing and that the casting against type worked really well. I know if I were casting the show, I would definitely try to find the sweetest, most angelic-looking girl in the world to cast as Mary...I think it makes what Mary really is much more effective when it comes out becuase you don't see it coming.
shareI directed this play at college back in 1995, whilst I was undertaking a degree in Theatre Studies at Trinity College in Dublin, (thats like the Harvard of Ireland, just so's y'all know!!) To my delight the production was chosen to represent the University at the Irish Student Drama Awards (ISDA) that year and I won a 'best director' the girl playing Martha won 'best actress' and the show got 'overall best production'
We did some strange things with the staging that would really need a diagram to explain, so I'll not do that on here but anyone who's intersted can get me at [email protected].
NOW - listen up you lot!!!
Second chances don't come often but!! I've been asked, nearly 12 years on to direct it again, and I have to say just browsing thru the comments here has given me some inspiration indeed.
My real problem is that to get a decent consistency of accent, we're going to have to take it out of New England and set it in the Ireland of the 1930's or 1950's. Well, its not a problem really, just a solution waiting to be found!!
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to doing it again and would welcome any suggestions or comments from all you good people.
Cormac in Ireland
When a college or High School performs 'The Children's Hour', are child actors used for the parts of the children? If not, what effective methods are used to show that different actors of the same age are playing characters of different ages? Does it detract from the play having 18 year olds playing 10 year olds?
shareMy sophmore year in college, our theater department did THE CHILDREN'S HOUR and only college students were used in the cast, including Mary and the other students.
shareHow did it work using college students for characters such as Little Mary? Did it take away from the drama (mary has some pretty tense scenes) of some scenes? At least Mary sorta disappears in the last act- most of it's Karen and Martha alone. Did you direct the play differently or make any cuts because adults played kids?
shareDo High Schools perform this play!? I cannot imagine that, but it sure would be cool
nice socks, man.....
The play was performed as written and the girls cast as the students were certainly small enough in stature that it was possibly to slightly suspend reality and accept that they were teens or pre-teens. The girl we cast as Mary was very small and no one believed she was too old for the role.
share
I meant the subject matter is kinda risky for a high school. I think its the kind of thing that parents would get their panties in a knot over..........
nice socks, man.....
i'm about to play martha in a production at my college...it is a very fascinating play. i've been working on a analysis for a class that also goes along with the production and its been very interesting to see where lillian hellman was coming from with some of these things and how events in her life affected what she wrote about.
shareCongratulations on getting this role. How are rehearsals going? Please keep in touch and let us know how it's going.
shareI just finished playing Joe Cardin! Are closing night was on Friday. Really good play!
shareI did a few scenes from this play in an acting class I took a few years ago. We did so well on the scene our teacher wanted to do a production of it but the theater he used, which is a high school theater, said the play was too mature. I'm a bit too old to be one of the children now but I would still love to be a part of it someday.
She turned me into a Newt! A newt?? ..... I got better.....