good playreading plays?

[marcusmarcusrc]

So, a couple months ago I hosted an Arcadia playreading party in DC, and a lot of my friends here really enjoyed it and have been pestering me to host another one. So... the question is, what play? My ideal play would have multiple central characters, a number of supporting characters, a decent number of female roles, and not too challenging language-wise (e.g., probably not Shakespeare, and maybe light-hearted plays over deep dramas). Hapgood came to mind because it is an obvious Arcadia sequel (yay for science in plays!), but it is only 8 roles, so could be better...so, wise LiveJournal hivebrain, what else can you suggest for me?

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

Lemme get back to you when I've had time to actually look at my bookshelves, but some ideas from my Old Favorites pile...

Hapgood's major flaw is only one female part (but really, at a script read, surely some of your women are willing to read male parts?). :)

Sarah Ruhl's In The Next Room (or, The Vibrator Play) is 4F 3M (I think, without checking); all good parts, some larger than others but none small. You'd have to be willing to read about Victorian use of vibrators for nervous complaints. :)

Les Liaisons Dangerueses is in the ballpark of 8 characters, maybe a couple more, about half and half M/F, with some large roles and some small ones, all of which are worth playing. (But it's about sex and people being horrible to each other in witty articulate ways.)

There's always The Lion In Winter (2F 5M).

Or The Importance of Being Earnest 4F 3M plus two walk-on butlers.

I like Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July but mileage varies among people I know who have read it. That's... 4M 4F I believe.

[desireearmfeldt]

Arsenic and Old Lace

Beyond Therapy, if you wanted a real blast from our mutual playreading past (I don't actually remember if you were there but it seems likely -- where tallou had the speech in which she suddenly had to shout sexual epithets?).

I have a sentimental fondness for Arms & The Man, of course. (3F 4M plus a walk-on)

Book of Days by Lanford Wilson has a largeish ensemble cast, though it's more drama than comedy. (But it's less horribly depressing than Rimers of Eldritch, for what that's worth! It's kind of Rimers lite, actually.)

Democracy by Michael Frayn is interesting but you have to care at least a little about history or politics or something -- cast off 10ish, all male. (Someday I'm gonna break down and convince someone to let me to do it with an all-female cast, which will play to small, confused audiences.)

Stoppard's Indian Ink is also good, two female leads, four male leads, and some smaller roles.

Sigh...somehow I've collected fewer and fewer plays I love as time has gone on, so that many of my "favorites" are favorites from when I was in middle school. It's hard to find new plays, or new-to-me plays, that I like, and I don't know why that is; certainly not because my knowledge is that extensive to begin with!

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I seem to remember a long-ago playreading of Les Liaisons Dangerueses where I was seducing Kevin Dahm... or vice versa?

Speaking of plays I've seen recently that I've liked, have you seen the Chosen (adaptation of the Potok novel)? I really liked that when I saw it a couple years ago... now you've given me some homework to do.

(also, cross-casting is definitely acceptable, but it just seems better to find plays that _start_ somewhat gender-balanced. Though having read your livejournal for years, I know that those are in the minority)

[desireearmfeldt]

Have not heard of Chosen... If you have other recommendations, I'd love to hear them. :)

Hmm, I seem to remember a long-ago playreading of Les Liaisons Dangerueses where I was seducing Kevin Dahm... or vice versa?

Wow, that sounds entirely plausible, but I have no memory of it. There was a more recent (though not *very* recent) reading in which Charles read Cecily, but you wouldn't have been here for that, I don't think.

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

Actually, you've seen Chosen at the Lyric. It's the hasidic baseball one.

[desireearmfeldt]

Oh, that one; yes.

I thought that one was too much like it was still a novel. I liked the story, but the adaptation didn't entirely work for me.

[fanw.livejournal.com]

Picasso at Lapin Agile is always a favorite. 11 characters (including tiny ones) of which four are women although the main characters are all men...

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I remember liking that play - I think I saw a production at Harvard many a moon ago! I might even have a copy... in a box... in storage. Well, that's what the library is for.

[(Anonymous)]

I think he was there, as we later as a result went to see Equus. At which we were all traumatized.

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

Yup. Also, I remember the stuffed animal saying "woof!" (from Beyond Therapy, not Equus, of course)

[desireearmfeldt]

Oh, right, I'd forgotten that part of the story. :)