A Dopey Fairy Tale
This play is included in the collection:
Play Description
A spoof fairy tale about a boy and his talking dog, Chatter, who go on a magical journey to recover his lost talent.
Production Info
Cast: 11 total (3 female, 8 male)Short Comedy (about 25 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
- Productions
Press Quotes
“Take seven contemporary American playwrights with highly distinctive voices and wildly differing approaches to the theater. Ask each to adapt one of Anton Chekhov’s short stories, which range in mood from the melancholic to the satiric — and back again … the results are incomparably delicious … when ORCHARDS is good — which is most of the time — it is very, very good, indeed …” —Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times
“The notion of asking seven contemporary playwrights to produce variations on themes by Anton Chekhov seems at first like asking for combination-platter theater … All of the playwrights use Chekhov short stories for a springboard — but some have jumped so far into the deep end that it would be more accurate to say that they maybe looked at his picture while they were writing … Whether you pick from Column A or Column B, ORCHARDS offers a superior menu.” —Megan Rosenfeld, The Washington Post
Author(s)
Anton ChekhovWidely considered one of the world's greatest writers, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on January 29, 1860, in Taganrog, Russia. In 1879 he entered the University of Moscow to study medicine and graduated in 1884. He kept a strict writing schedule and continued to practice medicine for the rest of his life. In addition to his numerous short stories, many considered masterpieces of the form, Chekhov wrote over a dozen plays, among them the classics of Western dramatic literature UNCLE VANYA, THE CHERRY ORCHARD, THE THREE SISTERS, and THE SEAGULL.
Michael WellerMichael Weller was born in New York City in 1943 and resides in Brooklyn. He is best known for his plays MOONCHILDREN (1971), LOOSE ENDS (1979), and SPOILS OF WAR (1988). MOONCHILDREN earned Weller the 1972 Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Playwright. Weller is one of the founders of the Cherry Lane Theatre's Mentor Project.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 1/1/1988 |
| Pages | 96 |
| ISBN | 9780881450552 |
Special Notes
If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
Originally produced by The Acting Company
In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypub.com
Upcoming and Recent Productions
Nonprofessional
Related Plays
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
An adaptation of Gorky’s classic black comedy, VASSA ZHELEZNOVA, A MOTHER concerns a family’s stern, penny-pinching matriarch who will do anything for her family.
Production Info
Cast: 9 total (5 female, 4 male)Full Length Comedy (about 120 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
Set in Baton Rouge in 1919, the defendant of a criminal trial meets the judge who, unbeknownst to him, is to try him the following day.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (4 female, 3 male)Short Drama (about 30 minutes)
Single Set
Period Costumes
$11.95
Play Description
An exhilarating new version of UNCLE VANYA that pairs one of the greatest plays ever written with the world's most celebrated translators of Russian literature. Vanya and his niece Sonya struggle to care for the estate owned by Vanya's brother-in-law, a wealthy and celebrated professor. When this local legend returns with a beautiful new wife and announces his plans to sell the estate, hidden passions explode, and the lives of the entire family come undone.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (4 female, 3 male)Full Length Drama (about 110 minutes)
Single Set
Period Costumes
$11.95
Play Description
A new translation of Nikolai Gogol’s comic masterpiece by the renowned translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonksy (winner of two PEN/Book-of-the-Month Translation Awards) and the playwright/director Richard Nelson (Tony Award, Olivier Award).
“I have invited you here, gentlemen, to give you a most unpleasant piece of news: an inspector is coming.” —ACT ONE
“He’ll spread his story over the whole world! Not only will he make me a laughingstock, but some scribbler will come along, some pen-pusher, and put me into a comedy! … Everyone will bare their teeth and clap their hands. What are you laughing at? You’re laughing at yourselves!” —ACT FIVE
Production Info
Cast: 14 total (7 female, 7 male)Full Length Comedy (about 135 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Period Costumes
$11.95–$15.00
Play Description
A theatrical extravaganza drawn from Nikolay Gogol's comic epic of greed and gluttony in tsarist Russia. Over one hundred characters can be played with any number of actors from 15 on up.
Production Info
Cast: 15 total (8 female, 7 male)Full Length Drama (about 160 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
Play Description
Varinka is a free spirit in love with the older Byelinkov, the most proper man in town. But his inhibitions and worries about how he and Varinka are perceived when she boldly rides a bicycle about town threatens to unravel their impending marriage.
Production Info
Cast: 2 total (1 female, 1 male)Short Comedy (about 15 minutes)
Single Set
Period Costumes
$11.95–$15.00
Play Description
A fantastical/political/historical exploration of life in the Soviet Union in the earliest dawn of Perestroika. In scenes ranging from the inner chambers of the Politburo to a secret chamber beneath Lenin’s Tomb to a medical facility near a radioactive disposal site in Siberia, SLAVS! considers the difficulty, the failure, and the abiding importance of Socialism and of ongoing efforts towards building collective societies and a more just world.
Production Info
Cast: 10 total (3 female, 7 male)Full Length Drama (about 80 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
Chekhov’s classic tale of three sisters stuck in a provincial town and longing for Moscow finds a surehanded adaptor in award-winning author Richard Nelson.
Production Info
Cast: 15 total (5 female, 10 male)Full Length Drama (about 115 minutes)
Single Set
Period Costumes
$11.95
Play Description
Ivan Turgenev’s beautiful and subtle comedy of love in a new translation by the renowned translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonksy (winner of two PEN/Book-of-the-Month Translation Awards) and the playwright/director Richard Nelson (Tony Award, Olivier Award).
“I want … I want … I want you to want.” —ACT ONE
“We keep studying ourselves and then imagine we know other people.” —ACT ONE
Production Info
Cast: 10 total (4 female, 6 male)Full Length Drama (about 170 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Period Costumes
$11.95–$15.00
Play Description
A Chekhovian family drama, first staged in Russia in 1905. In a prophetic echo of the coming revolution, the play looks at the lives of the privileged intelligentsia and of the workers, advocating an alliance between the two.
Production Info
Cast: 16 total (7 female, 9 male)Full Length Drama (about 160 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Period Costumes
Play Description
Famously astute observer of everyday life, Spalding Gray receives a Chekhov short story in the mail, leading him into a monologue that confronts the fears that beset us.
Production Info
Cast: 1 total (1 male)Short Comedy (about 25 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes